Help customers grow their business and secure a sustainable mail business

Throughout 2022 we connected the millions of senders and receivers that rely on us every day, ensuring that our strong operations are flexible enough to deal with a consumer environment impacted by an economy facing significant challenges.

Providing customer value is a key driver in the execution of our strategy, which is why we continued to develop smart solutions for customers in the most sustainable manner possible. In this chapter we provide an extensive overview of the steps we took during the year to deliver value to our many customers, as we helped them grow their business while securing a sustainable mail business.

Performance summary

Customer experience

PostNL Customer satisfaction as indicated
2021 - 2023

The percentage of highly satisfied customers dropped slightly in 2022, although we saw a slight increase in the percentage of satisfied customers. The tight labour market has had a detrimental impact on our staffing levels, particularly among mail deliverers and call centre staff, which impacted quality levels. At the same time, people are increasingly feeling the effects of higher inflation and a decrease in their spending power, which may negatively impact their view of companies.

Net Promoter Scores (NPS) across the sector were also lower, as the pandemic and economic crisis caused people to be less forgiving if service levels dropped off.

At Parcels, the share of highly satisfied customers rose to 33% from 30% in 2021, as we effectively adjusted our network capacity to volumes, enabling us to maintain the necessary flexibility for our peak season and safeguard customer and consumer service levels. The share of highly satisfied customers at Mail in the Netherlands fell to 34%, from 39% in 2021. This was mainly due to the tight labour market, which has made it challenging to source mail deliverers.

Customers and consumers are demanding ever-faster, more detailed and reliable shipping information. As a consequence, we are working on making improvements through 'customer journeys'. In 2022 we implemented NPS on a tactical and operational level to measure customer experience, and plan to use NPS to measure strategic satisfaction in the future.

Reputation score

In 2022 our reputation score was 67.1 (2021: 71.6). Although the score was much stronger than competitors in the sector, we were impacted by the effects of the tight labour market and negative consumer confidence across the Netherlands. In addition, events such as the alleged breaches of applicable social laws and regulations in Belgium will have negatively impacted our reputation. In order to improve our reputation score, our focus will be on those areas in which we can make the most impact, including providing accessible, reliable and affordable services, customer experience and digital solutions, human rights and labour practices, and societal presence and responsibility.

E-commerce growth

PostNL Volume development as indicated
2021 - 2022

Volumes at Parcels fell by 10% in 2022 compared to 2021, impacted by the turbulence in the global macroeconomic environment, with high inflation and rising energy prices negatively affecting consumer confidence. This led to reduced spending and slowing e-commerce growth domestically and internationally. The backdrop to this was the widening impact of the war in Ukraine. We took a number of steps to counter these developments, including continually scaling our operations and network capacity with volumes, reducing indirect costs at Parcels, and maintaining tight control of overhead costs. We also saw a drop in cross-border activities, mainly driven by lower import volumes from Asia, primarily due to the zero-Covid policy in China. Overall, this resulted in volumes well below anticipated levels.

Accessible and reliable postal services

PostNL Delivery quality Share of items delivered on time
2021 - 2023

Delivery quality at Parcels remained stable at 98%, in line with our target. This was achieved through our ongoing focus on maintaining service level quality across our operations, despite the market pressures on sourcing delivery drivers. The tight labour market means competition for deliverers is fierce, and this is an issue affecting the entire sector.

At Mail in the Netherlands, we delivered 91% of consumer mail by the next delivery day, below the regulatory requirement of 95%. Our quality levels were affected in a number of ways. At the beginning of the year, Covid-19 and storms led to delays. During the year, a very tight labour market led to an ongoing shortage of mail deliverers across the Netherlands, especially in the south of the country. We were able to take a range of swift measures, both locally and nationally, to combat the impact this would have on the quality of service.

For example, from August mail deliverers received a fixed contract immediately. In May, a new collective labour agreement for mail deliverers was put in place that provided a pay rise of over 8%. Additionally, we nearly doubled youth wages by offering everyone from the age of 18 the minimum wage for adults. In specific areas, mail deliverers received a surcharge on top of their hourly wages and were offered a maximum of €250 after three months of employment.

A bonus was also given to mail deliverers who extended their contract. In addition to these financial measures, we introduced pilots with English-speaking mail deliverers and, in a number of towns, with evening delivery. We also offered temporary personnel and retirees permanent contracts.

Despite the challenges, the regulatory requirement of 95% was met for funeral announcements and medical mail, and we are proud of the tremendous efforts of our people to continue our mail service throughout the year.