23 October 2019 | Press release

Digital innovation leader adds new service: DPD launches AI-based chatbot

Customer Service receives AI-controlled support
"Red" answers shipment tracking enquiries quickly and directly
The skills of the chatbot are growing continuously

Aschaffenburg/Berlin, 23 October 2019 – Anyone who receives parcels with DPD now has an additional channel for contacting the digital innovation leader: consignees can now ask "Red", the AI-controlled chatbot, about the current status of their shipments. The service is integrated into the DPD Deutschland website and can be used both on a desktop PC and on mobile devices.

"Our chatbot Red is an additional channel that our consignees can use to find out where their parcel is quickly and directly."

Michael Knaupe, Chief Customer Experience & Communications Officer at DPD Germany

"Our chatbot Red is an additional channel that our consignees can use to find out where their parcel is quickly and directly," explains Michael Knaupe, Chief Customer Experience & Communications Officer at DPD Germany. In future the service will be expanded to include additional functions, such as giving instructions for redirection options. "Thanks to intelligent speech recognition, Red is able to understand what the chat partner wants to know and provides immediate assistance. With Red we are embarking on a journey during which new functionalities for shippers and consignees will be added one after another."

The new chatbot couldn't be easier to use. When a user visits dpd.de, Red is first displayed in a minimised window. On desktop PCs there is a red chat window entitled "Chat with Red". On smartphones the chatbot is displayed as an avatar image. The chat window opens with a click on the relevant area. Users can now ask Red about the status of a parcel - for example by asking "Where is my parcel?" If the initial question doesn't contain all the necessary data, the chatbot will ask for it. The bot will then provide the consignee with all the necessary information within a very short time. In addition, Red is able to make small talk - chatting about the time or the weather, for example.

If someone asks a question that Red is currently unable to answer, the customer will not be left without support. In such cases the DPD chatbot will automatically provide a link or contact options under which a member of the service team can be reached. "Red is the first point of contact and can deal with many enquiries automatically. Thanks to artificial intelligence, Red is a self-learning system that automatically improves day by day," says Michael Knaupe.

The use of the chatbot is of course optional for shippers and consignees. All existing contact options are, of course, still available: ranging from personal telephone support via service enquiries on Facebook or Twitter to voice-assisted customer service using all standard virtual assistant systems (Alexa, Google Assistant, Siri).

Digital services: simple and fast

In order to provide consignees with maximum flexibility, DPD Deutschland's digital services are designed to achieve the desired result quickly and easily. A core element is a delivery forecast which is accurate to one hour. In addition, consignees can use map-supported live tracking to see exactly how far away the delivery driver is. Thanks to this maximum transparency, consignees can estimate exactly whether or not they will be at home for the upcoming delivery attempt. If they aren't going to be at home they can simply postpone the delivery - or choose an alternative delivery option. Registered users can also enter a permanent deposit okay or a convenient local parcel shop in their delivery preferences. This makes it easy for them to integrate taking delivery of parcels into their everyday routine. Further features - such as a digital service rating or giving the delivery driver a tip via PayPal - round off the functionalities of the DPD App and the website. The DPD App and the consignee services at mydpd.de have four million users a month, around half of whom are registered users. Almost three million customers have already provided a digital service rating, with the DPD parcel delivery service scoring four out of five possible stars.

DPD has received numerous awards for these digital services, no fewer than 13 of them in the last four years alone. For example, DPD has been among the winners of the Digital Leader Award, the German Design Award and Germany's Prize for Online Communication.