Logistics Service Management: Opportunities for Differentiation

In this article a model is described, which enables differentiation of the logistics service that a company offers to its customers. Differentiating this service is essential for businesses with a large variation within their customer and/or products portfolio. The model consists of four phases: cost structuring, profiling, evaluating and differentiating. The application of the model results in a number of customer order profiles that group customers according to their ordering behavior. Each customer order profile can be drawn up for an appropriate logistics service arrangement, in order to balance service and costs. The model helps to transform logistics service from a cost generator to a powerful marketing tool.