External and internal customers
External customers are the business organisation’s consumers or visitors. They often pay for products or services and they also expect to be treated well by the people in the business.
Internal customers are the people you work with (within the organisation), for example employees of Sainsbury (organisation) working in another department.
External customers are very important to Sainsbury and to all businesses too. Without customers there would be no business for Sainsbury, so they must be given the highest standards or service so that they come back again and inform their business about the good service they had received instead of risk loosing a customer.
Its very important that all members of staff give a high level of service to each other because they are dependant on each other for customer service as a whole to be successful. Benefits to the staff and Sainsbury include:
- A more pleasant place to work because of a happier and more efficient workforce
- Improved job satisfaction
- Improved chances of promotion within the organisation
- Greater co-operation and teamwork
Examples of internal customers:
- Someone working on the checkout who takes receipt of new till-tolls
- Someone at the fish bar who receives a new supply of fish
- Someone waiting for receipt of goods from the wholesaler
- Shop assistant
Sainsbury meets their external customers by:
- Giving out discounts to them
- Loyalty schemes
- Sales items
- Multi packaging
- Free offers
- Pricing strategies
- Credit terms
- Delivery schemes
- After sales service.
They meet their internal customers by insuring that the staffs are trained properly so that they can communicate with their customers and they make sure that they are working in a nice environment so that they can work effectively and that they are treated with respect.
How Sainsbury deals with complaints
Consumer service staff will also handle any complaints received over the telephone or in writing, Sainsbury have an official complaints procedure, which all staff must follow. This enables senior staff to check that all complaints are dealt with promptly and that no serious issues are left unresolved.
They consider all complaints. Fortunately, most can be dealt with quickly in store by refund, with proof of purchase, or by replacement, to the complete satisfaction of the customer. Other basic complaints like:
- Location of goods (not being able to find a product)
- The price of an item (e.g. a price increase since last week)
- Goods being out of stock or not available for some reason
- Faulty goods or goods found to be damaged or with a part missing
- The attitude or behaviour of staff
- Poor facilities (e.g. lack of trolleys or long queues at checkouts)
Serious complaints, about contamination or food poisoning, a claim that unsafe product caused injury, serious allegations about a member of staff (e.g. swearing at a customer, drunkenness, fraud etc for example, are sent to their Product Quality team for their analysis and expert opinion. The store Duty Manager deals with service complaints but if customers are still dissatisfied, their details are taken for a written reply. Larger claims for compensation are sent to our Customer Management team, where they are immediately acknowledged. Customers receive a reply after full consideration of their claim. Group Legal Services or their Insurance Department deal with more serious complaints, for example, accidents in store.
Sainsbury have a refund policy. If goods are broken or faulty then the retailer has a legal obligation to replace the item or, if the customer prefers, to give a refund.
Customer needs
A range of different products and services
Products: - Sainsbury has many ranges of products from groceries to toiletries. Sainsbury always try and make there products value for money.
Check out queues: - Sainsbury always aim to minimise waiting time at the checkouts. Colleges of Sainsbury are multi skilled at busy times they are able to call on more colleagues to operate tills.
Elderly people: Sainsbury realise that elderly people like to retain their independence by doing their own shopping. Sainsbury always put chairs for their older customers to rest. Employees at Sainsbury help elderly people pack their purchases and help them take them to their cars.
Facilities for disabled people: - Sainsbury ensure that disabled customers are not offered a low standard of service.
- They have disability parking spaces
- Wheelchairs and specially adapted trolleys are available in every store and electric scooters in some.
- They carry out disability audits and are currently installing hearing loops in stores.
- They support the Shop Mobility scheme, where disabled people travel to a shopping centre by bus where they borrow wheelchairs for the day, giving them independence.
- They were voted the best corporate chain store for their commitment to providing better service to our deaf blind customers at the Deaf blind Friendly Corporate Awards 2001.
- They won the supermarket category in the 2001 EASE (EASE of Access, Service and Employment) awards, which recognise companies and organisations, which show good practice for people with disabilities.
Facilities for the deaf and hard hearing people: - Sainsbury are providing a loop hearing in stores. Some of their customers borrow headsets form them, they cut out the background noise and it makes it easier for them to hear direct speech from the checkouts and service counters. Sainsbury do allow hearing dogs in their stores to help the deaf.
Facilities for the blind and partially sighted: - Personal shoppers will accompany customers round the store and do their shopping with them and they allow guide dogs for the blind too in store.
Products available at the right time
Special offers: - Sainsbury have many items on special offer that disappear very quickly from their shelves. If any customer wishes to buy an item on special offer but it is out of stock, all key staff have vouchers which they can give to the customer so that the next time they are in the store and the item is available they can buy it at the reduced price.
Products available at the right place
Sainsbury always try and make their stores as neat, tidy and organised so that shoppers can easily find what they are looking for.
Well-packaged products
All products at Sainsbury are very well packed. Most products like crisps are foil packed for extra freshness.
Quality and safety of products: - they take the quality and safety of products very seriously. Sainsbury have Quality Assurance teams. They check the standards in their stores and monitor the quality of our products to ensure they consistently meet the standards laid down when the products are developed.
Their Retail and Supply Chain Quality Assurance teams check that all new ideas for stores and their supply chain will deliver only the highest standards of quality, safety. All new ideas for stores are scrutinised to try and spot where things could go wrong and processes and designs changed to avoid errors. They have a team of auditors who are constantly driving standards through a programme of training, coaching and audits. Enforcing these high standards is helping them to innovate. For example, in 2001 they became the first UK supermarket to offer a range of organic meals and sandwiches in their customer restaurant in their Sevenoaks store.
Polite service
Colleagues at their in-store customer service desk are the first port of call for a wide range of services:
- Glass loans;
- Flower wrapping;
- Customer special orders, lost property;
- Sainsbury vouchers;
- Refunds;
- Complaints;
- Signing in of visitors.
The First Aid box is kept at this desk and colleagues know who the trained first aiders are in that store. There is always a trained first aider on every shift.
Breakages: - If a customer accidentally drops a product and it breaks anywhere in the store, including the car park, they will replace it free of charge.
Data protection policy: - they are totally committed to respecting the privacy of their customers and colleagues and any data they provide them with is used only in accordance with their wishes. Only by making use of this information can they understand their needs and deliver the benefits they require.
They comply fully with the Data Protection Act that regulates the collection, use, storage and destruction of personal data and they also comply with the guidelines issued by the Information Commissioner.
Neither Sainsbury Bank nor Sainsbury Supermarkets provide other organisations with information that identifies their customers. Where customers choose to take part with third parties, some transfer of customer details will be necessary but this will be drawn to the customers' attention before they commit themselves.
Value for money
Sainsbury try and make all products in their stores value for money whether the product is a low cost range or a high cost range. So, that the products are at a price which suits them.
Safety
At Sainsbury safety is very important especially for their customers, they try and make their pathways clear as possible.
Dealing with customers
In all business organisations they have contact with customers. This can be face to face, over the telephone and maybe in writing.
Not all staff has contact with customers only some do. All staff needs to know how to communicate with customers and use different skills in different situations.
When dealing with customers you need to communicate with them and you will need to use appropriate:
- Language
- Pitch and tone of voice
- Pauses and silences: so that you can listen to them and solve out the problem as soon as possible
- Body language: e.g. look like you want to help
You also need to be able to make sure that your work meets any guidelines, Listen and respond to customers and Ask important questions
The most important thing is to realise that dealing with customers is not always about selling them something there are many different situations in which customer services is provided:
- Providing information: -the types of information required by customers and clients vary a lot, so it can be impossible to know the answer to every question customers ask. E.g. keeping a promise to find out quickly and keeping that promise is more important. In many retail stores they have a great deal of information available for customer service staff.
- Giving advice: - this is more precise than information. This involves more detail, greater specialists knowledge and is tailored to the needs of the person making the request. In customer services, therefore, the staff need to consider certain factors when they are asked for advise:
- Is the advice required about a general, unimportant matter or a very important one?
- Could there be any adverse or serious consequences if incorrect information is given?
- Does the person dealing with the query know enough to answer it correctly?
- Receiving and passing on messages
- Keeping records
- Providing assistance
- Dealing with problems: - this can be like refunds and dealing with complaints
- Dealing with dissatisfied customers: - this is basically solving out the problem and seeing what you can do to make them happy
- Offering extra services
Handling standard complaints
- Listen very carefully to the customer telling you the problem. If making notes is helpful then it could be necessary. Let the customer finish talking even if they are being irate.
- Apologise to the customer for the inconvenience he or she has caused. This doesn’t still mean that you are accepting the responsibility.
- Either rectify the situation yourself or if it isn’t possible then inform someone senior and reassure the customer that the action will be taken.
- If there is a good explanation for the problem, then explain the reason to the customer. But then inform the supervisor so that the action can be taken.
- Record complaints in the complaints log. Managers can use this to monitor complaints in the effort to improve and reduce complaints.
Rectify the situation
Normally theres two stages in this process.
- satisfying the customer who is complaining
- preventing further complaints about the same thing
- Location of goods: - first you should direct the customer yourself or you take the customer to where the goods are to be found. Then check your signing posting to see if it can be improved.
- Out-of-stock/unavailable goods: - you can order if no other suitable products are stocked, you can check are due to be delivered and inform the customer by telephone to tell the customer when they are arriving and you can direct the customer to another outlet which does stock for the item.
- Poor services: - tell the customer that you will report the matter immediately and do so.
- A minor complaint against other staff: - act normal and take down the details and then make sure that the supervisor is aware of the complaint but don’t do it in front of customers or the rest of the staff.
- Faulty products: - follow procedures laid down in the company’s returns policy
Handling exchanges of goods and refunds
Sainsbury outlet has a refund policy. If goods are broken or faulty then the retailer has a legal obligation to replace the item or, if the customer prefers, a refund. But proof will be needed (e.g. a receipt/ credit or debit card slip or a bank statement)
If the items are installed in their customer’s homes then in such cases the firm may send someone to visit the customer to assess the problem before discussing alternatives such as a repair or monetary compensation.
Sainsbury will exchange any item if the purchaser changes his/her mind. This prevents complaints and often generates sales, as more customers are more likely to buy something if they know it can be returned if it is appropriate.
In Sainsbury stores which operate such a policy will only refund in cash if the customer paid in cash, this goes out to credit cards too if a customer bought something and paid with it with a credit card and the customer did not want it anymore then they will get a credit voucher. This prevents people buying goods with credit card and then returning them to get cash as a refund.
Sometimes items are damaged after buyers have brought something and this may be suspicion that the customer is responsible for it, so it is checked. With expensive items it is difficult, which with cheaper goods, outlets replace the item rather than risk losing a customer.
Employee’s responsibility to provide good customer care
The number of staff employed in customer service and the roles they undertake will depend largely on the type of business like Sainsbury. They deal with their customers face to face, in Sainsbury you will find a customer service desk with customer service assistants.
To keep customers happy, you need to provide a range of customer services, including:
- Providing information e.g. they may have a general query about a product, the customer service assistant may not have an answer but will need to have a friendly smile or a promise to find out quickly and keeping that promise is more important.
- Giving advice: - this is more than just information, the staff need to consider certain factors when their asked for advise e.g. is the advise required about a general, unimportant one?
- Providing credit facilities: - credit and private individuals – paying by credit card, paying in instalments on a direct debit and borrowing the money by taking out a finance company.
- Delivering goods: - e.g. an optional delivery service which is free or low cost/is to a wide geographic area/operates at times which suits the customer, not the firm
- After-sales service (e.g. dealing with complaints, giving refunds on returned goods etc)
Sainsbury has legal obligations to its customers. Customers need to be protected when buying goods, if, for instance:
- Goods are damaged, broken or unusable
- Goods are not fit for the purpose for which they were bought
- The seller has described the goods inaccurately
Customers can complain against these problems and the following laws protect them:
- Sales of Goods Act 1979
- Trade Description Act 1963
- Sale and supply of Goods Act 1994
- The Trade Descriptions Act 1968
The Sales of Goods Act
The Sales of Goods Act (SOGA) 1979 was passed in order to offer a statutory entitlement of protection to the consumer. It was passed to fill some holes in a previous Act of 1893, which sought to protect customers that purchased goods from sellers. The most prevalent part of the Act consists of four main parts:
Section 13 – Description – Goods, when bought, should be the goods that have been advertised. For example a coat that has been advertised as waterproof should not leak in the rain.
Section 14 Subsection (2) – Satisfactory Quality – Goods should be of an adequate quality free from defects or flaws.
Section 14 Subsection (3) – Fitness for Purpose – Goods should be fit for the purpose they are intended. For example, outdoor paint should not run off the walls in the rain.
Section 15 – Sale by Sample – Where goods are sold by way of sample the bulk of the ordered goods should correspond to the sample.
It is clear that by having these implied terms the consumer is well protected when purchasing goods from retailers. Many people state the SOGA when returning faulty/unsatisfactory goods to retailers.
The Trade Descriptions Act
The trade description act makes it a criminal offence:
- To make a false statements about goods offered for sale
- To make misleading statements about services
Examples of offences include:
- Stating that a car for sale clocked up 15,000 miles, when in fact the figure is 25,000 miles
- Making a misleading statement about service e.g. our dry cleaning is guaranteed to remove every stain’ when it does not, or ‘our apartments are within easy reach of the sea’ when they are fifteen miles away
The Supply of Goods and services act
Service standards are covered by this act, as in buying the services of a plumber to repair central heating or a garage to service a car. Buyers are protected from shoddy workmanship, delays and exorbitant charges the act states that all services should be carried out:
- For a reasonable charge
- Within a reasonable time
- With a reasonable care and skill
- Using satisfactory materials
The Trade Description Act 1968
This act is designed to prevent a false or misleading of goods, e.g.:
- Selling goods which are wrongly described by the manufacturer
- Implied descriptions, e.g. a picture on a box which gives a false impression
- Other aspects of the goods, including quantity, size, composition, method of manufacturer etc
Keeping Customer records
Customers are very important to Sainsbury. It is vital to ensure that adequate information is held about each customer. This may be in the form of a customer database or may be their reward card. Customer records should hold the information detailed below:
Customer account or reference number
Customer name and address
Telephone, fax, e mail address, website address
Contact name within the customer's organisation
Delivery addresses if different from the customer's main address
Total value of sales year-to-date
Transactions (e.g. invoices, credit notes, customer receipts etc) for the current financial year
Balance of money owed by the customer
Aged debt analysis (breakdown of money owed by the customer)
Products bought by the customer
Consequences of poor service
Poor quality and service in Sainsbury may result in:
1. Complaints to politicians
2. Complaints to public managers
3. Privatisation
4. Pressure groups
5. Tax resistance
6. Restructuring and downsizing
7. Competition.
