Guide to Customer Service in Supply Chain Management

The chapter guides you through the topic of customer service in supply chain management. This chapter is structured as follows: first, it explains what customer service is and who our supply chain customers are. Second, it explores how we can manage key customers’ lifetime value and creating customer service ambassadors. Third, it explains how we can deliver against customer needs by working to agreed standards and the importance of service recovery. The chapter concludes with a best practice case study on winning in the marketplace through customer service in the company Unilever South Africa.

[1]  F. Reichheld.  The one number you need to grow. , 2003, Harvard business review.

[2]  F. Frei,et al.  Breaking the trade-off between efficiency and service. , 2006, Harvard business review.

[3]  R. Kaplan,et al.  The Balanced Scorecard: Translating Strategy into Action , 1996 .

[4]  W. Sasser,et al.  The service profit chain , 1997 .

[5]  N. Nohria,et al.  Are leaders portable? , 2006, Harvard business review.

[6]  P. Maglio,et al.  Handbook of Service Science , 2012 .

[7]  P. Kotler,et al.  Principles of Marketing , 1983 .