Realigning Service Operations Strategy at DHL Express

Tim Coltman (), John Gattorna () and Stuart Whiting ()
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Tim Coltman: Centre for Business Service Science, University of Wollongong, Wollongong, New South Wales 2522, Australia
John Gattorna: Macquarie Graduate School of Management, Macquarie University, Sydney, New South Wales 2000, Australia
Stuart Whiting: DHL Express Global Head Office, D-53113 Bonn, Germany

Interfaces, 2010, vol. 40, issue 3, 175-183

Abstract: This paper describes the approach that DHL used to respond to aggressive revenue and profit targets set by its Asia-Pacific regional management board. DHL's reaction to these targets was to redefine its strategic service vision by systematically aligning its internal support functions with distinct buyer behavior structures. Specifically, we developed a model based on the tangible and intangible factors that directly influence a customer's choice of a third-party logistics provider. Next, we reverse engineered the service provider's delivery system to align with each customer's preferred buying behavior. DHL's share of wallet and profitability immediately improved, enabling the company to maintain its leading position in the market. Quantitative and qualitative results show an improvement in DHL's market share, customer satisfaction scores, and employee opinion survey results.

Keywords: third-party logistics; service concept; survey research; discrete choice modeling; latent class segmentation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2010
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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