Introduction

Mr. Min Bahadur Gurung, the company's Owner and Chairman, opened Bhat-Bhateni
Super Market in 1984 as a'single shutter' 120 sq. ft. refrigerated shop. Mr.Gurung, who
left a successful banking profession to devote himself to the business, has watched the
company's growth from humble beginnings to becoming a household brand in the
country since then. Bhat-Bhateni now employs 4,500 full-time employees, 95 percent of
whom are women, over 15 sites with a total sale space of 1,000,000 sq. ft. Bhat-Bhateni
is also Nepal's largest taxpayer in the retail industry, with daily sales reaching NRs. 5.5
crore.

Today, Bhat-Bhateni is Nepal's largest grocery and department store chain, with locations
in Kathmandu, the country's capital and commercial centre, as well as other important
cities. BhatBhaten is one of Nepal's most well-known brands, with over 100,000 daily
visitors. Bhat-Bhateni is Nepal's largest retail chain, with 150,000 goods from 1,000 local
and foreign suppliers. From groceries and fresh fruit to cosmetics and toiletries, a large
range of foreign liquor, and an enormous selection of cookware, apparel, sporting goods,
toys, and electronics, Bhat-Bhateni is dedicated to delivering high-quality products at
affordable costs. The network includes 19 sites, eleven of which are in the Kathmandu
Valley and eight outside of it.

Objectives

 To monitor and measure service of Bhatbhateni

 To observe the employee behavior
 To know the difference between expected and actual service
 To evaluate product and service offered by Bhatbhateni

Analysis and Findings

We arrived at Bhatbhateni at 12:30 PM. It is easily visible from the road. It was hot
outside. So we went to the parking lot to park our vehicle.

Parking Scenario
We went to the parking lot but there was no one to assist us at the parking lot. There was
two parking space available one at the front of the Bhatbhateni store and one was
underground. There was plenty of space available inside underground parking and it was
also clean and well managed the guard was also there to assist with the parking. The
underground parking was mostly used by the four-wheelers. The front parking was busy
and there was one guard who was helping customers in parking their four-wheelers. For
two-wheelers, they have no proper signs and signals to assist us. There was no proper
parking space available for two-wheelers. As most of the two-wheelers were parked on
the footpath of the road. We also parked our vehicles there. The parking spot was not
good it has potholes and it was not well managed. We parked our vehicles and went to
the store.

Electronic Department Experience

When we were entering the store no one greeted us and request us to sanitize our hands.
The floor was clean and the smell was also very pleasant. After we entered the store we
decided to go to the electronic department, the escalator was not working so we had to
take the stairs. The stair handles and tiles were also clean. We reached the electronic
department and surprisingly, the guard didn’t request us to put our bags into the locker.
We were analyzing and we found out that there were no proper signs that direct us for a
particular brand or a product. But the facility was clean. The employees were talking with
each other and did not bother to ask us what we were looking for. No one was trying to
help us with the product. So we asked one female employee for a particular product and
she escorted us to find the product. We were able to identify the employees as they have
their id cards on their necks. Upon looking at a product we asked Aman employee of the
Bhatbhateni about the washing machine. Aman was friendly and welcoming and asked us
what types of washing machines we were looking for. We asked him about the features
and services provided by the Bhatbhateni on buying washing machines from them. He
suggested us some brands based on our requirements. Aman was knowledgeable about
the products and walked the fine line of informative but not too pushy. He told that the
after the purchase of washing machine or refrigerators they will delivered it freely inside
the Kathmandu valley and provide installation service as well and they will not charge
carrying cost until the 2nd floor but if it has to be installed above it then little extra charge
will be taken. The after sales service is good if some problem arises with the machine
they will send the person to fix it Bhatbhateni will directly contact the company on behalf
of the customer and resolve the problem. The discount on products was also pretty nice as
of 20% discount were offered on many electronic goods.

Apparel Department

When we entered to clothes department the clothes were organized properly according to
male, female and child section. Each type of clothes like jacket, pant, shirt etc. all were
kept in separate sections in an organized way but the sign for them were not mentioned in
the store. While the time of shopping no staff member asked us about what we were
seeking or in which clothes we were interested. The staff member was not quite active
while showing us the options while trying to purchase a jacket. The needed size and color
of clothes were not widely available. The rate of the clothes was generally expensive than
outside market and variety of the clothes were also low as compare to the markets we
usually go. Bhatbhateni is good in keeping the clothes in organized way keeping each
section separately so that everyone can easily recognized it but it failed to keep the signs
properly and variety of clothes in the store.

Grocery Department

At last we visited on grocery store which was quite busy than other store as it was
Monday so it was not crowded as Saturday. The groceries were kept properly in an
organized way but the smell in the store was not pleasant. The trolley was widely
available and trolley were in good condition and it was easy to carry the products in it.
The groceries price was similar as outside and few products like oil, soap, detergents etc
was cheaper than other local stores and has some discounts and offer like buy 2 get 1
free. The perishable goods were also kept in deep freeze like chicken, sausage, diary etc.
the vegetables were also fresh offered in a good rate as other market. Products were in
good condition and there was no expired product in the store. In the grocery department,
we are looking for the skin care product, one of the staff of Bhatbhateni approaches us
and recommend us about the best products in the following category and also taught us
about how to use those products in our daily life and benefits of using it.

Payment Procedure
After purchasing some goods, we went to billing counter the counter was free and there
was no que at the moment as there were 4 counters so it was easy to deal with. The
counter accepts cash, card and scan pay also which is nice as world is moving towards
digital it will make shopping easy. Bhatbhateni offers the reward point for their member
who are registered. According to the cashier, Rs. 500 spent on Bhatbhateni will earn a
point and later anyone with certain point can redeem it to purchase any product on the
special occasion. The staff in counter didn’t suggest us to become a member but we asked
about the procedure she replied that it just need our number and name to become a
member.

Findings

Category Points Earned Possible Points Percen

t

Parking 17 30 56.67

Odour 25 30 83.33

Ambience 26 30 86.67

Employee Behavior 20 30 66.67

Product Ordering 28 30 93.33

Product Varieties 27 30 90.00

Payment System 29 30 96.67

Note:

Methodology: Three individuals went to mystery shopping on April 4, 2022 at

Bhatbhateni of Koteshwor. For this analysis, each individual can give point up to 10 for
each category depending upon the service experience they felt.
 100.00

90.00

80.00

70.00

60.00

50.00

40.00

30.00

20.00

10.00

0.00
Parking Odour Ambience Employee Product Product Payment
Behavior Ordering Varieties System

Figure 1: Percentage presentation of service experienced on each category

Conclusion

Different survey on the service sector tell us that the vast majority of dissatisfied
customers don’t complain. That may sound good but the fact is most just don't return and
they just go somewhere else. So many organizations use mystery shoppers to find out
what's really going on in their business from the guest's point of view. Likewise, mystery
shopping can serve as an important way to identify whether the firm is doing right or not
and provide insights of where improvements need to be made.

This report demonstrates the significant role of mystery shopping in a Bhatbhateni’s

service excellence journey and identify the key service interventions that are needed to
improve over a period of time. The findings of this report establish the positive
relationship between mystery shopping results and sales performance of Bhatbhateni. The
findings of mystery shopping are an effective tool to improve service quality performance
and develop effective managerial tool that can help to increase sales of Bhatbhateni. The
findings of this report can use by Bhatbhateni to take as some opportunities for the
improvement and increase the overall performance of the company to create the higher
customer satisfaction level among the potential customer as well as to attract new
customer base for the company.
Recommendations

Mystery shopping helps any company to improve the overall performance and increase
the sales of the company. So, based on the findings of the mystery shopping, manager or
management team of Bhatbhateni should take following actions to improve the quality as
service provider and improve overall performance to mitigate the loophole while
providing service to the customer:

 Management team should focus and develop plans in order to improve the
infrastructure of parking space and some more human resources should be hire for
proper management of space.
 Employment training and development programs should be designed in order to
make emotional attachment with the customers of the company.
 Proper sign and symbols should be used to make easy access of every customer to
every product.