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Supply chain rigidity could be costing you billions

Getting the right product to the right people at the right time – that’s at the heart of what demand and supply planning is all about. But as anyone who works in supply chain knows, it’s a lot easier said than done. Forecasts are wrong more often than they’re right, and shifting consumer priorities means your supply chain has to be able to react to change and shift directions in seconds.

The success of your business depends on it, because if you can’t adapt and adjust, your customers will find someone who can. Exemplary customer service matters to your bottom line. Whether you work in business-to-business (B2B), business-to-consumer (B2C) or any other space, the reality is, we all have customers to serve. Supply chains are built around that fact.

Can your company really afford to lose that many customers?

As Shep Hyken, Chief Amazement Officer at Shepard Presentations, says in a recent Forbes article, “Every statistic and fact out there indicates that service gives any company a competitive advantage, and the lack of it can be the demise of the business.”

If you work in a B2C environment, you may be less concerned about losing one or two customers. After all, you likely have thousands of them. But even a single customer can have an impact on your financial results – especially given a growing trend to share dissatisfaction on social media. More than one company has fallen victim to the power of social sharing, and not in a good way. One angry customer now has the ability to reach thousands, or even millions of other people, sharing negative views about your company. It’s the power of word of mouth marketing and it shouldn’t be ignored. NewVoiceMedia’s report shows 42% of dissatisfied customers are now likely to post an online review or complain via social media.

For those in B2B, losing one customer could represent a sizable portion of your business. Your pool of prospective customers tends to be more limited, and each sale tends to be higher value. You need to treat each of them like the high value partner they are.

Minimize your risk of unhappy customers

So how can you minimize the risk of losing customers? By ensuring you’re doing everything you can to promote a customer-centric end-to-end supply chain process across all nodes. That means breaking down silos and building visibility across the end-to-end value chain so you can respond to your customers’ changing requests faster and more accurately.


 There are five key things customers look for in their experiences with you:

1. An easy experience
2. Knowledgeable people
3. Friendly experience
4. Speedy service and a quick response
5. Consistency

Alexa Cheater
Extract taken from Supply Chain Blog
http://blog.kinaxis.com