The buzz word this year for our company was “evolve”, and that’s exactly what we did! This has been an amazing year for Swift, despite everything going on around us. 2020 has been full of opportunities to shed the old and usher in the new and unknown with open arms. Best of all, we’ve had the chance to make changes and grow in new ways that may not have been possible otherwise.
What We’ve Accomplished in 2020
- We launched SwiftLink Worldwide. After listening to our customers, we identified some core needs and came up with solutions ranging from shipping to mail. This led to the natural evolution of our company from Swift Passport and Visa Services to a more all-encompassing brand, SwiftLink Worldwide.
- As part of SwiftLink Worldwide’s offerings, we introduced a suite of services including travel insurance, ATA Carnets, and biometric fingerprinting.
- Our team developed new clientele right here in our neighborhood with our shipping and printing services. We’re thrilled to have developed these local relationships and cannot wait to serve more customers in our area.
- We found a growing need for virtual mailboxes and physical mailboxes. As we begin 2021 we will do so with over 1,000 active virtual mailbox holders. This month we are opening a space across the hall to accommodate physical mailboxes. If you’re in the area, come check it out!
- We reassessed just about everything and took the time to create better, automated processes that better support our team and our customers.
- Our company also created a robust, user friendly E-visa system that will make the entire e-visa application process super easy for global travelers.
- We said farewell to our longest serving, amazing employee, Aurora. She is in Portland, and is a very happy camper!
- We answered phones from home and noticed you didn’t mind when our dogs barked! We learned a lot about work/life balance, and found out that you can get a ton of work done when you work from home. Moving forward, we will make sure to consider the value of working from home in order to maximize the productivity of our team by giving them flexible work environments.
- We established better relationships with consulates. There was a lot of emailing, plenty of patience required, and a whole lot of cooperation needed to get things done.
- Our company survived something pretty extraordinary and managed to keep our smiles on all year long. After 13 years in business, having travel disappear for a year wasn’t something that we planned for or expected. We are positioned for a great rebound in 2021, and are far more prepared to handle something like this going forward. We truly see the opportunity that came from this crazy year and are grateful!
- We are often asked what travel documents we primarily processed this year, which led us to find that we processed a lot of passports and even more China visas in 2020.
What We Look Forward to in 2021
- Bringing our whole team back as travel begins to ramp up again! We miss our team and look forward to seeing their smiling faces once again.
- Reconnecting with our corporate clients across the country.
- We’re excited about finding and creating more unique opportunities as our world continues to change.
- Expanding SwiftLink Worldwide and becoming our neighborhood’s go-to shipping center.
- Giving back in our new partnership with the Kidney Champion Program (KCP) that our co-founder, Laurie, puts on with Transplant Village for Northwestern Medicine (NM).
- Launching our new website for passports and visas! Also, revamping our blog to better accommodate the needs and interests of our readers around the world.
- Getting on a plane to travel to our favorite destinations once again! Well, anywhere really. We will get on a plane to go anywhere!
Though 2020 looked a whole lot different than years past, we took the uncertainties and challenges and faced them head on. Swift evolved as a company in ways that we never thought possible, and got to be creative in coming up with services that are useful to our clients. We appreciate you being patient and understanding with us throughout this past year, and look forward to working with all of you in 2021, and beyond. Thank you for coming along on this journey with us, and may you all have a happy New Year!
