WITH THE FALL/HOLIDAY mailing season well under way, direct marketers are hoping for one big banner year before the long-awaited economic doldrums set in. Selling goods is one thing; shipping them is another.
DMers have known for years that fulfillment is where a great deal of money can be won or lost. Yet, as savvy as longtime marketers pretend to be, just how wise have they been in selecting fulfillment partners? And just how good are their partners’ records when their “extra” services have been called into play?
For years, the U.S. Postal Service has been the target of mailer’s complaints. Parcel delivery, they say, is too slow and unpredictable. Unlike some of its private-sector competitors, the USPS still doesn’t offer a complete tracking and tracing service to provide shippers with the level of confidence and assurance they demand today. Worse yet, some argue, is its slowness in honoring and paying on insurance claims.
While everyone likes to talk about what’s good or bad about the USPS, people rarely discuss publicly how some of its competitors measure up in comparison.
While United Parcel Service and Federal Express can freely make claims in their ads, I wonder how good their service really is. Why doesn’t anyone badger them to make their delivery service information public the way USPS customers do to postal service officials? If they did, what would they find? Would UPS and FedEx’s level of service be all that superior to the USPS?
And just how good are these carriers at honoring their pledges to refund fees on deliveries that fail to meet their service performance guarantees? How diligently do they pay off the insurance claims that shippers submit for goods that are lost, damaged or stolen?
UPS likes to talk to Congress about leveling the playing field for postal services. Maybe it’s time the USPS’ competitors did some public leveling with DMers as well.
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