Supply chain performance has a direct impact on the customer experience. Hence paying attention to this part of the customer journey may help retailers improve their customer engagement.
The ASOS story – 6 attempts to return a product.
Lack of visibility across the supply chain
As per instructions on the ASOS website, I booked in a day and time for Teamando, their preferred partner, to organise the courier pick-up for items I wanted to return. As fate would have it, the courier didn’t show up.
This scene played out six times until I finally managed to get in touch with the courier directly and organised a pick up.
During my interaction with ASOS and Teamando over the weeks, it was clear that there was no visibility across the supply chain. The lack of ownership, accountability and communication only made the experience worse.
Improve customer experience by improving supply chain performance
Ideal scenario: Visibility between partners and across multiple touchpoints
Supply chain performance has a direct impact on the customer experience. Hence paying attention to this part of the customer journey may help retailers improve their customer engagement.
Reduce complexity
Customers connect and interact with a single brand. They don’t distinguish between channels, partners or service providers. Remove barriers. Make it easier. Keep it simple.
Unified view of touch-points across supply chain
Provide partners with a single, integrated view of touch-points across the supply chain. This would enable retailers and its partners to have a comprehensive view of the customer journey – from purchase to delivery. This unified view also enables consistent communication with the customer as well as among partners within the supply chain.
Provide relevant and contextual information
Every interaction in a customer journey matters. Providing customers with personal, relevant and contextual information can help retailers improve engagement and provide real value to customers.
Retailers that understand the impact supply chain has on the overall customer experiences and get this formula right will be the ones to convert customers over. These brands will win by taking a holistic view of the end to end customer journey and creating experiences that resonate with their customers.
My opinion is that the retailer should be the face of the entire transaction and experience; customers don’t need to worry about the delivery mechanisms. They want to be dazzled by the ENTIRE experience, including the returns/exchange process.