Beyond the consumer lifecycle

Abstract

This project is in collaboration with PostNL. Already for over 220 years, PostNL is the one that is delivering mail and parcels in the Netherlands and abroad. Like other post organizations, PostNL has been facing serious challenges in transforming their traditional services. Next to regular parcel delivery and mail delivery, PostNL provides several additional services to their consumers. One of them is their relocation service, which forwards mail to a consumer’s new address after moving house and can inform organizations about their new address as well. Until now, the relocation service has been a valuable part of PostNL’s business, serving thousands of customers per year, each paying a fixed price for a certain amount of weeks. But with declining numbers in sent mail and with consumers having an increasing amount of digital contact with companies and organizations, PostNL stated that the service is losing relevance and needs a revision. In line with this observation, the purpose of this thesis was to research how PostNL can develop a (new) value proposition for the relocation service that at the same time can contribute to their ambition of becoming digitally relevant. In other words, it was aimed to investigate what should be the next step of the relocation service. However, after initial explorative research, it was found that current development processes within PostNL, in general, are still more technology-driven rather than consumer-driven. In order to define the next step of the relocation service, a more holistic approach is deemed necessary. Therefore, this thesis proposes the following problem statement: How can PostNL get an in-depth understanding of their consumers to develop value propositions that at the same time contribute to PostNL’s ambition in becoming digitally relevant? The end result is a service framework for PostNL employees (service designers and business developers), that stimulates to empathize with the needs and emotions of consumers during life events and includes a step-by- step approach to develop personalized value propositions that respond to these needs and emotions. To show PostNL how these insights and the approach can be embodied in a service to emotionally engage their consumers, the revision of the relocation service is used as a case study. The outcome of the case study is communicated through the use of a persona, a service blueprint and a digital prototype. The latter has been presented to consumers and validated the enhanced digital experience of the relocation service. Furthermore, the service framework comes with future milestones that aim to show PostNL how to further develop this service in the future, making use of data and B2B partnerships.