When we think about customer experience, we picture the end user, the person who buys, books or visits. But customer experience starts long before that moment. It begins with the people and organisations that make it possible for you to deliver on your promises, your suppliers.
Suppliers are your first customers. They are the first to test how easy you are to work with, how you communicate and how reliable your systems really are. The way you treat them shapes not only what they deliver, but how willing they are to go the extra mile when it counts.
When supplier experience is strong, you see it in the quality, timeliness and innovation that flows through your operations. When it’s weak, the signs are subtle at first, missed details, slower responses and eventually, a quiet disengagement that affects your end customer long before you notice.
The hidden relationship economy
Every supplier relationship operates on two levels, contractual and emotional. The contract defines the transaction; the experience defines the relationship. You can meet every contractual term and still create frustration through unclear briefs, inconsistent communication or late payments.
Conversely, when suppliers feel respected, informed and valued, they become proactive problem-solvers. They share new ideas, prioritise your jobs and help you see issues before they escalate. In effect, they become part of your quality system and your reputation.
Designing the supplier experience
We’ve already explored what it means to design stakeholder experience in this edition, to think intentionally about how every relationship with your organisation feels and functions. The same principles apply here, but the supplier lens adds a few distinct dynamics worth paying attention to.
Suppliers sit at a critical intersection of trust and performance. They experience your organisation not through campaigns or service touchpoints, but through process, communication, and consistency. Their perception of you is formed in purchase orders, lead times, and how you handle pressure.
Designing the supplier experience, then, means building predictability, fairness and shared confidence into those interactions. The levers are different, but the intent is the same, to make it easy and worthwhile for suppliers to do great work with you.
Ask yourself:
- What’s the emotional experience of doing business with us, is it calm and professional or chaotic and transactional?
- Do our systems make collaboration simple or cumbersome?
- How do we respond when things go wrong, with solution focused partnership or with blame?
Small, practical signals like clear briefs, early forecasts, transparent feedback and timely payment create big impressions.
These are not administrative details; they’re relationship moments that communicate whether you are a customer worth prioritising.
When suppliers feel respected and supported, they respond with reliability, flexibility, and innovation, qualities that ripple through to your own customers. In this way, supplier experience becomes a powerful driver of both brand integrity and operational resilience.
Why it matters
Supplier experience is more than operational hygiene, it’s a strategic lever. It influences cost, risk and resilience, but also your brand integrity. In moments of crisis or surge demand, suppliers prioritise the clients they trust and enjoy working with.
Thinking of suppliers as your first customers reframes the relationship from one of leverage to one of partnership. It recognises that every customer experience is built on a chain of other experiences and the weakest link will always show.
Your brand is only as strong as the relationships behind it. And often, those start long before your customer walks through the door.
