An Analysis on Customer Care Strategy of Sainsbury

1. 0 Company Introduction Sainsbury’s was founded in London in 1869 as one of the nations’ oldest retailers. It also provides a unique illustration of transformation that has occurred in retailing and in shopping and eating habits since the mid-19th century. It grew to become the largest grocery retailer in 1922, pioneered self-service retailing in the UK, and had its heyday during the 1980s. Now it is the third largest chain of supermarket in the United Kingdom with a share if the UK supermarket sector of 16. 3%.The supermarket chain operates three store formats: regular Sainsbury’s store (â€Å"Main Mission†), Sainsbury’s Local and Sainsbury’s Central (convenience stores and smaller supermarkets in urban locations—â€Å"Mixed Mission†) and Sainsbury’s â€Å"Main Plus† (hypermarket) stores. 2. 0 An Outlook of Sainsbury’s Customer Care Strategy Sainsbury aims at building on and stretching the lead in food. B y sharing customers’ passion for healthy, safe, fresh and tasty food, Sainsbury’s will continue to innovate and provide leadership in delivering quality products at fair prices.Sainsbury will continue to accelerate the development of non-food and service following the principles of quality and to provide a broader shopping experience for customers. Sainsbury commits to reach more customers through additional channels, and it commits to manage its business with integrity. 3. 0 Development of Sainsbury’s Customer Care Strategy Strategy refers to a plan of action designed to achieve a particular goal. 1. Sainsbury should know who Sainsbury’s customers are Sainsbury should know that every member of the community is the potential customer.Sainsbury should reach the total community. Every citizens living around the stores can be Sainsbury’s customers, as well as another companies can be the customer group of Sainsbury. 2. Sainsbury should know the needs of customers Customers need to be understood. Sainsbury comes up with the strategy that it commits to provide quality food with fair prices, which makes consumers delight. Customers need to feel welcome. Sainsbury’s staff serves every customer with a smiling face. Customers need to feel important.Once any customer has some recommendation or suggestion, he can directly approach to managers to point it out. 3. Sainsbury should know how to determine needs Sainsbury puts out questionnaires to citizens to find what they really want to buy when shopping in the supermarket and then determine their goods. It is a way to analyse needs in terms of the development objectives of Sainsbury. Sainsbury’s also set up suggestion box in its supermarkets to listen to customers’ needs. Through different ways such as community meetings and feedback, Sainsbury determines customers’ needs. 4. Sainsbury should response to needsSainsbury shows the real interest in the needs of sp ecial group, such as babies; they display their special tools and foods. Sainsbury ensures that every goods displayed on the shelves represent the real living needs for all customers. Sainsbury holds feedback meetings in order to response customers’ needs, and it commits to handle and solve customers’ complaints. 5. Sainsbury should give access to services Sainsbury never limit the service to the boundaries of Sainsbury’s store building. Sainsbury broadens its service range outside of the supermarkets and Sainsbury carries on deliver service.Sainsbury not only offers the regular stores for its customers, but also provides smaller supermarkets in urban locations as well as shopping online services. 6. Sainsbury should get stakeholders and senior managers’ support Sainsbury establishes a committee to get cooperation and support from the stakeholders and senior managers. They give financial support to promote Sainsbury’s operational environment as wel l as intelligence support to improve Sainsbury’s operational situations. Both of their supports are necessary to the development of Sainsbury. 7. Sainsbury should deliver competencySainsbury analyse its existing services to determine if their service is suitable for their customer care projects and whether the service meets the needs of customers. Sainsbury offers delivery service to customers and Sainsbury provides a search engine in its website to help customers to find the nearest store. 8. Sainsbury should give continuously analyses methods and procedures for improved efficiency. Sainsbury reduces its delivery time and time to supply new goods. Sainsbury has fax and website address to connect with customers. The employees are all trained and professional enough to serve the customers.Sainsbury makes sure that its customers know the standards of service in the stores. 9. Sainsbury should manage an effective communication Sainsbury develops a communication strategy that inf orms all information and provides channels to feedback. Sainsbury trains its employees to develop skills for successful interpersonal communication to introduce goods to customers. Sainsbury uses handbooks to advertise and inform customers’ about special events. Sainsbury puts clear signs to inform customers about the classification of all goods. 4. 0 Sainsbury’s standards in details 1. Employees Sainsbury’s employees should be passionate about working in a customer-facing environment *Sainsbury’s training divided into 4 steps:? basic introduction to Sainsbury’s ? introduce to employees their role and all the basics they need to know to work productively and safely ? develop employees to grow in their role and deliver to the required performance standards ? advanced training covers how to manage and supervise in its employees’ role *Employees are eligible for a colleague discount card when they completed 6 months service *All colleagues with one year’s continuous service can take up to 13 weeks’ unpaid leave for each child nder 5. They are also special provisions allowing time off for parents with disabled children up to 18. *Colleagues are able to exchange a portion of their salary for childcare vouchers which are non-taxable and exempt from National Insurance contributions and therefore represent a saving for colleagues who receive them as part of their total reward package. *The life assurance at the rate of four times staff’s annual basic salary in the event of death in service. *Sainsbury offers eligible colleagues the opportunity to apply for a career break for up to one year. Sainsbury would like to reward its long-term employees *Sainsbury always welcomes applications from people from any background. 2. Customers *Sainsbury is looking for people who can deliver the highest level of customer service each and every day *Customers can access a whole range of different services and meet togethe r in a safe environment. *Sainsbury hosts â€Å"community dinners† with local stakeholders to get to know customers better and understand any issues they have. *Sainsbury always supplies quality food to its customers Sainsbury creates ranges of food covering all customers’ needs *Sainsbury helps every customers cut their cost while shopping *Customers can buy goods online which will save a lot of money and time. *Sainsbury kids range is nutritionally balanced, so you can be sure you are making good, healthy choices for your children. *Sainsbury offers organic food. *Sainsbury provides customers various food recipes covering every type of meal, dish and ingredient; they really can try something new every day. *Sainsbury has the â€Å"store locator†, customers can find the nearest Sainsbury’s shop quickly. . Suppliers and Subcontractors *Sainsbury makes a deal with developing countries in order to support fair trade. *Sainsbury requires its suppliers and su bcontractors to provide fresh and healthy foods. *Sainsbury requests its suppliers and subcontractors to deliver their goods in the quickest time. *Sainsbury commits to settle accounts with suppliers and subcontractors as soon as possible. *Sainsbury requires its suppliers and subcontractors to register in a formal organization. *The suppliers and subcontractors of Sainsbury need to have a formal address and e-mail address to contact. . Community *For Sainsbury, this is not about providing great service and quality products, it’s also about making a positive difference to the communities and being a good neighbour. *Sainsbury provides local jobs for local people, and buys from local suppliers. *Sainsbury carries on Active Kids and Local Charity of the Year schemes. It helps kids who are in poverty to go to school and have medical check. *Sainsbury maintains longstanding partnership with Comic Relief, which is a local charity organization, to donate clothes and medicines and n ecessaries to rural areas. Sainsbury provides its customers options about charities to do good things on kids or social while they are shopping. 5. Environment *Sainsbury commits to reduce our impact on the environment. *Sainsbury sources products from all over the world, which means they have an important part to play, both in the evolving environmental debate, and in doing what they can do to reduce their carbon and wider environmental footprint. *Sainsbury was praised for having â€Å"excellent sustainable farming and fish policies† and the â€Å"high proportion of sustainable products available† in a survey. Sainsbury searches the latest ideas in engineering and building design, which could dramatically help them reduce their carbon footprint. *Sainsbury develops â€Å"carbon positive† stores or provide heat and recycled water to customers’ homes. *Sainsbury commits to reduce energy, packaging, food waste and wasting. 5. 0 Ways in which the Standards Were Established Customer care standard is more detail than customer care strategy and it direct how to carry on the project. A customer care standard normally covers areas of management practice, broken down into these sections: †¢ Employees Customers †¢ Suppliers and subcontractors †¢ Community and environment 1. Employees: *Clear employ article: EMP1: Organisations have a clear employ article and conditions and the procedure to ensure faith. EMP2: Organisations should secure the personal information for its employees. Safe and healthy working conditions: EMP3: Staff can get enough training to ensure the safety while working. *Faith salary system: EMP4: Staff has a clear mind about the time and method in paying salary. *Organisation engages in treat existing and potential employees’ variety.EMP5: Encourage the variety of the employees and welcome the new staff. *Encourage its staff improve in their career: EMP6: Organisations offer many kinds of training to h elp employees developing in their career. *Organisations are not allowed to molest any employees in any way. EMP7: Organisations should have the relevant articles to ensure the teenagers working in the national standards. 2. Customers *Organisations set up an equal relationship with its customers: CUS1: In the condition of respecting customers, organisations have clear business articles.CUS2: The information of customers can be used in the condition that is allowed by customers. CUS3: Organisations have the procedure to settle complaints in especially time. CUS4: The recommendations of the customers are fully considered. *Organisations ensure the safety of the products in the reasonable range: CUS5: The products or service have a clear illustration about the information like use, composition, and conservancy. CUS6: Organisations have the responsibility to protect the weak group. 3. Suppliers and subcontractors: The simple data and information about the supplier and subcontractor can be easily found in the website. SUP1: clear and crystal standards to select suppliers. SUP2: The information can only be used in the condition that are allowed by suppliers and subcontractors. SUP3: Organisations have the procedure to solve the conplaints from suppliers in ruled time. *Organisations offer money to suppliers in agreed standard. SUP4: Have the procedure to ensure suppliers and subcontractors get funds according to the agreement. Organisations encourage suppliers and subcontractors to carry on necessary business convention SUP5: Organisations should ensure the suppliers and subcontractors gain the training and exercise about the safety knowledge. *Organisation has an honest relationship with the suppliers and subcontractors 4. Community *Organisations promote the business environment on community: COM1: Organisations should consider the influences on the plan and action. COM2: Organisation has the action to promote the development of the community.COM3: Ensure to brin g up customers in the ruled area. *Organisations need to be sensitive to the local culture and economic structure: COM4: Organisation should have the procedures to ensure that its products or service will not threaten the safety. 5. Environment *Organisation reduces the use of energy and the emission of waste: ENV1: Organisations should point out clearly that the influences of its service and goods to local environment and the solutions. ENV2: Organisation takes charge of supervising and reducing the impact on local environment.ENV3: Have the procedure to ensure that its employees and suppliers are encouraged to the exercises of protecting the environment. ENV4: Encourage the use and abandon of the environmental friendly of the products. 6. 0 Methods Used by Qualitative Research and Quantitative Research to Gather and Analyse Information from Customers with Respect to Their Impressions of Sainsbury’s Customer Care 1. Qualitative Research Qualitative Research seeks out the â⠂¬Å"why† of its topic through the analysis of unstructured information and it does not rely on statistics or numbers.Qualitative research is used to gain insight into people’s attitudes, behaviors, value systems, concerns, motivations, aspiration culture or lifestyles. It is used to inform business decisions, policy formation, communication and research. Focus groups, in-depth interviews, content analysis and semiotics are among the many formal approaches that are used, but qualitative research also involves the analysis of any unstructured material. Sainsbury chooses interview as the way to carry on qualitative research.Interview is a technique that is primarily used to gain an understanding of the underlying reasons and motivations for people’s attitudes, preferences or behavior. Interviews can be undertaken on a personal one-to-one basis or in a group. The interview is put in the appendix A. Sainsbury interviewed 100 people and makes a conclusion that most of the customers are satisfied with the stores, and they think the goods are mostly cheap. Besides, people interviewed are all satisfied with the environment in Sainsbury, and they think the stores are light and clean, which really delights them.However, the customers are too many so that it is usually crowded, especially in holidays and discounts. What is more, most of the stores are set in downtown and it makes difficult for people who live in suburbs to buy in the stores. 2. Quantitative Research Quantitative research is used to measure how many people feel, think or act in a particular way. These surveys tend to include large samples. The objective of quantitative research is to develop and employ mathematical models, theories and/or hypotheses pertaining to natural phenomena.Sainsbury chooses questionnaire as the method to give a quantitative research. Questionnaire is quantitative preferred and freedom of respondent. The questions have to be relatively simple and there is no inte rviewer bias. The questions usually are literacy problems and there is no control over who completes it. The questionnaires are presented in the appendix B. These questionnaires are handed out to 1,000 people. Sainsbury makes a conclusion through research by questionnaires.Most regular customers of Sainsbury think the dominating reason contributes them to buying in Sainsbury is the fair price with good quality. Customers focus on price while shopping dominates 73%. Around 87% of customers think the service attitude in Sainsbury is passionate and 72% of customers think the environment in Sainsbury is bright and clean. Moreover, 53% of Sainsbury’s customers gain salary between 5,000 to 10,000 and 27% of its customers gain salary between 1,000 to 5,000; customers gain salary less than 1,000 or over 10,000 both dominate 10%.Through the comparison of the data from 2007 to 2010, customers’ attitude about the goods price has changed. More people think the goods are cheaper an d the increase in the attitude of acceptable is more visible; less people hold the view that the goods are expensive in Sainsbury. There are two diagrams presented in appendix C and appendix D. 7. 0 The Review of Sainsbury’s Customer Care Strategy Review is an evaluation of an operating process or a business outcome. Sainsbury chooses â€Å"comparing to customer feedback analysis† to review its customer care strategy.Before Sainsbury carry on another new customer care strategy, it makes a survey among its customers and makes a conclusion. After carrying on for a period of time, Sainsbury does a equal number survey among customers and makes a conclusion through comparing and analyzing the data: Sainsbury increases its opening hour and it makes customers life more convenient; Sainsbury promotes its employees moral and passion in serving customers. However, Sainsbury should update its goods in a high frequency and strengthen the arrangement after customers’ selecti ng goods.Sainsbury chooses â€Å"Third Party Assessment† as another method to review its customer care strategy. Sainsbury hires Mckinsey & Company to give a overall assessment about its customer care strategy and standard by using professional methods, ways, and procedures. The conclusions are made below: Sainsbury does well in caring about customers’ healthy lifestyle and delivering a healthy lifestyle to its customers; That Sainsbury encourages its customers to give a hand to local charity and people need help is a light point in Sainsbury’s strategy.However, Sainsbury must promote its after-sale responsibility and its after-sale quality. Some sorts of service, such as point out the use structure of some special goods, need to be highlighted. 8. 0 Recommendation There are some weaknesses in Sainsbury’s customer care. The relationship between suppliers and Sainsbury sometimes is not equal; The after-sale services are sometimes not enough; The safety env ironment in Sainsbury is not secured enough.In response to this, Sainsbury should point out a clear after-sale responsibility and promote the after-sale service quality; Sainsbury need to inform suppliers and subcontractors about the loss before the change of the business articles; Sainsbury need to strengthen the supervision on the safety environment and it is necessary to hand out the safety handout to employees to guarantee their safety while working. 9. 0 Reference Books: —-Scottish Qualifications Authority, Creating a Culture of Customer Care. —-Bryman, A. (1988a), Quantitative and Qualitative in Social Research, Routledge, London.Websites: http://www. sainsburys. co. uk/sol/index. jsp http://zhidao. baidu. com/question/13903776. html http://zh. wikipedia. org/ 10. 0 Appendix Appendix A 1. What do you think about the service at Sainsbury? 2. What goods do you think we should add to our goods list? 3. What service do you think we should add? 4. What reason contribu tes you to consume in Sainsbury? 5. What do you think about the quality of Sainsbury’s goods? 6. What do you think about the quantity of Sainsbury’s goods? 7. What do you think about our recommendation system? 8. What do you think about the environment in Sainsbury? . What do you think about the prices of our goods? 10. Why do you consume in Sainsbury? What attracts you to consume? Appendix B 1. What contributes you to buying in Sainsbury? A. fair price B. good quality C. convenient D. else 2. The frequency you shopping in Sainsbury every month? A. over 15 B. 10~15 C. 5~10 D. under 5 3. What do you think about the kinds of goods in Sainsbury? A. complete B. so-so C. small 4. What do you think about the prices of goods in Sainsbury? A. cheap B. middle level C. expensive 5. What aspect do you focus on when shopping? A. rice B. quality C. brand 6. What do you usually buy in Sainsbury? A. necessaries B. vegetables C. clothes 7. What do you think about the quality of goods in Sainsbury? A. good B. so-so C. bad 8. What do you think about the service attitude in Sainsbury? A. passionate B. acceptable C. bad 9. What do you think about the environment in Sainsbury? A. bright and clean B. so-so C. mess and uncomfortable 10. Can you find the goods you need easily? A. yes B. a little difficult C. only find with the help of assistant 11. Are there big supermarkets around your house?A. yes B. no C. unsure 12. What big supermarket do you usually consume? A. Wal-mart B. Tesco C. Sainsbury D. else 13. What is your gender? A. male B. female 14. What age group are you in? A. under 18 B. 18~25 C. 25~45 D. over 45 15. What salary group are you in? A. under 1,000 B. 1,000~5,000 C. 5,000~10,000 D. over 10,000 Appendix C Appendix D [pic] People’s attitudes about the prices of Sainsbury’s goods ———————– [pic]The salary level monthly of Sainsbury’s customers 10,000 1,000~~5,000 5,000~~10,000