Tapping the Supply Chain Opportunity
Paying attention to service details is a big part of the customer service job that reinforces branding. The Barnes & Noble brand relies heavily on timely availability of titles ordered by customers. Joe Gonella, vice president for inventory management and vendor relations, laid out five conceptual approaches to the distribution process, any one of which can be chosen to maximize customer satisfaction and resource allocation in getting books to one of the company’s stores. They include:
Eugene G. Schwartz is editor at large for ForeWord Reviews, an industry observer and an occasional columnist for Book Business magazine. In an earlier career, he was in the printing business and held production management positions at Random House, Prentice-Hall/Goodyear and CRM Books/Psychology Today. A former PMA (IBPA) board member, he has headed his own publishing consultancy, Consortium House. He is also Co-Founder of Worthy Shorts Inc., a development stage online private press and publication service for professionals as well as an online back office publication service for publishers and associations. He is on the Publishing Business Conference and Expo Advisory Board.