Prior to beginning work on this assignment, read this week's assigned readings. In the required article, Customer Obsession and the Platinum Rule . (Reid, 2016), the author refers to the "Platinum Rule" for developing outstanding customer relationships and discusses the importance of customer service.
Your textbook emphasizes the idea that customer service is a strong competitive weapon, which is difficult for competition to imitate. In logistics, the four dimensions of customer service are time, dependability, communication, and convenience.
Advanced transportation and technology are the main drivers of globalization that contribute to these four dimensions. See Table 7.2 on page 124 of your text (Murphy & Knemeyer, 2015)
Table 7.2 Select Customer Service Measures
Customer Service Dimension
Measure
Time
Order cycle time
Inquiry response time
Dependability
Perfect order
On-time delivery
Communication
Customer complaints
Order status information
Convenience
Returns process
Response to emergency situations
For this assignment, you will research a large global transportation company, write a paper that discusses how customer service supports logistics and supply chain management, and then analyze how this relationship contributes to a company's competitive advantage in the global marketplace.
In your paper,
Select one transportation company from the list of the World's Largest Transportations Companies ., published by Forbes.
· Explain how your chosen company's current logistics and/or supply chain management practices supports each of the four dimensions of customer service. (The company's website and annual report are often good starting points for your research.)
· Assess how the company can strengthen the contribution of each dimension to future gains in profitability and/or customer service with at least two of the four dimensions. Provide two to three examples of how other companies have already done so to support your assessment.
The Measuring Customer Service paper
· Must be 600 to 900 words in length (not including title and references pages), double-spaced, and formatted according to APA style as outlined in the Ashford Writing Center Contextual (Level One) headings must be used to organize your paper and your thoughts.
· Must include a title page with the following:
Title of paper
Student's name
Course name and number
Instructor's name
Date submitted
· Must address the topic of the paper with critical thought.
· Must include and integrate supporting information and reasoning from at least one scholarly, peer-reviewed, or credible business source from the Ashford Library in addition to the textbook (see Ashford Writing Center's Integrating Research for assistance).
The Scholarly, Peer Reviewed, and Other Credible Sources (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site. table offers additional guidance on appropriate source types. If you have questions about whether a specific source is appropriate for this assignment, please contact your instructor. Your instructor has the final say about the appropriateness of a specific source for a particular assignment.
· Must document all sources in APA style, as outlined in the Ashford Writing Center.
· Must include a separate references page, formatted according to APA style as outlined in the Ashford Writing Center.