De la imagen informativa, tres acápites que norman los procedimientos que

A company has a corporate culture, whether that is steeped in tradition over a hundred years or a new technology start-up with a casual approach, and that defines how business is conducted with the customer. No matter what the corporate culture, the focus must always be on the customer. When determining how a company approaches customer service, they will often adopt a customer service strategy that is usually made up for a number of elements.

25%

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Target Customers

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Figure 10-2: Customer Service Relationship

Ref : D.M. Bowman, Inc.

Communications - Each customer wants to feel that they are your most important customer, so they need to be communicated with so that they never need to contact you because of the lack of information. For example, if you are manufacturing and shipping an item to a customer, then the customer will want to know how far the item is along the manufacturing path, and then when it is shipped, they will require tracking information. If the customer has to call to find out information, they will be less satisfied as it is taking them time to call, and it is costing your company money for someone to spend time finding out the information for the customer. With new technologies such as Customer Relationship Management (CRM) and social media websites it is possible to communicate with the client electronically to inform them of new products, sales, or promotions that may interest them.

Convenience - For a customer there is nothing worse than having to accommodate the limitations of your supplier. Good customer service dictates that you will be available when it is convenient to the customer. If the customer wants a service call before they open for business then providing that is good customer service and will instill excellent customer satisfaction. The convenience also should be

46 | P a g e found on your online presence. A customer wants things to be convenient for them, so if they want to be able to review their order, check shipping and send a message, then they need that to be in one location and not spread over many pages, which is not as convenient and leads to poorer customer satisfaction.

Dependability - The customer expects items they wish to purchase to be in stock. Good customer service should aim to have items in stock, as well as providing other services, such as accurate ordering, accurate pricing, and believable delivery dates. Dependability also relates to a company's online presence. If a company's website is not updated, shows the wrong prices, has dead links, or fails to process orders correctly, a customer will simply move on to the next vendor whose systems are dependable. A good customer service strategy should ensure that the company is looking at all aspects of its business to give a customer a feeling of dependability.

11 Warehousing

A warehouse is a planned space for the storage and handling of goods and material (Fritz Institute). In general, warehouses are focal points for product and information flow between sources of supply and beneficiaries. However, in humanitarian supply chains, warehouses vary greatly in terms of their role and their characteristics. Warehousing plays an important part in a company’s logistics system. It provides customers with an acceptable level of service and a desired level of customer service at the lowest possible costs. It develops with the development of business and has experienced different periods from original manual warehousing to intelligent storage system through the support of different kinds of advanced technology20.

Warehousing and warehouse management are part of a logistics management system, which is itself a component in supply chain management. Although viewed by some as simply a place to store finished goods, inbound functions that prepare items for storage and outbound functions that consolidate, pack and ship orders provide important economic and service benefits to both the business and its customers.

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47 | P a g e Central Location- A warehouse provides a central location for receiving, storing and distributing products. As each inbound shipment arrives, responsibility for the goods transfers to warehouse personnel; products are identified, sorted and dispatched to their temporary storage location. Storage isn’t a static ―thing‖ but rather a process that includes security measures and maintaining an environment that preserves the integrity and usefulness of the items. Once it’s time to move items, each order is retrieved, grouped, packaged and checked for completeness before being dispatched to their new destination.

Value-Adding Operation- The objective of a logistics system is to reduce cycle times and overall inventories, lower costs and most importantly, improve customer service. Warehousing increases the utility value of goods by providing a means to have the right products available at the right place in the right time. Operations such as order consolidation, order assembly, product mixing and cross-docking that take place within the warehouse structure also add value to the overall logistics system.

Economic Benefits- Warehouses provide a economies of scale through efficient operations, storage capacity and a central location. Economic benefits are realized, for example, through consolidation and accumulation operations. Consolidation operations cut outbound delivery costs for both the business and its customers. Instead of shipping items individually from multiple sources, items are delivered to a central warehouse, packaged together and shipped back out as a complete order. Accumulation operations allow a warehouse to act as a buffer, balancing supply and demand for seasonal and long-term storage. This can be vital to business profitability when demand for a product is year-round but the product may only be available at certain times of the year.

Service Benefits- Warehouses can serve as part of a contingency plan to ensure outbound orders are filled in full and on time. A practice called safety stocking allows businesses to maintain a predetermined number of inventory items at its warehouse. On the inbound side, safety stocking means that an emergency such as a transportation delay or a shipment containing defective or damaged goods won’t delay filling and shipping customers order. On the outbound side, safety stocking is insurance against out-of-stock items21.

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48 | P a g e Effective and reasonable warehousing can help companies speed up the flow of goods and material, reduce distribution costs and guarantee the successful process. Meanwhile warehousing can realize good control and management of logistics if a company is to take advantage of quantity purchase discounts on raw materials or other products.

A warehouse is a long-term risky investment. Because of its customized design, goods may be difficult to sell. Long production runs lead to larger inventories and increased warehouse requirements. The problems existed during warehousing may be low utilization rates, uncertain dimensions, invisible effects and advantages. As these situations may sometimes appear, some resources will be idle however. Reasons may be several aspects.

Warehouses are no longer just for storage. In today's cost-conscious, efficiency-driven environment, many manufacturers are reevaluating their definition of warehousing. Anything that doesn't lend itself to a high-speed, highly mechanized, low-labor environment is being sent to the warehouse. As a result of this shift, manufacturers are gradually expanding the services they expect from their warehousing providers, seeking ways to increase flexibility, improve inventory control, manage costs, and streamline the supply chain.