Yodel has recorded a 49% rise in the number of customers who have been ‘satisfied’ or ‘very satisfied’ with its service in the past 18 months.

The rise is based on a million customer feedback responses since the company launched a new customer experience management programme, Have Your Say, in March 2013.

It had long been measuring its performance on service levels but with the rise in social media there was an increasing need to listen not consumers as well as retail clients.

The programme is designed to gather feedback from shoppers on their entire delivery experience - from how they rated their delivery driver to the user friendliness of Yodel’s parcel tracking service and even what they would like from their delivery service in the future.

Feedback is gathered via a number of channels - including Yodel’s online portal MyYodel.co.uk, as well as email and text prompts.

The company is using the feedback to understand where and how it can improve its operation and develop its proposition in the long term. All feedback is collected and processed in real-time, allowing Yodel to make continuous, incremental improvements, while regular insight reporting provides key areas for on-going business development.

Results can be broken down in many ways including by service centre, selected service and individual driver and dedicated reports are shared with clients.

Real-time eDigitalResearch dashboards keep all Yodel managers - from head office to service centres all over the country - up to date with how shoppers rate their Yodel experience.

Managers are now able to report results daily to Yodel’s workforce, celebrating success, sharing best practice and stepping in when things don’t go to plan - assessing the impact of what went wrong and how to improve for the future.

Dick Stead, executive chairman, Yodel, said: “The Have Your Say programme has allowed us to listen to and increase our understanding of consumers and to let the voice of the customer shape our organisation.

“The programme isn’t just benefitting Yodel. We share the live data with our clients and offer them the opportunity to include their own questions in our survey. This has enabled some of our retail clients to change their service offering to help drive customer loyalty and improve their bottom line.

“Retailers are no longer buying on price alone. This is a value added service, and it is essential that we work in partnership with them to deliver the service and the experience that their customers’ desire.”