Supplier, Critical for Customer Support & Services

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The path to excellence is full of turns, obstacles, detours, low speed areas. The smartest thing to do it is to identify these points and preventively work on each one. 

Once you properly develop the processes you will be able to make your best and excel with the customer.

One of these points and quite important is the suppliers role in the customer support & services and in customer experience.

A complex product is composed by several parts from different suppliers. Every single experience of the CSS will also happen with the suppliers. 

A company may have developed the best internal CSS process but if company and suppliers mind set, goals, commitment level to the customers are not shared you can count on issues which will impact the customer.

Issues, which depends on the supplier, related to the product and its life, reliability, cost or with the support and services procedures will show up.

Recognizing that this is a serious threat, the company shall take all preventive actions to avoid disruption in customers operation.

Naturally, the first one is to have a good contract signed. The one, which properly covers all CSS responsibilities and pitfalls.

Would this be enough? If the goal is to excel, I say NO. There must be more than a good contract to bind the relationship and the future of a project, even because there is no contract which covers all situations  with 100% definition of the responsibilities and expectations (quite often on post-delivery cases).

The true partnership which will take companies to the next level is the one which shares the same customer value, understands that only a common ground will  take them to best solution, in which the teams and leadership are integrated sharing the same goals and close to the customer. The one which players are open to common results management on a win-win-win mode (customer-supplier-company).

Is this difficult to achieve?

No. Look for partners and not suppliers, look for companies who understand the importance of the customer in the sustainability of the business, the ones who are committed not only with what they produce but with the entire project that it is part of. 

Whenever you are choosing a supplier, in your due diligence, give a proper weight in the assessment sheet to their attitude in previous programs or from other sources and to their commitment and transparency to the customer centered operation. Do not underestimate such aspects, make it to commit to these values and have a powerful integrated customer centered relationship management involving the highest levels of both companies.

Nov 2018