Delivering our promises

Shop Direct is the UK’s largest integrated retailer and financial services provider, and operates retail brands Very.co.uk and Littlewoods.com.

We spoke to their head of outbound logistics, Chris Haighton, who tells us what he thinks of our service and how we help his business.

Why do you use Royal Mail?

‘For me, Royal Mail stands for three things,’ said Chris. ‘Firstly, scale. Your reach is way beyond any of your competitors. Scale is a hugely important factor at this time of year. I know that if I phone Royal Mail, you will have the capacity to take additional parcels from me.

‘Secondly, with scale comes consistency. I can rely on Royal Mail to deliver the same results week in, week out. Finally, security. I trust Royal Mail to get valuable items such as mobile phones through to the end customer, whether through delivery to home or Local Collect.’

What are the key capabilities you want us to develop?

‘I want everything on your roadmap!’ he added. ‘I’d like to see improved quality on your Tracked 24 service; better tracking and more customer focused communication. I’m already getting a lot of this from other providers. Your tracking and communication has improved a lot, but it’s still in Royal Mail language, not my customers' language.

‘We think later acceptance times offer a great opportunity for incremental sales. If you can get slicker at delivering later acceptance times to me and my suppliers, it’s going to be positive for both of us.’

How important is customer focus for your organisation?

‘The customer is absolutely at the heart of what we do. We listen to our customers relentlessly, take their feedback and apply it to our business. The only two measures we talk about week in, week out are customer satisfaction (net promoter score) and broken promises, which is all about delivery.

‘When a customer buys an item, we promise a delivery date. If the customer doesn’t have the item in their hands by the delivery date, that’s a broken promise. You’re not just delivering my parcels, you’re delivering my promises.’