EDITOR’S LETTER

Great Customer Experience Is More than a Buzzword

For the past several years “customer experience” has been one of the most talked about topics in retail. Seminar after seminar at the past two National Retail Federation’s Big Show conferences have focused on this subject and how important creating a great customer experience is to the success of brick-and-mortar as well as e-commerce retailing in today’s omni-channel world.

Much of the customer experience is dependent on a well-oiled supply chain. Because of the growth of omni-channel retailing, loss prevention and asset protection organizations have placed much more attention on securing and streamlining their companies’ supply-chain networks. Here at the magazine, we recognize the importance of our supply-chain LP professionals and have increased our editorial on the subject. For the past year, we have published a column on supply chain (page 24) written by one of the industry’s most accomplished supply-chain executives, Maurizio Scrofani, CCSP, LPC. In this issue for the first time, we have interviewed a director of asset protection for global supply chain—Mike Combs of The Home Depot (see page 27). Even for our readers who are on the corporate or store side, you need to understand the logistics world and how it impacts what you do. Plus, there are growing opportunities to expand your careers in the supply-chain world.

I want to share a personal story that ties into both the customer experience and supply-chain topics. My wife and I own a second home in Manzanillo, Mexico, where we spend six to eight weeks a year. In fact, I’m writing this column from my Manzanillo office. No, there’s not a margarita in my hand on the beach. But I can see the Pacific Ocean from my window and have access to the beach, mountains, and excellent food and beverages after work hours.

We’ve owned our home since 2008 and have spent each year outfitting our home with both essentials and extras to make our home away from home personalized to our tastes. Much of what we’ve added could be found locally, or as local as Guadalajara, which is a three-hour drive from Manzanillo. Other things we have brought with us on the airplane in what we jokingly refer to as “body bags” filled with merchandise from our favorite retailers in the US.

One of the items we’ve looked for in Mexico that surprisingly we’ve not been able to find is dinnerware. Like I’m sure many of you have, we both grew up with Fiesta® dinnerware. Maybe because it’s a US-based manufacturer, we could not find it or anything similar to it locally. Buying it in the US and shipping it to Manzanillo seemed like a daunting and expensive option. That is until I mentioned it to Maurizio, who told me that while the head of supply-chain AP at Macy’s, they had set up a system for shipping to over a hundred countries worldwide. Fortunately for us, Fiesta is a brand that Macy’s carries.

On the Friday before leaving for our current stay, we visited a Charlotte Macy’s store to look at what they carried. Then we went online to place our order. The process was straightforward by simply clicking on the “shipping to” link at the top of the website and putting in our Manzanillo address. Everything else was basically the same.

Because we are staying this trip for six weeks, we hoped that the lengthy delivery times for most shipments from the US to Mexico would allow us to receive the goods before we returned to the US. The prompt notice we received from Borderfree, a global shipping partner for Macy’s and other major retailers, said that our shipment would go out in “five to ten days.” We thought, “Okay, that’s not bad, but how long will it take to arrive?”

We flew out two days later and arrived late Sunday. Monday morning I had an email saying that our shipment would arrive on Friday. Really? Well, it didn’t arrive on Friday; it arrived on Thursday after another notice alerted us to the earlier arrival time.

One week after placing the order, we unpacked three large boxes with absolutely nothing damaged. As you might imagine, we were delighted—the result of a great customer experience made possible by an excellent supply-chain platform. I’m sure that months of work and thousands of man-hours by a team of retail professionals—including the asset protection team—resulted in Macy’s efficient e-commerce supply-chain solution.

The only downside I can offer is that now that we know there is a viable means for ordering products for delivery in Mexico, our bank account will likely suffer. In the meantime, I’ll raise a cold margarita in a toast to Macy’s on the beach later this evening.

Jack Trlica Managing Editor

Jim Carr, CFI Senior Director, Global Asset Protection, Rent-A-Center

Ray Cloud Senior Vice President, Loss Prevention, Ross Stores

Francis D’Addario, CPP, CFE Emeritus Faculty Member, Strategic Influence and Innovation, Security Executive Council

Charles Delgado, LPC Regional Vice President, Store Operations, Academy Sports

Scott Draher, LPC Vice President, Loss Prevention, Safety, and Operations, Lowe’s

Scott Glenn, LPC Chief Security Officer, Sears Holdings

Tim Gorman Divisional Vice President, Loss Prevention, Asset Protection, and Business Continuity, Walgreens

Barry Grant Chief Operating Officer, Canadian Images

Bill Heine Senior Director, Global Security, Brinker International

Frank Johns, LPC Chairman, The Loss Prevention Foundation

Mike Lamb, LPC Vice President, Asset Protection, The Kroger Co.

David Lund, LPC Vice President of Loss Prevention, DICK’S Sporting Goods

John Matas Vice President, Asset Protection, Investigations & ORC, Macy’s

Chris McDonald Senior Vice President, Loss Prevention, Compass Group NA

Randy Meadows Senior Vice President, Loss Prevention, Kohl’s

Melissa Mitchell, CFI Director of Asset Protection and Retail Supply Chain, LifeWay Christian Stores

Dan Provost, LPC Vice President, Global Loss Prevention, Staples

Tina Sellers, LPC Director of Loss Prevention, Retail Business Services LLC, an Ahold-Delhaize Company

Mark Stinde, LPC Vice President, Asset Protection, 7-Eleven

Paul Stone, LPC Vice President, Loss Prevention and Risk Management, Best Buy

Robert Vranek Vice President, Loss Prevention, Belk

Keith White, LPC Senior Vice President, Loss Prevention and Corporate Administration, Gap Inc.

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700 Matthews Mint Hill Rd, Ste C Matthews, NC 28105 704-365-5226 office, 704-365-1026 fax MANAGING EDITOR Jack Trlica JackT@LPportal.com EXECUTIVE EDITOR James Lee, LPC JimL@LPportal.com EDITORIAL DIRECTOR, DIGITAL Jacque Brittain, LPC JacB@LPportal.com MANAGING EDITOR, DIGITAL Kelsey Seidler KelseyS@LPportal.com CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Adrian Beck Read Hayes, PhD, CPP Tom Meehan, CFI Walter Palmer, CFI, CPP, CFE Colin Peacock Maurizio P. Scrofani, CCSP, LPC Garett Seivold Gene Smith, LPC Shane G. Sturman, CFI, CPP Bill Turner, LPC David E. Zulawski, CFI, CFE CHIEF OPERATING OFFICER Kevin McMenimen, LPC KevinM@LPportal.com DIRECTOR OF DIGITAL OPERATIONS John Selevitch JohnS@LPportal.com SPECIAL PROJECTS MANAGERS Kat Houston, LPQ Justin Kemp, LPQ Karen Rondeau DESIGN & PRODUCTION SPARK Publications info@SPARKpublications.com CREATIVE DIRECTOR Larry Preslar

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