Analysis
Supply chain management
This is the process through which the flow of goods is managed from the initial stages of production by the supplier to the final consumers. It entails the achievement of among other components customer service, customer satisfaction and customer success.
Customer service
This is the provision goods and services to customers before, during and after purchase, to enhance level of customer satisfaction. Entities must identify and prioritize all activities to meet customer expectation better than the competitor. Basic ingredients of customer service delivery are availability, operational performance and service reliability.
Customer satisfaction
It is a measure of how firms satisfy customer needs and wants. This can be a positive or negative feeling by the customer about the product. Satisfaction largely focuses on customer value that is; perception of what the customer wants to meet a desired goal. Customer satisfaction attracts the customer and turns the satisfied customer into a loyal customer.
Customer success
It usually occurs when a firm has achieved customer satisfaction by providing good customer service to its customers. This includes not only gaining customers but also keeping the customers.
Similarities between the terms
Good customer service is a key to success of a business and key to the meeting of customer needs, factors such as, innovations, time to market, cost, quality, delivery and flexibility can enhance a good relationship in the supply chain management.
Customer satisfaction is tied to success of a customer. Many businesses focus on product or service performance provided by customer feedback. This provides a measure of employ performance and customer satisfaction, leading to success of the customer. Customer loyalty can also help determine your most loyal customers hence providing them with trust of services offered by the firm. This leads to satisfaction and success of the customer.
Customer success provides a means of achieving supply chain management goal through customer service. A firm may establish performance goals by going back to customers on the products’ success to measure whether the firm satisfies its goal. Customer satisfaction can provide management key drives they should use across roles and departments. Customer success can dictate an organizations’ new product development. A firm may send out customer satisfaction survey to launch new formulations and leverage new opportunities.
Differences between the terms
Difference between customer satisfaction and customer service is the cause and effect relationship. Customer service is a cause, since the firm strives to meet the customer needs. Customer satisfaction is an effect because the firm expects to get a response from the customer on the product or service offered.
Customer service is an in-bound service to outbound success. Customers need to decide that they actually have a problem for them to contact the company to receive any service. Most customers will choose to get a substitute product. This creates an inbound channel for customer service; bring about the difference in customer service and customer success.
Customer satisfaction does not necessarily lead to customer success. Customer satisfaction results to the customer having greater customer service expertise. This may not be possible in all products provided to the customer in the economy. Customer success can only be derived from a single product compared to customer satisfaction that which is achieved by consumption of multiple products.
Works Cited
Christopher, Martin. Logistics & Supply Chain Management. Harlow, England: Financial Times Prentice Hall, 2011. Print.
