Premium express parcel carrier City Link is enhancing its customer service offering with a series of exciting improvements designed to put customers more in control.
The improvements enhance the level of management information offered to customers and significantly simplify customer processes. All the improvements have been driven as a direct result of consultation with customers through a variety of feedback channels including the new Customer Forums that the business has introduced.
The innovative enhancements include:
· the launch of much more sophisticated search and reporting functionality on the company's reporting portal, My City Link, giving customers access to far more live data about the movement of their parcels
· easier to use and more detailed track and trace information on the company's web-based Track Your Parcel service (which is aimed at the end-consumers receiving deliveries)
· the introduction of pack level information (as well as consignment level) across all reporting channels - this is facilitated by changes in operational procedures that now see delivery drivers scan each individual item in a consignment at the doorstep, further reducing any margin for error and increasing visibility of performance for the customer
· the introduction of a faster and simpler automated claims process for account customers.
These improvements come hot on the heels of the introduction of the company's new estimated time of delivery service, On Our Way, which notifies customers receiving a parcel of when it is going to arrive and gives them the opportunity to re-arrange or re-schedule.
At the heart of these improvements is the upgrade to My City Link. My City Link already provides customers with full track and trace and some search functionality from a web-based portal but following the upgrade will also include much richer search and reporting functionality (including historic reports as well as live searches for the first time), pack level information as well as consignment level and details of On Our Way delivery windows for all parcels.
Another key bit of feedback from customers was that they wanted to see the introduction of an easy to use and rapid process for making claims when things went wrong. In response to this City Link has designed an automated Claims process which will see the time taken for a claim to be raised, processed and paid reduce to 28 days. This process is being piloted now and will be released to all customers on My City Link in the summer.
City Link's Strategic Marketing Director, Adrian Baker, said: "Our improvements have all been driven by feedback from our customers - we have listened to what they are saying about how My City Link works and how they would like to see it improved.
"Our strategy is to make City Link the perfect one-stop-shop for all our customers by offering them simple and slick support channels to complement the comprehensive range of products and services we already offer. We want to make it as easy as possible for them to offer the highest levels of service to their own customers and the improvements we have made to My City Link and which we are now piloting with our new automated claims process do just that. Essentially what we are doing with these improvements is to try to put our customers more in control."
Giving customers and consumers more control is also the primary aim of City Link's recently launched On Our Way service. The service notifies both customers and end-consumers when their parcels are going to arrive, within a two-hour window. If the time proves to be inconvenient, consumers are offered several options to automatically re-arrange or re-schedule delivery (including options to leave parcels with a neighbour or in a safe place, to have them held at their local depot or to re-schedule delivery for another day).
Adrian Baker added: "We know that consumers' expectations are constantly changing and the On Our Way service is a perfect example of the steps we are taking to meet the evolving expectations of both our account based customers and the end-consumers they are sending parcels to.
"Last year City Link announced an investment of over £5m in its IT architecture and we are now beginning to see some of the early benefits of that investment being made available to our customers. But we're not stopping here, already in the pipeline are further improvements to our web offering, our booking solutions and to the On Our Way service. Our ambition is to make life as convenient as possible for our customers and their customers in turn, with a one-stop-shop of delivery services supported by a rich and easy-to-use service offering. These latest developments are another huge step on that journey"