Awards Categories

CUSTOMER SERVICE

Customer service involves the whole of the customer experience, including:

• Initial customer access and purchase
• End to end product and service delivery
• Provision of relevant and timely information
• After sales, responsiveness to queries and problems
• Setting of challenging and quantifiable targets

This Award is for mail, parcels and express operators which deliver exceptional customer service, which can demonstrate best practice in this area, and/or that have made significant improvements in customer service in the past year. The judges will also expect:

• An explanation of the metrics used to measure customer service.
• Examples of the results actually achieved.
• A statement on the degree and rate of improvement.

Delivery On Demand

The receiving customer, particularly the e-commerce purchaser, is more demanding than ever before. Delivery is becoming increasingly personalised in such areas as when, where and how. Consumers look for pre-advice of delivery, the ability to determine time and location, the option to pick up their parcels from lockers, retail outlets and so on.

This award is focused on that on demand process. Applicants will be required to:

• explain the inputs they use to help define the consumer requirements of the delivery process;
• explain the degree to which delivery has been made flexible in such areas as time and location, and other dimensions as appropriate;
• demonstrate the degree of that flexibility, for example what products and services offer delivery flexibility, and the way in which consumers can make their requirements known;
• and outline the cost involved either for the sending or receiving customer.

The judges will expect to see data on how customer requirements were researched and understood; and will be looking for measures of customer satisfaction with the re-defined delivery experience.

The winner of the award will be the company that, in the overall assessment of judges, demonstrates the most consumer centric approach to creating an on demand delivery environment.

E-Commerce

This award category focuses on initiatives that exploit the power of the worldwide web as a communications and business medium. The judges are interested in developments that use internet technologies to deliver value to stakeholders in the industry.

Relevant activities are not just limited to public internet sites such as those to facilitate customer access or to act as e-commerce portals. They may also include, for example, the use of internet technology for inter-organisational collaboration, for e-messaging, for trading or for other commercial functions. Applicants must demonstrate:

• What benefits are delivered to the ultimate users of the initiative(s)
• How these benefits are quantified (with examples)
• To what degree the functionality of the technology is capable of being utilised by the industry as a whole.

Industry Leadership

This special Award category recognises the exemplary leadership of an individual in advancing the mail, parcels or express industry. Accomplishments honoured are likely to reflect significant innovation and/or to recognise a long and sustained record of success in fulfilling an organisation’s mission and in meeting profit targets. These achievements may have been established over a period of time, not necessarily during the preceding year.

Examples include development of novel industry partnerships, a unique commitment to customers, or exemplary management of an organisation through the optimisation of resources, bringing consequent benefit to stakeholders. Nominees must be individuals living at the time they are nominated.

Please note: nominations for the Industry Leadership Award closed on the 15th December 2017.

RETAIL CUSTOMER ACCESS

This award will be made to the postal operator, or partnering supplier, that can demonstrate an innovative approach to the provision of access to services for retail customers i.e. individuals and small businesses.

This could relate to the introduction of new services or new approaches to service within the more traditional physical retail network; the provision of web based and mobile services, particularly those which allow the tailoring of services to support the needs of the individual; and the use of telephone call centres.

The key is that there is evidence of innovation in the development of the direct interface between the operator and the retail customer. The judges will be looking for evidence of improved customer service, the provision of new products and services, and how technology has been utilised to enhance the customer experience

TECHNOLOGY

The successful application of technology can become a significant feature in gaining competitive advantage. This Award will be made to the organisation that can demonstrate how the implementation of technology has brought quantifiable benefits, derived, for example, from some mix of improved service quality, cost reduction or enhanced product features. The judges will be interested in the application of technology in such areas as:

• Customer interface systems.
• Pick up, processing and delivery.
• Transportation.
• Materials handling.
• Process automation.
• Back office and management information systems.

Applicants must provide data to demonstrate quantifiable benefits achieved by the technological application.