Royal Mail has responded to customer demand for more information about their delivery. It will now notify people expecting a delivery through its tracked services the day before the item arrives, giving them a shorter two-hour delivery window at the same time.
The delivery company says that its research found that 33% of online shoppers wanted to be notified the day before a delivery was due to arrive. Previously the service same day notice of a four hour delivery window.
Now, if recipients are not at home at the time of the Royal Mail delivery, the parcel can be left with a neighbour or in the safe place the customer requested when they placed the order. If the neighbour is not available or if the customer did not specify a safe place, then Royal Mail will send an electronic notification when the item is ready for collection at their nearest customer service point. This electronic notification means that recipients do not have to go home to collect their missed delivery card and can instead collect their delivery on their way home.
A spokesperson for Royal Mail said “Notifying customers of their expected delivery time the day before we deliver is just one of the ways we are helping to make our customers’ lives easier. Coupled with a shorter estimated delivery time of as little as two hours creates a step change in convenience for online shoppers. Our posting customers also benefit from increased repeat orders from happy online shoppers. This latest innovation is part of our major investment in changes that increase convenience for our customers and their recipients.”
This change to Royal Mail’s service is not a first for the ecommerce and multichannel retail industry – DPD, for example, already offers one-hour delivery windows and day-before notifications through its Predict service – but it is significant in that it extends this level of convenient service to the general population, and is likely to raise customer expectations as a result.
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