Royal Mail under fire on D2D

by Noelle McElhatton, Marketing Direct 21-Jul-05

Royal Mail must adopt a more flexible approach to its door-drop service, delegates were told at a major D2D conference.

Speakers at the Direct Marketing Association's D2D conference last month
urged Royal Mail to offer its door-drop clients greater choice.

The postal service provider was criticised for its long booking lead

times and its stipulation that clients book entire postcode sectors of

about 3,000 households.

Al Murdoch, managing director of Pizza Hut France, called on Royal Mail
to break down postcode sectors and offer D2D delivery by walk. Free
newspapers, the other main D2D delivery channel, already offer to break
down postcode sectors for clients.

"Royal Mail has a huge opportunity to do door drops as it has the walks,
but it's not really using them," said Murdoch. "The sooner it can get on
the front foot and offer delivery at walk level, the better for you as
clients."

He said the growing popularity of door drops opened up "limitless"
opportunities for Royal Mail as a D2D carrier.

Damian Leonard, the direct channel marketing manager at DIY giant
Wickes, described Royal Mail's booking system as "tricky". He said that
his firm opted for delivery through newspapers because they offered
shorter booking lead times.

Ross Drake, the general manager of Royal Mail Door to Door, told
Marketing Direct that the service had improved.

"A year ago, the quality of customer service we were giving was
appalling but, over the past 12 months, we have transformed that," he
said.

The improvements include greater availability of space and faster
handling of complaints.

See feature, page 49.