IT is now a popular cliché that customers do not buy products. They buy benefits. It is a cliché yes, but it is so true. Organisations are no longer just expected to sell goods or services; they are now required to craft products that bring memorable experiences for their customers.
Customers are seeking more than just functional benefits. Today’s ever-demanding customers will throw a lot of curveballs at you, but supply chain professionals will play a boundary spanning role of ensuring that all customer demands and expectations are met.
They will assist customers to be within reach of their requirements from every nook and corner of the trading landscape.
It would appear the modern customer is driven by the desire to place orders on the spur of the moment. They are driven by the need for instant gratification.
The moment a customer presses the push button when placing their order, they suddenly become restless to receive their product. Today’s customer will always expect to receive their order the same day or the next day. Customers will always want to benefit from anytime/anywhere experience.
It is often said that it is difficult to understand customers until you consider things from their point of view — until you climb into their skin and walk around in it.
Brand is not exactly what your organisation says it is. It is what the customers say it is. Organisations are, therefore, expected to create tailored experiences that address the customer’s unique needs and experiences.
Supply chain professionals are now required to demonstrate the collective willingness to roll up their sleeves and get their hands dirty in an effort to delight the customer.
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The future belongs to those supply chain professionals, who show up every day and those that raise their hands up without being asked to do so and do what needs doing.
The supply chain will be required to make sure that customer service will remain relevant as a critical component of customer experience. Once your organisations fail to meet customer expectations, your competitors will begin to eat your lunch in broad daylight.
Supply chain management is the tether that holds all the key aspects of customer experience. It is, therefore, imperative for supply chain professionals to be given a huge platform to design a customer service offering that seeks to delight the customer.
As we all know, today’s customers will always look for consistent customer service across all distribution channels, today and tomorrow.
It is increasingly becoming very clear that even the so-called perfect products can no longer provide enough to sustain the undivided attention of the market.
It takes significant time and focussed effort to ensure that the gold standard of delivering the right product at the right place, at the right time and at the right price is always achieved.
Logistics management forms the execution phase of the supply chain. Logistics is not just about moving goods from point A to B, it is about doing so efficiently, on time and within budget.
Last-mile and last-yard deliveries are becoming popular. The service capability to trace and track consignments and shipments coupled with the ability to pick and deliver are quintessential parts of the customer experience brought about by supply chain agility.
Supply chain professionals are also fully aware that the final delivery process, which is known as the last-minute delivery, presents unique challenges to the profession.
It involves having to cope with navigating congested urban roads ensuring that deliveries are made at the doorstep. Logistics success demands minute attention to detail.
There should be no room for error. The slightest error in supply chain is fatal. Mistakes have got the potential to create a chain of events that may ultimately leave the whole supply chain awry.
Logistics management will, therefore, enable the timely deliveries of orders or the quick resolution of issues that may arise along the chain.
A faultless supply chain system has got the potential to create place, time and form utility values for the customers and users.
In the realm of modern logistics, time is of essence. Handling time-sensitive deliveries is important. A customer-driven supply chain management ecosystem rapidly fastens the pace of delivery and customer order fulfilment.
Same-day delivery becomes same-hour delivery, leading to better trade connectivity. The success of any customer experience links inextricably to the performance of the logistics ecosystem surrounding the business.
A seamless delivery experience leaves a lasting impression to customers all day long. In all this, it will provide superlative customer experience to customers.
For supply chain to provide an impeccable customer experience, technology is key. The supply chain heavily relies on advancement in technology which allows the use of end-to-end visibility.
It will give a big picture perspective. Accessibility of real time data is critical to supply chain visibility. With visibility, supply chains will be able to optimise performance levels of supply chain partners making step-change improvements to their operations.
Real-time visibility of deliveries is critical for the provision of superior customer experience with the capacity to meet short notice needs. The end-to-end visibility will assist in the continuous monitoring of deliveries to quickly identify potential hold-ups, which may create unnecessary liabilities in the chain.
Visibility of the supply chain partners will give an organisation the opportunity to see which suppliers are doing well and those that are underperforming.
It will enable supply chain partners to see those suppliers that are always delivering substandard products, which will hold customer experience miles back.
Once supply chain professionals can hold its supply chain partners to account, it is easier to make optimal supply chain decisions with customer service in mind.
Visibility of supply chain challenges early on will allow supply chain practitioners to become more proactive. They will be expected to maintain agility in supply chain with a view to respond to market fluctuations, seasonal demand variations and unforeseen disruptions.
Improved supply chain visibility will certainly enable the proactive problem solving, efficient inventory management and effective coordination with suppliers and customers.
Supply chain partners are able to extract actionable insights that give them the comfort to make informed business decisions through the use of advanced technologies.
An agile supply chain network should have the capacity to instantaneously respond to the smallest fluctuation in demand. Technologies such as artificial intelligence will assist in the monitoring of inventory, reducing material waste in the system.
Data that is generated from internet of things will provide the much-needed insight into inventory location together with the status of the order.
The trending blockchain technology will improve traceability and visibility resulting in improved transaction monitoring as products move along the chain.
The final line in every supply chain professional’s narrative is to improve the performance of the business, ultimately leading to superior customer experience.
The focus of an agile supply chain is on execution-oriented and real-time business decisions meant to always provide exceptional customer experience.
It is not good enough for a supply chain to only perform when it’s blue skies. No. An agile supply chain must perform against all odds. An excellent customer experience will convert shoppers into customers and customers into repeat customers, increasing brand equity.
Supply chain agility is, therefore, the present and future of the business seeking to offer premium customer experience. The major objective of every supply chain professional is to pivot organisational supply chain capabilities with a view to fulfil the service promise to customers.
This is obviously underpinned with the strategic rationale of delighting the customer in order to have a major share of their wallet.
Inventory optimisation strategies are key to a premium customer service and experience. Robust inventory strategies will mitigate fluctuations in demand, always maintaining product availability.
For supply chain professionals to effectively achieve their desired customer experience deliverables, there is need to incorporate an inventory management system that updates customer orders on the go with a view to ensure that accurate product information is readily available, enabling best on-time deliveries.
Optimised inventory levels require collaboration and agility between and among supply chain partners, which creates an optimised supply and demand equilibrium, which neither party could achieve on its own.
Supply chain agility can also assist supply chain partners to keep an optimum level of inventory to meet customer requirements and expectations at all material times.
With supply chain agility, your supply chain network acts as an extension of your business to drive profitability and growth. End to end inventory visibility allow the supply chain network partners to make quicker, timely and smarter decisions, which will significantly promote customer experience.
It will also drive a better customer experience that truly resonates with customers. This will create a virtuous cycle of happy customers, repeat purchases and word-of-mouth referrals, propelling your brand to the forefront of their minds.
In conclusion, it must be remembered that to achieve the gold standards of customer experience, supply chain professionals will be expected to be diligent in every step along the customer’s highway. Customer experience encompasses order tracking, delivery speed, communication, return process and customer service. Supply chain professionals must focus on how well the supply chain operations meet the customer’s needs and expectations throughout the buying journey.
Great customer experience involves the entire shopping journey. They expect personalised engagement at every touchpoint on their journey.
The emotions that will probably linger long after each touchpoint will be defining. It must always be in sync with shifting market demands, placing customers at the centre of all decisions.
This will create a sustainable competitive advantage that separates winners from losers. The supply chain makes or breaks the success of a business. This is not the time to stay on the sidelines. The cost of inaction is significant.
Where customers realise that there is poor customer service, they readily shift allegiance. There is a strong tendency to switch brands, seeking refuge elsewhere in habitable brands.
Today’s customers are fickle. This fickleness stems from the knowledge that there is a plethora of competing options or alternatives available at their fingertips.
Social media has been offering plenty of information in front of customers. One poor negative customer interface can undo all the goodwill that was built over years.
Supply chains are now increasingly competing on the quality of customer experience, not just the quality of their products. Customer experience will overtake price and product as the number one brand differentiator in the next five years.
It is not enough to be better than your competitor. You need to consistently delight the customer. The value of investing in customer service is priceless.
The cumulative impact on customer experience is decisively positive, very positive. Customer experience is an undervalued intangible asset of any business. It can scale the organisation’s growth, sustainability and reach.
Nyika is a supply chain practitioner based in Harare. — [email protected]
