The internal complaint procedure in Tesco. An example of a situation when something goes wrong for a customer if a customer buys a DVD player and it

Task 3

The internal complaint procedure in Tesco.

An example of a situation when something goes wrong for a customer if a customer buys a DVD player and it broke down in couple of days. Then Tesco would have to replace the product or find refunds. So in order to check whether Tesco has replaced the product or given refund to customers they can get feedback from the customers or employees in the store.

Another situation could be that the customers ask the employees where a product is or information about the product and the staff tells the wrong information or invalid information. Then Tesco could analyse the situation and verify to customers that nothing like that will happen gain with an apology letter to rectify the situation. Then Tesco can try to check with customers whether their request/complaint has been dealt with properly. They can do this by directly contacting the person or give questionnaires to fill out.

Another situation could be that the customers feel they have been mistreated by staff for example staff gets rude to customers or treat them in a rude way. Then Tesco would have to analyse carefully the situation and take action on employee depending on how serious the incident. However, Tesco would have to be careful as some customers might make false accusations in order to get rid of the employee. Tesco would have to speak to customer and reassure that no incidents like this will happen in the future and also check with customers’ whether they are satisfied with the actions taken against the staff.

Another example of a situation could be that the customers bought something of Tesco like bread or something and it was out of date. The Tesco would have to refund it or give money back to rectify the situation. So in order to check that the customers are satisfied, Tesco would have to send out letters or email them regarding whether they are satisfied that they got refunds or product exchanged.

Another situation could be that a customer got blamed for shoplifting or something when they never actually did the crime but got blamed for it. So Tesco could analyse the situation and give apologies if necessary or just keep the charges against them if they are found guilty. So in order to check everything is been dealt with, Tesco could send letters or send emails to the customer to check whether they are satisfied.

How Tesco maintains, monitor and improve the customer service

An example of a customer service Tesco offer is 24 hour service. This is a service where the customers can get the products whenever they want. So in order to monitor this service they have to get employees to get feedback on how well 24 hour service is going, they can give surveys for staff to fill out. Tesco could even get feedback from Tesco’s shareholders about the 24 hour service in the Annual General Meeting (AGM). Tesco could have internal meeting to discuss the situation about the 24 hour service. Tesco have to get feedback from customers as well and not just employees. So to get feedback from customers they can give out surveys for customers to fill in, such as comment cards, customer questionnaires, etc. Tesco could also look at Tesco’s sales record to see whether sales have increased by having 24 hour service. So for maintaining the service then the senior managers can analyses the people who are benefiting from the 24 hour service. So when they analyse the data they have to change the data they have collected to information which is easy to understand. So for example, they can look at the sales record and compare how effective 24 hour service is by looking at how many sales Tesco makes at around midnight for example. Once the data has been analysed and presented in an appropriate form, it needs to be evaluated to find out just how good or bad the service is. This is done so they could look at improvements in sales and future improvements in the service. In order to improve the 24 hour service they could open Tesco all days including Sundays 24 hours, this will benefit both customers and employees.

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Another example of a customer service in Tesco could be to have special offers. This means that they reduce the price of some products or make deals such as buy one get one free, in order to attract the customers. So in order to monitor this service Tesco could send out questionnaires to staff and the customers to see whether special offer service is effective and whether it is doing well. So Tesco can have informal meetings were they discussing whether the special offer scheme works or not. Tesco could also have comment boxes where the staffs have to leave their comments in the box. So to maintain this service, the senior managers or people who work in marketing department can analyse the results found and see whether they have made any more sales by special offers. So when they analyse the data they have to change the data they have collected to information which is easy to understand. Once the data has been analysed and presented in an appropriate form, it needs to be evaluated to find out just how good or bad the service is. Tesco can improve if necessary on things like more advertisement of the special offers; make more frequent special offers and also special offers which the customers think that it is a very good offer.

Another example of a customer service in Tesco could be that Tesco offer special trolleys for disabled people. This means that disabled people can shop in Tesco’s easily as it is easy to push around and put products in. so in order to monitor this service Tesco could do surveys or give questionnaire to special trolley users to identify whether this service is useful and how they can improve it. Tesco could also give out comment cards for trolley users to fill out. In order to maintain this service, the senior managers can analyse the results and see whether service is effective and make strategies to improving it. They can also ask staffs, who give out these special trolleys, about how many people use theses trolleys and staffs personal comments about these special trolleys system. So when they analyse the data they have to change the data they have collected to information which is easy to understand. So Tesco could improve the service by offering various trolleys for different needs so it reaches a wider audience. They can even design trolleys which got for example automatic maps 2 direct them to what they want to get.

Another example of customer service in Tesco could be having loyalty cards. This means that the customer can get points for every time they buy something at Tesco and after they get certain amounts of points they can get free products of rewards. A way of monitor this service is to give out questionnaires to customers to fill out regarding the usefulness and effectiveness of the loyalty cards. Also another way of monitoring this service is to analyse what kind of products customers buy using the loyalty cards and also see how much purchases they make, this information can be used to analyse and come to a conclusion whether this service is very successful or not. Also another way Tesco can monitor this service is by quality circles, this is where quality circles enables groups of employees who work in direct contact with the customers, in order to get ideas about how to improve the quality of the service. the So they can maintain this service by analysing what purchases individuals buys using the loyalty cards and make comparisons with whether sales has increased because of loyalty cards. They can improve this service by offering various loyalty cards such as more reward loyalty card for people who purchase the most and normal loyalty cards for people who purchase the least. Tesco could also offer some kind of reward which is likely to attract the customers’ attention and would persuade them to purchase lots of products from the store.

List of sources used

http://www.bized.ac.uk/educators/16-19/business/strategy/presentation/performance_map.htm
http://sbinfocanada.about.com/od/customerservice/
As-level applied business book for Edexcel
Letts -Revise AS business studies

Tesco’s customer service procedure

Complaint Procedure

Stage 1 – Problem Solving

Customer can contact by using the online feedback form, by telephone, e-mail, letter or in person. Then Tesco will aim to send an acknowledgement letter within two working days of receipt and Tesco will tell the name of the officer who is dealing with the complaint. They will receive a written response to the complaint within ten working days. Tesco will apologise and where appropriate include an explanation of what went wrong and what we have done to put things right. Sometimes because of the need to contact several service areas or other organisations, the complaint may take longer to investigate. In these cases the customer will receive an interim reply within ten working days explaining what has happened so far and the date a full response can be expected usually within 20 working days. Tesco will use the outcome of complaints and any remedial action as a positive method of monitoring our performance and continual improvement of our services

Stage 2 – Referral to the Chief Executive

If the customer is not happy with Tesco’s response, then they have the right of referral to the Chief Executive and/or customer’s ward councillor outlining why the customer is still dissatisfied. (See: Swindon Councillors and Contact Details.)

Stage 3 – Appeal to the Local Government Ombudsman

If the customer is still dissatisfied following investigation by the Chief Executive the customer can refer the complaint to the Local Government Ombudsman. The Ombudsman is an independent body, which investigates complaints against local authorities concerning ‘maladministration’. This is defined as doing something the wrong way, failing to do something Tesco should, or doing something Tesco should not. The Ombudsman will not investigate decisions that individuals simply do not like.

The Ombudsman will not usually consider a complaint until the Council has had a chance to resolve the matter through its own Complaints Procedure.

There are several changes Tesco to the customer service procedure to improve it. Tesco could for example get the process done quicker in order to satisfy the customers which is important. Tesco could also cut some part of the procedure to make the procedure. Tesco could take more care in dealing with the complaints so that they don’t make any mistakes.

The staffs who deal with complaints to be trained so they can cope with various types of complaints even the violent more difficult complaints. Staffs also need to be trained on having the full or most knowledge on what the customer is asking. These training could be on-the job training or off-the job training as they need the extra skills to be able to cope with customer’s complaints.

On-the job training

This type of training is where they learn while they are performing the job, so you still contribute to production while training. However, on-the job training has advantages and disadvantages. One advantage of on-the job training is that the worker is still contributing to production while they are being trained. However, a disadvantage is that on-the job training is not cheap as Tesco has to pay extra wages to the trainee who is training them. Another advantage is that on-the job traing is real life experience of how the job is going to be. However, a disadvantage is that if the trainer makes a mistake it would be very costly as Tesco may even loose customers.

Off-the job training

This type of training is done while away from the work place. One advantage is that if the trainee makes a mistake it would not be as costly as if they worked at the work place. However, a disadvantage is that there is no real life experience so the trainee would not know how it will feel like if they were at a real situation. Another advantage is that it is still quite expensive as Tesco would need to pay the staff’s wages who trains them and also find a suitable place to train them.

Tesco gets customer loyalty mainly from increasing customer satisfaction, only if the customers are happy they would return to Tesco. Also by using methods such as loyalty cards they can attract the loyalty of customers by having rewards for certain amount of things the customer buys at Tesco. Tesco offer various types of discounts such as buy one get one free, 50% off, or even discounts such as if the customer buys certain amount at Tesco, then customer get discounts for their next shopping at Tesco.

The good thing about Tesco’s current practices and procedures is that current practices and procedures satisfy the customer which is very important. Another good thing about this procedure is that Tesco has a quality control, so that’s where they check how the products are for example, if they are broken or damaged or if they are up to their expectation. This is important as Tesco can access fully as possible as if the product is in best condition when selling to the customers. However, some bad things about Tesco’s current practices and procedures are that they take a long time to go through so customers may have to wait long for a reply. Also the procedure might not have high quality as they are trying to speed up the process so the quality of service Tesco provide might decrease. There are several changes or improvements Tesco could do, they could for example cut down some stages of the complaint process and increase the quality. This is increase customer satisfaction as their needs are met and their complaints are dealt with quickly. If everything stays the same then Tesco will be continually going at the same pace as it is going and may have the chance of losing customers as the current service take too long in dealing with complaints.