How NYC Office Suites built a six-figure revenue stream from digital mail

Hope Landry has worked at NYC Office Suites for more than 30 years. She started at the front desk while studying musical theater at NYU, answering phones and sorting paper messages in the late 1990s. 

Today, she serves as Chief Operating Officer, overseeing seven flexible office centers across New York City. 

One of the most dependable revenue streams she manages requires only a minimal footprint of that real estate: digital mail with iPostal1.

The way Landry's team thinks about service shaped how they got there.

How NYC Office Suites built a people-first model across seven locations

NYC Office Suites started as a small, family-run operation. Landry wasn't part of the family, but she absorbed the culture early and watched it hold steady as the company grew from one center to two and eventually to four. When the company was sold to Blackfield, LLC in 2016, the new owners saw lots of potential and expanded even further to what is now seven locations.

"It's a really interesting business, because you meet so many different types of people," says Landry. "For people who like people, it's a great place to be."

The flexible office industry looked nothing like this when she began.

"When I first started at the front desk in the late 1990s, it was much more hands-on," says Landry. "You answered phones for clients and took paper messages. Not many people used voicemail or email yet. It was a completely different world."

As clients grew more self-sufficient, NYC Office Suites doubled down on service rather than stepping back from it.

"We learned to pivot and make sure clients still had an experience where we worked one-on-one with them," Landry explains. "We personalized everything and kept that customer service feel, almost like a concierge."

That attention is what keeps clients loyal, some of them for nearly as long as Landry has been there.

"What keeps them with us instead of going somewhere else is the people," she says.

Even at seven locations, the company refuses to dilute that hands-on approach. Everything stays on-site, the team handles its own billing, and direct relationships with clients remain the priority.

Why manual mail handling drained the front desk, and what NYC Office Suites did about it

For years, mail at NYC Office Suites worked the slow way. The team collected it, held it, and shipped it out once a week if a client asked. 

Anything beyond that meant a phone call and a manual task.

"Without iPostal1, we were really just collecting mail and sending it out every Friday if a client wanted that," says Landry. "They could call to request a scan or a separate mailing, but nothing was automated."

That setup created a steady drain on the front desk. 

Clients called to ask what had arrived, and staff stopped what they were doing to check. In a lean operation, those interruptions add up fast.

"As much as we love hearing from our Clients, it’s hard to drop everything and go through every piece of mail on demand when you have a million other things to do," Landry says.

At the same time, the way clients paid for services was shifting toward simplicity.

"Clients want one number they know every month, rather than a list of items that pile up," Landry explains. "People prefer packages of services over an à la carte approach."

NYC Office Suites needed a way to make mail a clean, recurring revenue stream that fit how clients already wanted to buy.

Why NYC Office Suites runs digital mail through iPostal1

The appeal of iPostal1 was practical from the start, providing exposure to NYC Office Suites' centers while attracting digital mail customers who could also use the company's other services.

"It seemed like a great way to get exposure for our centers while letting iPostal1 customers use our services," says Landry. "Working together appealed to us."

iPostal1 became the only digital mail platform the company uses, and the product kept improving in ways that mattered to a team with long tenure.

"iPostal1 gives clients far more flexibility with what they want to do with their mail, and it's easier on our team's time management," Landry explains.

The manual Friday mail run gave way to a system that clients could direct themselves, scanning, forwarding, or shredding on their own terms.

How NYC Office Suites rolled out digital mail across all seven centers

NYC Office Suites didn't go all in on iPostal1 overnight. The team piloted digital mail first to understand the workload before committing across every location.

That caution made sense given how lean the operation had become.

"After the pandemic, we streamlined our team," says Landry. "Instead of two people at a front desk, we went to one, and we found it was efficient that way. So we wanted to make sure managing the digital mailbox would make sense and be something we could support."

Once the workload proved manageable, iPostal1 went live across all seven centers.

What digital mail revenue looks like at NYC Office Suites

Today, digital mail puts roughly $120,000 a year in NYC Office Suites' pocket—close to $10,000 every month across its locations. 

For Landry, the appeal is how little it costs to earn.

"It's almost pure revenue, aside from whatever you pay a support person," she says. "There's really no overhead. It's like gravy, extra revenue that doesn't take much to bring in."

She also sees plenty of room to grow it.

"There's really no ceiling on it," Landry says. "As long as your team can manage it and you're making enough revenue, it makes sense to take on."

Put in concrete terms, the monthly income rivals a meaningful slice of her core business.

"What we make each month is almost like renting a few full-time offices," Landry says. "That makes a lot of sense to me."

The figures back her up, and they keep climbing as the partnership matures.

The value of having a true digital mail partner rather than a service provider

Ask Landry what she values most in iPostal1, and she points past the revenue to the relationship.

"We've been really happy with the partnership, and that's truly what it is, a partnership," she says.

She points to a moment that tested it: New York City real estate offers very little storage, so when one client suddenly began receiving a flood of boxes, the team had a problem on its hands.

"We called iPostal1 and worked out how to manage it without disrupting what that client needed," Landry recalls. "We came up with a system where boxes go out right away."

That willingness to solve problems together is the bar she holds every vendor to.

"That's what you want, a true partner who says, let's figure this out, instead of, too bad, that's your problem," says Landry. "For me, support is number one with any vendor we work with. You want people who understand the industry and get what your day-to-day is like, and how even a small thing can affect you."

Support like that turns a software subscription into a working relationship.

Landry’s advice for operators debating about offering digital mail

For operators sitting on the fence about ancillary revenue, Landry keeps her advice blunt.

"It's really smart to do, because it's not much work and it just makes sense," she says. "I just recorded a deposit for around $3,000 for one of our centers this month. That's pretty great, and that's only one of our centers."

The math holds up across the board:

Digital mail carries almost no overhead, and the revenue arrives whether or not every suite is full. When problems come up, the partner behind it answers. 

For a brand that has spent more than 30 years earning client loyalty one relationship at a time, digital mail fits the model without straining it.

Ready to get started with iPostal1? Contact us today to start building a new revenue stream for your workspace with digital mailbox solutions.