Customer Relations
Consumer & Supply Chain
In an article on Demand Media , Scott Thompson says “ Consumers in the past usually had no influence on the supply chain , because they didn ’ t know anything about it . A consumer who ordered a pair of shoes would have no idea where those shoes were made , who made them , under what conditions or when to expect delivery . Now that consumers have ready access to information on all these topics , they have gained unprecedented influence over supply chain management ” ( Thompson , 2016 )
From production to consumption and from order placement to delivery everyone is a customer and hence a logical conclusion can be made that the customer is at the centre of all our transactions in business . When a hospital considers investing in a cancer treatment centre , it is not that the hospital management are driven by a sense of corporate social responsibility ; they have carefully considered the trends of lifestyle in a country and they have seen that their investment will pay off quite well .
There is no better than the agriculture industry to show us the centrality of the customer in the supply chain from feasibility study to procurement to launching and even to multiplication of the same .
With the advent of agricultural technology such as green houses , hydroponics and such , what is planted is driven more by demand than by the weather . In the savannah where people thought that shrubs were the only green to be found , many are eating drought resistant produce that has been grown in these terrains . As a ripple effect , a dictation of the customer at the point of sowing the seed means that the customer will definitely put a demand on the speed of delivering the end product to the table . This demand has its good and bad side , but today we concentrate on how to make good of the demand without taking sides . We do this by asking a very simple question .
What do we need to address to make sure that the demand by the customer keep the supply chain clean and reliable ?
Information availability
The customer in the 21st century has little patience . Compounded by lack of information , this impatience normally results in what is interpreted as bad customer service . Customers seek to know real time when an order they have placed will be ready , when they should come in for a review of the process , how fast the loan will be processed , and even a step by step guidance of the end result they are expecting .
Companies are therefore left with little choice than to keep abreast with means of getting the necessary information to their customers . The information should also be specific and
Esteemed Magazine
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