Royal Mail boosts its online shopping delivery experience
Royal Mail is introducing key enhancements to its tracked services used by leading UK retailers to deliver items online shoppers have ordered. The enhancements include e-mail and SMS notifications that specify the address of the neighbour where items have been left when customers are not at home.
The changes are designed to improve the customer experience for both retailers and online shoppers. Online sales are driving delivery volumes in the UK. Royal Mail saw a 5% growth in its UKPIL parcel volumes in the 2017/18 financial year.
Key service enhancements include:
Delivery to Neighbour enhancements for tracked services will enable retailers to give online shoppers even more information on the delivery progress of their item. It lets retailers send customers proactive email and SMS notifications confirming when their item(s) have been delivered to a neighbour. Notifications will specify the neighbour’s house number, house name or first line of address if they live in a different street.
Parcel Acceptance at all Royal Mail Customer Service Points will offer earlier acceptance scans. Customers taking pre-paid, barcoded items to Royal Mail Customer Service Points/ Delivery Offices will now be able to obtain an acceptance scan on drop off. This follows the introduction of new scanning technology at Customer Service Points across the UK, offering greater peace of mind. Shoppers will be able to take their pre-paid, barcoded items including returns to the Customer Service Points. As well as giving greater convenience to shoppers, retailers will receive earlier notice about items being returned, enabling them to better manage their inventories.
Electronic “Something For You” notifications will provide online shoppers with email and SMS notifications about their items if they are not at home when the item is delivered.
The notifications will advise when their undelivered parcel has been returned to a Customer Service Point and is ready for collection. The service is available at around 450 of Royal Mail’s largest and busiest Customer Service Points. On receipt of the SMS/email notification, customers can either re-arrange their parcel delivery for another day or collect their item from their local Customer Service Point by presenting the electronic “Something For You” with relevant identification.
The electronic “Something for You” notification will help online shoppers to make collection or redelivery arrangements sooner without having to go home to collect the physical “Something for You” card. The physical card will continue to be posted through letterboxes.
