Customer service - it is one of the core measures and performance metrics associated with the supply chain.

What's more, customer service is at core of many trade-offs that must be mastered in the supply chain, such as inventory levels versus customer service, or transportation costs versus service.

Given all that, how to define and measure customer service should be well-known and straight forward, right?

Not so fast, says Dr. Michael Watson of Northwestern University and his firm OpEx Analytics, who is also an Expert Insight columnist for Supply Chain Digest.

In this excellent video discussion with SCDigest editor Dan Gilmore, excerpted from the weekly video new broadcast from our Supply Chain Television Channel and CSCMP, Watson says he is seeing clients with many questions about how to best measure customer service. He also says there are many important nuances to consider when defining and reporting customer service performance.

The video discussion was triggered by part 1 of a two part column Watson authored for SCDigest, which you can find here: Supply Chain by Design: Service Level Measures in the Supply Chain

Please view this fast-paced and very interesting video discussion below.