We are experiencing a new reality where a company's products are no longer the sole driver of value. Businesses that want to thrive in this new environment must seek ways to differentiate themselves from the competition. To do so, every advantage matters, including optimizing your supply chain to become more customer-centric. Customers are the key to a successful business, and the supply chain is central to delivering that success. All the stakeholders involved in your supply chain, from manufacturers and suppliers to procurement and logistics service providers, will need to buy into your vision. According to Gartner, 83 percent of companies demand that supply chains improve their customer experience, and in response, most are transforming previous product-centric processes into customer-centric ones. Success in this regard creates a decisive competitive advantage through positive customer experiences that drive growth for your business.
A supply chain becomes customer-centric by focusing on delivering high value in both profits and customer experience. It thrives by fostering a culture centered not just on profitable metrics, cost, and speed, but also on customer satisfaction and loyalty. This culture generates insight that drives future growth by building knowledge and improving responsiveness to customer needs.
To build a genuinely customer-centric supply chain, a supply chain partner must understand their customers and what each customer segment needs at critical touchpoints. They will need to define the customers to address their needs adequately. For example, if you supply retailers, is your customer the wholesaler, distributor, or custom label vendor who rebrands the product? The requirements and number of unique, critical touchpoints are inherently different. While the wholesaler demands to know you can deliver high volume products on time, the retail store customer will likely focus more on product pricing and availability. A supply chain partner needs to develop a slightly different strategy for each distinct customer segment.
Supply chain partners of wholesalers, distributors, and retailers should help them ensure they are listening to customers and using the data available to provide what the customers want. This same information is what drives a more efficient supply chain.
At Northfield, we deliver the desired customer experience without over-or under-investing capabilities. Instead, we identify problematic touchpoints that are the key drivers of customer satisfaction or dissatisfaction; and analyze and act upon this data to understand our customers and their costs.
Once you understand who your customers are, the next step is to understand their unique needs and how your service helps these customers meet those needs. Once identified, you translate those needs into supply chain process changes that focus on customer outcomes. Many customers' needs revolve around the following areas:
· Features - all of the functionalities and features for a best-fit product
· Availability - the customer can access sufficient quantities of the product when needed
· Variation - sufficient variability for different SKUs in different uses
· Distribution - products arrive at their destination at the right time
· Quality - product performs as described with no flaws or issues
· Value - pricing is commensurate with value derived by the customer
Looking upstream at the global supply chain can be a significant source of competitive differentiation for your supply chain customers. Hence, supply chain partners need to develop the right customer-focused strategies to become more customer-centric to help fuel the delivery of exceptional, value-added products and services to customers.
Northfield fosters continuous innovation to transform the global supply chain by providing unrivaled end-to-end global procurement, logistics, production, and supply chain management solutions.
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