Do your internal operations have a significant impact on your customer service levels? Yes, in every single client, they can have a dramatic effect!
For example, we recently worked with a client that wanted to raise the bar when it came to service levels. Over time, product mix, distribution strategies and buffer capabilities changed which created a gap vs. prior performance levels. The challenge was to improve customer service and the overall customer experience rapidly – and “make it stick”.
As is true with every client we’ve worked with over the last several years when it comes to customer service, no matter how proactive your front line is with customer communications and no matter what heroics your operations folks jump through to deliver product, the “win” or “loss” will boil down to whether your Sales and Operations are on the same page – and executing in concert with one another. For example, if Sales is excited to win large orders (BIG wins) and Operations isn’t prepared for these big wins (not enough people, machines, materials, and the like), service will suffer. Add Finance into the mix who is not likely to be prepared for the cash flow impacts, and the situation can become even more frustrating. As apparent as this sounds, it is extremely common.
Could a simple solution of aligning Sales with Operations with Finance, known as SIOP or Sales Inventory Operations Planning, deliver the bottom line BIG win? Yes, every time. To learn more about how to implement SIOP, read our book, SIOP (Sales Inventory Operations Planning): Creating Predictable Revenue and EBITDA Growth.