The customers who go to Sainsburys expect excellent customer service all the time this is because over the years Sainsburys have been known as such a good store and are renown for giving good customer service. This is why customers expect more from Sainsburys then any other supermarket store. The employees at Sainsburys give refunds to their customers all the time this is because the customers expect it. They will give refunds through a variety of things such as:
- If an item is damaged in the car park
- If the are unhappy with the product they have purchased.
- The cork is still in the wine when the start drinking it.
They do this because this is what is expected from them, if this were not done then the customers would carry on complaining until something was done about it. This could be improved if they just offered a refund service for items that have been broke such as pots and pans and only give a refund on food if they where out of date or their where something else up with them. This will save Sainsburys a lot of money in the long run and it could be invested in things such as research and development into customer service, which would benefit the business. Sainsburys believe that all of the customers should have the chance to be taken to the item they are looking for and this is what they aim for.
The result of this quality customer service is that sometimes the employees received letters of thanks from customers and get gifts from them. The customers have a massive element of trust in the employees because one example of this is that an elderly women comes in and is taken around the store by a customer service employee and then the employee is asked to draw money out of the women's account and this is a massive responsibility what the employee has.
Strategies used by Sainsburys
Sainsburys also offer a Nectar card and this is a card you'll be able to earn points from four launch sponsors (Sainsbury's, Barclaycard, Debenhams and BP) for, better rewards than ever before and this is just from your nectar card.
When you pay at the till at Sainsbury's, Debenhams or BP your Nectar card will be swiped and any points added to your account (When you pay by Barclaycard anywhere in the world your points will be added to your Nectar account each month (once you have registered your Nectar number with Barclaycard). Shop with your Barclaycard at Sainsbury's, Debenhams or BP and you'll earn two lots of points.
Once you've collected enough points for the rewards you want, whether it's free meals, great days out, flights abroad, and cinema tickets. You can even use your points to save money at Argos.
This is a picture of the Nectar card:
Sainsburys did have a reward scheme which was a card what customers could use to get points and special offers a bit like the ABC card what Safeway offer. They decided to get rid of this card because it is always looking to improve its offers towards its customers and even its potential customers. Customers that still have their reward vouchers can use them until expiry date runs out. Some of the old Sainsburys reward card partners are transferring to the Nectar card so that the customers get all the benefits of the Sainsburys reward card and more. This is excellent customer service because it means that the customers can earn points not just at Sainsburys but at other stores elsewhere. Customers can also spend their points elsewhere in to different companies such as McDonalds and Odeon. It is important that Sainsburys did replace their customer loyalty card because it meant that they are still valuing their customers and making sure that their expectations are meet at a high standard and giving them all the service they will want. (See appendix 1)
Sainsburys also have their own bank within the store and most of their other stores so this means that customers will be offered a financial service which will have offers on top of that within the store. Some facts about the Sainsburys bank are:
- First major British supermarket to open a bank – commenced trading on 19 February 1997.
- Jointly owned by J. Sainsbury plc and HBOS (Halifax Bank of Scotland) – J Sainsbury plc 55%, HBOS 45%.
- Objective is to deliver customer-focused banking service; exceptional customer service; value for money and flexibility other banks have failed to deliver.
- 24 hour free telephone banking – able to offer competitive products due to low overheads, i.e. no bank branches.
- Sainsbury’s Bank has opened over 1.4 million customer accounts attracting deposits in excess of £2 billion.
This is excellent customer because it is offering a cheaper price than other financial institutions, which means that they will have no overheads to deal with. The benefit this will have on Sainsburys is that more customers will become aware of the bank and will do their shopping there. Sainsburys make sure that any information what is passed on from their customers does not go any further then the bank because it is breaking the customers trust. (See appendix 2)
Sainsburys train all of their employees in customer service this is because they want every customer to have and enjoyable, inspiring and easy experience. Every employee has a delivering excellent customer programme to go through and once they have filled this in, they have the confidence to go on and give the customers the best customer service what they expect. With this training programme it means that every employee has the opportunity to excel in the field they are operating in and it also means that if their is a problem with the customer service a certain employee is offering they managers of the store will only have their self to blame because the training they have received has not been excellent.
They also have monitoring system what the supervisors carry out to their colleagues on the checkouts. (See appendix 3) This is based on a grading system what they carry out and it is on three different colours:
- Red = Poor
- Amber = Satisfactory
- Green = Excellent
The managers then have a record on what every employee scored and if it is poor they will get trained again and if it is excellent they will only get monitored every six months. This is excellent customer service because if the employees are not doing the job required it will mean that they will be re-trained and we eventually are able to offer the service what the customers expect from the employees of Sainsburys.
There is also a self-assessment form what the employees have to fill in about them self's and this will mean that they are putting what they think could be improved so the managers know what they have to improve on, and whether they think the improvements should be taking place and what they are going to do about it. This is the smile policy what some other organisations use such as TK Maxx. Smile stands for:
Smile and acknowledge customer
Meet customer expectations
Interact with customer
Look Professional
End the exchange
The employee will mark them self on a 1-3 scale and depending on a honest result will get a good result back from their managers. (See appendix 4)
