At Yodel they have become aware that some customers need additional support, so they have trained & supported a team they call Webhelp to provide additional help & assistance to vulnerable customers during their delivery experience. Through a Live Chat & voice service, the Yodel team have implemented a process that enables agents to identify individuals who may require extra assistance. We sat down with our Customer Experience Director, Michaela Simpson, our Customer Experience Manager, Emma Drever, and the team at Webhelp including advisors Edmund Swartz, Abhilash Sarkar, Anand Dev Gupta, and Vineeta Mehra. Read what they had to say about the process.

“It’s really important that we recognise our obligation to all our consumers so they have a fair chance of engaging with Yodel, and getting a successful outcome irrelevant of any barriers they may face.” Michaela says. "This is why we introduced a process to ensure any customer receives the support they need from Yodel and our Webhelp team to enable them to receive their parcels easily."

Vineeta, who works to resolve customer queries through our Live Chate stated, “Through our training, we learnt to adopt a case-by-case sensitivity rule. We deliver this through the CARE model, which consists of Comprehension, ensuring the customer understands the discussion taking place, Assess, can the customer understand the advice we’re providing them? Retain, Does the customer have the ability to retain the information provided on their parcel? Evaluate, Does the customer have the ability to fully and properly relay their decisions? We then use these steps to ensure appropriate support levels are in place”.

Michaela continued, “Recognising that a customer may have difficulties accessing our services or even their parcels because of a vulnerability is very important. It’s not for us to determine how critical a parcel is to a customer, so for agents to be able to identify these situations and adapt the way they are engaging with the customer has not only benefited our vulnerable customers but has had a wider benefit around customer engagement due to the enhanced awareness.” “As with many processes or changes, adoption can be challenging so we had to accept that the process the Webhelp agents adopted early on would evolve in the early days. The team have truly embraced the process and have been essential in helping us design and adapt the process to make it work in the contact centre.”

Abhilash, Customer Excellence Advisor at Webhelp, commented “Some customers require additional support due to personal circumstances; this can range from visual impairments through to neurodiversity. We’ve partnered with the team at Yodel to help identify these vulnerable people through dedicated training”.

Emma also says that our technological advancements have also ensured we’re consistently delivering what our customers want, stating that “the ability to pass on specific instructions for deliveries helps our colleagues on the road to deliver parcels correctly at the first attempt, without having to either leave them at the address in a place the customer may not be able to access them easily, or take them back to the service centre where the customer may need them that same day. Having delivery instructions and potential access notes for every parcel and every customer helps our drivers ensure they are doing what the customer needs every time. Our improvements in the Yodel app also means that customers can upload a safe place image that our drivers get visibility of in case they are challenged with collection on the doorstep”.

Edmund, who supports our voice customer service queries, says “It’s possible to identify a vulnerable customer by actively listening to their concern, their tone, and the flow of the conversation. By following the CARE model, we can ensure we’re giving the customer everything they need to resolve their queries”.

Anand concluded, stating that “At Webhelp, we’re always striving to deliver the best customer service possible, and all of our colleagues are motivated by getting the best result for the customer. Thanks to Yodel’s vulnerability process, we’re able to do just that.”