Can You Listen?
Like feathers in the air in a pillow fight, consumer sentiment permeates the Internet. The irony is that while technology has given customers voice, the average company does not have the capability to listen. Why? Traditional marketing has been trained to yell their message into a market place, but not to listen.
Irony 1 The customer-centric value chain has never been more possible based on technology. However, less than 1% of manufacturing and supply chain leaders have a plan to use customer sentiment data in supply chain processes.
Irony 2 Customer sentiment could help supply chains to sense from the outside-in, but the majority of investment in supply chain technologies is focused on improving response fromthe inside-out. Less than 2% are investing in sensing capabilities.
Irony 3 If customer sentiment, and the mining of unstructured text to understand customer feedback on products and services, is happening within the traditional company, it is occurring in the digital marketing teams. I often introduce digital marketing and supply chain teams in companies where I visit.
In 2015, companies should embrace the customer-centric supply chain and mine sentiment data to enable:
Have a great summer. As you spend time reading and relaxing and running sand through your toes, consider if it is time for you to build listening capabilities into your processes. I for one vote that it is time for companies to reverse the equation. Instead of big mouths and little ears, I think it is time to have big ears and little mouths. I want to usher in the era of the customer-centric supply chain. What do you think? Are you ready?
Irony 1 The customer-centric value chain has never been more possible based on technology. However, less than 1% of manufacturing and supply chain leaders have a plan to use customer sentiment data in supply chain processes.
Irony 2 Customer sentiment could help supply chains to sense from the outside-in, but the majority of investment in supply chain technologies is focused on improving response fromthe inside-out. Less than 2% are investing in sensing capabilities.
Irony 3 If customer sentiment, and the mining of unstructured text to understand customer feedback on products and services, is happening within the traditional company, it is occurring in the digital marketing teams. I often introduce digital marketing and supply chain teams in companies where I visit.
In 2015, companies should embrace the customer-centric supply chain and mine sentiment data to enable:
- Better Production Scheduling. Companies that can sense customer sentiment can make better decisions on the following production runs for a new product. This improves the in-stock position of a fast-moving product and prevents obsolescence for one that is not selling. It can reduce demand latency by 50% to 75%. While it takes seven to 60 days to read market sell-through, sentiment takes hours and days.
- Early Detection of Quality Problems. Cross-functional processes to listen to the customer can improve the time to sense a quality issue by 15% to 30%. While the complaint reports to call centers take days and weeks, the mining of sentiment data takes hours and days. I encourage companies to mine social sentiment and rating and review data and review it cross-functionally weekly to sense trends.
- Product Rationalization. Unchecked complexity increases costs and inventory levels. The customer is fickle. Through the better use of sentiment, companies can more easily prune their product portfolios. At the upcoming Supply Chain Insights Global Summit, Lenovo will share how this approach worked for them.
Have a great summer. As you spend time reading and relaxing and running sand through your toes, consider if it is time for you to build listening capabilities into your processes. I for one vote that it is time for companies to reverse the equation. Instead of big mouths and little ears, I think it is time to have big ears and little mouths. I want to usher in the era of the customer-centric supply chain. What do you think? Are you ready?