Kmart is the first discount departmental store of Australia. Recently, it has more than 200 stores across all over Australia. It is also recognised as the most profitable store in Australia. The mission of the store is to provide everyday needed products at low cost to the customers. It approximately employs 30,000 team members across its retail stores. By adopting various measures, it listens to customers, partners, as well as people in a better way. Besides this, by taking into account the sustainable development program, it satisfies the needs of community members. In recent time, Kmart is facing various issues due to its poor quality of products as well as poor customer services. In the further section, the discussion is carried on the issues that is facing. Strategies are also recommended to solve these issues.
Recently, Kmart is facing several issues related to poor quality product as well as services. From a report, it is founded that Kmart is the king of bargain in home ware products but it sells poor quality. While buying product at Kmart store, customer has founded the goods damage as well as faulty. When a customer went to the store for buying vases but after checking it has founded the side table as wonky. All these poor quality of products are criticised by the customers in recent days (Gambale, 2017). Due to this, its sales growth is hitting back at the discount departmental store. One customer also reported for the poor quality of bed sheets. It stated that the bed sheets were of the worth of ten penny in Kmart. Various customers were also criticizing the high prices of cheap products regularly. Besides this, one customer stated that all people are finding the low prices as attractive but all these are old thing that it is selling. It clearly states that all the retail stores want to garb more money without even focusing on the quality that it is serving to customers (Brook, 2018).
The poor customer service case also comes in front of the public when women news got viral. Customer has attended the store by having a security tag on the tracksuit pants that she had purchased few weeks ago. She went to the counter for removing the tag and a problem arose. From the staff member, one person asked that why she has wear the tracksuit. The women was feeling very embarrassed as all the people in crowd were taking the women as thief. The women shouted right at the staff by saying before knowing about the things, it is not good to treat any person as thief. This women has also posted the poor customer service case of Kmart on the social media. From this posting, it has also achieved many likes as well as comments on the side of people (Backhouse, 2017). All these things show the poor quality of customer service at the Kmart store. Due to its improper management, customers also have to wait for long time in queue. It does not have speedy checkout process due to which customers are facing this issue. This made the customers to stand in long lines and some people are telling this as waste of time. It is true that in today’s time no customer will stand in longer lines if other firms are making payment in only little time with the help of automated technologies (Wong, Liu & Tjosvold, 2015).
In order to avoid the problem of customers for waiting in long time, it can take the initiative of automated store. Same as Amazon Go, it can also start this technique in its store for providing easy convenience to its customers. It can make the store automated in order to improve the customer service. By adopting this strategy, it can eliminate the problem of waiting for long time in queues. By taking the assistance of automated technology like sensor fusion, computer vision and deep leaning, it can improve the customer service. It can also improve the shopping experience of customer with the help of this strategy. It is true that customers much value their time and cannot wait stand for too long time in queues. This technological shift will achieve the various positive reviews and feedback on part of customers (Wiengarten, Gimenez, Fynes & Ferdows, 2015). In recent time, the habit of customer is also changing frequently that force the retail supermarket to improve the customer experience. If the adoption of this technique will take long time, then it can make the line feel short for the customers by taking various initiatives. By playing the background music, customers can enjoy and forget that they are standing for too long time in queue. Besides this, staff members can also interact with the customers who are standing in queue. During interaction, they can discuss regarding any product of the store, as well as ask any frequent question with the customer. This will lead to the friendly environment and help the customer in reducing the stress by standing for long in the queue (Pezzini, 2017).
In addition to this, it is also seen that Kmart is facing the issue in its poor quality. Therefore, for reducing this, it can use the Total Quality Management and strategic Planning (Ross, 2017). BY using this tool, it can gain the competition advantage among all the competitors in the marketplace. By using this strategy properly, it can focus on the quality and can meet the needs of the customer. As compare to this, the Kmart can also use strategic planning (Bryson, 2018). This strategy will help the company in prioritizing the efforts of the company in implementation of the approach of Total Quality Management. Through the controlling processes, TQM approach will assist the firm in solving the problem of bad quality. However, this approach requires the support of each member in the organization. Team of quality improvement, as well as process control are some areas that require the improvement. Kmart can make the strict charge of checking quality on one expert that will check all the products before moving them in the store for sale (Alpenberg & Karlsson, 2018). This will help the company to remove the bad quality or damaged product in the initial phase only. In addition of this, building the strategic planning process in the Total quality management approach of company will help the Kmart to evaluate the needs of customers for determining the best approach. Goals and final product of the organization can create the value for the customers. Kmart must make quality a top priority in the organization from the top-level management to the lower workers for building the product. Priority matrix also delivers a method to evaluate the quality options that will satisfy the customers. Additionally, organization can also use the tools such as matrix diagram, tree diagram or process decision tool for determining the best approach in order to satisfy the customers (Kelchner, 2018).
Kmart can also use six-sigma approach. A quality management methodology can be used to help the companies in improving their current processes, services, or products by eliminating as well as discovering the defects. The goal of six sigma is to control the quality in business process and manufacturing. The adoption of this approach will increase the customer satisfaction as well as profitability by improving the bad quality in every process of the organization. With the assistance of sig-sigma, businesses can easily and better strategize the action plan and drive the reduction in cost, increment in revenue as well as improvement in process (Marzagão & Carvalho, 2016). Besides this, Kmart can also create the proper vision that will be free from defects and provide the positive environment in the organization. It is also essential for the organizations to set the benchmark in the organization. Whenever, the process metrics achieve the stability, it can sue the sig sigma method again for improving the newly process metrics (Fu, Chou, Chen & Wang, 2015). Six sigma methodology can also assist the Kmart in keeping a strict objective for the company and work toward it for achieving that goal. By using the methodology in right manner, organization can achieve the goals. In this way, the use of this strategy can help the Kmart to remove the defect in its product due to which it is getting negative reviews. From the report, it is founded that sig sigma methodology DMADV is designed for creating a new process that will result improvement of product as well as service quality. The project with the name DMADV is segmented into define, measure, analyse, design and verify. Usually this approach was developed for creative a quality product in factory. However, other than this, it can also apply for getting the product from supplier to the shelves of store (Lopresti, 2018). Among all the concepts, lean management is also getting popular in the business world. The lean method is to deliver the value to the customers. Besides this, it also helps in eliminating the wastage by doing the continuous improvement (Alhuraish, Robledo & Kobi, 2017). It has been seen that Kmart is facing the several issues due to its faulty product. Therefore, the adoption of this concept will help it in offering only those products that the customer feels worth to pay for. It is true that company needs to add the value in the product for making customers to buy those products (Jacobs, Swink & Linderman, 2015). After the identification of value, Kmart can take the value stream mapping as the second step. After identifying the value of the team, it is essential to envisage the way to the customers. It can also focus on those steps that add value in the products. Occasionally, it is also significant to correct as the process evolves. After following this step, the third step that can be used is creating the flow. In this step, it can set the target of ensuring the proper delivery pf the order to the final consumer. Top-level management can take the responsibility of the flow by properly watching the progress of tasks throughout the flow of work. In the next step, it can establish a pull system. It can start the new work whenever any demand arises. Kmart can also set the goal to produce only those values that are needed by the customers actually and avoiding the overproduction. In this way, the principle of lean is closely related with the continuous improvement that is integral part of the management. Kmart can set the goal to regularly improving each process in the team by emphasis on the enhancement of those activities that generate the highest value for the customers with removing the wastage activities (Kanbanize, 2019).
In addition to the poor quality products, it is also facing the issues of poor customer service. This requires the Kmart to put emphasis and improve it. Enhancement of the customer service strategy is the essential strategy that can help the company. Therefore, Kmart can take the full advantage of all the social media sites and write responses whenever customer will post anything on the page. This will show to the customers that company is also working on the behalf of customers. Besides this, it can also meet in personal with the customers whenever it is possible. This will help in building the trust of customers and reminds that company also exist other than the social media. There are times when customers do not like the customer service that it is serving to the customers. For removing this issue, it can start taking some interviews with the customers or can also run the surveys for getting the ideas for better customer service. In recent time, customer relationship management holds a strong position in the business (Topalovi?, 2015).It will help in keeping the unhappy customers happy in several ways. If any wrong customer service will be given, it is essential for the company to apologize for that. It will help in building the trust of customer that company also think about them.
A strong customer service team is also required for the strengthening of service performance. Kmart can train its staff members with the right skills that are beneficial for the customers. It is essential for the company to hire the individuals with the right skills. The staff members must use good communication skills. It should teach its customers how to deal with customers in a positive way. It must make the policies for the employees to never communicate with negative manner that will leave the customer dissatisfied (Katzenbach & Smith, 2015). By knowing the outcomes of policy, staff members will also deal with customers in effective manner. It can also add some benefits if customers will appreciate the service of its staff members. This will motivate the staff members to perform well. Besides this, it should only make customer service representative to those who have total knowledge regarding all the products, services as well as prices of those. This will help it in improving its customer service and satisfy the customer at the end. For getting the effective results, it can track the performance of customer service representative. If any staff is lacking in providing the best services to its customers, it can train them for improving in those areas where they are lacking. Training is also a form of strategy that can help the members can learn the various aspects of product and services. In this way, by taking the proper training, employees will come to know about the changes in needs of the customer (Sloman, 2017). This will lead to better customer service in the organization when staff members will come to know how to deal effectively.
In the limelight of above discussion, it can be concluded that Kmart is the first discount and profitable departmental store of Australia. However, due to its poor quality products or services, it is getting various negative reviews from the customers. Especially, it is facing issues by serving the poor quality or damaged products to its customers. Many customers are pointing out the bad quality of many of its products. Besides this, poor customer service experience also hitting the image of Kmart in Australia. Various customers are also pointing out the rude behaviour of its staff members. Therefore, in order to remove these issues, it can take adopt various strategies such as total quality management, lean management and training in its management.
References
Alhuraish, I., Robledo, C., & Kobi, A. (2017). A comparative exploration of lean manufacturing and six sigma in terms of their critical success factors. Journal of cleaner production, 164, 325-337.
Alpenberg, J., & Karlsson, F. (2018). The importance of the symbiosis-Working Environment Conditions in Manufacturing Lean Enterprises, The effects and implications. In Paper presented at the 14th Asia Pacific Management Accounting Association Annual Conference, Tokyo, Japan, October 29-31.
Backhouse, A. (2017). Woman’s epic Kmart complaint goes viral. Retrieved from: https://www.thechronicle.com.au/news/epic-complaint-toowoomba-kmart-goes-viral/3179766/
Brook, B. (2018). Poor service quality: Rivals swipe at Kmart. Retrieved from: https://www.themorningbulletin.com.au/news/howards-storage-world-the-plan-by-kmarts-smaller-r/3433685/
Bryson, J. M. (2018). Strategic planning for public and nonprofit organizations: A guide to strengthening and sustaining organizational achievement. John Wiley & Sons.
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Gambale, J. (2017). Kmart’s cheap, poor quality products are enticing, but terrible for the environment. Retrieved from: https://www.news.com.au/lifestyle/home/interiors/kmarts-cheap-poor-quality-products-are-enticing-but-terrible-for-the-environment/news-story/1baab7cacbf5623032e69caccdd1fb98
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