To

Mr John Matson, Branch Manager Mr Badri Hassan, Store Manager 4th of November 2011

From : Date :

Dear sir, I am Badri and have been working as a Store Manager of JF Hypermarket Johor Bahru since 01.01.2011. Recently, there were some complaints from our customer regarding some frozen lamb delivered by a supplier has a peculiar taste, and customers have complained about it. It is often said that the consumer is always right and customer satisfaction is paramount for success in a business, so when a major increase in customer complaints of some major customers of ours occurred it initiated a review. Customers are constantly judging companies for service failures large and small, from a glitchridden business-software program to a hamburger served cold. They judge the company first on how it handles the problem, then on its willingness to make sure similar problems don't happen in the future. And they are far less forgiving when it comes to the latter. Fixing breakdowns in service, we call this service recovery has enormous impact on customer satisfaction, repeat business, and, ultimately, profits and growth. The complaints were about the peculiar taste of the frozen lamb. More than that, some of the customers complained about then smell, and how did it changed in colours. Include herewith are some of the complaints we received and how we tackled the problem seriously for your review.

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Below are the complaints reported to our hypermarket for your reference : 2.1 Complaint A : Maradian Hotel, Tanjung Our hotel bought 1000 kilos lamb meat on-sale this week for RM25,000.00 at JF Hypermarket Johor Bahru. Package was dated good through 25/10/2011, it was one of their sealed packages. Got it open last night to cook, 26/10/2011; the smell of it was horrible when we opened it, like it was spoiled. I'm wondering if it hadn't been properly refrigerated at the store, as it had gone straight from the store to our hotel refrigerator after we bought it. Washing it with tap water, and marinating it with black pepper/hot sauce/red pepper/etc killed some of the stink.

We tempted to return to JF Hypermarket and ask for a refund; we still have the original meat wrapper, it stank so badly in our refrigerator freezer that we had to take it out, double-bag it, and put it downstairs in the deep-freezer; we then wiped the kitchen fridge with bleach as it stank so badly. Totally disgusted; we had bought plenty of lambs there before, we think we'll stick to the partially frozen bnls/sknls chicken breasts from now on!! Action taken by our Management: After a discussion with our management, JF Hypermarket decided to fulfill the requirement of the above customer. We agreed to refund without hesitate.

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Complaint B : Rest House Batu Pahat JF Hypermarket is the worst run (management is non-existent and what there is of management is comprised of rude individuals who haven't a clue what it takes to "keep" a customer) supermarket or any food store I have ever shopped in. They advertise their meat in the butcher display case as Angus, but generally it is more comparable to "steer".
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Not only is their routinely mold covered fruit on display for sale, but I have actually seen produce employees putting out moldy berries, etc.

The above are not isolated instances... each have happened more times than I choose to recant here.

The icing on the cake is if you dare take the berries back or the meat to their "noncustomer service counter"... you are in for a real treat consisting of something close to a tongue lashing by someone who claims to be "the manager" on duty.

I have personally called and written JF headquarters regarding these issues, particularly the brow beating by management of not only me, but so many others I have seen go through the same poor treatment- and guess what, absolutely NO follow-up by JF. I have found that it is far better to shop at The Giants and pay the ringgit more for "REAL ANGUS" beef, real fresh produce, and friendly staff and management. Apparently The Giants is far more particular in their hiring practices than JF Hypermarket. Action taken by JF Hypermarket Management : The management had agreed to send a letter of apology to Rest House Batu Pahat. We also send two of our top management persons to meet up with the owner and apologized for what had happened.

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Complaint C : Ros Katering Enterprise Ive bought 100 kilos of lamb meat on 1st November 2011 which cost me RM15,000.00 at your hypermarket.

Then the next day which we had to prepare a catering to Majlis Daerah Segamat event, we notice that the lamb meat that we bought had a very bad smell. And also the meat changed in colour. It turned to brown instead of red. At the moment, we were panicking and had to inform the district officer in charge of F&B. At that time, nothing can be done except changed the menus and luckily we managed to do so. But unfortunately, we had a big total loss. Furthermore, it builds a bad reputation as we are a well-known caterer in Segamat. Due to it, we would like your hypermarket to refund us the total loss of RM15,000.00 and another RM10,000.00 as a compensation due the incident. Failure to fulfill our requirement will be regretted and further action will be taken by our company. Action Taken by our company: Our head management had a meeting regarding this matter. And due to it we also agreed that we refund the total loss of RM15,000.00 with another RM10,000.00 after considered the reputation of the company.

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Complaint D : Damsik Restaurant We had bought 800 kilos of lamb meat at your Hypermarket on 23rd October 2011 which cost us more than RM50,000.00. The meat was cooked and served for our VIP customers on the 24th October 2011. It was supposed to meet the expectation of our customers demand and yet was a disaster. The meat had a peculiar smell. They had eaten the dish and vomited on the spot. The situation had never happen in our restaurant experience and it was the first time ever. Our management already sends all the meat which was wrapped neatly as we received before from your company. It was regretted when we had to deal with
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the embarrassing situation as your hypermarket has always supplied the lamb meat to our restaurant. Due to it, we would like your hypermarket to supply us the same quantity of fresh lamb meat that you had supplied to us as compensation. Action taken by JF Hypermarket : We agreed to supply the same quantity of lamb meat that had the peculiar taste.

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Recommendation for future undertake At some point, business owners, store managers and store employees have to deal with upset or irate customers. The company's ability to effectively deal with customer complaints provides an opportunity to transform dissatisfied customers into happy patrons. These patrons then become active promoters of the business through positive word of mouth marketing. This helps to increase business and provide a friendlier work environment. The Australian Quality Council (1994b) identifies seven key areas of successful organization performance as being leadership; customer focus; policy and planning; information and analysis; people; quality of process, product and service; and organisational performance through measurable data from key indicators. Best practice management procedures must start with and maintain executive support. Commitment, involvement and guidance from top management are vital to an organization establishing a quality environment in which the needs of the customer are addressed (Carr & Johansson 1995; Lindgreen & Crawford 1999; Mann, Adebanjo & Kehoe 1998; Terziovski, Sohal & Samson 1996; Thiagarajan & Zairi 1997). One best practice measure of ascertaining the significance of customer satisfaction is to benchmark competitors. Benchmarking is used to objectively search competitors or those organizations recognised as leaders in a specific area of the industry. Learning by
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borrowing from the best and by adapting their approaches to fit your own needs is the essence of benchmarking (Best Practices, LLC 2003). Best practice is now widely implemented within manufacturing companies in Malaysia. However, there has been little adoption within the food service industry, especially in the red meat products segment. While best practice has been identified as a key contributor to improving customer satisfaction in many industries, participants within the Malaysian meat industry including many meat scientists have mainly focused on the tenderness issue. Tenderness has been identified as the major palatability trait leading to customer satisfaction (Koohmaraie 1994; National Cattlemans Association 1994; Morgan et al. 1991; Morgan 1992; Savell & Shackelford 1992). Researchers however, have identified many reasons for the decline in beef sales including concerns of healthiness and diet (Cross & Saville 1993; Richardson MacFie & Shepherd 1994; Teys 1993) and competitive pricing of alternative meat sources (Gorny & Atmadi-Esfakan 1993). There are also some suggestions which may take into the consideration. Some of the best practice initiatives including:

Management training; Performance agreements; Benchmarking; Continual improvement processes; and Staff and supplier training

1. Management training - Staff involvement through the initiation of meat teams gave responsibility for monitoring quality, updating specifications and delivering of meat to, or in excess of, customer requirements. These meat teams involved suppliers, and in some cases, their foreman responsible for preparation and delivery of product.

2. Performance agreements - Closer relations with suppliers included the development of new product lines, appropriate meat product specifications and training in preparation techniques. This all led to accurately delivering the required quality and consistency of meals to the customer. Quality partnerships consisted of an agreement with suppliers involving quality standards, hygiene standards, and service standards and pricing structure. Feedback of supplier product performance was given for subjective and objective measures.

Improved processes involved the use of Malaysia meat language and added food service criteria to write all specifications. Specifications were written for suppliers to value add to the product as much as possible. The use of objective technology was used where possible to accurately assess and give feedback to suppliers.

Performance indicators included quality standards (specifications), competitive pricing techniques such as tendering, service and hygiene standards. Savings relating to labour, cooking time and specification wastage were assessed through time and motion studies under commercial conditions.

3. Benchmarking - Customer focused programs consisted of benchmarking customers and food service centres around Johore. A benchmark survey consisted of 761 international and national customers sourcing meals from 12 food service centres including Segamat, Batu Pahat, Kota Tinggi, Kluang, Johor Bahru and etc. Customers were surveyed at the time a main lamb meat meal was served. Questions on tenderness, juiciness, overall satisfaction and percentage of meat eaten were included 4. Continual improvement processes - A whole of company approach was taken to develop a continuous improvement strategy that involved the following departments: marketing, purchasing and supply, menu development, labour planning and quality control. Moreover, strong leadership, commitment and vision by the General Manager were essential.

Continuous improvement was initiated by the use of ongoing surveys, quality partnerships, national sourcing of product, monthly sensory testing by trained taste panels and feedback to suppliers.

The process of continuous improvement was instilled by monitoring customer requirements, development of product lines and specifications jointly with
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customers, suppliers and meat teams using the Malaysian meat language and the cooking techniques commercially used in delivery of product to customers. Hygiene standards were developed across all sectors of the meat supply chain. The purchasing process gave feedback to suppliers putting product forward for testing enabling suppliers to benchmark their suppliers of raw products. Quality control, assurance and monitoring involved quality partnership agreements, receiver monitoring of temperature, hygiene, pH, capacity to meet specification and monthly taste testing performance. Cooking manuals were developed to instruct staff in the correct cooking times and specifications. Monitoring of customer feedback occurred to allow for adjustments, if required. 5. Staff and supplier training - All centres had a training project team to train the present, new in-house and supplier staff. These nominated trainers from both foodservice and meat supplier companies delivered appropriate meat product courses using a best practice program approach. This training developed skills and knowledge to confidently implement identified initiatives on a long-term basis. A training manual was developed for trainers with individual training components for each department involved in the meat quality program. A video was developed on hygiene requirements for staff of suppliers.

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