Whistl Magazine Spring 2016

Whistl launches new customer promise Whistl magazine Spring 2016

Interviewwith MarkDavies of Whistl Doordrop Media

WHISTL CUSTOMER SURVEY E-TAILERS’ GROWING BUSINESS CONFIDENCE POSTWITH PERSONAL APPEAL REGULATORY UPDATE

NEWS

SMILES ALL ROUND We’re pleased to say that the results fromour recent customer satisfaction survey put a smile on our face. Thank you for your feedback. Here’s how you rated us!

Whistl launches new customer promise

We’re delighted to announce the launch of Whistl’s newCustomer Promise, a set of five pledges which outline our commitment to you. Whether it’s going out of our way to be helpful, being really efficient or just making things easy, we want you to have the best possible experience whenever you useWhistl. After all it’s what you’d expect of the UK’s second biggest postal provider. Our new promises underpin everything we do here at Whistl – they define what makes us tick, what we aim to achieve and the high standards we work to. Outlining our commitment to you in these five promises helps to sharpen our focus whilst also creating a healthy arena for honest customer feedback. We want to know howwe’re performing and whether we’re living up to our promises so that we can continue to improve everything we do. We don’t just want tomeet expectations, we want to exceed themwith exceptional service. Our Customer Promise is not about blowing our ownWhistl, it’s simply theWhistl way of working – putting you and your business at the heart of everything we do.

Wells Said

OF CUSTOMERSWERE VERY SATISFIEDOR SATISFIED DOING BUSINESSWITHWHISTL… 84%

I’mpleased to report that the beginning of the year has proved to be very positive for us with a series of new business wins and significant client renewals. We’re delighted that Dixons Carphone Warehouse has selectedWhistl as their mail provider, a contract that will see us handling 20million items per year – previously held by both UK Mail and Secured Mail. OTMOpus Trust Marketing has also signed a 37million itemper year contract with us having switched fromSecured Mail, together with QVC who were previously a client of Royal Mail. Plus, we’ve won an unprecedented seven-year deal with Edinburgh-based Aegon to collect, sort and transport 10million items of mail a year – thought to be the longest contract in the history of the deregulated postal market! It’s also great to see that somany of our existing clients have renewed their contracts. We’re thrilled that Sky, one of our very first customers when we started the business in 2004, has extended their contract with us again for the 12th year running. They join a number of other high-profile contract renewals including the AA, M&Co Stores, Hillarys Blinds and Macmillan to name just a few. It goes without saying that we’re committed to providing the efficiency, cost-savings and super service you expect fromus. After all it’s part of our promise to you.

...OF WHICH 89% WERE SATISFIED WITH THE QUALITY OF THEIR MAIN ACCOUNT MANAGER/DIRECTOR

...OF WHICH 90% WERE SATISFIEDWITH THE QUALITY OF CUSTOMER SERVICES

85%

…..OF WHICH

WERE SATISFIED WITH THE SUSTAINED QUALITY OF THE SERVICE THEY RECEIVED

85%

WERE WILLING TO RECOMMEND WHISTL TO OTHERS (NET PROMOTER SCORE OF 21) 40%

We love working with all our customers and are proud of the service we provide. Here are some of the lovely things they said in our customer satisfaction survey. … and you said!

“Prices are very competitive. Our account manager is brilliant, knows Whistl inside out and can answer almost any question on postage and the way the business operates. She resolves issues quickly, has a great attitude and is a pleasure to work with. We did have a few invoice issues but Amy has worked really hardwith the finance team to iron these out and I think we are in a really good place with invoices now.”

“I have been impressed byWhistl’s account management team. They are always responsive and react speedily when the need arises. The account manager has always been attentive and helpful. Claire keepsme up-to-date with changes and advises on howwe can better useWhistl services.”

SAIDWHISTL IS EASY TO USE 88%

“Good Customer Services Team who send us daily updates of any concerns/issues with our mail and a newAccount Manager who seems proactive in dealing with demands.”

“Very satisfiedwith your company, communication is very good and very professional.”

NickWells Chief Executive Whistl

Karen Jones Panda Motors (Swansea) Limited

LouisaWebb TheWhite Company (UK) Limited

Kelly Stokes CFH Docmail Limited

John Sermon Ashford & St Peters Hospital NHS

Whistl Magazine • Spring 2016

All roundEurope, all round theworld

Royal Mail’s annual tracker study into the expectations and ambitions of UK SME e-retailers has revealed growing business confidence, with eight out of ten confident theywill increase sales in 2016. Royal Mail said that the confident outlook builds on the sales success of 2015. Almost three quarters of SME e-retailers increased their sales last year, the highest level in the last three years. The study indicates that parcel delivery companies have played an import role in this, with 66% of respondents citing on-time delivery as the most common factor in driving customer satisfaction. This is ranked higher in importance than the quality of products and the price of goods. SME e-retailers have identified new factors for competition this year – the rise of on-the-move smartphone shopping (47%) and price promotions which lead shoppers to seek out the best prices (44%). However the main drivers of competition remain the same this year, with SME e-retailers naming consumers’ price sensitivity and an increased number of websites as the main reasons for increased competition (both at 52%). If you’re an e-retailer and would like to find out more about Whistl’s Packets & Parcels services: email moreinfo@whistl.co.uk or visit www.whistl.co.uk E-tailers expect to increase sales

Frombusinessmail to lowand high-value ecommerce items overseas, our range of International services are just the ticket! With one convenient collection for both your national and international items, we remove the hassle of dealing with numerous delivery companies. Not only will you save your business time andmoney, you’ll also be able to give your customers more choice with a range of delivery and sortation options to suit their requirements. Choose AllSort if you want us to sort your letters, flats and packets, Registered if you need a signature on arrival or Pre-sorted if you’re happy to sort your own mail. Introduced in 2012, our International service has grown 215% over the past 4 years. Our aim for 2016 is to build on this success, that’s why we’re investing in sophisticated operational technologies and developing a new range of International tracked solutions. Thanks to our system improvements we will be integrating with a broad range of international carriers to give you the best route, speed and price tomeet your needs. Watch this space for further developments! If you’d like to find out more about our international services simply get in touch with your account manager or visit www.whistl.co.uk

International tracked services coming soon! • Fully tracked international parcels • Integration options • Supported bymultiple carriers • Standard and next day delivery speeds • DDP&DAP options • Customer MI & tracking portal • PUDOdeliveries • Liability as standard • Supported customs clearance

Whistlwelcomesonboard…

ChristineKey DIRECTOROF PACKETS& PARCELS

Tohelpus growour Packets&Parcels divisionandstrengthenour international operationwe’repleased toannounce that wehaveappointedanumber of newand highly experiencedmembers to the team. Home delivery specialist Christine Key joins us as Director of Packets & Parcels, to help us expand and build on our package delivery services. Christine brings invaluable expertise in the delivery sector having previously worked at Yodel, Home Delivery Network, DPD and Geopost. We’re alsodelighted towelcome on boardPaul Smithwhohas been appointed International SalesDirector andwill headup our international outbound support team.

Joining Paul and the rest of the international team isNick Frazer whohas been appointedCarrier Development Director tohelpdrive the international business forward. NickWells, CEOofWhistl said: “Whistl is going fromstrength to strengthwith significant appointments toour strong management team. “2016 represents an exciting time for Whistl withmajor investment and focus onour international andparcel delivery services. Our aimas always is to respond tomarket demandwith solutions thatmeet andexceedexpectations,constantlyputting quality at the heart of everythingwedo.”

Paul Smith INTERNATIONAL SALESDIRECTOR

NickFrazer CARRIER DEVELOPMENT DIRECTOR

4 Whistl Magazine • Spring 2016

Whistl Magazine • Spring 2016

CUSTOMER FOCUS INDUSTRY RESEARCH

Public perception of direct mail is improving, with almost half of consumers seeing it as good business communication, according to a recent survey by data specialist Wilmington Millennium. Public sees direct mail in fonder light

Any sector can sendmail that’s valued The report examined various sectors wheremail is a key part of themediamix including financial services, utilities and telecoms, public sector, charity, travel and tourism*. Any sector can sendmail that’s of value to the recipient – even if it’s a bill! Interestingly however, when respondents were asked which three items of mail they found useful or interesting, retail clearly dominates.

Post with personal appeal

According to reports, Cooke had felt tormented by the number of fundraising requests froma wide range of charities. Pritchard said that charities had been forced to review their communication policies, reducing the number of wrongly addressedmailings and sendingmore relevant offers through tighter targeting. “I don’t think it has damagedDM in the long term. Improvement will just give customers a better perception of themail that they are receiving,” Pritchard said. She added that DMprint volumes would never return to the heady days of the 1980s or 1990s but 2015 saw advertising mail volumes and spend rise and this was expected to continue on the same trajectory through 2016. Source: WilmingtonMillennium Out of the 2,000 consumers questioned, 48% thought direct mail is a good way for businesses to connect with them.

The research found that out of the 2,000 consumers questioned, 48% thought directmail is a goodway for businesses to connect with them, a rise of 7% since a similar survey in 2014. The research also found 44%of consumers ranked directmail and doordrops as their favourite formof direct marketing, against 42%who preferred email. Website pop- up advertisements received the lowest seal of approval, with only 2.7%of those surveyed preferring them. Karen Pritchard, Wilmington Millennium’s Product Director said: “Customers are approaching directmail communications far more readily than they were in the past. Therewas a point when therewas far toomuch untargetedmail being sent out. When a correctly addressed and targeted piece of DM comes through the door, they are not seeing that as intrusive in the sameway as a pop-up for example. They are annoying, whereasmail you can digest at your own pace.” The results come despite a slewof bad press for DM last

78% RETAIL

Whether it’s a travel brochure we’ve been waiting for, vouchers froma supermarket or a bank statement we need to check, every piece of mail has the potential to personally connect with us.

27% UTILITIES/TELECOMS

consumers who reported feeling something in response to valuedmail also said they acted on that feeling. Commenting on the research Mark Davies, Managing Director of Whistl Doordrop Media, said: “It’s good to see that Quadrangle’s research demonstrates howmail can really drive value for advertisers. With good targeting, useful information and timely messaging, marketers can really help to increase brand loyalty andmakemore of a personal connection with their audience.”

But what makes us keep somemail and discard others?

them. 57% of people who receivedmail they valued felt more positively about the brand who sent it. IT CREATES FEELINGS Valuedmail creates real feelings. Some are personal, some are purely transactional and some arise due to the relationship between the recipient and the sender. 45% of people feel happy when they receivemail they value. valuedmail drives actions that create commercial value for the advertiser. Valuedmail engages customers on a personal level because they either already had a relationship with the brand or because they receivedmail that was timely or relevant. 92% of IT LEADS TOACTION Perhaps most importantly of all,

Royal Mail commissioned Quadrangle, an independent research agency to look at what makes a piece of mail valued and whether this can create value for companies that send it. Here’s what the research found.* IT CONTAINS USEFUL INFORMATION Valuedmail contains information that keeps customers up to date, tells them something new and explains what, if anything, they need to do. 44% of people feel better informed by mail they value. ITMAKES YOU THINK Valuedmail makes people consider or reconsider their perceptions about the brand or product and its relevance to

16% PUBLIC SECTOR

28% FINANCIAL SERVICES

15% TRAVEL & TOURISM

To find out more and download the full report visit www.mailmen.co.uk

*Source: Royal Mail MarketReach, Valued Mail, Quadrangle, 2014.

*Base 3,000. Source: Royal Mail MarketReach, Valued Mail, Quadrangle 2014

year following the death of poppy seller Olive Cooke.

Whistl Magazine • Spring 2016

Doordrop Media

FROMDOOR TO ONLINE STORE It’s well proven that doordrops are highly effective when it comes to driving traffic online and boosting sales. Here we take a look at some of the stats behind doordrops and consumer buying behaviour.

Whether it’s attractingmore shoppers to your store or giving your online sales a boost, there’s no doubt doordrops prove to be highly effective. Mark Davies, Managing Director of Whistl’s DoordropMedia division explains how intelligent targeting delivers results. Doordropmarketing with clever targeting How do you accurately identify the customers you want to reach? Geo-demographics is often the starting point for planning a doordrop campaign. We identify demographically similar areas according to socio-economic behaviour, consumer spend and lifestyle. We then intelligently blend this using a combination of client, proprietary or third party data to further identify key audience segments, behaviours and consumer preferences towards certain brands, products or services. How does this benefit the retailer? Understanding the behaviours of certain consumers helps to build a really accurate picture of who their customers are. It provides invaluable insight into how tomaintain customers and engage with themwhile also reaching potential new ones. It informs the retailer’s retention and acquisition strategy at the planning stage to helpmaximise the effectiveness of their campaign. OK, so accurate targeting can help increase footfall to the store. Is it just as effective for driving online sales? Yes doordrops are really effective at fuelling online sales, particularly if you’re showcasing your product range in a catalogue or including a time-limited coupon that can be redeemed online or in-store. However the geo-demographic profile can be very different. A household that prefers to buy from a retailer online often has a very different consumer profile to a household that prefers to buy in-store. As a result, an Not at all. The targeting techniques we use are scalable. Major retailers use it to gain a national customer overview, however the more detailed intelligence is applied on an individual store basis to capture key differences in customer profile by store type and location. Can the effectiveness of this targeting bemeasured? Absolutely, what’smorewe can evaluate and analyse newcustomer sales data resulting from a campaign that the retailer has run. This helps future campaign planning efficiencies andmaximises success. It’s certainly not a one-size-fits-all medium. Intelligent targeting will give you a deeper understanding of your existing customers whilst also crucially driving acquisition. It enables brands to identify where they are, how you can best engage with them and enable you to tailor your product offerings to suit the target audience. intelligently targeted doordrop campaign will reflect this. Is this targeting only suitable for local campaigns?

In-store customer spend profile

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53%

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NORTHAMPTON

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When a doordrop includes a promotion, 53% of UK adults went online to purchase …

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…and 1 in 4 adults who regularly read or see a doordrop are aged under 35.

Over 5million adults in the UK regularly read or see an average of 5 doordrops every week…

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Online customer spend profile

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60%

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...that’s probably because 79% of people aremost relaxedwhen reading print on paper. Only 23% regard phones/smartphones as a relaxing medium.

…and 1 in 4 adults who have responded to a promotion have done so through buying or seeking further information on their smartphone.

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When it comes to catalogues, 60% of people go online tomake a purchase within a week of receiving it...

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88%

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Least valuable households

Most valuable households

Pop-up adverts on websites did not fare so well. They received the lowest seal of approval with only 2.7% of those surveyed saying they preferred this medium.

In fact 44% of consumers ranked doordrops and direct mail as their favourite formof direct marketing...

…and 88% of those who usemail to advertise do so to drive customers online.

To find out more about intelligent doordrop campaigns visit www.idoordrop.com or email moreinfo@whistl.co.uk

Whistl Magazine • Spring 2016

Industry in brief DIRECTOR OF STRATEGY & POSTAL AFFAIRS, CHARLES NEILSON PROVIDES HIS REGULAR ROUND-UP OF INDUSTRY NEWS.

Ofcommarket review highlights

After nearly four years, the European Commission has finally agreed on the final text for the General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR). EU strikes deal on data protection rules

At the end of last year, Ofcompublished its annual monitoring update on the UK postal market (for the financial year 2014-15). It reported that the ‘vast majority of consumers are satisfied with their postal services and that prices remain affordable for almost all consumers’.

Canwe domore for you?

regulation shouldmake cross-border data exchange easier and help increase cooperation betweenmember states working to common data protection rules. This will create fair competition and will encourage companies, especially small andmedium- sized enterprises, to get the most out of the digital single market. Those companies that breach EU data protection rules could be fined as much as 4% of their annual turnover, so for global internet companies in particular, this could amount to billions. Following a review of the texts and vote by the EU Parliament and EU Council of Ministers the member states will have two years tomake the necessary provisions before the directive comes into force in spring 2018.

The new privacy regulations aim to enhance the level of protection for individuals

billion items generating revenues of £7.4 billion. The bulk of these, some 1.4 billion items are domestic parcels but

In the letters market the overall volume of addressed items fell by 1.1% to 12.6 billion items in total. Although the decline was slower than in previous years the fall since 2010/11 has been 18% overall. Different parts of the market declined at different rates with DownstreamAccess (DSA) Mail, as carried by Whistl, down by only 1.3% overall, giving DSA 56% of the market by volume. Ofcom noted that the DSA regime operators may have the lion’s share of the volume but they only retain 4% of the total letters revenue. Ofcom has included a monitor on parcels for the first time and as a result has not been able to include all the operators that they would have liked. However it is clear from their findings that the parcels market is in good health in the UK with volumes up 7% to 1.9

whose personal data is processed, and increase

business opportunities in the digital singlemarket by reducing the administrative burden. The good news for marketers is that they will need to get ‘unambiguous’ consent from consumers rather than the stricter ‘explicit’ consent previously proposed in order to use their data for marketing purposes. In other words consent for postal and telephone marketing can still be given on an unsubscribe or opt-out basis. Needless to say the whole

there are also significant volumes and revenues in inbound and outbound

international parcels. Whistl currently provides solutions in both of these markets and is actively expanding its capability in both inbound and outbound streams. Royal Mail claim to have 52% share of the overall parcels market. Overall this is the first year that Royal Mail has reported revenue falls, causedmainly by the price increases not managing to offset its letters volume fall. However on a more positive note Royal Mail reported EBIT at 5.6%, within Ofcom’s range of 5 – 10% guidance for a healthy, financially sustainable USO.

Mail Oering UK

Packets & Parcels National delivery services for UK organisations sending packets and parcels with a range of delivery options. • Pre-sorted • Unsorted • Tracked

International A range of services for sending mail, packets and parcels overseas. • Pre-sorted • Registered • Unsorted • Tracked parcel services

Doordrop Media End-to-end management of doordrop campaigns using analytical insights to target the households you most want to reach, helping your media spend go further.

organisations an innovative range of economic and ecient mail delivery services. • Pre-sorted mail • Unsorted mail • International mail • Hybrid mail

issue of consent will be tightened up and the information given to the

We hope you enjoy readingWhistl Magazine. If you’d like us to feature anything in particular in future issues, or would like to feature as a case study please get in touch using the following contact details.

consumer will need to be clear, using language that is easy to understand. For businesses, the

email whistl.communications@whistl.co.uk write NatalieWalker, Whistl UK Ltd, Meridian House, Fieldhouse Lane, Marlow, Buckinghamshire, SL7 1TB

TO FIND OUT MORE Existing customers contact your account manager New customers call us on 01628 861503 e-mail moreinfo@whistl.co.uk or visit www.whistl.co.uk

Whistl Magazine • Spring 2016

Returnaddress:Whistl UK Ltd, Meridian House, Fieldhouse Lane, Marlow, Buckinghamshire, SL7 1TB

Packets & Parcels, all sorted Whether it’s next day, two or three day delivery, we’ve got packets & parcels all sorted with a range of tracking and timing options to suit your needs. It gives you the speed, reliability and choice your customers are looking for plus the convenience of one collection for all your post, packets and parcels. Just let us know when you’d like us to collect and we’ll take care of everything – managing the whole process before handing over to our trusted partners for delivery to your customer. It’s easy, ecient and above all hassle-free.

Call 01628 861503 e-mail moreinfo@whistl.co.uk visit www.whistl.co.uk

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