Customer experience is becoming the no#1 supply chain differentiator

Date: 18-Sep-2019
Location: Global

A new global supply chain research (with a technology/innovation twist), ‘Focus on Customer Experience’, commissioned by BluJay and conducted by Adelante SCM, in partnership with the Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals (CSCMP). Key findings include:

• Customer experience reigns supreme: Two thirds (61 percent) of global supply chain and logistics professionals believe customer experience will overtake price and product as the number-one brand differentiator in the next five years. ‘To deliver an enhanced customer experience’ rose to the top of the list as the main driver for supply chain innovation, receiving 30 percent of top factor votes and pulling ahead of ‘To reduce costs’.
• Smaller companies prioritise CX to compete with their larger peers: More large companies (31 percent) Disagree or Strongly Disagree that customer experience will become the number-one brand differentiator over the next five years when compared with smaller companies (18 percent).
• Top supply chain investments: BI/Analytics received the most top factor votes (22 percent), followed closely by Visibility (21 percent) and Transportation (16 percent). Real-time freight visibility is one of the hottest investment areas for shippers and LSPs today. Real-time Visibility is also the most important supply chain capability for delivering an enhanced customer experience, according to survey respondents.
• Top barriers to supply chain innovation: ‘Lack of upper management support for funding/resources’ is a top barrier to supply chain innovation. Particularly for Laggard/Late Majority companies, it is the biggest barrier to innovation, receiving 23 percent of top factor votes (compared to 10 percent for Innovator/Early Adopter companies).