5 Chapter

Discussions
5.1 Discussion about the findings
Objective one: to evaluate the current customer service operations of The cooperative

The customer service policies of the co-operative was seen a appropriate for a
supermarket chain . Survey revealed that it was absolutely essential for the company
to employ different strategies to ensure customer satisfaction. The company
provides dedicate on the staff, website , hotline for management of customer
grievance s. The main criteria through which the customer care quality was checked
was quality of in house sales procedure and staff. The time taken reply of the oline
complaints,The company tends to to try for a quick as well as immediate response
to the the customer complaints. The discussion with management staff revealed that
company has installed faster tills, Kids place ,toilets/comfort rooms ,after sales team
to ensure customer satisfaction levels are improved.

All the staff including those non sales sections has to undergo a training which
provides information of products as well services.

.
The co-operative provide training to their staffs at all level from supervisors to
cleaners as a means to ensure great customer service. A training scheme which
includes four modules were the peculiarity of their training program for the customer
service staffs and these modules are enough to provide their employees with all
kind of customer service skills and knowledge. But still there is scope to improve the
management of customer service practices.
The operational factors should also need to be observed while analysing the
customer service practices in The co-operative . The fast processing at the tills are
adversely effected by various operational factors among the various factors the
most severe one is the missing of product barcode, this cause serious problems
to the customers at the store and force them to call for staffs to enquire about
it if they found it at the time of picking it from the shelf’s if not this should cause
delays in the checkouts because the computer scanning system not recognise the
product. Occasional till malfunctions; slow card readers etc are the other operational
problems that cause common delays.
Objective two: to study the customer service expectations of customers of The
co-operative :
The customer’s service expectations are vital to identify the requirements of the
targeted customers and segments in the retail market of the country. From the
findings of the research and the literature reviewed in the earlier chapter it was
evident that the major expectations of customers about the services from the
retailers are ease of shopping, product availability, additional services like loyalty
cards, comfort facilities and information’s about the product. Even though it is not
a service expectation but the majority of customers consider the price advantage
while selecting the retailer for shopping. That doesn’t mean that service aspects
and products have no significance in moulding the customers buying and shopping
decision. But when asked about the expectations majority of customers opinioned
that price does not have any influence but the products and services offerings of the
firm are the major concern because the pricing of almost all the retailers are similar
in the country. More importantly if they are not satisfied with the price they had the
option to turn towards the The co-operative own labelled products and roll back
products.
Along with the above stated major service expectations some other significant
requirements of the customers are need to be noticed. From the findings of the
research we can find that majority of customers expect some additional facilities
which are not belonging to the sphere of the business strategy of the company
but important to form the basis for the services. Such facilities includes free bags,
free trolleys, credit-card and cheque payments, baskets at the store, cash back
facilities, tidiness, adequate comfort facilities and acceptance of coupons. Some
other services that are significant and relevant in forming and moulding the shopping
decisions of the customers are competence of the customer staff to rectify the
doubts and confusions of customers at store, adequate number of enquiry staff at
the desk, enough space at the packing area, self operating tills and machines and
fast checkouts. The customer value these services as important because they need
more support from the staffs in store and avoid all sorts of difficulties while shopping
at the store.
In this complex and intense competition retailers require to provide the services
which bring customer satisfaction and customer loyalty towards the store. At
the same time the customers need maximum solution for their requirements,
convenience, fair prices, respect from the company and total customer experience
stated by Berry (2001). So in order to ensure the customer satisfaction and
customer loyalty every retailer need to be aware of these requirements stated above
avoidance of any of this requirement may hinder the goals. According to Smith
(1999) for the process of building customer loyalty the retailers need to focus on
offering superior services and products, understand and alter in accordance with the
changing customer requirements and adjusting their strategies in according to the
interests of various customer segments in the same market.
Objective three: whether the improved customer service provide a competitive
advantage for the company:
It is not possible for any organisation to provide all kinds of customer services that
has been stated by the customers as their expectation from a retailer. But due to the
intense competition in the retail sector in UK it is essential for a retailer like The
cooperative
to present their customers with the services that meet most important
service requirements including Choice, Clarity, Communication, Control and
Checkouts (Thomas and Heil 2006). According to Brandes (2005) “no organisation
stresses and emphasises the operational competence beyond the interests of
consumers”. This view is also supported by Strother and Gronfeldt (2005) and
commented that by using the customer service as a tool of marketing it can provide a
long term direction and in turn leads to strategic advantage to the organisation.
From the findings of the research, it is proved that if the customer service provided
by the company meets the needs and want of the customers it will satisfy the
customers and that in turn helps to retain customers and increase the profitability
of the company. In general words, a customer will make revisit to the stores if
they perceived that the customer service provide by the company is satisfactory.
This factor of store revisiting will lead to store loyalty. More over this kind of
customer service will helpful to encourage a positive behaviour of word of mouth
admiration and endorsement about the service quality, increased store visits and
spending hours all these things contribute to offer a competitive advantage for
the organisation. Numerous previous studies mentioned in the literature review
also validate these facets that were originated in the research, some of which is
mentioned hereunder:
As per the studies of Franzmeier& Tschohl (1991)) “a quality customer service can
be an effective marketing tool to achieve and sustain competitive advantage over the
rivals in market”
According to the managers of THE CO-OPERATIVE as a leading retailer they were
able to use customer service as a major tool of marketing in order to gain some
competitive advantage over the rivals like Tesco, Sainsbury and Morrison etc. at
the same time from the findings of research it is evident that there are areas that
need to be improved with regard to the customer service practices of the company.
A majority of customers and managers were mentioned the importance of improving
the customer services of the company. If these words are valued and take proper
consideration that will definitely help the organisation to make measures which leads
to sustainable advantage for the company in the long run.
Objective four: valuable recommendations to the company for the effective
use of customer service
From the findings of the research certain valuable recommendations shaped in
the mind of the research as part of improving the customer service practices of
The co-operative . These recommendations are formulated for gaining competitive
advantage in the market through customer satisfaction and customers store loyalty.
While studying the customer service practice and customer experiences and
expectations it was revealed that superior customer services brought customer
satisfaction and store loyalty and that in turn help the organisation to achieve some
sort of competitive edge over the competitors in the market place. Comprehensive
recommendations for the management of the company were provided in the next
chapter of this research.
5.2 Validity of research findings
This aspect of data gathering may be quite complex to the non-researcher. Very
basically however, validity is whether the research is actually measuring what it
claims to be measuring. Therefore it is a good idea to know how the research was
undertaken and if this is really measuring what you wanted it to measure. If you have
any fears about whether this is true, it is possible the results of the survey should be
called into question.
5.3 Reliability of research findings
This problem relates to whether research results can be applied to a wider group
than those who took part in a study, also called generalization. In short, if another
group of respondents was used would the results be similar? And therefore, can your
results be generalized out to represent a larger population than your sample size?
Reliability is chiefly concerned with generating consistent results, this can be done
for instance by having two researchers question the same number of people from
a sample and if the responses are similar it is likely the results are good and can
therefore represent a wider population.
Reliability is the instrument that is used to measure the variable that are central to
the research questions i.e. the consistency, stability and repeatability of the data
(Zikmund, 2000).The researcher must have faced some transient errors that would
have crept into the study due to fatigue and distraction. It must have happened to
the researcher during the process of data collection. There were instances when the
participants were not fully aware of the true nature of research questions like while
conducting survey with customers on reputation management issues and green
products popularity consumption. The researcher felt a possibility of misinterpretation
of the whole idea which can in turn result in inappropriate measurement when
unclear questions are not being clarified by the participants. Considering all the
above factors the researcher has viewed and reviewed time and over again. The
data gathering and data recording was done with utmost care and concern so
that only valid and reliable information were noted down and the discussion and
recommendation were based on such information (svenning, 2003)