Customer Service Within Sainsbury's Supermarkets Introduction The aim of this report is to look at the different methods used

by research companies to measure customer service and show how they work and how affective they are. The report will then use a questionnaire along with the support of Sainsbury' s Bridgmead store to see how their customer service is rated by their regular customers. The different methods of measuring customer service Customer satisfaction is the extent to which the requirements of the customer are met by the supermarkets and shops. A service is considered satisfactory if it fulfils the needs and expectations of the customer(s), whether the customer is the general public or another business. Measuring this satisfaction is an important element of providing better, more effective and efficient services. When customers are not satisfied with a service as provided, the service is neither effective nor efficient and can result in a loss of business. Why do we measure customer satisfaction? The level of customer satisfaction with services is an important factor in developing a system of service provisions such as the 7P's: Product People Price Physical Evidence Place Processes Promotion Theses areas of any business are responsive to the customers needs while minimising costs and time requirements and maximising the impact

of the services on target populations. The reason being each 'P' represents a different part of the business, which a customer will have to interact with during their shopping experience. In order to develop a service delivery mechanism that addresses its customers' needs, desires and expectations, it is necessary to: * Know what customers are thinking about you, your service, and your competitors. * Measure and improve your performance. * Turn your strongest areas into market differentiations. * Turn weaknesses into opportunities for improvement. * Develop internal communication tools to let everyone know how they are doing. * Demonstrate your commitment to quality and your customers. Feedback and information form important elements in effective service delivery systems and should include: * Level of customer satisfaction and * Quality of the service. Ways to measure customer service Many companies make the mistake of jumping straight into conducting a survey, without giving due consideration to the survey design process. If a customer survey is not designed properly it will not meet its objectives and can provide misleading information. As the report has said before there are many ways to measure customers service, but not all business are suited to the same way of measuring the level of service. The best way to get fed back from a customer is through a questionnaire. This is the best because: * The questions asked can be very open or closed.

* The questions can be very broad or very detailed. * The questionnaire can be offered to the customer to fill in at the store or to take it home and fill it in. Other advantages to using a questionnaire are that they are easy to construct and analyse that any business can afford to have some sort of questionnaire to offer to customers and help them improve their customer service. Even though the questionnaire is the best method for finding out the customers experience there are areas of the questionnaire that have to be constructed well in order to get the desired information. In a questionnaire the main area is in the question and as the report has said there are many types of questions that can be asked. The different questions that can be asked are: Open ended -This question allows the customer to put down any statement they want like areas of improvement, what was good/ bad etc. and these types of questions are usually found at the end of a questionnaire. Closed Questions - This is the most popular question as it allows the company more control over what the response will be, but also will give a clear view of how the customer viewed the area the question was looking at. Another use of the questionnaire is that the questions used can be linked to the 7P's. By linking the questions to the 7P's it will allow a better and clearer analysis of that particular part of the business. E.G: Q: When you were at the checkout was the employee: Polite Rude This question is a good example of how a question can be linked to a key area of the 7P's. The idea of linking an area of the 7P's to one questionnaire can cover a whole section and, depending on the companies requirements a business can have more detailed questions covering one point and only one question covering a single point.

By using the 7P's it gives any questionnaire a structure in which a company can build around. The advantages are that it will make the analysis a lot easer to understand as each section of the questionnaire will have a heading of one of the 7P's. Also it can act as an index, so going back through the questionnaire to find a specific point is made easer. The other aspect of a good questionnaire is the wording of the questions as the customer will need to understand what they are being asked if they are expected to answer. There are two ways to minimise this problem: 1. Would be to have the questionnaire filled in by a member of staff on behalf of the customer. Thus the employee would be able to reword the question if the customer did not fully understand the question. 2. Is where the company hand out a few pilot questionnaires out to staff only to see if they are able to answer all the questions successfully and see if there are any potential problems with the questions being asked. Also if the customer says something, but the question is closed the employee will still be able to make a note of what the customer has said. Where as the customer may have decided not to if they were filling the questionnaire in on their own. Another way of measuring customer service is through the use of focus groups. These are good and often go into more detail than a questionnaire can as more time will be spent on each question. Also more suggestions will be put forward as to how customers fell the business can improve. The down side to this form of research is that it is very costly and can take up a long time, which people participating in will need to be compensated for their time. Another problem is that the questions asked in these focus groups are mainly open, which means making a clear analysis of the responces is very hard. Also the quiet people participating in the focus group could become influenced by the strong members of the group, which means a valid point that someone has may not get voiced. The reports survey for Sainsbury's Bridgmead Looking at the possible ways that the survey could be carried out the report has decided to go with a questionnaire. The reason, as the

report has shown, for taking the questionnaire is that it is easer to analyse the response from the customers. Developing the questionnaire When developing the questionnaire the report decided to split the report up into four different sectors. These sectors are: First impressions of the store. Areas of service within the store. Level of service at the checkouts. Overall level of service. The reason for splitting it into the three sections is so the customer has a clear idea as to the sections of the store they are being asked to comment on. Also it will help split the areas of the questionnaire up when the report starts to analyse the responces that the questionnaire has been able to gather. To make sure that the questionnaire was clear enough for the customer to answer the questions the report decided to have a pilot questionnaire that it tested on about 5 people. (The draft questionnaire can be found under appendix 1.0) The response that was gathered from the draft questionnaire was that question 4 was not detailed enough as people had had an ok level of service, but could only chose best or worst. Another question that people were not happy with was question 5 as the question seemed to finish too soon and needed to find out if the customer had done anything if they were unable to find all the products they wanted. The completed Questionnaire After making the necessary changes to the draft questionnaire the report has constructed the final questionnaire. (The final questionnaire can be found in the appendix under 2.0) From the draft questionnaire the report has added two extra questions onto question 5, which will look into what the customer did after they could not find what they were looking for. Also the report has re-designed question 4 to be easer for customers to understand and

respond to. Questionnaire findings As mentioned in the report the questionnaire has been designed to be analysed in four different sections. This will allow the report to give more detailed feed back and suggestions on how to improve the level of service within the four sections. When analysing the responces from the questionnaire the report will use pie and bar graphs as these will have more of a visual impact than a table of results. (A questionnaire with the responces can be found in the appendix under 3.0) First impressions of the store The following pie graph shows the response received from question one. [IMAGE] The graph shows that out of the customers asked 15 of them said the store gave an ok first impression. This is good and to make sure that the store does not loose any of these positive responces the store could ask that the in store cleaner checks the front of the store every half an hour. In question three most of the customers rated the atmosphere of the store as being pleasant and ok. [IMAGE] Even though this is not a bad sign other competitors (ASDA) of Sainsbury's have their own radio station, which: Plays the latest music, which customers may decide to purchase. Informs customers of the latest offers within the store. Informs customers of the latest news, etc This has been proven to help improve the level of atmosphere of a store as it makes it feel more relaxed rather than tense. Areas within the store A bar graph of question 4 can be found in the appendix under 4.0.

Looking at the response from question 4 the report has found that the best performing department (at the time of the survey) of the store was the bears, wines & spirits department (B.W.S). The reason for this was the expert knowledge that the employees had, which they were able to pass onto the customers. This especially worked when offering advice on a good wine for a customer. Overall, all the departments performed well. Although there is still areas that need to be improved as some customers felt that the level of service they received was poor. To improve the level of service in the other departments customers suggested that they should be kept informed of the latest deals within the store. Also, specialist department employees should have specialist knowledge on the products they sell and should be able to give their own opinion on the products like B.W.S employees. Question five showed that if a customer is unable to find a product they want they will ask a member of staff to see if they can find it out the back. The response from the question also showed that the customers were very happy in the way the employee dealt with their request and how quickly they were with their search. Level of service at the checkouts [IMAGE] Looking at the level of service at the checkouts the speed at which customers are being served at is very good and looking at the response from question seven the till operators are greeting the customer and offering to pack their bags. This shows that the last employee that the customer will see is delivering the level of service that will attract the customer back into the store. (A bar graph of question eight can be found in the appendix 5.0) From question eight the customer is noticing that the employees on the tills are overall keeping themselves as well as their till clean and presentable. This shows the customer that employees are committed to giving a good service at the checkouts and each customer is an individual and not just another customer that they have to serve

during their shift. Overall level of service [IMAGE] Overall the customers felt that their shopping experience was acceptable, which shows that the Sainsbury's store is just doing enough to keep their regular customers happy. To improve this, the Sainsbury's store needs to look at the level of specialist knowledge each member of staff knows about their individual departments. By achieving this it will help see which employees need some extra training to inform customers better. Conclusion Looking back through the report has shown the key ways to measure customer service and how affective they can be when they are used properly. Also the report has shown how a well constructed and executed questionnaire can help a business develop and improve its level of customer service without having to drastically change the businesses working practise.