Logistics has traditionally been viewed as a back-office function, but today it has a direct impact on the customer experience, says Michael Campese, senior vice president of sales and marketing with EFW.

Logistics has long been treated as a back-office function, with an emphasis on cost control, but in the minds of shoppers today, it’s front and center. The fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic educated the general public about the importance of the supply chain, and retail brands are feeling a direct impact when they fail to deliver to shoppers in a timely fashion, says Campese.

If logistics fails, it’s the brand that gets blamed. Campese recommends several steps that logistics leaders can take to mitigate the consequences of service failures. First, he says, install a “customer-experience lens” within the organization, with a keen sense of how logistics activities are affecting the end-customer. Too many organizations today “are not seeing where the customer exists downstream. If you can put your CX glasses on — at least one lens — you’ll always be thinking about it.”

Second, Campese says, collaborate with customer-experience leaders, who can serve as guides to building a “CX discipline” within the business. Such a partner can help “to elevator the logistics department, so that the rest of the organization sees the value.”

Finally, be aware that automation is not a magic solution to ensuring logistics service quality. Technology is most valuable “when the process stays on the happy path — where everything goes right that can get you from point A to point B.” In the real world, however, service failures happen, and in such instances “you need real people with experience and empathy, who are great at talking to customers.

“Logistics is an imperfect discipline,” Campese adds. “Save the great people who have critical thinking skills. Automate the mundane and repetitive.”