Triangle News

This article was first published in the 2016 Winter edition of the Mail & Express Review.

The 2016 winner of the customer service category at the World Post & Parcel Awards, InPost, answers more than 96% of customers’ expectations on social media, many within 30 minutes. Wojciech Kądziołka, spokesman for InPost, tells MER why speed is key to meeting customer’s expectations:

“Over the last year, InPost has developed a social customer service using Facebook. The company created an alternative channel of communication which is easily accessible for customers who needed urgent support with the service.”

According to data provided by Oracle, Right Now and Zendesk, 50% of customers expect a company to help with the service issue via social media. 46% vent their frustration over a bad customer service experience. At the same time 48% would praise a company for a great service experience. These numbers set the challenge for every company that wants to be considered modern, technology-oriented or just be up to date with customers’ preferences.

Yet, most companies, especially in the logistics industry, ignore the social aspect of customer service. Studies conducted by Socialbakers analytics show that ‘in 2015, brands were asked over 34.9 m questions on Facebook and Twitter combined. Only 61% of those questions were addressed, leaving many sales opportunities and customer retention to fall by the wayside.’

InPost exceeds customers’ expectations by responding quickly (30 minutes on average) to up to 99.4% of questions, always trying to resolve the issue thoroughly and make the customer experience with our service better. Also, it is imperative for us to keep the communication with customers human (non-automated) and to respond to both positive and negative comments.

In at least 93% of cases, our team is able to resolve the issue without escalating it to other departments, which saves the much-needed time for other customer service channels (email/call centre). For example: every member of the social media team has access to the internal parcel tracking systems (with all necessary information about the Sender and the Recipient), in order to monitor and recognise potential problems. Most of the time, the enquiries can be resolved just by giving an explanation (educating the customer), about the type of parcel they have chosen or answering basic questions about the nature of the service (letter or parcel).

Most employees involved in our Facebook project are young and are very active in social media in their free time. They reacted with enthusiasm to the project and provided ideas for both the style of communication and the technological aspects of the social media customer service. The procedures and ideas were communicated during open meetings between all teams.

At InPost we have a history of experimenting with innovations and new technologies, so adding a social customer care project to our portfolio was not a problem at all – the whole concept was very well-received by employees and other departments. The entire process of initiating it happened very naturally.

There are many very satisfying aspects of the project, but the two most important are: 1) turning unhappy customers into brand ambassadors, 2) a lot of friendly conversations with customers and the constant valuable feedback provided by them.

As for the future for the project we will focus on staying consistent with our daily efforts as well as gradually improving in every crucial area: creating procedures, providing customer-friendly communications, adding new product features that we can help with via social media.

Worldwide trends show us that social media customer care is the future of the entire customer experience, so our main goal is to stay at the forefront of the incoming revolution.

Winning the World Post & Parcel Award taught us yet again that doing something so different often pays off.

Entries for the 2017 World Post & Parcel Awards are now open. If you think your organisation delivers exceptional customer service, or if you’re interested in any of our other categories, enter today for free. Visit the Awards website to find out more or call the events team on +44 (0)1628 642910.

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