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We see that most of our complaints stem from delivery delays by DHL, PostNL or Deutsche Post.
For PostNL, we see an average of +/- 125 complaints per month about mail that is allegedly not delivered.
In most cases of these complaints, a reprint is made at Sparkles’ expense.
The goal is to reduce the number of reprints done as a result of these types of complaints and minimise communication regarding these orders. We have taken or initiated several steps, and this is the outcome.
PostNL – within NL and BE
We know that it is becoming increasingly difficult for PostNL to deliver mail on time. The days when regular letterbox mail was invariably on the doorstep a day after being posted are really over. In the Netherlands, letterbox mail is not delivered on Mondays anyway, but even on other days it is not guaranteed that everything will be delivered on time.
PostNL also applies a different policy from 2025, giving them longer to deliver mail.
Since we do see complaints about this with great regularity, and reprints are also made as a result, we need to take a different approach here.
We do not call customers afterwards, but our suspicion is that a large number of the customers who receive a reprint still receive the original order a day or two later. This is obviously a waste, unsustainable and costly.
What are we going to do?
We will wait 5 delivery days before doing a reprint at our expense.
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Delivery days are days when mail can be delivered. So Sunday and Monday do not apply. For Belgium, Saturday and Sunday do not apply.
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Furthermore, it is necessary to take into account the mail that is collected from the printing company in the evening. It may be that an order is completed one day, but the mail actually leaves only a day later. This need not be shared directly with customers on the website or in the ordering process, but is good to include in the amount of delivery days or in the explanation to the customer. Look carefully at what time an order reached ‘completed’. If this is after 8pm then you can assume that this shipment was not given to PostNL until a day later (and on Fridays after 8pm the mail does not leave until Monday).
How do we make it clearer and better for the customer?
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During the ordering process, the expected delivery time for mail items is adjusted to 1 to 4 working days.
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The customer can choose to make a trackable letterbox shipment of his order for a small fee. A trackable letterbox shipment does not mean that the shipment is then received earlier by the customer but that it can be traced.
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In the order confirmation, you can mention that PostNL takes longer to deliver a letterbox order.
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On the website, you can state the policy on delayed mail delivery. Standard texts are also already available for this purpose.
Not yet delivered…
If after 5 delivery days the mail has still not been delivered, a reprint can be done, and also make this shipment traceable. If this is not possible automatically when ordering the reprint, you can have the shipment changed to DHL through us.
Does the customer not want to wait?
Then explain that PostNL takes a long time and that we observe the 5 delivery days before a reprint is done. You may be able to make a discount arrangement with the customer if they are dissatisfied. The customer then does the order himself and gets a one-time discount code of a fixed amount.
This way, the customer has enough info and also enough choice.
If we make this info clearer to the customer, we expect fewer complaints. And in following these rules, we also expect fewer reprints. This saves money, time, materials and shipping.
How and when do we roll this out.
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Update communications on your website and order/shipping confirmations as soon as possible, if not already done.
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For Whitelabels without customer service, these rules may follow from 1 March 2025 next.
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For the white labels with customer service, these ground rules will be applied with immediate effect.
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