Hermes has begun to roll out its SafePlace Photo product and geo-fencing capabilities to end consumers, following positive feedback from retailers after it launched at the beginning of this year.
SafePlace Photo, combined with the location tracking that Hermes’ hand held terminals also provide, will provide retailers and their end consumers with photographic evidence and co-ordinates of parcels left in a safe location and keep them informed. This combination of products helps retailers to lower costs, reduce contacts and improve customer satisfaction.
Geo-fencing provides a location and a map of where each parcel has been delivered, within a radius as small as 10m and updates can be pushed through a choice of channels, including SMS, email, app or website updates.
SafePlace Photo enhances the overall delivery experience by providing consumers with added confidence that their purchases have arrived even when they are not at home. This will provide consumers with increased confidence to shop online and make them more likely to nominate a SafePlace when placing future orders.
This latest development will also benefit retailers by significantly reducing missed deliveries, incoming customer service enquiries and fraudulent claims.
Hermes couriers will use their existing handheld terminals to take high-resolution images of parcels left in a predetermined or suitably safe location, and also record location co-ordinates. Retailers deploying SafePlace Photo will then receive the images as soon as they are taken; with the additional option to have the photos automatically uploaded into their CRM systems. Retailers will also benefit from an increase in first time delivery and a drop in incoming contact centre enquiries, as well as provide added confidence to reduce and reject fraudulent claims.
SafePlace Photo and geo-fencing forms part of Hermes’ Digital Futures strategy, a £55m project that prioritises customer experience through investment in innovation and technology, including a new website with updated tracking options and a refreshed app, which are amongst new developments that are coming this year.
“SafePlace Photo combined with geo-fencing is the latest of our Digital Futures updates that reflects our vision to become the carrier of choice for every end consumer in the UK. It’s so important to take every opportunity to increase transparency throughout the parcel journey to continue to enhance the customer experience, and SafePlace Photo plus geo-fencing will help us and our clients to achieve this.”
– Martijn de Lange, CEO, Hermes UK
