- The customers can’t feel the material of the product that they are buying.
- Customers can’t see if there any damages on the product.
- Customers can’t try on the cloths that they want to buy because Argos doesn’t have any changing rooms.
Now Argos has adopted a new approach, they have a saying “try before you buy” this gives customers the flexibility to try a product they pay for it and from the main catalogue if you buy something and you don’t like it you can bring it back within 14 days and get your money back if you are not completely satisfied with your product. Recently Argos has changed their image, they adopted the brighter look, they accomplish this by making their stores more bright, brightening up the catalogue and even make their staff more lively, if you were to compare the styles from last year you will see a huge change, the main thing that customers noticed is a service with a smile.
The Holloway street branch of Argos is very different compared to the store in New Oxford Street. The store in Holloway Street is more for the local people and the store in New Oxford Street is for tourist because Oxford Street is well known as a good tourist attraction due to the fact that there is a lot more shops in that area of London and you can do all your shopping in one place.
There are many different types of customer that use the Holloway Road branch of Argos. For the Holloway branch there are two main characteristics of the customer, the local people and business people. The store is located in the centre of Islington and residential area of London. The business people are what are known as big spenders they prefer to spend more money on the same type of product at the residential people, because they feel that they are getting a product that is of a higher quality and lasts longer. Spending by local people is very low compared to past years, this is due to high unemployment in this area, caused by the shutting down of many factories, where many people worked, but trade at Argos is high due to the factories being turned into offices where more high paid people have moved into, so therefore they are spending more money in the store so there is a balance. One group of customers are spending more then the other group and in this case it would be the business people spending the most money.
Argos is to grow capacity and improve customer service in Argos direct, the delivery to home operations. This is one of the main ways that Argos has identified to be what the customers want due to the fact that they feel that the service is good quality and convenient for all, this part of their main aims and objectives of the organisation because they feel that this is the way to go when it comes to the most convenient way to shop, they don’t only just have it through the net they also have service where you can order your goods via phone, in the shop and you can collect it when every it is convenient for you.
- Year 1 was for 2000
- Year 2 was for 2001
- Year 3 was for 2002
- Year 4 was for 2003
By looking at the data it shows that sales are going up and customer confidence is very high at the moment. This shows that a change in the image of the company has worked along with the huge marketing campaign for the brighter shopping. The change in the image was made in 2001 for the brighter catalogue.
The three S’s at Argos
Argos is a strong believer when it comes to the S’s. The three S’s are:
Every day that we open before we start we have to have a team talk, in this we are told about the strategies that have to be used for that day. For example if there are lots of customers, in the stock room one person is to give out the tickets and all the other people are to line up and collect the tickets, get the goods and then return back into the line. This helps them to get through the tickets as quick as possible. We have a policy where the staff try and get the customers in and out the shop within five minutes of them cuing up to pay for their goods. As soon as they have paid the stock room team receives to order then the staffs has to locate the product and send it down to the collection point where the alternated calling machine will call the ticket number to the collection point to pick up their goods. It isn’t that simple though, when staffs works in the stock room he/she would have to know the room quite good because the way the stock room is set out is by having the products next to each other, in big rows e.g. when a ticket comes through it says the location of the product so the stock room staff would have to know the room very well because the rows start from 1 to 44 each row goes from A to U. This is a system that will only work smoothly if the stock room staff work in a team and do their job to the highest level of their ability. The cashiers must make sure that the customers are not cuing too long, if there are more then four customers waiting to get the till, Argos will arrange for a staff member to work on another till, the stock room staff must make sure that the product id is quickly located and sent down on the conveyor belt where there is staff that puts the products on a shelf and the collection staff would give it to their rightful owner, this method should be done within five minutes. In the stock room staff have a digital clock that tells us how long we took with the last customer, but this is not very efficient because the time comes up after the collection staff has given the product to its owner and cleared the order in the system. For example if the staff send the product down in one minute and the product is given to the customer four minutes later it will come up on our clock as if the one of the staff in the stock room took five minutes. There is another implication; if the collection staffs don’t press the clear button (this will be saying that the customer has got their product) the clock would still go on until someone presses the clear button. Sometimes errors do occur in the stock room, if someone sends down the wrong product this is called a miss pick and this give a bad impression to customer because it is only detected at the collection point and they have to call up to the stock room and tell them it is a miss pick and someone has to go and get the right product.
Staff discuss out each day the average time of serving the customer every morning, if there are any problems with staff and communication, this is the time where it is discussed and how to solve it. If it doesn’t get solved with that time it will become a bigger problem in the future and will give a bad impression of the store.
All of this comes down to staff training. At Argos all the staffs goes through rigorous training. A lot of time and money is spent on training, Argos has a belief that if the staff isn’t trained to the full extent it will effect the whole store, efficiency and staff moral will be low because staff will feel that they haven’t been trained properly and cannot carryout their duties to the best of their ability due to bad training.
Good customer service
The company stated that every staff on the shop floor should acknowledge each customer, by saying “Hi” or even a smile would do. Being trained by Argos is very different compared to another retail outlet like J.D Sports plc, because they don’t merely teach you about how you would have to treat a customer, for example when you go in to a shop as a customer and how would u want a member of staff to approach you would it be for example “Hi”, “How are you” or not even being noticed and just make you feel alike an average person coming in to the store.
This type of method is very good for a member of staff to think from a customer’s point of view so they could make decisions effectively. Staffs are rewarded greatly. One way of this is a bonus, if the store has done well for that day. In the staff room there is a notice board and every week they have an employee of the week. This year their has been a reward put in place, the store with the least out of stock refunds will receive a party for new years eve at a selected venue at the west ends. To get the prize Argos would have to make sure that everything is in stock and when something is running low Argos have to do a stock count and make sure that there is the right amount of that product, so when a customer requests the product it should be in the customers hands within five minutes.
When there is a customer complaint the store manger has to take the statement by the customer and at this point the manager would of got to the bottom of the problem, for example if a customer says “an employee has been rude to me” the manager will approach the employee in question and ask then what happened and if their was a problem the manager will advise the employee how to deal with that type of problem in the future. I feel that customer service in Argos is very effective because it leaves room for the staff to greet each other customer in their own way, this gives the customer the feeling that the staff really cares and don’t just say what they say because hey have to, its because they want to.
First impressions are very important because it leaves a lasting impression on the customer and can make the company increase customer loyalty to the store or it can also make the company look very bad if the impression is bad. Argos has signed another company that dose their cleaning everyday; the cleaners come in early everyday and make sure that the store looks presentable. The stores have recently gone through major changes because it was only known as Argos but now has changed to an Argos superstore, this gives them the ability to hold more products in their store and offer more reductions on products that they have a lot of due to large storages space.
Argos has a large number of internal customers due to the fact that they have a large number of employees; they offer a 25% discount on what ever they wish to purchase.
Consumer protections legislation
There are a number of pieces of legislation that traders need to be aware, there are 3 main ones, and these are:
- The supply of goods and services act 1982
- The consumer protection act 1987
- The consumer protection (distance selling) regulations 2002
The supply of goods act 1982
The law basically says that the good must correspond with the description in the catalogue. This is very important when it comes to catalogue shopping. Customers only see a picture of the good and the description plays a grate part in this, if the description is not right there will be a lot of unsatisfied customers not getting what they thought they would get, making our returns figures high. Another part of the law states that the products must be of a satisfactory quality. Argos try to make sure that all goods are of a high quality, they monitor this through a system where they check every product that is delivered to the store, if the product is default and is given to the customer, the customer will come back to the store and complain and this would waste their time so therefore Argos would send back all broken or damaged items back to the warehouse. All products must be fit for purpose
Argos feel that they have to go beyond this and offer 16 day money back guarantee if the customer doesn’t like the product, all products must have the original packaging and brought into the store with the receipt. They have to do this because the customer cannot see what they are buying therefore can’t make the full decision.
Some products have their own warranty, this is done by the manufactures and not by Argos, and some products have a 3 year warranty. Most products have 1 year warranty given by Argos which means that if it breaks within the year of purchase you can bring it back and the company will send it off to get it fixed without any charges to the customer but no replacement will be given at the time, you will have to pick it back up from your chosen store when it get fixed up.
Argos also has a service where you can get extra insurance on certain products and extended guarantees for example on a television. For these services you have to pay an additional price. This gives the customer a chance to make a decision because sometimes people are deterred from buying something because if it breaks within a short period that is a lot of money gone for nothing. Some companies don’t offer this additional service that is what makes Argos the leading retailer in catalogue shopping on the high streets.
The consumer protection act 1987
The consumer protection is to help safeguard the consumer from products that do not reach reasonable level of safety. The phrase below is stated in the catalogue
“Our quality assurance department ensures that all Argos products are tested, often by independent laboratories”
Data protection
Some services will require us to hold personal information provided by the customer. We may share our information with selected third parties. Customer may be contacted by us or the third party for marketing purposes by e-mail, telephone or mail. If a customer doesn’t want their details shared with other parties they would have to tell the staff when they place their order. This is stated in the catalogue, therefore the customer cannot say that they were not informed that their details were given out without consent and no legal procedures can be made.
Health and safety
Argos has a strong policy with jewellery. Earrings can not be brought back at any time they are exempt from the 16 day money back guarantee due to heath and safety reasons. Personalized jewellery can not also be brought back.
The Argos card
This card allows customers to spread the cost of their shopping on what ever they want. Argos say
“The Argos card is the best way to shop at Argos”
This service allows the customer to pay of up to 56 days on what ever they have brought, interest free. All customers are told when it comes time for them to pay before they have to pay interest on the credit purchase. You can choose to spread the cost over a longer period at an APR of 25.9% now this is a very good way of Argos making more money off interest and would know that the customer would not be able to pay it back off straight away so Argos will know for example they would have the customer paying interest for 6 months.
This is a good way to monitor what people buy from Argos they can build up customer’s profiles and find out better ways in which to improve customer service and what products are the most popular.
Argos has a corporate link card (CLC) as well as the Argos card. The CLC can be used to buy any product from the catalogue direct by telephone, fax or even e-mail from your office or home. This is a bit different from the store card because the more you buy the more of a discount that you will receive. All Argos is making, it easier of the customers to pay in the most convenient way that suits the customer.
Appearance
Argos is very strict when it comes to appearance, every member of the staff must wear their uniform and their name badge, and they must have a clean appearance if any member of staff comes in looking scruffy, the manager will monitor how many times it happens and the next time their contract comes to update they will check this and if they have a bad record they will not hesitate to get rid of that staff.
There is a stand that is situated by the collection point where you can pick up leaflets on new products and additional services that are available. By the same points there is a health and safety notice board, this is where information about default products are kept.
Improvements to customer service
A major complaint by customer is that every time a new catalogue comes out that they have to come into the store to collect one, they were saying isn’t there any way that the catalogue can be sent to their homes. I recommend that if a customer would like a catalogue delivered they would have to sign up to the Argos card, this is the only available to those customer that spends over a certain amount in the store. At the movement only the additions catalogues are sent to registered customers. I think they should expand it to normal catalogue, this would increase the telephones sales because people will find it easier to order things because all they need to do is pick up the phone or go on to the internet, the option to collect from the store should be also available to all telephone and internet sales so that the customer doesn’t have to always pay for the delivery they can just come and pick it up and a selected date. This is similar to the ring and reserve that has been recently put in place for better customer service. I think that the best thing that Argos has put in place for improvements to the customers service is the ring and reserve and the award winning web site where you have to be online catalogue which anyone can access from anywhere and any time.