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Case study:
Royal Mail
Javaid Fiaz, IT support manager for Micro Direct,
discusses the benefits his company has enjoyed
from its use of the Royal Mail Tracked
TM
service
W
e sell IT components and software from our two offices in
Manchester and Stockport, via our website and a catalogue.
Our best-sellers range from core components for PCs,
including memory, hard drives and CPUs, to MP3 players and LCDs.
We’ve got three types of customers. Our retail customers split into
two groups: enthusiasts who love their technology and regularly spend
with us to get the latest kit, and average retail customers who add
components to their PCs—maybe extra memory or a new printer—to
make what they’ve already got go a bit further. And then we have
commerical customers who come to us to kit out their staff, which can
be up to 200 PCs per client.
I’ve been using Royal Mail Tracked™ for eight months, and it’s going
well. We’re sending on average 300 packets a day—that means we
qualify for free collection by Royal Mail, which is a bonus.
The customer really drove our choice of the service. In this industry
The lowdown
customers are very smart, and online price-comparison sites have
meant we’ve had to be very competitive in both our unit costs and our
on Royal Mail
delivery costs. We can’t have the delivery cost lose us a sale. That’s
why we chose Royal Mail Tracked™—but also, our customers like and
Tracked
TM
trust the brand. Our reputation is in good hands with Royal Mail.
An easy-to-use delivery service that
I think the UK coverage Royal Mail Tracked™ offers is also
allows you to track online the parcels
unbeatable. In harder-to-reach places like the Isle of Man and the
you’re posting, Royal Mail Tracked™
Scottish Highlands we’re definitely winning new customers, because
can deliver to any UK address in
Royal Mail doesn’t add an extra charge to deliver there, and that can
two or three working days, including
cost up to £15 from other providers.
Saturdays. The service is available to
And the tracking facility is a big hit. Once we’ve sent a packet, we
businesses that send more than 5,000
email the barcode reference number to the customers so that they can
packets (including Special Delivery)
per site each year. You can send
log on and monitor its progress. Or they can just call our customer
virtually anything except cash, up to
services department to check where it is. Having instant visibility of
£500 in value. There is a maximum
an item’s location is fantastic from a customer service point of view—
weight per item of 5 kg. You can
it eliminates customer frustrations, and it’s also a real reassurance
track your items at www.royalmail.
for them.
com/trackandtrace using the packet’s
In the industry everyone’s worried about fraud and losing stock in
barcode reference number. If you
transit. So it’s a sign of our faith in Royal Mail Tracked™ that we’ve
give your customers the details, they
opted to use it over other services with higher compensation for lost
can monitor the status of their order
items. I feel that, because it is so reliable, I’d rather pass the savings on
too. The cost to you depends on the
to the customer by offering a better-value service, which Royal Mail’s is.
volumes you post on both a daily and
We use Royal Mail’s despatch software, Despatch Express, and I’ve
an annual basis, the weight of the
got three printers turning out the Printed Posted Impressions (PPIs) for
item and whether you sort your mail in
the packets. It’s easy to use and saves a lot of time. Online Business advance. To find out more about Royal
Account, meanwhile, is great for the accounts department. They check Mail Tracked™ call 08457 950 950 or
what we’re spending every fortnight, and it helps them to balance the visit www.royalmail.com/end2end
books.
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