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Cross-Function CX Engagement > Procurement/Supply Chain

Procurement/Supply Chain

The Procurement and Supply Chain department manages the end-to-end flow of goods and services, from sourcing and negotiating with suppliers to inventory management and logistics. Their mission is to build a resilient, ethical, and cost-effective supply chain that delivers high-quality products and materials on time, enabling the business to meet customer demand.

Key Goals & Priorities

Optimise costs and achieve savings through strategic sourcing and negotiation.
Ensure continuity and security of supply for key materials and services.
Improve supplier performance on quality, reliability, and delivery.
Manage inventory levels to optimise cash flow and minimise waste.
Promote ethical and sustainable sourcing practices throughout the supply chain.

What Procurement/Supply Chain Needs from Customer Experience (CX)

Customer Insights & Feedback: Direct, unfiltered customer feedback on physical product quality, packaging (e.g., damage, ease of opening), delivery speed, and the performance of courier services.
Journey Mapping Contributions: Customer journey maps that visualise the post-purchase experience, including waiting for delivery, the "unboxing" moment, and the product returns process, highlighting the direct impact of supply chain decisions.
Advocacy for Customer Needs: A strong voice in supplier negotiations advocating for customer-centric outcomes. This includes pushing for higher quality materials, better packaging standards, or selecting delivery partners known for their customer service.
Process Improvement Suggestions: Actionable feedback on the returns and exchanges process (reverse logistics), identifying friction points for the customer that the supply chain team can resolve.
Data & Analytics: Data that directly links customer satisfaction, complaints, or product return rates to specific suppliers, product lines, or delivery partners. For example, "Products from Supplier A have a 10% higher return rate due to defects than those from Supplier B."

How CX Can Engage & Collaborate Effectively

Regular Communication Channels: Establish a monthly meeting to review customer feedback trends specifically related to product quality and delivery, providing a direct line of sight from the customer to the supply chain team.
Joint Initiatives & Projects: Collaborate on the selection and evaluation of suppliers for customer-facing elements, like packaging or delivery partners. CX can contribute a "customer satisfaction" scorecard to the evaluation criteria. Partner on projects to redesign the product returns process to be more seamless.
Data Sharing & Reporting: Provide Procurement with a regular "Customer Quality Report" that summarises key themes from support contacts, reviews, and surveys regarding product faults, damages, and delivery failures.
Cross-Functional Training/Workshops: Invite members of the Procurement team to listen to customer support calls where a delivery has gone wrong or a product has arrived damaged, allowing them to hear the direct emotional and financial impact of supply chain issues.
Attending Their Meetings: Request to participate in key supplier performance reviews (e.g., Quarterly Business Reviews) to provide the "voice of the customer" as a critical performance metric.
Active Listening & Empathy: Understand the constant pressure on Procurement to manage costs. Frame CX feedback in financial terms, demonstrating how investing in a slightly more expensive supplier can lead to significant savings in return processing, replacement costs, and customer churn.

Key CX Touchpoints & Intersections

The quality and performance of the physical product.
The unboxing experience, including packaging quality and materials.
Delivery timeliness, accuracy, and communication from couriers.
The ease and efficiency of the product returns/exchange process.
Stock availability and back-in-stock notifications.

Success Metrics (Shared or CX Impacted)

On-Time Delivery (OTD) Rate
Product Return Rate (especially coded by reason, e.g., "damaged," "faulty")
Order Accuracy Rate
Customer Satisfaction (CSAT) scores related to the delivery and product experience.
Rate of Damaged-in-Transit reports.

Questions to Consider for Collaboration

"How can we systematically tag customer feedback to specific products, suppliers, or couriers to provide Procurement with highly actionable data?"
"How do we build a compelling business case that balances the upfront cost of higher-quality suppliers with the long-term savings from reduced returns and increased customer loyalty?"
"What part of our physical fulfilment journey, from warehouse to customer's hands, is causing the most customer effort, and how can we partner with Supply Chain to fix it?"

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