Customers and service providers not on the same page

The logistics industry believes value, understanding customers' needs, and price are the three things that customers most want from their supply chain. And while the industry has a “deep understanding” of customer centricity, the results of Barloworld Logistics supplychainforesight 2014 survey show a “major disconnect” between theory and reality. Launching the survey results in Johannesburg last week, executive: marketing for Barloworld Logistics, Kate Stubbs, pointed out that despite acknowledging the benefits and importance of customer centricity, a vast majority (67%) of respondents feel that South African companies are “not getting it right.” This critical view points to a “disconnect” between understanding what is good for the business and being able to deliver on it, said Stubbs. Another example of this is that 68% of respondents believe that they sufficiently engage with customers while only 10% view their suppliers as customer centric. Respondents rated lack of appropriate skills, no structure or plan to innovate or embrace continuous change, and lack of alignment with business functions as the top three constraints to achieving customer centricity. Furthermore, 92% of respondents agree that customer centricity cannot be achieved without a supply chain strategy focused on delivering customer value. However, 88% agreed that the supply chain function was seen too often as a way of managing logistics rather than being core to customer strategy, and that companies struggled to manage the complexity required by the rise of e-commerce and online shopping. Sourcing strategies and inventory management are ranked by respondents as the two most important areas of the supply chain that need improvement. “Again this highlights a gap between what is needed and what is currently being achieved, showing a considerable number of areas of focus and improvement for companies going forward,” said Stubbs. She also noted that respondents’ perceptions of alignment of measurement systems to deliver customer centricity demonstrated an “extremely high need for alignment across all industry sectors”. Only 19% of respondents said their systems were aligned, measured and managed, while 19% indicated the exact opposite. This is underscored by the 58% of respondents who said there was room for improvement. INSERT & CAPTION There is a gap between what is needed and what is currently being achieved. – Kate Stubbs