Following the roll out of enhancements to parcel tracking, Royal Mail is keen to promote the benefits for consumers and online retailers who use their services.
CCO Nick Landon and Postman Lee Miller discuss the recent enhancements to our Parcel services in a video posted to twitter. Whilst Lee is obviously a carefully selected Postie and the filming is staged, it’s still interesting to see it from the point of a real Postie with real customers and see how the parcel tracking can improve the customer experience.
No one really enjoys going to their local Royal Mail Delivery Office to collect their parcels – so delivery to neighbour and electronic notifications, enabling customer to collect parcels without having to go home first are welcome. If a safe place is specified, then Royal Mail will scan the parcel and take a photo with which to update the parcel tracking.
For smaller retailers who want to drop off parcels, acceptance scans to start the parcel tracking journey are now available when dropping parcels off at Delivery Offices.
Our CCO Nick Landon and Postman Lee Miller discuss the recent enhancements to our Parcel services – designed to improve the customer experience for both retailers and online shoppers. https://t.co/MRU3oXXzuv pic.twitter.com/cSw3NCGlrv
— Royal Mail (@RoyalMail) August 1, 2018
Royal Mail Key parcel tracking enhancements
The main changes, which were announced on the 1st of August, are:
Delivery to Neighbour
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. This will make it even easier for online shoppers to know which neighbour their parcel has been left with if they are not at home at the time of delivery.
Acceptance Scans
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 Notifications
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.
11 Responses
Royal Mail offer an absolutely disgraceful service.
The vast majority of the problems we face as a seller are because of Royal Mail’s inability to do their job properly. We get so many INR’s which their shoddy delivery confirmation service shows as either delivered (presumably lazy worker put through wrong door) or no card left.
Lazy unionised workforce and a monopoly. Can’t wait for this business to be destroyed by competition.
Cant have been that bad being a postie this summer though no doubt they will complain about sunburn
Crikey immense pressure?
Posties will be treated for “post “
letter traumatic stress disorder next
A postie would not leave a card
When its on the top floor of a high rise apartment
Or at the end of a round up a long driveway
A card would not be left because
The postie was tired and under “immense pressure” with writers cramp filling cards
Because the royal mail still insists on delivering when most are not at home
The amount of times we get customers saying they havent had their items when it turns out to be at the local sorting office but NO card left is shocking. The summer is always alot worse, proberly holiday cover…. We even have a message ready to copy and paste now to save us time!
Funnily enough i went to one of my bins at home last week and found a royal mail 24 parcel in it. We had already contacted the seller who very kindly already resent another. The item had been there several days, but we never really use that bin as its just for old electrical stuff etc that when full goes to the recycling site. We had no card or anything. Our normal postie is great and will always card us… turns out he was on holiday, suprise suprise!
It is getting worse, in fact our figures show we are already up over 15% on the whole of last year for items that haven’t been carded! ( as confirmed by customers who find it at the sorting office!)
They really need to get their act together.
You only hear about the problems regarding Royal Mail not the millions of parcels they deliver on time, fairly similar to the NHS, millions of people treated but only the ones that go wrong highlighted, I’m afraid you get what you pay for, Royal Mail is now getting investment after being privatised after years of state underfunding.