Omni battle
In the omnichannel competition for customer favor, customer experience increasingly serves as a critical competitive weapon. Experience is built from all interactions and touchpoints with the company and its products.
The central omnichannel question is how the sum of all these experiences across different channels produces a positive outcome.
Supply chains also prioritize customer experience as a higher objective. Order fulfillment, delivery, and service form the foundation of ultimate customer experience. Each interaction and contact moment potentially adds value — but how do you measure this value?
Availability, delivery speed, shipping costs, inventory allocation, returns, and supplier management are individual components contributing to customer experience, yet many organizations don't structure them as such, let alone integrate them holistically. "Those are supply chain KPIs." What organizational behavior is necessary to truly center the customer experience?
Priorities
A European retail minority reports that current systems contain indicators but show no solutions or improvement potential. Remarkably, a significant majority lacks quality indicators representing customer experience. Consumer-supply chain contact moments are increasing. This reality makes clear KPIs logical, similar to how integrated marketing, sales, and supply chain planning should function. Fewer than half of European retailers have structurally organized this integration, and 12% have zero joint coordination between supply chain, marketing, and sales.
European retailers' supply chain priorities are clear: visibility into chain inventory, investment in forecasting, and investment in automation/technology rank highest. Growing supply chain complexity drives significant forecasting investment growth. As of 2017, 80% of European retailers report insufficient forecasting capabilities, and over 20% maintain completely separated channels. Greater separation complicates delivering uniform customer experience.
For the medium term, virtually every retailer identifies needing new internal strategy.
Supply Chain Island
Nearly every retailer expresses strong desire developing fully integrated distribution and inventory strategy controlling all channels through one organization. The reality — only a handful operate fully integrated — largely connects to supply chains' operational character. Insufficient strategic attention occurs, and when it does, it's frequently isolated on "supply chain island."
Recommendation: To truly center the customer, leave your island more regularly and organize around your customer experience contribution. Conversely, make your island attractive enough for regular visits. Customers will benefit.
Source: European Dynamic Distribution Disruption 2017 State of Retail Supply Chain Report.