The common needs and expectation of external customers:
Information : The external customers of Tesco always expect the goods to be of high quality. They want to obtain the information on goods to know that it is of a high quality and they have to clarify and query detail.
Honest dealing: The customers may need to ask for a refund if they are dissatisfied with the goods and make sure they can make a complaint.
Services : Customers want to have a polite and good customer service provided for them. Some elderly and disable people may need the delivery service.
Environment: Customers like to shop in a safe and comfortable environment and they want to have a shop forecourt where they can load goods in a safe area with no heavy traffic.
Well-packaged products: Customers like to buy the products which are well-
packaged and with no damage on it.
Payment facilities: Customers want the company to provide a variety of payment facilities. (E.g. credit card, cash) so they can pay for the goods easier.
Facilities: Customer may need a rest place and toilet when they shop in Tesco. Disable will need a lift and disable toilet. Customer with kids or baby will need some facilities for them.
The needs and expectations of internal customers:
Information and Assistance: Internal customers need to get the new information about the company and get assistance on employment law in relation to personnel problems.
Communication: Employees of Marks & Spencer are kept well informed of the performance and objectives of the group through personal briefings, regular meetings and e-mail.
Regular stock: They need regular stocks of advertisements, printed forms and to buy stationary and repair.
Inter-shop computer: Internal customers want rapid processing of transactions through the inter-shop computer system.
Complaints: If they are dissatisfied with the services of head office or regional shops, they need to be able to make a complaint.
Services: Internal customers need politely given services.
Delivery on time: They want documents that are sent from other offices delivered on time.
Training: New workers will be relatively unproductive if they received no job-related training.
Payment: Employees need a good payment system with good levels of pay.
Equal opportunities: Employees want to have equal opportunities in treatment.
Customer service of Tesco to meet customers’ needs
Tesco provide a lot of different customer service to meet different customers’ needs.
1. Trolley and basket:
Tesco provide different types of free trolleys and basket in front of the entrance for their customers to meet different needs.
They have a large size trolley, a medium size trolley and basket for their customers. Therefore their customers can decide how many products they will buy and choose different trolley or basket.
For customers who have kids or baby, Tesco have a trolley with “baby chair” on it. Therefore, kids or baby can sit down on the trolley and shopping with their mother or family. Tesco also has kids trolley, which is a small trolley for kids to shopping. So, the kids can also do their own shopping and will not feel boring.
For disables: there have special trolleys for disables people in Tesco, which can connect to the front of wheel chair. Therefore, disables people can do their shopping easily with their wheel chair. Tesco also will sent staff to help hand crippled customers.
2. Car park
Tesco have a large and clean under roof car park, which is secured and ticketed. There have a car cleaning service inside the car park; it is convenience for their customers to clean their car. The car park also have some special area for disable’ vehicles. Therefore, disables can easy to find a place to park their car.
3. Health and safety
Tesco keep their shopping area very clean and tidy. All of their products are on the shelve tidily, and they separate their products into different groups with instruction. Therefore customers can easy to get the products they want.
Tesco have security guards at the entrance to protect the shop and customers, they make sure that all customers in Tesco are shopping in a safety place.
4. Facilities
Tesco has provided many different facilities for their customers to meet their different needs.
At the entrance, there have the pictures of all the managers’ in this Tesco shop. And next to the entrance, there have a customer service center. Customers can ask for all the information they want or do their complaint there.
There have a new facility in Tesco is “tesco TV”. It is a television which introduce the products and services in Tesco and also tell the customer what products are on sale. Customer can easy to get The produces and services information from the “tesco TV”. There have many tesco TV at the different part in Tesco, customers can see this television everywhere inside the Tesco.
For customers with baby, Tesco has baby-feeding area, water warming facility and baby changing facility. Customers can feed their baby whenever they want in Tesco so they do not have to worry to shopping with their baby.
At the second floor of Tesco is a café; it is a very good idea that customers can stay in the supermarket for very long time with this caters service. Customers also can take a rest by sit down in the café. And it has a free “trolley storage” at the entrance of the café, so customers do not have to carry the trolley when they are eating or drinking.
They also have a lift and stairs for customers which can pass through the first and second floor. Moreover, Tesco have a male, female and disable toilet and that is convenience for customers and disables.
5. Payment facilities
Tesco provides many payment facilities to their customers. (E.g. credit card, debit card, cash, switch, solo, etc).
Tesco have a lot of cashiers for their customers. Some of them are just for basket; some of them are just for cash. They provide this service to make sure their customer will not wait too long for their payment. Tesco also provide a delivery service, so that their customer do not have to take too much and too heavy goods to home.
Behind the cashier, Tesco have a phone to call mini-cab for free. It is very convenience for their customers who want to call mini-cab.
Customer protection legislation
Data Protection Act 1984
This Act gives rights to individuals about whom information is recorded on a computer. They may find information about themselves, challenge it and claim compensation. Therefore, the people or business who use personal data must provide a safe way to store the customers’ information and have to call their customers to renew the information regularly.
Tesco store some of their customers’ information in the database system and contact customers to renew information regularly. If a customer applies for cancellation, Tesco must delete the information of this customer. The data users of Tesco must make sure to take security measures to prevent unlawful access, alteration, disclosure and destruction.
Health & Safety at work Act 1974
This Act is to raise the standard of safety and health for all employees, and to protect the public whose safety may be put at risk by the activities of people at work.
Tesco is required to prepare a written statement of their general policy on health and safety when they employ people. Employees of Tesco must be advised of what the policy is and they are legally obliged to comply with the safety rules drawn up by management. This Act also required Tesco to give training, instruction and supervision to ensure the health and safety at work of employees.
Sale and Supply of Goods Act 1994
This Act amends the sale of Good Act 1979 and the Supply of Goods & Services Act 1982 in favour of the buyer. Customers now had a right to partial rejection.
From this law, the products of Tesco should meet three main conditions. Firstly, that they are fit for the purpose for which they were purchased. Secondly, that they have not any serious flaws or problem with them. Thirdly, that they are as described. This law also ensures the services of Tesco must be of merchantable quality and at reasonable rates.
The Trades Descriptions Act 1968
This Act makes it illegal to give false or misleading description of goods or service and prohibits giving a false impression about sales prices. This Act also controls advertising. The law states that products must correspond to the claims made for them in advertisements.
Therefore, Tesco cannot include ingredients on a label, which are not present or make unproven claims about the effect of the good. And a sale cannot be advertised if products were sold at a higher price more than 28 days in the previous six months.
Consumer Protection Act 1987
The Consumer Protection Act is to protect customers from dishonest traders and unprincipled manufacturers. This Act states that manufacturers must produce goods on a certain safety level and that traders cannot sell unsafely products. It also prohibits traders to give misleading information about their sale prices. It is a criminal offence if find that a trader breaches any of the rules in this act knowingly. There are civil laws and criminal laws. If it is a criminal law and found guilty may face a fine or imprisonment.
Supply of Goods and Services Act 1982
This Act covers the sale of goods, services and the hiring of goods. If a customer is dissatisfied about a service which he had bought, he cannot be returned to the trader, so this Act are specially protects the consumer in buying a service. This Act allows consumers to ask for a refund or compensation for any loss or damage caused by a faulty service.
The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA)
The Advertising Standards Authority is a voluntary body set up to monitor advertising in the UK. It is responsible for making sure that advertisers conform to the British codes of advertising and sales promotion practice. They state that advertisements must be legal, decent, honest and truthful and must not cause grave or widespread offence. Advertisements which are referred to the ASA, often by members of the public, will not be handled by the media. The ASA, therefore, has the power to ensure that the code is upheld by the advertisers.