Speed Services Couriers is taking advantage of the Internet’s potential by providing an on-line service to customers. The new service, which has been introduced in co-operation with ECnet, makes Speed Services Couriers one of the most modern and technologically advanced courier operations in the world.
The main purpose of this service is to enable anyone with access to the Internet to book a collection and delivery on-line and pay for it with a credit card. This is a first in SA and probably the first courier service in the world that allows this with such a wide variety of destinations. The new service ensures speedy and convenient collection and delivery services.
The new offering provides a value added delivery fulfillment service to the Internet trader, making the delivery of parcels and documents easier, faster and more reliable. In addition, Speed Services has made key enhancements to the track and tracer system and introduced an improved communications channels for account enquiries.
The site: www.speedservices.co.za went live on 15th October 1998, and it is anticipated that the majority of the 8 400-odd corporate clients will use the new facility within the first year. The name given to the new service is Web Shop Courier.
“We decided to go on-line because the Internet provides a new business channel which cuts costs in certain areas and makes our lives a lot easier in terms of data management and servicing our client’s queries and requests,” says Dean Everton, senior manager sales and marketing of Speed Services Couriers.
“ECnet’s complete transaction management service provides us with a low cost marketing platform that we believe will maximise our profits and at the same time provides a user friendly and superior service to our clients.”
Booking of collection and delivery via the net
On-line collection and delivery services provide immediate quotes for any of the national and international Speed Services Couriers service options and allows for immediate booking of the required service. Payments can be made either to an existing account or by secure credit card transaction..
ECnet, a division of PQ electronic commerce division, provides support to the Internet trader in selecting the most appropriate delivery service to apply to their products, as well as assists the trader and merchant with the overall set-up of the online trading environment. In line with this, ECnet has provided the Web Shop Courier with electronic order management, on-line customer service, record keeping and switching of transactions to the banks.
Paddy Gray, marketing director of ECnet, says “The on-line service enables Speed Services to be guaranteed of timely payment of accounts. Mistakes that may occur during a verbal order can be kept to a minimum and telephone contact is also minimised. Immediate, real time processing of orders enables Speed Services to offer a faster and more efficient service to their clients.”
The service is specifically tailored for the virtual shopping environment but can also be interfaced with corporate clients’ systems in order to allow then to automate calls for the movement of goods quickly and safely between warehouses and branches.
“”The ability to book and pay for courier services over the Internet and thereby speed the fulfillment process, is yet another classic example of how strategic the Internet has become from a customer service perspective,” says Gray
Editors note
PQ Africa has established a business venture, named ECnet, which enables companies or merchants to easily conduct business over the Internet, yet totally avoid the associated complexity. ECnet provides an outsourced service which offers merchants secure Internet-based transaction processing as well as providing comprehensive customer service facilities to merchants and buyers throughout the World Wide Web.
ECnet provides a complete transaction management service including: complete order management, on-line customer service, security, record-keeping, flexible purchasing and payment models, shipping calculation, as well as secure transaction processing. ECnet enables an organisation to fully leverage the World Wide Web, moving beyond the basic ability to display content to doing interactive customer transactions.
A vast range of South African merchants have been enabled by ECnet to conduct electronic commerce over the Internet using ECnet’s back-office transaction management processing services. The list of merchants can be found in ECnet’s shopping directory, which can be found on ECnet’s Web site: www.ecnet.co.za.