Executive Summary
Best Food Superstore is currently facing issues of consumer dissatisfaction. The grocery is facing numerous complaints from its customers due to incorrect charging of prices, unethical cashiers, and poor customer service. The major criteria, which has formed the basis for the company’s analysis, is the fact that Brenda, a long-term customer of the grocery, has previously been dissatisfied by services offered in the company. The condition in Best Food Superstore is a result of both external and internal factors. Several alternatives can be put in place to reduce dissatisfaction cases in Best Food Superstore. These include the Development of a Customer Satisfaction Programme, Price Maintenance, and promotion of ethical behaviors. The best recommendation that can help Best Food Superstore in solving its current issues is the Development of a Customer Satisfaction Programme. This has been considered as the best solution since consumer satisfaction is the most crucial element in any business organization.
Background
Best Food Superstore is a retail business, which sells food and non-food products to customers in exchange for money. The grocery specializes in products such as meat, grains, onions, cooking oil, fruits, and milk, among others. Recently, the company is facing numerous complaints from its customers due to incorrect charging of prices for goods offered. The major criteria, which has formed the basis for the company’s analysis is the fact that Brenda, a long-term customer of the grocery, has been dissatisfied with services offered in the company. She complains of continuous dissatisfying experiences in the grocery’s branch in her residence at Victoria Street. She adds that every time she goes shopping in the store, she always leaves dissatisfied due to wrong prices charged at the store’s checkouts.
Statement of Problem
The problems that Brenda faced while shopping in the grocery are listed below:
- Brenda’s first dissatisfying experience took place about a year ago when she was overpriced $1after buying a bottle of olive oil. Upon taking the complaint to the service desk and informing the consultant that she had been overcharged, the consulted only requested another worker who was standing next to Brenda to check the price. The worker, however, seemed unhappy with the fact that a staff member had asked her to carry out a price check and, therefore, took a lot of time before bringing back the response. When the worker returned, she said that Brenda was right and, therefore, deserved being given a refund, which was reluctantly offered. Brenda was also upset by the fact that the worker had referred to her as a ‘missus’.
- Brenda’s second experience while shopping at the store was the fact that the cashiers were unethical. Though the mistake was his during this time, the cashier proved unethical when asked about the right price for a special white onion.
- Brenda’s third experience took place around two months ago, and this involved customer service. Brenda realized that cashiers in the service desk were occupied, and since she needed to save time, she requested the cashier to offer her a free good since it had been scanned at a higher price than the advertised price. The cashier, however, kept telling Brenda that she could change the price since she had not yet paid for the good. Brenda claimed that it was wrong, and the cashier, upon calling a store manager, agreed to offer Brenda with the free good.
- Brenda’s last experience involved when a young fellow at the cash register overpriced her. The young cashier was not knowledgeable enough in terms of the store’s principles.
Situation Analysis
Environmental scanning shows that the condition in Best Food Superstore is a result of both external and internal factors.
- External factors
The store reluctantly implements principles only for consumers who are knowledgeable about store policies.
- Internal Factors
Staff members of the store take advantage of customers who lack information on store policies or which according to them, have low chances of complaining. The marketing behavior in the store is thus unscrupulous. It is unethical that managers of the grocery support the idea that staff member are likely to behave reluctantly when dealing with customers.
Analysis of Alternatives
Several alternatives can be put in place to reduce dissatisfaction cases in Best Food Superstore. These include:
- Development of a Customer Satisfaction Programme
Managers of the grocery should develop a customer satisfaction programme, which ensures that the customers are satisfied. Since satisfaction makes customers to always come back and buy more from a company, the programme is likely to help the company in winning customers.
- Price Maintenance
To solve the problem of overpricing, Best Food Superstore should ensure that its prices are equal to those shown in their product advertisements. Best Food Superstore should pay attention to the prices set by their competitors, in this case, Sobeys. The grocery should maintain its prices within a certain range. This strategy is likely to allow Best Food Superstore to make realistic profits while at the same time protecting customers from paying high prices for the products they desire.
- Attending to Unethical behaviors
Attending to unethical behaviors is vital if Best Food Superstore is to sustain an ethical climate. Integration of ethical behaviors into the organization could be done by formulating codes of ethics in the organization to enable the workers to be aware of the grocery’s anticipations in relation to ethical norms. Petitions should be put in place to ensure that unscrupulous activities are brought into light. Colloquiums on business ethics should be organized for staff members. This will assist them in recognizing the significance of ethics in the work place. Officers’ should be employed to keep a check on abuse cases in the grocery.
Recommendation
The alternative that has been selected to help Best Food Superstore in solving its current issues is the Development of a Customer Satisfaction Programme. This has been considered as the best solution since consumer satisfaction is the most crucial element in business organizations. For Best Food Superstore to be effective, consumers must get compensation when the grocery fails regarding its promises. The workers must work towards ensuring that the superstore pays when it does not meet the expectations of the consumers.
Implementation (Action Plan)
Best Food Superstore can make the Development of a Customer Satisfaction Programme) operational by ensuring that everything has been done to encourage consumers to give their opinions on services offered to them. Once cases of customer dissatisfaction are realized, improvement measures resulting to high levels of customer satisfaction should be taken. Workers, who are influential in terms of consumer satisfaction, should be compensated. Finally, consumer satisfaction should be incorporated into worker training programs.