Performance summary

Customer experience

PostNL Customer satisfaction as indicated
2020 - 2022

We have seen a step up in customer satisfaction across the board, related in part to the continuation of our service since the start of the pandemic. Investments in digitalisation are helping us make continual improvements in our commercial and operational core, by focusing on the customer experience through 'customer journeys'.

We are confident that this will enable us to strengthen our relationship with both business customers and consumers. While in 2021 we saw a decrease in the share of highly satisfied customers compared to 2020, the share of satisfied customers remained the same.

In 2022 we will begin switching from customer satisfaction surveys to using the Net Promoter Score (NPS), which will help us create greater value for customers through tailored customer journeys.

Performance at Parcels and Mail in the Netherlands

The share of highly satisfied customers at Mail in the Netherlands increased from 37% to 39% in 2021. Throughout the year we worked on simplifying Mail in the Netherlands' product portfolio, while improving the information and options available in our business portal.

At Parcels, the share of highly satisfied customers dropped from 37% to 30%. This was because in some cases we were unable to fully deliver customer volumes. One reason for this was the extreme pressure placed on our Parcels network towards the end of 2020 and the beginning of 2021. However, our focus on expanding our network throughout 2021 helped us avoid these issues during the year-end peak.

Customers and consumers are demanding ever-faster, more detailed and reliable shipping information. As a consequence, we are working on making improvements through our 'customer journey factory'. This includes a different way of measuring customer experience, using the Net Promoter Score (NPS) on a variety of levels, including strategically, in the coming years. More information on the customer journey factory is explained in detail later in this chapter.

Reputation score

In 2021 our reputation score was 71.6 (2020: 73.9). We scored particularly well in both 2021 and 2020 compared to recent years, which was below 70.0 points in the 2017-2019 period. Overall, our reputation score was stronger than the top-30 companies in the Netherlands. We also saw that survey respondents again rated our performance highly in 2021, the second year in a row we have significantly outperformed the longer-term trend. This would suggest that our focus on delivering high-quality services throughout the Covid-19 pandemic has been recognised across society.

Volume developments

PostNL Volume development as indicated
2020 - 2021

Parcel volumes again increased in 2021, and our services continued to help our many customers expand. Government measures as a result of Covid-19 continued to have a positive effect on the e-commerce market, which developed further.

Environmental, social and governance (ESG) criteria are increasingly used by customers as part of their vendor-selection process. We have set ourselves a series of ambitious targets, and we are recognised by standard-setting benchmarks, such as DJSI and CDP, as front-runners in our sector on the progress we make on ESG. Based on our solid strategic foundation, concrete plans to further digitalise our services, and strong ESG agenda, we are confident that our Parcels volume will continue to grow in the years to come. In 2021, our Parcels' volume grew by 14% compared to 2020. Of this, 85% was recurring and 15% was related to Covid-19.

At Mail in the Netherlands, the market decline continued in 2021, though the pace of decline slowed slightly, with an improvement in the underlying substitution rate. We again saw that the Covid-19 pandemic and societally-important mailings had a positive impact on consumer mail, due in particular to incidental government campaigns, such as election and voting mail, vaccination invitations, and the distribution of self tests. These helped limit the overall decline of mail volumes to 0.3%.

We provide customers with international delivery solutions through Spring, which is transforming itself from a traditional mail provider to a global e-commerce solutions provider. In 2021, Spring saw strong volume growth in Europe, aided by accelerating e-commerce-related revenue. In the second half of the year, Spring in Asia was impacted by VAT e-commerce rules introduced in the European Union (EU) on 1 July, and e-commerce law updates in China, aimed at preventing companies from selling fake products online. Together, these directives contributed to a significant percentage drop in e-commerce volumes from Asia.

Delivery quality

PostNL Delivery quality Share of items delivered on time
2020 - 2022

Delivery quality at Parcels remained high throughout the majority of 2021, at 98% across our sorting and delivery processes in the Netherlands. During the year we communicated with customers to provide tips on how to inform consumers about the benefit of ordering in time, to help better manage the end-of-year sprint and flow of parcels. Within the organisation, we worked to manage peaks by ramping up sorting centre capacity, introducing additional delivery vehicles, extending the opening hours of depots on weekends, recruiting new colleagues, and focusing on flexibility across our networks.

At Mail in the Netherlands, we delivered 94% of consumer mail by the next delivery day in 2021, below the regulatory requirement of 95%. Our quality levels were affected in a number of ways throughout the year. Extreme weather conditions, mainly in February, impacted our service, as did the  ongoing Covid-19 pandemic. Meanwhile, the strict lockdown at the beginning and end of 2021 led to retail outlets closing or operating with reduced opening hours, which had an impact on our planning and quality.

We also experienced a higher absence rate during a number of periods throughout the year due to sickness and quarantine requirements related to Covid-19, as we did in 2020. The closure of retail locations also led to operational delays.

Despite the challenges, we are proud of the tremendous efforts of our people to continue our mail service throughout the entire year. 

Our focus is to return to delivery quality levels of 95% or higher as quickly as possible. However, as of publication of this report, we are still dealing with the Covid-19 pandemic. This inevitably has consequences for our processes, as we continue to put the safety of our people first. We have also seen that consumer behaviour is less predictable during the lock downs, which we have to respond to.

At the beginning of 2022 we had higher levels of sick leave because of the Omicron variant. Going forward, we will continue to make our processes as capable as possible of absorbing major shifts in supply and demand, while communicating clearly and transparently to customers and consumers about changes or developments.