Gemini 4 Carbon: Why Quaymark's customer score fell

Scorecard

The analysis

Findings

1. Invest in live shipment tracking and proactive delay alerts rather than reversing the fee change or hiring mid-market account managers: post-booking visibility and uncommunicated collection/delivery delays are the dominant drivers of detraction across every volume tier.

   High confidenceBase 521

   In Q7 (base 521), 65.6% select live tracking (41.3%) or late collection/delivery alerts (34.2%) as a top-two improvement, rising to 69.2% among detractors (base 120) and 69.6% among passives (base 214), and leading across small (65.8%, base 319), mid-sized (63.0%, base 154), and large shippers (72.9%, base 48). Tracking visibility (Q4) is the worst-rated aspect of the service (28.6% dissatisfied overall; 48.3% among detractors), followed by punctuality (Q3: 22.5% dissatisfied overall; 44.2% among detractors). In Q2 open text, 68.9% (31 of 45) of detractor responses cite poor tracking or late/missed collections and deliveries, while 79 of 186 total responses praise the fast two-minute quote-and-booking flow.

2. The CEO should NOT tell the board that customer loyalty fell by 11 points between Q1 and Q3: roughly two-thirds of the headline gap (+24 to +13) comes from sample-mix distortion, and the remainder is confounded by switching from account-manager phone calls to an online survey.

   High confidenceBase 933

   Small accounts (<20 shipments/month) have much lower NPS (+5 in Q3; +9 in Q1) than large accounts (+38 in both waves), and made up 61.2% of Q3 respondents (319/521) versus 40% of the 4,720 active accounts and just 30.1% of Q1 respondents (124/412). Weighting Q3 to the active-account population raises NPS from +12.9 to +17.8; re-weighting Q3 to Q1's volume mix raises it to +20.3, reducing the 11-point gap to ~3.7 points. Within volume bands, NPS moved only modestly (<20: -3.9 points from +8.9 to +5.0; 20-99: -4.4 points from +25.8 to +21.4; 100+: unchanged at +37.8 vs +37.5, promoter share 49.0% on base 98 vs 52.1% on base 48, not statistically significant). Moreover, Q1 was conducted by phone by customers' own account managers (social desirability and selection bias), whereas Q3 was self-completed online.

3. Answering the Commercial Director: customers do NOT broadly want a return to mandatory subscriptions, and mid-to-large shippers prefer or accept per-shipment pricing, though dissatisfaction is concentrated among sub-20-shipment accounts.

   Medium confidenceBase 521

   Unweighted in Q5 (base 521), more respondents say the per-shipment fee is better (20.0%) or about the same (29.9%)—49.9% combined—than worse (39.0%). Weighted to the actual active-account mix, 56.2% say better or about the same versus 32.9% worse, because mid-sized (65.6% better/same vs 25.3% worse, base 154) and large accounts (72.9% better/same vs 14.6% worse, base 48) favour or accept the change, while pain concentrates in <20/month shippers (49.2% worse, base 319). Even for an unpriced optional subscription (Q6, base 521), only 39.5% unweighted (37.1% weighted) say they would likely choose it. Lower booking fees rank a distant third in Q7 (22.6% overall; 19.5% in 20-99; 18.8% in 100+), and only 21 of 186 open-text answers (11.3%) mention fees, mostly from passives (13 of 21) rather than detractors (8 of 45).

4. Mid-sized customers do not prioritise named account managers; hiring account managers for the 20-99 shipment tier would misallocate budget away from self-serve tracking and exception alerts.

   High confidenceBase 154

   In Q7, only 15.6% of mid-sized shippers (20-99 shipments/month, base 154) and 14.2% of all respondents (base 521) select a named account manager, ranking behind live tracking (40.3%), late alerts (35.1%), quicker customer support replies (22.1%), and lower booking fees (19.5%) in the mid-sized tier. Demand for a named account manager only becomes substantial among 100+ shipment accounts (31.2%, base 48), and even they prioritise live tracking far more (54.2%). Open-text comments show customers ring or email Quaymark primarily because online tracking fails to update.

5. Answering the Operations Director: Quaymark has an acute problem among accounts that ship to the Republic of Ireland, though the segment is too small to drive overall company NPS and requires operational log verification to separate ROI lane failures from general carrier delays.

   Medium confidenceBase 14

   13 of the 14 respondents who ship to Ireland scored 0-6 (92.9% detractors, NPS -93 on base 14 vs 21.2% detractors and NPS +16 among the 496 non-Ireland shippers; Fisher's exact p < 0.0001). However, ROI shippers are only 2.7% of the sample (14/521), shifting total NPS by just ~3 points (+13 vs +16). Furthermore, Q9 identifies whether an account ships to Ireland rather than isolating ROI consignments, and none of the 7 open-text answers from ROI shippers explicitly mention Ireland or customs—5 cite multi-day collection/delivery delays and 1 cites poor tracking.

Open-text themes it coded

Fast, simple quote and booking process 79Poor or missing shipment tracking and having to chase updates 43Missed or late collections and delayed deliveries 29Per-shipment booking fees costing more or harder to budget than subscription 21Neutral, functional satisfaction or too new/infrequent to hold a strong view 22Slow or hard-to-reach customer support 6Freight damage and slow, difficult claims handling 5

The survey it planned

2 screening questions and 10 questions, as the model wrote them.

1. S1

   Are you the main person responsible for booking or managing shipments with Quaymark for your business?

   One answer
   • Yes, I am the main contact
   • I share this responsibility equally with colleagues
   • No, someone else is the main contact

   Continues if Yes, I am the main contact; I share this responsibility equally with colleagues

2. S2

   Has your business booked at least one pallet or parcel shipment through Quaymark in the last three months?

   One answer
   • Yes
   • No
   • Not sure

   Routing Shown only if S1 is: Yes, I am the main contact; I share this responsibility equally with colleagues

   Continues if Yes

3. Q1

   On a scale of 0 to 10, how likely are you to recommend Quaymark to another business?

   Scale

   Scale 1-11: 0 - Not at all likely to 10 - Extremely likely

4. Q2

   What is the main reason for the score you just gave?

   Open text
5. Q3

   Which of the following have positively contributed to your experience with Quaymark over the last three months? (Select all that apply)

   Any that apply
   • Speed and ease of getting quotes and booking
   • Freight prices from partner hauliers
   • Quaymark's platform and booking fees
   • Reliability of collections and deliveries
   • Online shipment tracking
   • Updates and communication when delays happen
   • Customer support and account management
   • None of these
   Judges: double-barrelled

   The combined option 'Customer support and account management' prevents distinguishing positive experiences with general support from those with account management, which is a separate investment decision.

   'Customer support and account management' joins two distinct things in one option. Account management is a separate investment option in the decision, so a tick cannot be attributed to either. 'Quaymark's platform and booking fees' can be read as the online platform plus fees, or as the platform/booking fee itself.

6. Q4

   And which of the following have caused frustration or problems for your business over the last three months? (Select all that apply)

   Any that apply
   • Speed and ease of getting quotes and booking
   • Freight prices from partner hauliers
   • Quaymark's platform and booking fees
   • Reliability of collections and deliveries
   • Online shipment tracking
   • Lack of updates or communication when delays happen
   • Customer support and account management
   • None of these
   Judges: double-barrelled

   The combined option 'Customer support and account management' prevents distinguishing problems with general support from those with account management, which is a separate investment decision.

   Same combined options as Q3. 'Customer support and account management' merges two things. 'Platform and booking fees' could mean the software platform or the fee, so a frustration tick cannot be pinned to the fee.

7. Q5

   How satisfied or dissatisfied are you with Quaymark's current per-shipment booking fee (£3.50 per shipment, or a reduced rate for 100+ shipments a month)?

   One answer
   • Very satisfied
   • Fairly satisfied
   • Neither satisfied nor dissatisfied
   • Fairly dissatisfied
   • Very dissatisfied
   • Not aware of how Quaymark charges platform fees
8. Q6

   Earlier in 2026, Quaymark replaced its fixed monthly subscription (starting from £25 a month depending on account size) with the current per-shipment booking fee. Which fee structure do you prefer for your business?

   One answer
   • Strongly prefer a fixed monthly subscription
   • Slightly prefer a fixed monthly subscription
   • No preference between the two
   • Slightly prefer a per-shipment booking fee
   • Strongly prefer a per-shipment booking fee
   • Not sure / joined after March 2026
9. Q7

   We are deciding where to invest next to improve Quaymark. Please rank the following four options from 1 (most valuable to your business) to 4 (least valuable to your business).

   Ranking
   • Option to pay a fixed monthly subscription instead of a per-shipment booking fee
   • More detailed, real-time online shipment tracking
   • Proactive alerts and revised ETAs as soon as a collection or delivery is delayed
   • A dedicated account manager to help manage bookings and resolve issues
10. Q8

    What single change could Quaymark make to most improve your experience?

    Open text
11. Q9

    Roughly how many shipments (pallets and parcels combined) does your business book through Quaymark in a typical month?

    One answer
    • Fewer than 20 shipments a month
    • 20 to 99 shipments a month
    • 100 or more shipments a month
12. Q10

    How long has your business been using Quaymark?

    One answer
    • Since before March 2026
    • Joined in March 2026 or more recently
    • Not sure