In the last few decades, customer service has been given top priority in an effort to meet customers’ changing needs, stand out from the competition and strengthen customer loyalty.

There are several dimensions to the supply chain service offer, usually including:

• the time taken to deliver products, authorized ordering frequency, punctuality,
• flexibility of the requested volumes and mix,
• product customization levels,
• value-added logistics services (delivery to the point of consumption, kitting / assortments, customization, etc.),
• stock management (advanced stocks, consignment, Shared Replenishment Management, etc.),
• means and channels to express customer needs, confirm orders, track and trace orders,
• sales front office and multi-channel management (single point of customer contact),
• pricing and invoicing conditions.

The most common observed problems are:

• insufficient questioning of the actual value delivered to the customer by the proposed services,
• no real control of the service and customer profitability,
• an increasingly complex supply chain due to the profusion of offers,
• difficulty in delivering a satisfactory service rate in comparison with the offers.

The operational implementation of service offers can impact:

• customer relations (organization, specific channels and processes for interaction with the customer),
• the location and level of stocks,
• the logistics infrastructures (number and location of the platforms),
• the supply chain processes (management of demand, production and procurement, order taking and allocation to stock),
• and in some cases, the supply chain model itself (make to stock -> assemble to order -> configure to order -> engineer to order).

In the face of these problems, reengineering the service offer portfolio can serve two purposes:

• standardize whatever can be standardized: simplification of processes, sharing of costs,
• differentiate whatever must be differentiated: focus on certain customer segments, potential for direct or indirect revenue.

There are a number of essentials in this process:

• stay in touch with the market (listen to the sales force, customer and prospect surveys, analyze the competition) together with the sales and marketing departments,
• segment the clientele (business potential, attractiveness of the customer, current / forecast profitability, logistical behavior and expressed expectations),
• segment the offer (basic, differential) and match the definition of the offers to the analysis of impacts on the supply chain and logistics processes,
• associate offer and customer segments in accordance with the sales strategy (competitive investments, levers for negotiations with customers, invoicing services),
• analyze costs incurred by the various scenarios for the deployment and possible invoicing of the offer, define the break-even point between surcharges and income,
• once the scope and the potential of the offers have been validated, plan the deployment of the offers in accordance with the time taken to implement the prerequisites in terms of organization, processes, infrastructures and information systems,
• manage the change in the departments involved and inform customers.

Argon Consulting assists its B2B, B2B2C or B2C customers in the complete re-engineering of their supply chain offers, from design through to support for the implementation of the new service offers.