Customer experience in the delivery services

The Importance of customer experience

In this day and age customer experience is an important aspect when it comes to delivery services. This has been proven time and time again through both experience and research.

There are three factors regarding customer experience that influence how the customer between the age of 18 and 30 perceives the quality of the service:

• Contact with a postal operator (waiting time, knowledge etc.)
• Having a multichannel strategy. This way they feel they can always contact the service provider.
• Ease of use. The ease of which customers can contact the operators and being able to manage their own postal deliveries is vital. Through these components it is obvious that customer experience plays a big role in the reputation of the company. Thus it is essential to establish a good customer experience strategy.

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The issue with customer experience

Let’s call it what it is: a crisis of care when it comes to Dutch postal services. In 2025, 35% of consumers said they were unhappy with how their packages were delivered, a number that’s rising, not falling, year after year. But the real pain begins when you try to get help. The Consumentenbond reports that the average customer service score among major postal services is just 3.7 out of 10. Why? Because reaching actual help feels impossible. Instead, customers get shuffled into chatbot conversations, forced to pick lifeless options from a menu that never seems to fit their problem. It's not just an inconvenience, it's a signal that these companies have stopped listening. In a world obsessed with progress and connection, how did customer service get stuck echoing the same, hollow lines?

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The origin of bad customer experience

It is clear the customer experience and customer service are an issue and needs improving in the delivery service industry. But how did the issue come to be? The main cause for this customer service issue is lack of resources. USPS does not have enough customer service employees for the influx of calls. In 2017 there was an increase of 24% in calls when compared to the previous year which will continue to grow. In the Netherlands there is another separate cause to the issue. There is no easy way to get in contact with the customer service by phone. This is often done on purpose by businesses to compulse customers to make use of self service or a contact form. Customers have to search the whole website before finding a number to call. Additionally, when they do find the number, it often costs money to call.

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Solutions for customer experience

Prevent complaints from happening The best solution to an unsatisfactory customer experience is to avoid the customers from needing to complain. In order to do this the issues customers complain about should be prevented from developing in the first place. This can be done by giving the customer more control when it comes to delivery options. For instance via the website or app of the delivery service. PostNL has already started to implement this with their PostNL app. Their website had over a billion online visits in 2021, of which 90% mobile users. This shows a need for digital transformation and a solution to prevent many of the regular complaints. This digitalization can be done through our services, chatbots can be constructed and implemented where the customers can ask for their delivery options, and to track their letters and parcels.

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Omni channel customer service

Another solution to the problem of bad customer service is to tackle the channels, availability, and possibility of contact. For many companies there is only one phone number to call when customers need help. With the digitalization of the world one phone number is not enough. An omni channel customer service needs to be set up to make the connection remarkably easier. By connecting the customer service to different channels, it is both easier to find, and simpler to handle. Many customers don’t want to call, but simply want to send a message instead. By giving them this option customer experience will undoubtedly improve. Freeday can help with setting up an omni channel experience. We have created digital employees that can be hired to resolve the repetitive complaints and answer frequently asked questions to free up the real employees’ time. The customer service teams can then spend their time focusing on more complex queries. Our digital employees can be integrated into many different channels, such as WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, SMS, a chatbot on the company website, and even an Interactive Voice Response over the phone. Through all these channels we can implement an omni channel strategy, creating easier use for the customers trying to contact the delivery service. And we can now organize this via one single service provider.

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Conversational AI

Conversational AI can be programmed as customer service agents to lessen waiting times and improve usability. As mentioned earlier there are not enough employees to handle the increase in complaints. Making use of Conversational AI via multiple channels is often an effective strategy to solve the problem that creates long wait times and difficulty of use. And can cut personnel costs by 50%. Not only can conversational AI improve customer experience and result in cost savings, it also minimizes the labor shortage. By introducing chatbots and voice bots the workload is decreased. This way employees are not as overworked and can focus on the more complex tasks and questions. The digital employees, whether they be chatbots or IVR, can take the heat off of the customer service employees.

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Conclusion

Clearly the customer experience strategies need to be transformed in the post and package delivery industry. In order to do this it is necessary to adapt to the influx of demand and digital transformation. Contact us or check out our digital employees’ pages for more information on how best to implement digital employees for your needed solution.