After hanging up the phone, Lü Mingliang felt quite emotional.
He had expected Mr. Pei to support his actions, but he hadn’t anticipated that Mr. Pei would support him to such an extent.
Not only maintaining the current loss targets but even expanding them?
So the question was, how to expand them?
The losses of Headwind Logistics, at their root, were due to the disproportionate relationship between input and output.
When Shengrun Express delivered parcels to Headwind Stations, Headwind Logistics was responsible for door-to-door delivery. For such a parcel, Headwind Logistics might only receive a few cents, but the cost of door-to-door delivery was much higher.
Therefore, the more deliveries Headwind Logistics made, the more money they lost.
Of course, in this process, they also gained tremendous reputation and goodwill from customers.
So now, having completely broken ties with Shengrun Express, to continue losing money or even expand losses, they naturally needed to keep the entire Headwind Logistics system running. More deliveries meant more money lost.
Where would the parcels come from?
They could come from other small courier companies, but they should especially come from Headwind Logistics’ own courier business!
With Mr. Pei’s support and having money and resources at hand, Lü Mingliang became even more confident.
He immediately summoned all the key managers, particularly the core members responsible for business affairs.
“I have some new tasks for you.”
“First, contact major shopping platforms, especially those merchants who originally cooperated with Shengrun Express and are now suffering from parcel backlog and being bombarded with negative reviews. See if we can replace Shengrun Express and establish cooperative relationships with them. At the very least, we can provide customers with an alternative logistics option besides Shengrun Express.”
“Second, reach out to other small courier companies to reassure them that our actions are only targeting Shengrun Express. Tell them our cooperation will continue long-term, so they can keep promoting ‘Headwind Station door-to-door delivery.'”
“Finally, we need to subsidize Headwind Logistics’ own courier business. First, adopt time-limited promotions to expand business volume in the short term. Of course, the logistics and sorting segments must keep up. In addition to air transport, land transport between regions must also be strengthened to ensure that cross-regional land transport can maintain a relatively fast speed.”
Lü Mingliang strictly followed Mr. Pei’s instructions and started a money-spending campaign.
After all, this was a critical period of business competition, so spending money this way was reasonable and justified.
But he wasn’t spending recklessly; rather, he was very targeted. On one hand, he deepened cooperation with shopping platforms and merchants; on the other hand, he reassured small courier companies, concentrating all firepower on Shengrun Group. Ultimately, it was all about boosting Headwind Logistics’ own courier business.
Lü Mingliang knew well that public opinion could only be managed temporarily, not forever.
To completely replace Shengrun Express, they needed to quickly establish a more comprehensive and efficient logistics system, defeating Shengrun Express head-on with concrete services.
Moreover, subsidizing Headwind Logistics’ own courier business didn’t burn as much money as one might imagine.
Because once Headwind Logistics’ own courier business took off, it would generate considerable profits!
Originally, the bulk of the profit from courier services was taken by Shengrun Express, which was why Headwind Logistics had been losing money and couldn’t stop the bleeding.
But now, with Headwind Logistics delivering parcels themselves, they could keep all the profits from the entire process. Although they were still losing money, these profits could to some extent stop the bleeding.
In other words, as long as Headwind Logistics maintained their current level of losses, they could continue these subsidies for a very long time!
The key managers all nodded and immediately went to make arrangements.
Staff from the business and marketing departments immediately began contacting various shopping platforms, merchants, and other courier companies, striving to find more allies for Headwind Logistics and isolate Shengrun Express.
As for Lü Mingliang, he continued browsing web pages, waiting for Shengrun Express’s counterattack.
Obviously, Shengrun Express wouldn’t willingly abandon the battlefield of public opinion. Since hiring water armies hadn’t achieved the desired effect, they would certainly try other underhanded tactics to shift the focus of conflict.
Lü Mingliang didn’t know what methods Shengrun Express would use, but it didn’t matter. They would meet whatever came their way; in the battle of public opinion, Tenda always stood on undefeated ground.
……
……
February 22, Friday.
Shengrun Express Headquarters.
Nie Yunsheng and a group of senior executives were somewhat overwhelmed.
Although they had already taken a series of measures that had achieved some effect, it was far from enough!
Especially when they tried to blame Headwind Stations, but even before Headwind Stations could come out to refute, the onlooking crowd had already exposed them.
After being exposed, this behavior seemed somewhat foolish, but they had no choice. No matter how stupid it looked to shift blame, they couldn’t afford not to. If they didn’t shift blame, the responsibility would fall squarely on their shoulders, and they would never be able to shake it off!
Taking responsibility was a good quality, but one that most companies lacked.
This directly led to the current public opinion situation being even worse than they had anticipated.
Nie Yunsheng had originally thought that, according to his previous plan—working overtime to deliver parcels, using water armies to guide public opinion, and appealing for understanding from the public—they should be able to safely weather this crisis.
But unexpectedly, public opinion hadn’t subsided; instead, it was intensifying!
This meant they needed to quickly find a new breakthrough, otherwise, if things continued like this, even the water armies they hired wouldn’t be able to withstand the pressure and would be directly extinguished by the masses.
Just then, a vice president walked over quickly: “Mr. Nie! A sudden situation has been reported from below, which might help with the current public opinion.”
Nie Yunsheng reached out to take the report and found that it was about an incident at a local distribution point in Shanghai, just reported.
The cause was that a customer had bought a box of apples online. The quantity wasn’t large, but they were high-quality apples—big and round, with eight in a small box. However, when the customer received the apples, some were damaged, and one was missing.
This kind of incident wasn’t particularly rare for Shengrun Express, and the recent logistical pressure had greatly increased the likelihood of such occurrences.
Because Shengrun Express had just enough couriers at each stage, whether at sorting centers or delivery points, the number of couriers was basically the minimum needed to maintain normal operations. After all, hiring one more person meant paying one more salary.
Even if parcels occasionally increased, as long as the couriers worked overtime and delivered a bit more diligently, they could get through it.
Giving couriers some overtime pay was more cost-effective than hiring more people.
But this time, Headwind Stations suddenly cut off the delivery terminals, causing a chain reaction throughout Shengrun Express’s entire delivery chain.
At the distribution points, even after hiring temporary workers, they still couldn’t meet the demand for parcel deliveries. With everyone sent out to deliver, naturally, there were fewer people left to unload parcels at logistics centers, sorting centers, and distribution points. With fewer people, to ensure efficiency, they could only resort to rough handling.
And once rough handling was involved, it easily led to damaged packaging, lost items, damage, and other issues.
A box of apples was already heavy, and it couldn’t be wrapped as securely as digital products with multiple layers of packaging. Under rough handling conditions, box damage, missing apples, and apples getting dented or spoiled due to collisions were all normal occurrences.
However, this happened to coincide with a particularly stubborn customer.
Because parcels had been severely backlogged these days, this customer was already very impatient, being forced to go to the station to pick up the parcel. Upon finding that some apples were damaged, the count didn’t match, and the outer packaging was broken, he became furious and immediately filed a complaint.
After the complaint, a resolution was needed.
To smooth things over, the courier point told the customer they would compensate him with another box of apples. At the same time, according to regulations, they would fine the courier responsible for the delivery. The customer basically accepted this handling method.
But the box of apples had been shipped from far away, and the online store was now overwhelmed, busy dealing with deliveries every day. They couldn’t be bothered to buy another box from the original store, so they bought a box of apples from a nearby farmers’ market as compensation.
When the customer saw this, he realized it wasn’t the same thing at all. Although the two types of apples looked similar, they weren’t the same variety at all. It was obvious that Shengrun Express had just bought whatever was convenient.
So the customer, in a fit of anger, filed another complaint.
According to Shengrun Express’s system, if a courier received multiple complaints or consecutive complaints from the same customer, the fine would be drastically increased. This was a punitive fine system designed to reduce negative review rates.
So the courier had no choice but to ask the customer to withdraw the complaint, even kneeling down to apologize on the spot. But this customer was stubborn. He believed it was no longer about money, but about Shengrun Express’s disrespect towards him. He wanted to know whether it was the courier or the point manager who had taken it upon themselves to buy the apples, what the corresponding punishment standards were, and whether such problems could be prevented systematically in the future.
The customer emphasized that he wasn’t targeting the courier but Shengrun Express, demanding an official explanation and apology from Shengrun Express.
But obviously, how could such a demand be met?
So the two reached an impasse, and the scene of the courier painfully kneeling was witnessed by many people who took videos and photos. This was discovered by Shengrun Express’s public opinion monitoring department and reported directly.
Looking at this report, Nie Yunsheng’s eyes narrowed slightly.
On the surface, this incident was negative news, which could be described as adding frost to snow for the current Shengrun Group.
But… looking at it from another angle, perhaps it could be a way to break the deadlock?
From the photos and videos, this courier appeared to be from an ordinary background, probably not very educated, and seemed quite simple and honest. The kneeling scene had aroused sympathy from the onlookers, while the customer who remained firm and uncompromising in the video appeared rather unsympathetic.
After considering for a moment, Nie Yunsheng said: “This incident has come at a very timely moment! Just right, we can use this public opinion, issue an apology, comfort this courier, exempt him from punishment… If the effect is good, it might help us recover from our current disadvantage in public opinion!”