NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- UPS announced on Wednesday that it is debuting a new customized delivery service that could eventually make those annoying "Sorry we missed you" notes a thing of the past.
UPS (UPS, Fortune 500) said its new "My Choice" membership service, which launches on Oct. 3, will give consumers more control over when and where packages are delivered.
My Choice has two membership levels: basic and premium.
UPS customers can register for the basic service for free. With this, members will get a phone call, email or text alert letting them know a day in advance that a package is on the way and providing a four-hour window for an expected UPS delivery.
Customers can also opt to electronically authorize delivery of a package that requires a signature. Additionally, for a $5 fee, customers can reroute a package to another address or have it delivered to their nearest UPS store.
The premium membership has an annual $40 subscription fee. It gets customers all of the benefits of the basic membership plus an online delivery calendar that shows the status of the UPS home delivery.
For an extra $5, premium customers will also be offered a shorter, confirmed two-hour window for delivery.
For UPS, which delivers more than 100 million packages to home addresses every year, the service is aimed at boosting the number of successful deliveries made on the first attempt and saving money.
For every missed delivery, package-shipping companies like UPS and Fedex (FDX, Fortune 500) likely pay more for both additional fuel and labor costs for trying to redeliver packages.
"Our residential customers want the flexibility to easily fit package delivery into their busy daily lives," UPS CEO Scott Davis said in a statement. "My Choice is the extension of sophisticated logistics down to the individual consumer."
From a customer satisfaction standpoint, having on-time delivery of their products is critical for businesses. Companies want to be able to boast about quick and successful shipments of their products as a way to draw in more customers and get a leg up on their competition.
In that regard, UPS said it expects its business customers will also benefit from the new service.
The company said home-shopping behemoth QVC is among the first retailers that will use My Choice so that its customers can be notified about deliveries that are en route.