Report on Customer satisfaction on Coles-Free-Samples for Students

Question: Write a Business report on Customer Satisfaction on Coles. Answer: Introduction This report is on the customer satisfaction level of Coles and where does it stands in the competition with other two supermarkets Woolworths and Aldi. The theory framework of Customer relationship management is also described and applied in this research. Further, there is also primary data collected from the daily customer base of that supermarket which is analysed from the source. There is some major recommendation given at the end of the report to increase satisfaction of Cole Customer. Background Coles is the market leader in retail supermarket category in Australia and the prospective of the Industry since 1914 is notable. However, the whole industrys emergence and after the globalisation, the competition has increased. This has directed the competitors to develop strategies in different business aspect of the business and become more competitive regarding their strengths. Over the period of years, Coles have focused on different values like Quality service, innovation, growth and building good relationship with the suppliers, customers and the remaining stakeholders. The company is also expanded in different sectors like providing financial services, expansion of grocery website, hotels, liquor and other additional business. The three main part of the value frame involves good and long-term supplier partnerships, enriching internal environment of business, great value and trusted quality of fresh produce to their customers. This research is based on the exploration of custo mer satisfaction level of Coles and its competitors Aldi and Woolworths. Market position and future prediction of their customer base is also discussed. Situational analysis of business Coles situational analysis involves the analysis of business environment, where the organisation stands in the industry. The macro environment that affects the business indirectly has long-run effect. Nevertheless, the internal environment is essential if analysed to be at fault. The in-depth analysis of the company by the tools SWOT, PESTLE, 4Cs, Porters five forces have given some insight of the companys situation which are discussed below. SWOT analysis Strengths - the company is a multi brand retail of Australia, which provides them with certain advantages like applying for investments, good market visibility. Their target group lies in the middleclass and upper class business people of Australia. Their marketing through advertising and branding and sponsorship is a perfect weapon to explore on. Their pricing strategies are effective and frequent price cuts are good. Being a market leader has provided them to dominate their supplier management (Buttle 2012). The Tagline always focuses on their customers. The presence for about 100 years have helped them approaching wide customer base. The success of the liquor business and having a backup of in-house financial services is also notable. The Impressive online presence and delivery/pickup services have enhanced their overall supermarket presence. Weakness Coles have been in the news for having issues with suppliers. The persistent problem have already raised raging concerns for the conglomerate. There also have been some management issues on handling every department of their wide range of business. The value meal movements have drastically reduced their profit margin as they already operate on a low margin. The liquor business have been facing issue competing with the liquor giant of Woolworths. Opportunities - The online delivery of their grocery business needs to b explored as the Internet usage is gaining preference in the customers. Being a conglomerate, they have an advantage of using backward integration. This may increase the efficiency of their business (Chen and Popovich 2013). The backup of in house Financial services and this chain of business can provide their all other start-ups with sufficient investments if planned right. Their presence in the retail market over 100 years has given them an advantage of building a vast customer base to use. The geographic expansion on offshore business also poses a great opportunity. The liquor market has firm presence in Australia and it can be captured with strategic development of the companys liquor department. Threats - the ACCC accused Coles for using unreasonable fines and wastages against their suppliers and that have affected their long-term image in the supplier market. The competition with greater retailers, which operates on higher margin, has affected their cost leadership in the market. The product prices are slightly higher for an average income Australian. Moreover, their target group lies in the higher income group, which is lesser percentage of Australian population. Change of food spending habit and positive attitude towards increased spending in outside meals also poses a threat for their grocery industry. Pestle analysis Political Government regulation regarding duopolistic nature of the two retail giants have given negative impacts in their business. The duopoly an sharing the market between them has been barred by the regulations of the Australian government. ACCC has divided the market with the other Players in the market, Like ALDI, Woolies. Economical The average spending Australian customers are not the target group of these supermarkets and it has affected the pending of the consumers in the economy. The Income percentage that is spent on the buying groceries and everyday convenience is stagnant but the Value meal movement of conscious consumer are affecting their everyday business. Social Their investment in the Corporate Social activity has increased their image in the customer base. Coles has always used the fair trade policies in their business. They have also invested in the research and they give development of the agriculture for the farmers in Australia, cancer help to children and young people all over. Technological Their huge customer base has enabled them in using some good facilities that they incorporated in their customer facility. The self-checkout system, the contactless payment facility, the mobile wallet and credit card app incorporation in their customer engagement program, wireless payment for their customer as well as suppliers are also an advantage. Legal The price war with Woolworth has lead Coles to some legal actions. ACCC has barred their price war, which have affected the suppliers of the supermarket farmers and vegetable sellers and have been warned by the NFF (National Farmers Federation) to a strict code of conduct on the supermarkets. Environmental - the sustainable product usage has in the super market, the Led light enabled market and usage of economic friendly products over the years is appreciable by the customer of Coles. He recycling facilities and reducing carbon footprint through natural refrigerant has been their steps towards building environmental friendly movements. Porters five forces model The porters model describes the position of conglomerates like Coles in their industry. The power of a business lies in using the optimum available resources in their business Threat of Competition - the competitors of Coles are Woolworths and Aldi. Both of the company has strong presence in the market but Coles and Woolworths have different advantages in their vanity. Therefore, the threat of competition is medium to high. Bargaining power of supplier the suppliers are strongly backed by the ACCC regulations in favour of them. However, the relationship Coles has build among the supplier chain and integrating data efficiency has given them a different edge to conduct the relationship with efficiency. This threat is high in scale for Coles. Bargaining power of customer for a long time Coles has been the market leaders and having the cost leadership has helped them retain the customers. However, the factors analysed from swot threatens their customer retention strategy. Having different alternatives available in the market is also affecting their customer relationship management. Threat of substitute - The threat of substitute increasing the risk factor is low. However, their competition with the local groceries is high. The products they outsource and sales in the market are highly demanded and the quality brands they associate themselves to are irreplaceable judging by the brand value. Threat of new entrance Retail industry is one of the most highly competitive in the global market. After the emergence of the online grocery and customer preference in them, it has also been seen to expanding the global competitors to explore in the offshore by having efficiency and excellent supply-chain and logistics management. Building customer satisfaction and value retention The customers seek to increase their value in the product or service they engages themselves into. Satisfaction level increases if he expectation level is surpassed and the perceive value of the product is met (Chen and Popovich 2013). Coles has been successful in reducing their cost, while gaining cost leadership and increasing their quality in fresh produce. The high performing business needs to enhance the four performing parameters Processes the business process is one of the key to success that ensures operational excellence and optimum level of cross-functioning teams. Coles management issues in interdepartmental functioning needs to be resolved. Customer attraction strategies of Coles need to be revised. Using social media channels can improve the process (Chen and Popovich 2013). Resources getting supplies of the fresh produce, the financial services, the hotel chains and liquor business are the resources they need to focus on. While training and developing the front-end functioning department of human resource and making them competent in customer relationship management is also building blocks towards customer retention (Chen and Popovich 2013). Organisation - the organizations policies regarding customer engagement and retention is effective, as they have learned innovated and incorporated strategic customer relationship program in their system. The issues have affected corporate culture in the organization with the suppliers. Norms within an organization is also effective by the feedback from the employers. Stakeholders stakeholders of Coles are the employers, shareholders, suppliers and anyone who are connected to the organisation. The front end functioning department is also competitive in their work Drivers of customer equity Brand Equity the brand equity of the organisation depends on the customers engagement, effectively converted acquisition rate and market visibility. Coles has improvised over the year on the first two but market visibility is negatively impacted if there by their governments regulations by ACCC barring them to control the supplier management in the company. Relationship Equity the relationship of the company with its supplier and customer are very essential for increasing relationship equity. Their customer relationship management program in the company is driven by the cost benefit they give compared to their competitors. Value Equity The perceived value received by the customers is of utmost importance and Coles have been regarded to use that by incorporating with the customers trust management by offering award winning products and health star ratings. Value equity are also dependent on additional financial benefits, as Coles can use the opportunity having in-house financial services, Club membership, personalize customer The 4cs of marketing the product development of the market opportunity is not ideals for people in the economy. One has to take into consideration about the customer needs and wants. Then develop a product, which satisfies the customer. Therefore, the 4ps of marketing is revolutionized 4cs. Customer - the needs and wants are of grave importance in this economy as it poses a competitive challenge Companies who have gained success in the years are acutely focused on their customer, like Starbucks. Coles strategies to customer relationship is data driven but it had gained them exploring on the new technologies that have been added to them. Convenience - the customers convenience are judged by the availability of the stores and products. Coles has expanded their business to 25 new super market stores and other liquor stores all over Australia by 2016. They also provide the online delivery option throughout the continent. Cost cost for the customer is needed to be seen with care. Spending in the right product is essential for the customer. It is investment for the customer to gain some value out of it. The percentage of income spends for their product needs to be regarded and analyses how to optimize. Communication communication is in every part of the business process but here communicating the value in the right way to the customers is essential. Without the manipulation, the give and take relationship is what needs to be communicated. The value proposition to customer The value the customer receives from the organization draws on the concept of the benefits that enhance the customer offer (Levitt 1969; Lovelock 1995). However, there is now a logic, which has evolved from earlier thinking in business-to-business and services marketing that views the customer as a co creator and coproduce. These benefits can be integrated in the form of a value proposition that explains the relationship among the performance of the product, the fulfilment of the customers needs, and the total cost to the customer over the customer relationship life cycle later work on value propositions reflects the co creation perspective(Buttle 2012).. However, a more detailed synthesis of work in this area is needed in further research. To determine whether the value proposition is likely to result in a superior customer experience, a company should undertake a value assessment to quantify the relative importance that customers place on the various attributes of a product. Analyt ical tools such as conjoint analysis can be used to identify customers that share common preferences in terms of product attributes. Such tools may also reveal substantial market segments with service needs that are not fully catered to by the attributes of existing offers. This theory is based on the retail industry, customer retention strategy. The high valued individuals are always the source of 80% of the gross profit (Chen and Popovich 2013).. Therefore, retaining the high valued customers is important as they generate 80 % of the profit. Building a sustainable CRM strategy The rapidly growing trends of customer relationship management and incorporating it in the corporate strategy have increased the company profitability. Demographic changes, digitalization and sustainability influence the mind-set and behaviour of customers (Buttle 2012). Particularly, concerns with the scarcity of natural resources, environmental degradation, and social inequalities have led to consumers becoming aware of the impact that current patterns of production, consumption and living are having on future sustainability. With the development of IT and the focus on the customer basic relationship marketing deals, with all stakeholders, not only customers. CRM has emerged from a synthesis of relationship marketing and different research streams within marketing and business information systems. Newly available data, technologies, and organizational forms have contributed to this development. Coles Data Repository system of their customer information and Cloud computing technolog ies has enabled them to use the perspectives of their customer to improvise the system. The e-customer relationship management which handles the 24/7 support and grievances are necessary and suffiently used by Coles organisation. Changing business model top and bottom line and linking to the customer relationship management business Research methodology This qualitative research done on the customers satisfaction analysis of Coles supermarket and their competitors Woolworths and Aldi. The time schedule of the research is also given where selecting the research idea and building the research objective is also given. The structured questionnaires for the 30 sample customers of the supermarket is gathered on excel and analysed by some of the descriptive statistics tool. The primary data collection process was interview to the daily Customers of the mentioned supermarkets. Formulating the research and conducting the research process and conducting the literature review is described in the research proposal. Data analysis and evaluation For predicting the customer, satisfaction level the research has been done on a 30 customers of the three supermarkets. Coles, Woolworths and Aldi. The demography of the customers are given below. Gender division Percentage Male 15 50.0% Female 15 50.0% Total 30 100.0% The research data reveals that the population of Australia, regardless it is male or female goes to supermarket for grocery purchase in a frequent manner. 50% of the supermarket goers are male and other 50% is female. This reveals that the women and men take same participation in shopping and marketers needs to prioritise the preference of both of the gender simultaneously in their products. The end user of the products does not matter in this process. The age population analysis reveals the concentration of the buyers is near the 18-25 and 26-35 in the supermarkets. Therefore, the marketing department of the retailers needs to focus on the general demographical features of that age group. Like focus on online delivery purchases, using efficient apps and website to upgrade the retail purchases integrated with online purchases. This ages main definition is also independent and does not want to spend time in physical shopping, so the retail stores must be second preference for the organisation. Never Rarely Sometimes Often Always Total Coles 0 6 12 9 3 30 Woolworths 0 2 12 13 3 30 Aldi 0 13 11 5 1 30 This frequency data depicts that the research participants visit Coles sometimes. However, does not prefer it as frequently as they prefer to go to Woolworths. The rare visits numbers are high in Aldi. This may be an effect of high price focuses of the supermarket chains. A view of different parameters in the graph and Strongly Dissatisfied Dissatisfied Neutral Satisfied Strongly Satisfied Weighted Average Product Quality 3.3% 20.0% 16.7% 33.3% 26.7% 3.60 Product Price 6.7% 46.7% 6.7% 33.3% 6.7% 2.87 Product Variety 0.0% 6.7% 0.0% 23.3% 70.0% 4.57 Deals/discounts available 6.7% 30.0% 20.0% 36.7% 6.7% 3.07 Responsiveness and reliability of employees 6.7% 36.7% 16.7% 33.3% 6.7% 2.97 Brand image 0.0% 0.0% 3.3% 50.0% 46.7% 4.43 Merchandise Display 10.0% 43.3% 13.3% 23.3% 10.0% 2.80 Convenience of Store Location 3.3% 10.0% 6.7% 63.3% 16.7% 3.80 Trading Hours 0.0% 6.7% 3.3% 73.3% 16.7% 4.00 Reward System 10.0% 16.7% 20.0% 36.7% 16.7% 3.33 Finding parking space 3.3% 16.7% 20.0% 40.0% 20.0% 3.57 Self-service checkout 6.7% 10.0% 6.7% 43.3% 33.3% 3.87 Queues at checkout 6.7% 43.3% 3.3% 40.0% 6.7% 2.97 I can find the product I want 0.0% 6.7% 6.7% 33.3% 53.3% 4.33 Overall Satisfaction 0.0% 10.0% 30.0% 53.3% 6.7% 3.57 Preferred supermarket observers percentage Coles 12 40.0% Woolworths 16 53.3% Aldi 2 6.7% 30 100.0% The different satisfaction parameters are calculated from the feedback from the research participants and accumulated in the above table. The overall dissatisfaction level being 0 depicts that the customer satisfaction level from Coles is really high. Display of merchandise facility and reward system satisfaction percentage of the customers are comparatively high than the other parameters. Therefore, the customers of Coles are overall satisfied in their services. The trading hours are highly preferable for the customers. The price of products, queuing systems in the Coles are also a dissatisfaction-contributing factor in Coles. However, the positive feedback on the parameters is self-service checkout, convenience in location of the stores, the parking space facilities and reward systems in Coles. The most appreciated facility of Coles are the variety of products available in the market and product identification facilities of the house. The above interpretation of the data gathered is parallel to the analysis of management theories done using different tools. Coles market overview analysed from the above market is that they have a customer satisfaction level more than 50 %. The convenience, customer, communication, three of the 4 cs are high in customer satisfaction level but the cost of the products are not in preferred by the participants. The perceived value of money they spent in the products are not achieved which leads to customer dissatisfaction. This has also impacted the customers most preferred choice of supermarket, which is Woolworths having overall satisfaction off 70%, whereas Coles is only 53%. The Customer taste and preference is of utmost importance but Coles have scored lower in that index too. Comparing with the data of Woolworths and Aldi Coles customer satisfaction level comes second and brand image and product variety of Woolworths(83.3%, 56.7%) is greater than of Coles (70%, 46.7%) and Aldi (1 3.3%. 10%). This also depicts the customer perceived value of Coles supermarket. Recommendation Coles is nearly a 100 years company residing in Australia, this has given the company certain advantage of building customers personal data repository. Again the new emergence of data analysis tools and cloud computing devices and softwares will enhance their analysing capability of their customer preference and taste factors which influences the satisfaction level. The price related factors are also needed to be revised. The analysis indicated that this is one of the factors, which limits the satisfaction level. Woolworths competition on the factor is also crucial as they offer products at a lesser price. To attract more customer the price should be reasonable and convenient store locations are also preferable to increase the sales and new customer acquisition. Building a sustainable relationship with their suppliers is also needed after the negative impact that has affected Coles has influenced their overall brand image to their customers. Conclusion - Therefore, from the above explanation of the data it is clear that the customer satisfaction level is reducing for the supermarket Coles. There is some recommendation for them to increase the customer retention, acquisition and engagement too. References Bahrami, M., Ghorbani, M. and Arabzad, S.M., 2012. Information technology (IT) as an improvement tool for customer relationship management (CRM).Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences,41, pp.59-64. Buttle, F., 2012.Customer relationship management: concepts and technologies. Routledge. Chen, I.J. and Popovich, K., 2013. Understanding customer relationship management (CRM) People, process and technology.Business process management journal,9(5), pp.672-688. Khodakarami, F. and Chan, Y.E., 2014. Exploring the role of customer relationship management (CRM) systems in customer knowledge creation.Information Management,51(1), pp.27-42. Kirmaci, S., 2012. 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