Why Quaymark's customer score fell

What each model made of it

Part 1: the brief each model planned a survey for

In March 2026 Quaymark replaced its monthly subscription (from £25 a month for the smallest accounts) with a booking fee of £3.50 a shipment, reduced for accounts booking 100 or more a month. Quaymark surveys customers each quarter; the Q1 2026 wave, run by phone by account managers, gave a recommend score (NPS) of +24. Since the fee change, support complaints have doubled. The Q3 2026 wave will be online, emailed to every active account.

The decision

Whether to reverse the per-shipment fee and bring back the subscription, invest in shipment tracking and proactive delay alerts, or add account managers for mid-sized customers.

Objectives

1. How likely customers are to recommend Quaymark now, by account size, and how this compares with the Q1 2026 wave
2. What lies behind customers' scores, good and bad
3. How customers see the per-shipment fee compared with the subscription
4. Which improvements (tracking, delay alerts, account management) matter most, and to which customers

Who to survey

The main booking contact at each UK business account that has booked at least one shipment through Quaymark in the last three months

Limits

At most 10 questions after the screener and 6 minutes; about 520 completes; email invitation to the main booking contact of each of the 4,720 active accounts (Quaymark serves only UK businesses), from the customer database; online questionnaire.

Precision asked for

The board wants the share of customers scoring 9-10 for each account size (fewer than 20, 20 to 99, and 100 or more shipments a month) to within plus or minus 5 percentage points at 95% confidence.

A note from the stakeholder

The commercial director is sure the new per-shipment fee is what is hurting customer loyalty, and wants the survey to show that customers want the subscription back.

Part 2: the fielded survey every model analysed

Every model analyses the same survey and the same simulated responses, so every true number is known. This is what they were given.

Fielding. Q3 2026 wave: emailed to the main booking contact of all 4,720 active accounts from 7 to 21 September 2026, with one reminder; 574 started and 521 completed (median 4 minutes 40 seconds). Tables show the 521 completes, unweighted. For comparison, the Q1 2026 wave was run by phone: Quaymark's account managers called 640 of their customers from 12 January to 6 February 2026 and completed 412 interviews with the same recommend question; its table shows those 412 interviews, unweighted. Percentages are of each column's base.

Population. All 4,720 active accounts (at least one shipment booked in the three months to August 2026), from the customer database: fewer than 20 shipments a month 40%, 20 to 99 a month 42%, 100 or more a month 18%.

The stakeholders asked:

• The commercial director: 'Our score has dropped 11 points since we brought in the per-shipment fee. Does the survey show customers want the subscription back?'
• The chief executive: 'Can I tell the board that customer loyalty fell by 11 points between Q1 and Q3?'
• The operations director: 'Our Ireland customers look furious. Do we have an Ireland problem?'

What was planted in the data

What a careful analyst notices. The judges check each analysis against these.

• The Q1 wave (+24) was phone interviews by account managers; the Q3 wave (+13) was online. Interviewer-administered scores, especially when the interviewer is the customer's own account manager, run higher, so part of the fall may be the change of method rather than a change in loyalty.
• Accounts booking fewer than 20 shipments a month are 61% of Q3 respondents against 30% in Q1 and 40% of active accounts, and they score lowest (Q3 NPS +5). Re-weighted to Q1's mix the Q3 NPS is +20.3, and to the active-account mix +17.8, so much of the 11-point fall is a change in who answered.
• The commercial director believes the fee caused the fall. Among detractors who explained their score, 69% mention tracking or delays and 18% the fee; only 39% of all respondents say the fee is worse than the subscription (49% of small accounts, 15% of the largest).
• Respondents who ship to Ireland (base 14) are nearly all detractors (NPS -93).
• 45% of small accounts say they would be likely to choose a monthly subscription if offered: a stated intention about a hypothetical, with no price given.
• 521 of 4,720 invited accounts completed (about 11%); unhappy customers and small accounts may be more likely to respond online.
• Among accounts booking 100 or more a month (bases 98 and 48), the promoter share moved from 49% to 52%, NPS +38 to +38: not significant.
• The 69% figure is a share of the 45 detractors who answered the open question, not of all respondents or all customers.

Key findings.

• Much of the fall from +24 to +13 comes from a change in who answered (many more small accounts, which score lowest) and probably a change of method (phone by account managers against online); within size bands the fall is much smaller and among the largest accounts not significant
• Tracking and delays, not the fee, are the reasons detractors give most often; fee mentions are a minority
• Views of the per-shipment fee are mixed; it is seen as worse mainly by small accounts

A sound recommendation, in substance. Do not reverse the per-shipment fee on this evidence: the fall is partly method and sample mix, and the largest real issue is tracking and delays, so invest in tracking and proactive delay alerts; consider a subscription option for small accounts only if tested.