Experts recommend supply chain orchestration as an effective solution to help organizations deliver positive customer experiences.
When it relates to personalization, 76% of customers expect companies to understand their needs and expectations. Findings also indicate that 67% of customers have switched vendors to seek ‘a more customer-like experience’. Customer expectation is a significant driver to the way organizations operate. Providing both convenience and speed is crucial to building a customer-centric business and building long term relationships with those customers.
Logistics are learning to adapt to the demands of customers, and organizations are seeking the most effective solutions to remain competitive. Supply chain orchestration (SCO) has been connected to providing a positive customer experience. According to supply chain experts,
SCO enables you to make informed, conscious choices about how to serve your customers better.
Orchestration benefits ecommerce markets in particular because it increases a customer’s accessibility to a larger variety of products and services. Therefore, customers are provided with a wider variety of delivery options due to an expansive ‘network of operators and carriers’. In addition, SCO also provides a variety of benefits that help close the gaps when it comes to visibility and efficiency.
This article uncovers the foundation of supply chain orchestration and how supply chains can leverage it to better the customer experience.
Supply Chain Orchestration Foundations
To understand how supply chain orchestration improves the customer experience, it’s important to first understand the need for SCO. As mentioned above, consumer demand is changing dramatically in response to a variety of factors including a significant increase in accessibility. For instance, customers who shop online are becoming increasingly expectant of fast delivery, personalized customer experience and order fulfillment.
A poor experience can influence a customer’s intent to re-purchase. Research found that 67% of customers would stop buying from a company if a competitor offered a better experience. Omni-channel touch points and visibility must be a core focus to organizations who cater to different generations and demographics. To ensure all consumer demands are being met, a seamless supply chain operation must be implemented.
According to Supply Chain 247,
Successful SCO is based on the right blend of elements for end-to-end oversight and control, but at the root, it is driven by a desire to put the customer first.
The goal is to create a supply chain network that takes into consideration both the bottom line and customer experience.
The Benefits of SCO
By implementing SCO, you will provide a variety of benefits to improving customer satisfaction in a cost-effective way. Inbound Logistics identifies a number of trends supply chain orchestration can provide.
1. Increase Visibility
Personalization is only successful when an organization can understand the needs of their customers and deliver. SCO enables organizations to take a holistic look at their entire supply chain. Thus, they’re able to optimize their processes to delivers ‘the maximum volume of on-time, in-full orders’.
2. Optimize Inventory
An increase in orders requires organizations to ensure warehouses and inventories are abundantly stocked and ready for delivery. Therefore, experts suggest streamlining their networks which includes ‘warehouses, 3PLs, suppliers, and in-transit stock’.
3. Maintain Efficiency
As supply chains strive to meet increased demands, they become complex. This complexity may sometimes hinder the customer experience. According to their findings, Inbound Logistics found 95% of global companies agreed that discrepancies had increased. Implanting SCO would help create better processes that stimulate progression through the coordination of the right ‘internal and external systems.’
Organizations should continue to focus on creating innovative and creative ways to improve the customer experience. This is primarily important today because of the incredible level of accessibility online shoppers have. Based on the above information, supply chain orchestration proves to be an effective way to ensure a positive customer journey. Therefore, organizations should continue to look at ways such as SCO to optimize their supply chains.
