Optimizing the tracking experience
Hermes is Germanys second largest courier service founded by Otto group. In 2019/20 Hermes transported a record number of 928 Million parcels, about 2,5 Million a day.
User centered design process
The tracking service is an important digital touchpoint for Hermes and visited by around 1.7 Million per day. With the new user experience of the delivery tracking we accomplished a paradigm shift by intelligently interpreting meaningless logistics status messages and converting these into a parcel communication with the clear goal to answer the most pressing user question: when will I get my parcel.
The corner stones of the new experience
We had learned that most of our users are not that much interested in knowing where the parcels currently are, but are in desperate need to get a clear and reliable forecast for the final delivery. In a high-volume business it is very difficult to calculate a reliable prognosis for an individual parcel. The 100 per cent reliablity customers demand can not be fulfilled at this point. This has to be communicated and mitigated by service extensions like delivery options. A tight and seamless integration of delivery options should therefore be achieved by the new solution.
The other corner stones are personalisation, contextual help and the integration of customer support channels like chat. From a users perspective the whole tracking should feel like a knowledgeable dialogue with Hermes rather then the impersonal excel sheet look with scattered hard to understand icons.
