customer service with in Sainsbury

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Introduction to the assignment

In this assignment I have to write a report that clearly shows that I have investigated the customer service practices of an organisation and commented on how the organisation could improve its customer service.

The organisation that I have decided to do my assignment on is Sainsbury (J-Sainsbury Plc).

Introduction to the company

J Sainsbury plc is a leading UK and US food retailer with interests in financial services and property. The group comprises Sainsbury’s Supermarkets and Sainsbury’s Bank in the UK and Shaw’s Supermarkets in the US. Group turnover in 2003 was £18.2 billion; underlying earning per share was 21.5 pence.

Sainsbury's Supermarkets was established in 1869 by John James and Mary Ann Sainsbury and is Britain's longest-standing major food retailing chain.

The founders' principles and values guide them strongly today as they did at the outset - to be the customer's first choice for food shopping by providing high-quality products, value for money, excellent service and attention to detail.

Sainsbury's Supermarkets employs over 173,000 people a year (including Savacentre). Of these, 60% are part-time and 40% full-time. 62% of employees are women.

A large Sainsbury's Supermarket offers over 23,000 products - 40% of these are Sainsbury's own brand. In addition to a wide range of quality food and grocery products, many stores offer bread baked on the premises, delicatessen, meat and fish counters, pharmacies, coffee shops, restaurants and petrol stations.

Sainsbury's Supermarkets serves over 11 million customers a week and as at October 2003 had 512 stores throughout the UK. Nearly 60% of our stores are in town-centre or edge-of-centre locations, many of these built on previously derelict sites.

Sainsbury’s objective is to be the UK consumer’s first choice for food and to meet its customers’ needs effectively and thereby provide shareholders with good, sustainable financial returns, and to create an outstanding shopping environment This means they would like to grow and have good customer services. Also to ensure all colleagues have opportunities to develop their abilities and are well rewarded for their contribution to the success of the business. Its policy is to work with all of its suppliers fairly, recognising the mutual benefit of satisfying customers’ needs. It also aims to fulfil its responsibilities to the communities and environments in which it operates

There mission is to serve customers the best quality and choice
to meet their everyday shopping needs. To deliver there mission, and restore profitable growth they focus on three parts:

 

Outstanding quality and choice in food and then importantly, in other general merchandise products and customer services that make the weekly shop more convenient.

Delivering great service, serving customers consistently well at checkouts and in shop floor availability.

Having competitive costs, implements their transformation programme to create an efficient business, so they can pass the benefits of lower costs onto their customers in competitive prices.

Sainsbury’s customer service

Customer service is an extra service providing to the customers to stay ahead of the competitors. Proving good customer service means more customers and profit.

Customer service consists various ways in which a business looks after its customers and offers pre-sales service, such as providing advice to customers on their product needs; and after-sales services, such as repair and maintenance back-up and the replacement of the faulty products or parts. Customer service plays an important part of the marketing mix, serving to attract new customers and reinforcing brand loyalty among existing customers.

Sainsbury believes delivering great service is about making their customers' shopping trips easy, enjoyable and inspiring. Therefore it makes sure that their colleagues know that, an important part of their job is to serve the customers at their very best.

To help them constantly improve on customer service they employ a team of independent shoppers, known as 'mystery shoppers'. They carry out in-depth checks on their customers' shopping experience to assess whether it is easy and enjoyable. The store is unaware that the check is being made until it is told how well it has performed and which areas need improvement.

Another way they improve their customer service is by looking at the needs of their customers and than finding the best way to meet those needs.

They find the needs of the customers when customers contact them or when they do research their selves. In an average week Sainsbury receives around 50,000 customer contacts (2.5 million per year), mainly through their freephone Customer Careline or by post and e-mail.

They have one colleague, specialising in that subject, who follows through complaints and queries. Simple requests like store opening times are dealt immediately but complicated queries takes a bit longer.

They also talk to about 600,000 customers a year, either individually or in groups, in over 3,000 individual pieces of research. Topics have included measures of customer satisfaction, monitors of product quality and brand image as well as specific research on packaging, new store layouts and effectiveness of promotions. In addition, they make use of online data systems and access desk research from sources like the Financial Times, Henley Centre, Office for National Statistics, Verdict Research and the Institute of Grocery Distribution.

As well meeting the needs of the customers, Sainsbury already has other good facilities, which helps it to be a good customer service. They are:

Health

Sainsbury understands that healthy eating is about balance, so they focus on providing clear and easy-to-read nutritional information on their products to help customers seeking this balance. In some stores they carry out health checks and allergy tests.

They have successfully reduced the level of salt in their products, and minimised the unnecessary use of pesticides to grow

Different tastes

It offers a very wide range of products (over 20,000 different products in many of our supermarkets) to meet just about every taste. For example, it caters for local tastes in Scotland by opening Simon Howie branded meat counters, Kelly's of Cornwall ice cream in the South West, Bartons pickles in the North West, Genesis bread in Northern Ireland and a wide range of kosher foods in Finchley Road.

Top-shelf publications

Although there are no legal or trade guidelines on what may or may not be sold in newsagent outlets in general, their policy is not to display or sell any newspaper or magazine, which they think it would offend or embarrass the average customer.

 Sainsbury are also a member of Baywatch campaigning. Baywatch is a national campaign set up in response to widespread concern about the abuse of parking spaces designated for use by people with a disability.

Along with other national retailers Sainsbury’s are supporting the campaign throughout their stores.

Sainsbury's recognises that each of its customers is an individual with individual needs, so all members of staff receive disability training as part of their induction programme to ensure that all staffs have an understanding of the needs of thier disabled customers.

They were voted the best corporate chain store for their commitment to providing better service for deafblind customers at the Deafblind Friendly Corporate Awards 2001.

It supports the Wellbeing 'Eating for Pregnancy' Helpline, which is run by state-registered dieticians. This shows they care about pregnancy customers as well.

As they are supporters of the National Childbirth Trust's 'Breast is Best' campaign, they provide baby changing rooms and some free nappies.

 

Free membership is available for the Little Ones Club, but they are only entitles to the customers when they are shopping. A free magazine is also available for parents with the latest news on childcare and new products. Some of the larger stores also sell range of Adams children's clothing and Early Learning Centre toys.

What is customer protection?

Customer protection is made up of several laws, which is placed by the government in favour of the consumers. This is placed to insure that the businesses know precisely what their responsibilities are towards their consumers. E.g. when selling a product to a customer, the business has to make sure that the customer is happy and satisfied with it.

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These are consumer protection legislation laws.

  • Sale of Goods Act (SGA) 1979 – this Act is consolidated the 1893 Act and its amendments.

The right of the seller to sell = in every contract, there are some implied conditions. One such implied condition is that the seller has legal right to sell. When you go shopping you do not ask the shopkeeper if the goods that he or she is offering to sale are legally his or hers – you have to assume that it is so, but if later on you discover that the seller did ...

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