Supply & Customer Service

Customer service is the provision of service to customers before, during, and after a purchase. According to Turban et al. (2002), "Customer service is a series of activities designed to enhance the level of customer satisfaction – that is, the feeling that a product or service has met the customer expectation." The importance of customer service may vary by product or service, industry, and customer. It can also refer to the culture of the organization - the priority the organization assigns to customer service relative to other components, such as product innovation or low price. Thus we can say that the organization that values good customer service may spend more money on training employees to adjust themselves to the personality of the guest than the average organization, or proactively interview customers for feedback.

With regard to customers, getting the right product, in the right condition, to the right place, at the right time, and at the right price seems to be a well-entrenched principle of SCM professionals. One of our core competencies is providing time and place utility of goods we move through supply chains. Customers nowadays are more interested in evaluating how well logistics operations deliver these services. Various researches conducted from time to time on the quality of the logistics service highlight these key areas like product availability and condition; timeliness; quality of order-related information, interpersonal communication, and the discrepancy-handling process. Customers care about these things because having the right products available when needed not only satisfies their own needs but also is a pre-condition to servicing their customers further downstream.

In helping to solve a consumer problem, even a manufactured product is servicing that consumer. In fact, in the act of consuming or using that product, the consumer is taking part in the servicing aspect of the product. That’s how the value is derived from the product or service. Thus, every product and service should always be seen as servicing value creation for the customer or consumer. This concept is part of what has become known as service-dominant logic.

In thinking about service-dominant logic, consider that supply chain managers design processes for and manage the operations of resource flows—the movement of products, people, information, and finances. And in so doing, they facilitate the integration of various resources across multiple organizations. Every one of these “things”—products, people, information, and finances—is a resource that gets integrated with other resources as firms build and sell their offerings. In connecting all of these resources, SCM is always about servicing resource integration by managing flows on both the demand and supply sides. Because thinking this way may fundamentally change the way in which we perform the supply chain job and, in fact, conduct our business.

So it is evident that supply chain management is directly related to customer service. Good supply chain management boosts a company’s customer service by allowing you to do three things in particular:

*Deliver products to customers faster and with greater accuracy.

*Track shipments to ensure they reach their destination safely.

*Maintain optimal inventory levels so you always have what customers want in stock.

All three of these strengths help you build relationships of trust with your customers. If you consistently fulfill your promises and exceed expectations, your customers will be much more likely to keep coming back to you and even refer their friends to you. As economic conditions improve and consumers cautiously increase their spending, you can put yourself in an ideal position by optimizing your supply chain management.

Reference: 

• http://en.wikipedia.org
• www.fishbowlinventory.com
• www.scmr.com