How has the supermarket ASDA improved its efficiency
How has the supermarket ASDA improved its efficiency?
Introduction
ASDA is a chain of supermarkets in the United Kingdom offering food, clothing and general merchandise products. It became subsidiary of the American retail giant Wal-Mart in 1999 and is currently the second largest chain in the UK after Tesco.
I have decided to investigate how ASDA have attempted to increase efficiency and strive to become the biggest grocer in the UK. I am going to carry out primary and secondary research.
Secondary Research
ASDA stores ltd was founded as a supermarket committed to offering shoppers ‘permanently low prices’. Over the last few years ASDA have led several campaigns to save their customers millions, while always ensuring their products meet the highest quality and ethical trading standards.
Another success of ASDA is down to their colleagues, who are famous for being the friendliest in the industry. Their commitment to customer service and the local community is a key reason why ASDA’s customers keep coming back. Therefore staff training is a key factor that has helped to improve efficiency. In order to achieve customer satisfaction and higher levels of efficiency, ASDA ensure that their employees are trained and able to assist with customer enquiries. When an employee starts to work for ASDA they are given the necessary training and then they are employed on a 12week trial. If the employee meets the company’s standards and performs well in their trail employment period, they will be kept on. By hiring trained staff that are confident and able, ASDA can provide high quality service that makes the store efficient. The services provided in an ASDA store also make ASDA efficient. Many of the ASDA stores have an all day restaurant or café offering a choice of snacks, salads, sandwiches and cooked meals together with hot and cold drinks. The store has also invested £30m in facilities for people with disabilities. From tactile signage and grabbers through to redesigning counters, lifts and car parking, ASDA are always seeking ways to improve the shopping experience for their disabled customers. ASDA is also the only supermarket in the UK to have greeters on the door to welcome customers. A service like this enables competitive advantage over rival supermarkets and ensures shoppers feel welcome, which can help o increase the stores efficiency. The ASDA stores also have baby changing facilities for mums and dads, and ‘pet stops’ outside their stores for customers to leave their pets somewhere safe while they shop. They also offer a wide range of trolleys to cater for the young, the elderly and the disabled. These include wheelchair trolleys, big shoppers, kiddy trolleys and trolleys for parents and babies. Such services ensure customer satisfaction. Customers are more likely to shop at the store again if their trip to ASDA was an enjoyable experience. This will mean repeat sale and improved efficiency. ASDA ran a customer efficiency scheme in 19 of their stores across the country on a trial basis, which gave them some very useful information. As a result ASDA decided to cancel the trial because to operate it in every store would have been very expensive and inefficient. It would also have meant that they wouldn’t have been able to keep prices as low as they do at the moment. One of the things they learned from running the ASDA Club in a few stores was that a lot of their customers prefer low prices now, rather than gifts in the future. This vital information helped ASDA to improve their efficiency by finding the best way to reward their customers’ loyalty.
