Yodel handles over five million parcels in cyber week 2015
Independent parcel carrier Yodel has handled a record breaking 5,098,559 parcels between Thursday 26th of November and Wednesday 2nd of December – a week that included both Black Friday and Cyber Monday.
Service levels throughout the period were the highest on record for the year despite it being the busiest week the company has ever experienced. Customer satisfaction remained high with 86 per cent of online shoppers saying they had a positive delivery experience; at the same time last year this figure dropped to a low of 73 percent.
(Customer satisfaction (CSat): measured as the number of customers who have been satisfied/very satisfied with their experience. This compares with a retail average CSat of 78 percent).
One of the key factors in delivering a consistently high-quality customer experience was Yodel’s close partnerships it has with its clients. The carrier and retailers agreed in advance the number of parcels that would be accepted into the delivery network each day. It also placed limits on next day delivery capacity and spread handling and deliveries over the course of a week. This happened to include both Black Friday and Cyber Monday.
RELATED: Yodel invests in further ‘super’ service centres
Yodel invested £30 million to improve efficiency and capacity, which included developing a new website, as well as investing in mechanical handling systems, sorting equipment, training, acquiring new sites and an extended fleet. This was backed up by recruiting 7,000 new people across its operations.
Dick Stead, Yodel’s executive chairman, said; “We wanted this year’s festive peak to start smoothly and it undoubtedly has. Everyone’s worked incredibly hard to deliver for our clients and for the consumers who shopped online. Firmly agreeing volumes with retailers in advance of Black Friday and Cyber Monday was the right thing to do. We only accepted what we were equipped to deliver, which means everyone from staff to shoppers are happy.
Read our EXCLUSIVE interview with Dick Stead in the July Issue of Supply Chain Digital, here.
“But we’re not complacent. We still have just over two weeks to go until Christmas and are expecting high parcel volumes to continue. We’ll be battling snow, high winds, transport disruption and more to make our deliveries. It’s down to the incredibly hard work of our teams and our preparation that we’re able to do this.”
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Read the December Issue of Supply Chain Digital.
