Customer Fulfilment Workgroup

From order picking to last mile delivery, grocery retailers and FMCG brands are increasingly looking for ways to improve speed and efficiency in omnichannel fulfilment. With rising consumer expectations, the challenge lies in delivering what customers want, when they want it, despite increased complexity and the broader supply chain cost and inventory pressures.

Achieving this requires more than just a focus on efficiency; it demands a deep understanding of customer needs as well as the responsiveness and agility to adapt to them in real time.

This workgroup explores how companies are transforming customer-facing teams through process, system and organisational re-engineering, to improve customer satisfaction while balancing operating costs; covering:

• Customer service benchmarking
• Order to Cash process re-engineering, and optimisation
• Organisation structure and areas of responsibility
• Automation and reporting development
• Advantage Survey score improvement

What Good Looks Like

How can you build a supply chain that is not only knowledgeable about your customers but also responsive to their expectations?

1. Leverage Data-Driven Insights: Gathering and analysing customer data to uncover trends, buying behaviours changes in distribution and stock policy and other pain points. 
2. Foster End-to-End Visibility: Synchronise tools to improve transparency from manufacture to final delivery. Real-time visibility allows organisations to plan better, address disruptions and manage expectations by keeping customers informed.
3. Enhance Collaboration Across Teams: Break down silos between departments – product supply, logistics, sales and customer service - to create a unified and strategic approach to meeting customer needs. 
4. Invest in Agility and Scalability: Design your supply chain to handle fluctuations in demand without compromising on efficiency.
5. Prioritise Customer Feedback: Continuously collect and act on customer feedback to identify gaps and improve the supply chain.
6. Adopt Advanced Technology:  Automation and predictive analytics allow for faster, more accurate decision-making and improved service levels.

Building a truly customer-centric supply chain is not a one-time initiative but an ongoing commitment to understanding and exceeding customer expectations while ensuring sustainable profitability.

Benefits

• Learn from peers and share updates on evolving sector challenges
• Listen to current case studies and hear from experts on best practice operations
•  Find out about how to deliver transformational change, including automation of processes
• Access to a forum, sharing feedback and advice in a safe space learning environment

The Customer Fulfilment workgroup is part of our wider offering of best practice workgroups, click here to discover more.