THE TIMES 100 Edition 13 Parcelforce Worldwide : Customer service as a strategy Answer sheet 1. Parcelforce Worldwide is a subsidiary of the Royal Mail Group limited. What is a subsidiary? A subsidiary is a business that is owned by the Royal Mail Group Limited. In effect it is a brand and specific product that The Royal Mail Group Limited offer. Maths moment! 2. Parcelforce handles 200,000 parcels a day, how many is that over a year? 200 000 X 365 days = 73 000 000 parcels a year. 3. If Parcelforce has a turnover of ? 82 million, how much does that equate to per parcel handled as an average value over the year? 383m / 73m = ? 5. 25 per parcel 4. Parcelforce competes in an unregulated market, what does this effectively mean? That there should be a lot of competition and the customer has a choice of who they send their parcels with, hence there are many courier companies in the UK. 5. Parcelforce was once a loss making business, what strategy did they use to make it into a profitable making business?
Changed the service that was offered from unguaranteed to guaranteed time and day delivery of parcels and therefore was able to charge a premium for the service. 6. Parcelforce uses a more decentralised approach to management, what does this mean? Decisions are made more regionally so that the decision making process is made quickly and more relevantly to each area. It also motivated employees and hence more productivity and efficiency. 7. Parcelforce Worldwide has developed a USP, how has this helped Parcelforce Worldwide gain a competitive advantage?
This has allowed Parcelforce to be recognised and offer something extra compared to its competitors. The customer will know exactly when the parcel will arrive at its destination. Thereby enhancing the brand name of Parcelforce around the world. 8. Parcelforce Worldwide carried out a SWOT analysis, what is a SWOT analysis and why would a business do this? A SWOT analysis assesses the company both internally and externally. Internally it will look at its Strengths and Weaknesses, assessing its procedures and staff.
Externally it will assess its Opportunities and Threats. This will give Parcelforce an overall audit of the company and potential strategies that it may adopt in the future. Downloaded from The Times 100 Edition 13 – http://www. thetimes100. co. uk THE TIMES 100 9. The carbon footprint is a hot topic, how has Parcelforce Worldwide addressed this issue? It has introduced a carbon neutral parcel which off sets the cost of delivering the parcel against the carbon impact of delivering by adding a few pence to the price.
It is also involved in educating the local communities as highlighted in its Corporate Social Responsibility programme. 10. Customer service is an important part of its strategy, what activities does Parcelforce do to ensure that they gain repeat business and have a high standard of customer service? It generally makes its communication between customer and itself clear. A customer can track its parcel, receive quick responses to queries and parcels can be picked up really quickly. 11. Key performance indicators are used within Parcelforce worldwide; what are they and why are they used?
These are targets set by Parcelforce and are followed closely. This enables the business to be run efficiently and productively. Making sure that all checklists are ticked and potentially there are no problems with the service, and therefore very little chance of hurting the Parcelforce image. 12. What are the differences between B2B and B2C? B2B is where Parcelforce deliver parcels to another business, whereas B2C is where Parcelforce deliver parcels to the customers homes. Downloaded from The Times 100 Edition 13 – http://www. thetimes100. co. uk
