Customized service options

Customized service options No customization for segments Services designed around direct sales to OEMs Tailored approaches to all segments Narrow choices directed at niches — at low prices... 

Customized service options Develop different levels of service for each customer segment... 

The plastics properties catalogue includes single-point data, multi-point data, processing data, product description texts and customer service information. You can select plastic products for your specific application by using the query options. The main feature of the CAMPUS philosophy is comparable data. The properties are based on the international standards ISO 10350 for Single-Point data and ISO 11403-1, -2 for Multi-Point data. CAMPUS is available in English, German, Spanish, French and Japanese. 

In other words, competing retailers offer the customer the option to take advantage of many possible pools of capacity, as we will discuss in Chapter 4 on capacity. We described competitive effects on service level in this section, but the same idea can be considered for any metric in the supply chain. 

So, the cycling inventory (without safety stock) is twice what would be expected with postponement. Thus the unfinished, or postponement option, halved the investment needed to provide a certain level of service. In addition to the savings in inventory, most postponement advocates find there is better customer service. The likelihood of stock-outs goes down with a larger base of inventory from which to draw. 

The notifications about a customer interested in buying products/services include the customer s options, some infonnation about the navigation history, what product/service is selected and several suggestions. The communication session is established and the sales agent s virtual assistant provides with demo films and booklets, statistics or other information. 

The same is true of the customer faced with alternative options of distribution service, The buyer might be prepared to sacrifice a day or two of lead time in order to gain delivery reliability, or to trade off order completeness against improvements in order entry, etc. Essentially the trade-off technique works by presenting the respondent with feasible combinations of customer service elements and asking for a rank order of preference for those combinations. Computer analysis then determines the implicit importance attached by the respondent to each service element. ... 

Customer complexity arises as a result of too many non-standard service options or customised solutions. The costs of serving different customers can vary significantly. Each customer will exhibit different characteristics in terms of their ordering patterns, e g. frequency of orders, size of orders, delivery requirements and so on. These differences will be increased further as a result of the availability of different service options or packages and/or customisation possibilities. 

The distribution costs include transportation costs, inventory holding costs, storage costs, and "customer service" costs. The transportation costs vary according to the option selected and the demand. If the product is sent directly from the plant, it will be sent only in containers and the costs will depend on the distance from the plant to the customer s city. On the other hand, when the product is supplied locally from the DC, there exist several transportation vehicles (e.g., a van that holds up to three pallets or a container truck that holds up to 30 pallets, among others). Hence, the transportation cost will depend on the type of vehicle used, according to the customer s demand, and on the travel distance between the DC and the customer location. This model assumes that orders from different customers... 

Thus, as it compares different distribution network options, a firm must evaluate the impact on customer service and cost. The customer needs that are met influence the company s revenues, which, along with cost, decide the profitability of the delivery network. 

Different levels of segmentation are required depending on the go-to-market model and the organization s current capabilities. In our experience, the most valuable segmentation approach is based upon profit potential and needs. On the profit potential side, the key issue is whether or not a customer s profit potential warrants a customized, tailored (with a menu of options), or standard offering. On the customer needs side, we see four different behaviors in purchasing customers will buy on price, service, product attributes, or win-win performance partnerships. 

Customer visits. Especially by technical service personnel, but increasingly by directly involving R D staff with the customer. The danger with this information is that the customer is often only interested in the immediate problems not with what can be supplied some years down the line. The data needs to be sifted intelligently to sort out the local difficulties from what are inherent problems, amenable to R D work rather than standard technical support A prerequisite, for all personnel who make customer visits, is the need to produce well written visit reports, with the additional requirement to report on new product options. 

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