Tescos - types of stores, services offered and the people who worked there.

Introduction

Tesco is the biggest private sector employer in the UK with over 250,000 employees and over 1,800 stores. Tesco works hard to meet its customers’ needs and that’s the only reason Tesco is successful. Tesco has four different store formats, each tailored to customers' needs, and these four store formats are as following:

Express (up to 3,000 sq ft)
Metro (approx. 7,000-15,000 sq ft)
Superstore (approx. 20,000-50,000 sq ft)
Extra (approx. 60,000 sq ft and above)

Express

Express stores offer customers great value, quality and fresh food close to where they live and work. Tesco opened its first Express store in 1994 and now they have over 650 stores selling a range of up to 7,000 lines including fresh produce, wines and spirits and in-store bakery.

Metro store

Tesco opened its first Metro in 1992, bringing the convenience of Tesco to town and city centre locations. Metros cater for thousands of busy customers each week and offer a tailored range of food lines, including ready-meals and sandwiches.

Superstore

Tesco began opening superstores in the 1970s and during the 1980s and 1990s built a national network, to which they are adding every year. Tesco has an ongoing programme of extending and refreshing its superstores to improve the overall experience for customers. In recent years Tesco has introduced a number of new non-food ranges into superstores such as DVDs and books. This provides convenience for busy customers.

Extra store

Since opening Tesco’s first Extra in 1997, the one-stop destination store has proved extremely popular. Extra stores offer the widest range of food and non-food lines, ranging from electrical equipment to homewares, clothing, health and beauty and seasonal items such as garden furniture. Tesco has opened 18 new Extra's in 2005, mostly through extensions to existing stores.

In addition to a variety of formats, Tesco ensures it has broad appeal by continually innovating and investing in new lines to increase choice for its customers. From Value to Finest and lifestyle ranges like Organic, Free From and Healthy Living, its various own brands enable customers to buy products to compliment their lifestyle. Tesco has recently introduced new nutritional 'signpost labelling' which aims to provide customers with the key information they need to help them choose a balanced diet. 2500 packs are already on shelf and they plan to complete the range by the end of the year.

Opening Times

Tesco stores are opened 24 hours on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays. Mondays from 8 am till midnight, Saturdays from midnight till 10 pm and from 10 am till 4 pm on Sundays.

Low Prices at Tesco

Tesco strives to provide its customers with the best value for money. It works hard to find ways of keeping prices down, and this helped Tesco cut their prices by 15% between 2000 and 2005, in real terms, and in their aim to be the best value retailer.

This price deflation comes at a time when many other aspects of consumers’ lives – gas and electricity bills, motoring etc. have become more expensive. Tesco, like others, currently face a tough challenge due to rising energy prices, but last year they still managed to reduce their prices by 1.8 per cent. Tesco strives constantly to improve efficiency, and work with its supply base to achieve the best prices. Innovations such as its reusable plastic trays, which Tesco uses in its fresh food areas have helped them to make savings – these savings Tesco passes on to customers. Tesco also regularly checks its competitors’ prices across a basket of 23,000 grocery and non-food products. Everyone can see the grocery prices for matching items on Tesco’s price check website. That is how Tesco continues, year in year out, to deliver low prices everywhere.

Tesco’s 15% fall in prices has gone a long way to contribute towards an overall fall in food prices. According to the OFT these fell in real terms by 7.3% between January 2000 and December 2005. Consumers have benefited from this strong downward trend in real food prices and intense competitive rivalry among food retailers has played a significant part in this.

Whilst lower prices benefit all consumers they are especially important to families on a budget and have made a significant contribution to making healthy food accessible to all. Tesco does more by running promotions on fresh fruit and vegetables. It now sells 95 fresh fruit and vegetable Value lines and they are also working with the Pre-School Learning Alliance to help parents and children in some of the UK’s most deprived areas make healthier choices.

Products and Services

Tesco works hard to meet Customers’ needs and that’s the only reason Tesco is successful. It understands the merits of competition, and the benefits it brings to the consumer. From small beginnings, Tesco has grown to be the UK’s most popular supermarket and one of British business’ great success stories by fulfilling people’s expectations to have safe, nutritious, quality food at affordable prices. In addition customers expect choice so Tesco has introduced around 8,000 new products lines last year and many of its stores stock over 40,000 product lines.

In live with the trend for healthier lifestyles Tesco has:

400 ‘Healthy Living’ products. Many customers look to Tesco to help them live more healthily. Tesco tries to do this through dedicated ranges, through better information on products, and advice in store and online. The ‘Healthy Living’ range originally launched in 1985 now contains over 400 products which are low in fat and sodium.

40 Special healthy Kids snacks. Tesco has also introduced the 'Kids' range designed for 5 to 10 year olds to ensure that they enjoy healthy mealtimes. Children's diets actually need more nutrients, not just a reduced number of unhealthy ingredients, so the Kids range was developed as a good source of fibre, wholegrain and five-a-day fruit and vegetables.

1,200 Organic product lines. Customers from all walks of life want to buy more organic food. Over the last year Tesco has broadened and integrated its organic ranges, and Tesco is working with its suppliers to ensure even more diverse and more affordable organic food.

Product innovation is not limited to Tesco’s food ranges, but its growing non-food ranges too have introduced choices of many new product lines: from sporting goods including equestrian equipment to new ranges of ‘homeware’ and recently PC software.

Tesco also has various and wide range of products and that is to meet customers’ needs of whatever customers intend to buy, nearly whatever customer intends to buy would find it underneath one ceiling (at Tesco). On the top of selling groceries Tesco sells others products such as, books, CDs, DVDs to buy, DVDs to rent, games, flowers, electronics, cosmetics, etc.

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There are also services that Tesco sells for example, Telecoms, such as internet- broadband, internet- dial-up, home phone, mobiles on contract, mobiles on pay as you go, travel services, cars insurance, life insurance, home insurance, credit cards, loan, mortgages etc, which are all competitively priced.

Customer Service

Tesco works hard to meet every customer’s needs and expectations, they provide a good customer service as they treat customers in a very friendly way and they have very friendly staff so they make sure that every customer feels welcome and help customers with anything they need whether it is by providing information if the customer asked for it or by helping them finding products that customer could not find it in store if the customer is not aware of the place of what he/she looks for.

Tesco has excellent reputation and widely known and that’s not come from nothing, of course that’s come from the good customer services and other services that Tesco provides from different fields such, groceries, electronics and etc. The friendly staff and treatment that you get when you go Tesco make everyone feels comfortable to shop at Tesco also make customers feel that they have chosen the right place t shop through the various features that everyone gets at Tesco.

On 8th of November I did an interview with a member of staff of Tesco, he is a member of customer services staff and works as an advisor at the Customer Services desk. I asked him about the customer service at Tesco and how they make the customer satisfied when he/she comes to shop at Tesco and asked for assistance when needed, and the outcome of the interview was really positive, and concluded that they have been given very well training to make their customers satisfied.

I also did a questionnaire to find out about how people are satisfied about what Tesco provides to its customers, from that questionnaire I found out that most of the people that have been the questionnaire are satisfied about the products and services of Tesco. Twenty people have taken part in this questionnaire and 12 of them have given Tesco among “excellent or very comfortable” for everything Tesco offers or provides, the other six have said that they can say very good to Tesco for what it offers or provides its customers and the last two people have answered that they do not shop at Tesco.

Based on that we can say that everything Tesco provides is excellent and that is according to the answers of majority of the people who took part in the questionnaire, and that proves that Tesco’s customer services have met the demands of every customer who come to shop at its stores.

Staff Attitude and Behaviour

Tesco listen very carefully to what its customers want and they try their hardest to satisfy them better than their competitors do. They know that their customers choose to shop with them and they could change their minds at any time. That is why they strive so hard to get things right.

Tesco does treat people how they like to be treated. Tesco is a great place to work and that their staffs are given the training and opportunity to get on. They have training schemes for every career stage and more than 80% of their management roles are filled internally, so the staff attitude to the customers is of course positive. Tesco’s staffs aim to give their customers very well treatment and they try to make their customers feel special so they can make sure that they have repeated customers.

Tesco store is a high-performing, professional business where everyone has a role to play - and all of them aimed at making sure they do their best for each and every customer. That's why you'll often find store managers and customer assistants on the shop floor, staying in contact with their customers and making sure no one forgets who matters most.

Tesco’s staff are really friendly as I have noticed that by myself and also discovered that by the questionnaire that I did to find out how people who shop at Tesco are satisfied and to what extent do they trust Tesco’s products and services.

The conclusion of the questionnaire that I got shows positive results for Tesco and it also proves that Tesco is very successful organisation and has great reputation among the commercial fields. That did not come from nothing that of course came because of the excellent management of Tesco and obviously because of hard work of Tesco’s Staff and the friendly way that they treat their customers.

There is no doubt if there is unfriendly treatment at Tesco people will not go back to shop there, there are many competitors in this field of business, but Tesco proved to everyone and its customers that it works hard to provide people with what they expect to be provided and with the good quality of products and services.

Meeting Special Needs

Tesco with all the features that it offers to its customers also consider that there people who needs to be met with special needs like people with different disabilities. In 2004 Tesco was recognised by AbilityNet, the UK computing and

disability charity, as the only supermarket to have a website meeting the basic disability needs of disabled people.

Tesco’s access website was the only site found to be easily accessible to people with a vision impairment, dyslexia or physical disability. It gained a four-star rating on AbilityNet's five-star scale. Tesco also provided its disabled customers with parking spaces in their car parks and the need to train their staff to recognise disabilities.

Meeting Specific Needs

By looking at Tesco’s stores and the equipments that have been provided to its customers, Tesco has completed its customers with different specific needs such as the trolleis that are provided with different sizes and shapes, automatic door to make the entrance to stores easily, parking spaces for customers’ cars, big spaces inside the stores so customers can feel comfortable when they shop at Tesco, staff willing to provide helps to customers when needed and the possibility to pay by both way either cash or by credit or debit cards etc.

Dealing with Problems

To deal with problems Tesco has provided customers with a Customer Services desk and friendly and responsive staff to work on this desk and deal with any potential problems or complaints. Tesco is aware that the staff who should be working on this desk have to be well trained and be able to deal with any potential problems wisely, patiently and in a way that will make the customer feel satisfied and that he got the help he/she needed.

Tesco has very good policies to deal with different problems, whether problems are about refund or regarding customer is not happy with something. Tesco’s customer service deals with all sorts of problems that they might face, friendly, wisely and in a way that make customers feel happy and satisfied about how they have been dealt with. As well as they have grievance procedures if customer feels he/she has been unfairly treated.

Tesco also introduced new refund policy to make its customers happy with the quality of any of its products, and they have promises for the customers whether the customer is not happy with the quality of any of their products then they can bring them back within 28 days with the receipt and they will happily refund or replace the item. Also if a customer changes his mind within 28 days, then customer can also go to customer services and they will be happy to refund or exchange the product, providing the customer has his receipt and the product is returned as sold.

Timing

Tesco realise that there are seasons for some sorts of products such as fruits or presents for some special occasions such as Christmas, so based on that Tesco focuses on meeting demands of customer at the right place and on the right time. These products that only can be available on certain periods.

Based on that Tesco works hard to meet its customers with what they expect Tesco to provide them with, for instance, they expect that Tesco will get products and services at the right time, the thing that Tesco does to its customers and get products and services whenever the demands on them without delay. Tesco has met all these things and made every customer feel comfortable to shop at Tesco.

Satisfaction External and Internal Customers

Satisfying Eternal Cstomers

Tesco works hard to satisfy every customer by providing them with all the features or offers and also that is to attract new customers to shop at Tesco, so Tesco works hard to ensure that every customer is satisfied about the products or services at Tesco because they realise that every customer will tell friend of him/her about the products or services of Tesco which will make them have repeated customers and also new customers coming to shop at Tesco because of what they heard about the features of Tesco.

Tesco has been at the forefront of the retail revolution over a number of decades. During this time, they have put the customer at the centre of everything they do, in order to fulfil their strategy. This includes reducing queues at the checkout and at their in-store food counters. Tesco has introduced a touch screen interface which had to be easy to understand and use by Tesco employees. A key factor to the success of this counter machine is improving customer service at the counter without impacting overly on staff training and existing ways of working and customers can choose from a wealth of products options and information, all with less waiting time.

Also Tesco satisfy its customers by providing them with special offers or other features that it gives its customers like Tesco Clubcard and it is Tesco’s way of saying thanks to its customers and Clubcard is about helping customers get more out of their shopping at Tesco. Tesco’s Clubcard gives customers 1p back on every £1 they spend at Tesco by giving Clubcard holders vouchers to spend them at Tesco. So that great way from Tesco to satisfy its customers by giving them benefits for shopping at Tesco. This increases customer loyalty.

Repeating Cstomers

Tesco works hard to make every customer shops at Tesco feel happy and comfortable that he/she shopped at Tesco, and it also strives to gain every customers has shopped at Tesco for first time and make him/her comes back again and to encourage them with features of shopping at Tesco, Tesco has created a Clubcard which gives points to the customers for every pound they paid then Tesco change those point to vouchers so they can use the Vouchers to save money on shopping bills. These vouchers can also be used at Tesco’s petrol filling stations.

Accessibility

Tesco aims to offer customers the best facilities and features, so Tesco consider that its stores should be located near by every one and it considers that everyone prefers any store to be accessible and customers prefer not stores that it will take them far distances or stores that are located in convenient location. As a result of that Tesco has located its stores where they should be accessible for everyone by allocating different stores in different areas in all over the UK an each store meets the needs of its customers at a particular area.

The four formats of Tesco’s stores have made the accessibility to Tesco very easy because each format of store has been located in location that suites the area that it is at, as well as that it made customers feel that they have Tesco wherever they go and wherever they are.

Availability

Tesco strives to provide everything that customers look for and it is aware that customer feels bad if he/she did not find what they came to look for, so Tesco has made massive efforts to afford everything that make customers find products or services they look for at Tesco.

Tesco has made customers who shop at its stores happy and satisfied about the products and services that they find there, and that is because of the massive availability of products and services at Tesco and that has made Tesco one of the most successful organisation in the UK.

Not only Tesco has massive availability of products and services, but Tesco also has stores available in everywhere open for 24 hours on weekdays and open till late on weekends, so that is the reason that made Tesco always available for customers. As well as the availability of fresh products such as dairies, the fresh fruits and vegetables, different kinds of breads and a lot of other fresh food that Tesco produces everyday.

Satisfying Internal Customers

Tesco management realise that it should satisfy its internal customers and give them benefits so they would work harder to provide a good services to customers. From this point Tesco knows that its internal customers want four things from them at Tesco:

To be treated with trust and respect.
A manager who helps staff when needed.
An interesting job.
An opportunity to get on.

Tesco tries to make sure everyone can work in a way that suits their circumstances. They support flexible working, offering part-time roles and encouraging job-sharing opportunities and shift-swapping where possible. Tesco also knows that if they look after its internal customers and treat them with trust and respect they will look after their customers.

In addition to that Tesco satisfies its internal customers with competitive salaries at all levels, in every area of the business, they also offer a whole package of other ways to help internal customers of Tesco make more of their money, safeguard their future and look after their health.

Also Tesco works hard to thank its internal customers for the success they have brought the business, they give free shares to everyone who has worked at Tesco for one year at the end of the financial year (February). Tesco shares a proportion of its profit amongst its staff, based on salaries. These Tesco shares are held in trust for 5 years, and after that they can take them, tax-free, and to reward them for their loyalty, after a year working at Tesco they will be given a Privilege card - the staff loyalty card that gives them 10% discount and Clubcard points on most Tesco products.

To make internal customers satisfied Tesco give discounts on theme parks, holidays and gym membership that are available all year round. There are also special offers throughout the year, to make sure there is always something for everyone as well as the bonuses that they get at Tesco.

Codes of practice

Tesco’s codes of practice for customers are as following:

Understand customers better than anyone.
Be energetic, be innovative and be first for customers.
Use their strengths to deliver unbeatable value to their customers.
Look after their people so they can look after Tesco’s customers.

Tesco knows that its people are key to ensuring that the customer is well served, so there are also codes of practice for their people and these are as following:

All retailers, there is one team – the Tesco team.
Trust and respect each other.
Strive to do their best.
Give support to each other and praise more than criticise.
Ask more than tell and share knowledge so that it can be used.
Enjoy work, celebrate success and learn from experience.

Ethics

Tesco is committed to minimising the amount of waste produced in-store, to recycle it wherever possible and to encourage their customers to do the same.

Since November 2001 Tesco has recycled 500,000 old and unwanted mobile phones which helps raise much needed money for charity at the same time. Over £1 million has been raised for charities including Barnardo's, National Children's Homes and Cystic Fibrosis Trust as a direct result of recycling mobile phones.

Tesco has also introduced Christmas Card recycling scheme. The scheme which last year recycled 40 million cards - the equivalent of 800 tonnes, has one very simple aim - to encourage individuals to recycle their old Christmas cards by leaving them in special recycling bins which will be at all Tesco stores across the UK throughout January.

Tesco also have a comprehensive in-store recycling operation for its own waste. Secondary packaging is kept to a minimum and recycled where possible. Wherever possible, paper polythene and other consumable items used by Tesco, as well as some non-food products and consumer packaging contains a proportion of recycled materials. Tesco has its own recycling units recovering carrier bags, paper, cardboard and plastic that would otherwise be consigned to landfills or incinerated.

As well as the enormous environmental benefits, every mobile phone received will generate £5 for charity or £2.50 for charity and 250 Clubcard points for the customer or by getting 1p back when you bring your own bag.

Monitoring and Evaluating Customer Service

Monitoring customer service at Tesco is one of the priorities that Tesco do to make sure customers get the best service. Tesco is number one n the UK in retailer because they listen and respond to customers and their changing lifestyles. Rather than developing products and services that Tesco think customers want, Tesco spends lots of time and effort asking them and providing customers with what they want.

This strategy of listening and responding has been successful, but Tesco cannot be complacent. Tesco is well aware that if they stop listening and don’t respond to their customers’ needs they will choose to shop elsewhere, as there are some organisations that always compete to gain customers such as Summerfield, Waitrose, Morrisons etc.

How Tesco listens?

To monitor customer service and evaluate them Tesco did a scheme called Customer Question Time nearly 12,000 customers attend these sessions each year – a forum where Tesco listen to customers’ views on everything, from products, price, quality and service to Tesco’s role in the community and the Tesco brand.

There is another scheme Tesco does and this is also called Customer Comment Cards which are available in all Tesco’s stores. Alternatively customers can free phone Tesco customer service helpline which is (0800 505555), 9am to 6pm Monday to Saturday.

Last year Clubcard celebrated its tenth anniversary and with over 13 million active card holders it is a world-leading loyalty programme. Not only does it enable Tesco to thank its customers for shopping with them, but it also helps Tesco to better understand what customers want.

Other things Tesco do to make sure that customers get the best service is employing a range of qualitative research techniques, such as focus groups, accompanied shops, home visits and others, to explore issues as they arise. They use quantitative techniques, such as on-street, telephone or on-line questionnaires, to talk to a wider number of customers, or to quantify views and opinions gained in qualitative studies.

Tesco has on-going research trackers asking the same key questions regularly, to allow them to track performance over time.

Tesco use Customer Question Time (CQT) meetings to help them to identify and respond to changing customer needs. These meetings, held in stores around the world, enable staff and senior managers to hear customers’ views on everything from how they are serving them to Tesco’s role in the community.

In 2006 Tesco held 256 CQTs in the UK, involving 8,000 customers. Post CQT action plans ensure that Tesco act on opportunities for improvement. Information from these focus groups is also used, along with extensive customer research, to drive Tesco’s Customer and Community plans. These plans are the management tools Tesco use to deliver continued improvement in customer satisfaction.

Every Tesco store is provided with a Customer Service Desk with friendly staff to help customers to get the information they need or even if someone wants to make

a complaint then he/she should go to Customer Service Desk and will be giving a form to make the complaint on or if he/she requires to talk to the manager the member staff of customer service desk will be willing to give the assistance to anyone who wants to make whether it is a complaint or compliment.

Customers can also give feedback by going to Tesco’s website and send a feedback to the customer service of Tesco and this feedback could be for a complaint or compliment. There are actions would be taken based on what the feedback form was about and members of customer service would do the necessary to sort everything out and consider what is written on that form of the feedback and contact the customer who made the feedback to tell him/her about what has been done for him/her so customer will feel satisfied and his feedback was been ignored.

What Tesco has learned?

Here are a couple of examples from many thousands.

Sometimes the information Tesco gather leads them to uncover simple explanations for customer behaviour. For example Tesco’s sales data showed them that there was a sharp increase in the sales of flowers and wine for one week at the start of the summer. Since it did not coincide with a celebration such as Mother’s Day, Tesco had to look for another explanation. Analysis of its Clubcard data showed that the majority of customers buying these items were families with school age children. Parents were buying these products for their children to take to school and give to their teacher at the end of term. Having come to this conclusion Tesco was able to ensure that there was a plentiful supply of flowers and wine in their stores at the end of the school term.

Tesco launched their range in-store in September 2006 with very positive feedback from customers and stores. They are now asking customers for more feedback to find out how they can further improve the range. Initial feedback has been so positive that Tesco is already planning to launch in up to 100 stores and extend their range into Chilled and Bakery product areas.

As well as listening to customers Tesco also know how important it is to listen to their other stakeholders.

Listening to Tesco’s staff

Tesco is the largest private sector employer in the UK with over 260,000 staff. Tesco’s people make Tesco a success and Tesco’s management know how valuable their feedback is. There are many ways in which Tesco’s people can share their views. For example, Tesco hold Staff Question Time sessions so they too can share their views. It helps Tesco to understand their opinions and experiences to help them serve their customers better.

The Tesco/Usdaw Partnership is the biggest single trade union agreement in the private sector and staff forums are part of Tesco’s agreement with Usdaw. They are held in all stores three times a year and enable Tesco’s staff to give direct feedback on the things that matter to them.

Tesco’s staff survey

Every year all Tesco’s staff are also invited to take part in Tesco’s staff Viewpoint survey giving its people the opportunity to express their views on almost every aspect of their job. Last year 221,507 of Tesco’s people completed the survey. Tesco use Viewpoint to make sure they are working on the right things for their people, just as they use feedback from customers and suppliers to improve their offer for them.

One of the things that comes through very strongly in Viewpoint is that customer service is very important to Tesco’s staff. Tesco know that many of the improvements they make to the working environment translate into a better experience for their customers, with all the benefits that follow. Listening to Tesco’s staff and supporting their needs helps Tesco to provide a better service for its customers so they all benefit.