Customers and consumers experience distinctiveness
We want to offer all of our customers the experience they expect and demand, no matter how they interact with us. To achieve this, we continue to develop innovative ways to help them send, collect, and communicate with us, such as through parcel lockers or the PostNL app. We also understand that not all our customers have the same needs, so we ensure we are there to support them in the relevant parts of their journey. For small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), for instance, we can take care of the entire logistics process and help them improve their sales using our digital services, such as finding customers, increasing purchases via their website or improving their check out process. And for larger customers, we offer reliable delivery, the ease of doing business with us, a better returns proposition, or even helping them realise their sustainability ambitions by reducing air in parcels or offering innovative packaging solutions.
For consumers, we act as the reliable link. We are continually adapting to consumers' needs to make it easier for them to order, receive, or return their parcels. Key to this is the growth of our out-of-home network, which makes it particularly easy for consumers to collect and return parcels and enables us to efficiently carry out our services. The large retail network we operate in conjunction with partners across the Benelux is an important element in this, as is the ongoing expansion of the number of parcel lockers we operate. The lockers provide consumers with greater freedom to pick up and drop off parcels at a moment that is convenient for them.
At the same time, we need to measure what our customers think of our service and understand how we can improve. Below we highlight a number of initiatives we took in 2023 to enhance the customer experience.
Social and helpful
Mike Dijksma from Haarlem is very happy with his delivery driver, André. "You can tell that André is very involved with the neighbourhood because he knows everyone by name. That surprises me every time. He sees your name on a package and remembers it immediately. This quickly builds trust in someone. How would I describe André? Inspiringly enthusiastic! I've never seen him grumpy. Even when it's raining, he stands at the door with a smile." Mike is also a business customer with PostNL. "It involves fragile, valuable items. I prefer not to squeeze them into my own car, and sometimes I don't have a van available. André once suggested picking up a package for me. That saved me a lot of hassle at the time. Such actions make André truly unique."
A roadmap to facilitate a better customer experience
Our ambition is to be the favourite deliverer for customers, consumers and across society, which is supported by delivering distinctive customer experiences. The degree to which we are able to deliver such experiences is defined by NPS, which measures customer satisfaction. In 2023, we began implementing a number of initiatives to help us achieve our ambition and improve NPS across the organisation, some of which are outlined below.
a. Fact-based prioritisation
We want customers and consumers to have the best experience possible when they deal with PostNL. Using fact-based prioritisation, we will focus our time and effort on those customer experience improvements that have the highest customer impact. For instance, making improvements in customer journeys, or continually working on innovations to the PostNL app, which plays an important role in the way consumers and PostNL connect.
b. Customer journey factory
One of the ways we are improving service quality and working towards operational excellence is through our customer journey factory. Customer journeys include a variety of touchpoints that influence the overall (delivery) experience for our customers, from areas such as parcel returns or dropping off shipments at PostNL. One example is opening up our parcel lockers to third-party carriers.
c. Implementing NPS
We use NPS to measure our strategic key performance indicators, both internally and externally. This helps us translate customer feedback into improved initiatives, such as new delivery options, products, or expanded services. We use customer feedback directly and, increasingly, combine customer feedback with operational data to make improvements. One example is studying the link between the NPS of a consumer who has received a parcel and the logistics journey of that delivery, helping us improve.
d. Specify distinctive customer experience
We are specifying the desired (distinctive) customer experience in terms of values and promises and ensuring we are able to apply this in value-based design and our day-to-day work, leading to tangible and practical changes.
e. Customer-centric DNA
We are working to create a more customer-centric mindset across the organisation. For example, we help relevant employee groups identify customer-centric behaviour and then apply this in their day-to-day work. We also develop relevant customer experience knowledge internally, for instance through our digital learning labs.
Growth of PostNL accounts and PostNL app
Our digital connection with consumers continued to grow in 2023, and by the end of the year we had close to 9 million unique PostNL accounts registered and over 110,000 active business customers on mijnpostnl.nl. Satisfaction rates with the PostNL app were high, as users enjoyed its ease of use and options, with almost 48% of app users giving it a 9 or 10 as an NPS score, which typically translates into loyal and enthusiastic customers. In the Apple and Play stores, the app was given a 4.5/5 by iOS users and 4.2/5 by Android users.
Innovating within the PostNL app
We are continually working on new consumer features in the PostNL app. We introduced the option for receivers to select their own delivery preference in the app (see the story box 'Selecting your own delivery preference ' later in this chapter). We also enriched track & trace within the app and online through dynamic delivery times, which provides consumers with more detailed insights into the real-time delivery moment when the driver is en route. During the year we launched a feedback option in the app that lets consumers rate how satisfied they are with the delivery process immediately after they have received their parcel. If something has gone wrong, we can contact the driver directly and attempt to resolve any issues quickly and efficiently.
In addition to introducing innovations to our core services in the app, we also highlight new functionalities that we are testing and validating with consumers. In May we introduced a feature called the Innovation Corner (IC), which enables us to focus on solutions that consumers really want. Our aim is to add a number of new innovations in the IC each quarter.
Opening up parcel lockers to other carriers
In 2023, we made the commitment to open up our parcel lockers to third-party carriers. From March 2024, GLS Netherlands will become the first external party to begin using our network, when consumers will be able to collect packages delivered by both PostNL and GLS Netherlands from the more than 900 lockers we operate across the Netherlands. We are currently holding discussions with other carriers who are also interested in accessing our network of parcel lockers. Throughout the year we continued to install parcel lockers at supermarkets and other locations across the Netherlands.
We believe that opening up our lockers, many of which are available to consumers 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, is more sustainable and economical than each carrier building its own network, and will benefit e-tailers and make it particularly easy for small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and consumers to collect and return parcels.