Analyzing Customer Needs And Characteristics Of Woolworths

Background on Woolworths

The report helps in analysing and researching of the different needs of the customers is required to be analysed in an efficient manner. The organization which have been taken into consideration is Woolworths wherein the description of the various needs and methods for identifying the needs and characteristics of the customers are required to be analysed. Lastly, the legislative requirements are required to be taken into consideration which will be essential for the overall success of the firm.

Woolworths is one of the Australian grocery stores which was founded in the year 1924 wherein the headquarters of the company is situated in Bella Vista which is situated in New South Wales. The number of locations wherein Woolworths is situated is more than 995 locations and the key people involved in Woolworths is Brad Banducci. The revenue which have been earned by Woolworths in the last few years till 2016 is A$42.132 billion. The number of employees working in the organization is 111,000 (Woolworths.com.au 2018).

The different kinds of products along with services which are being offered by Woolworths is inclusive of groceries, health along with beauty products along with the different stationery items. There is online retail store of Woolworths which helps in selling the different kinds of products along with services through click and collect.

There are different methods which are being utilized in order to identify the different needs and characteristics of the different customers of Woolworths which is inclusive of the following:

Interviewing the different stakeholders of the company is the first step wherein Woolworths will be gaining proper knowledge on the purchases of the different customers. This will be beneficial for the overall mapping of the customer process by gaining insights from the conversation with the customers effectively (Miles 2015).

Secondly, categorising the feedback is essential in nature by analysing and identifying the different patterns of the customers and make assumptions about their likelihood effectively as well. There are different feedback channels which can be introduced by Woolworths such as through email and customer contact forms as this will be beneficial for the overall success of the firm.

Thirdly, gaining insights from the metrics of the customers which will be beneficial for the retention of the different customers in the market. With the metrics of the different customers, this is easier in nature to analyse the qualitative feedback of the different customers.

Lastly, analysis of the competition in the entire competitive environment is essential in nature which will be helpful and beneficial for the understanding of the external and internal environmental analysis through PESTLE and SWOT analysis.

There are different characteristics of the customers which are required to be taken into consideration by the Woolworths Organization are as follows:

The customers who are having low incomes and middle-class individuals are being targeted in case of Woolworths. Woolworths tries to offer the different kinds of products and services to the different customers within the price range which is being affordable for the customers.

In Woolworths, the customers want the quality products at an affordable price and this will be beneficial for meeting their different needs. There is huge flexibility in the purchasing power of the customers which will be successful for the purchasing of the different products and services.

Methods to Identify Customer Needs and Characteristics

The major needs of the customers in Woolworths is inclusive of the different kinds of products under one roof. The main need is relating to the fairness along with proper information of the products and services which will be effective in the marketing of the goods and services.

Furthermore, the options and alternatives will be essential in nature to be adopted which will help in analysing their requirements and receiving such products effectively.

Firstly, this is essential for Woolworths to respond to the different queries in a quick manner which will be essential for managing the overall quality of the products along with service which will make the process successful.

Secondly, listening to the different customers is the other aspect in which this will be essential for the delivering quality customer service efficiently without much inefficiencies. Furthermore, the treating of the different customers is the other aspect in which this will make the customers feel that they are being valued.

Thirdly, never argue with the customers and honour the different requirements of the customers efficiently as this will be beneficial for the overall success of the firm and this will help the customers to become more effective regarding their purchases.

Lastly, focus on the relationship with the different customers and not only the sales as this will be helpful in managing the overall efficiency of the firm along with gaining more competitive advantage.

The main requirements related to legislation which are required to be taken into consideration by Woolworths is inclusive of the following aspects:

Firstly, the wine and liquor licencing are required to be done by them as this will help the company in increasing their overall sales without much inefficiencies.

Secondly, price fixing and advertising laws is the other aspect which is required to be adopted in order to be legal in the different actions which are being taken by them

Lastly, competition and consumer act is the last law or legislation wherein proper analysis has been done in analysing the complaints of the customers.

Conclusion 

Therefore, this can be concluded that proper customer needs and requirements are required to be taken into consideration which will be beneficial for the overall success of the firm. In case of Woolworths, this can be analysed that there are different characteristics of the customers wherein the main demand of the customers was to receive proper kind of goods and services at an affordable rate and there is no such comprise on the quality of the products and services which are being taken by them. Lastly, this can be seen that there are different legislative requirements which are required to be taken into consideration which will be helpful in managing the overall productivity. 

Customer satisfaction tends to form an integral part of the organization and hence, for this purpose, it is very important for any business organization to ensure that their services which they aim to provide are satisfying the different customers at large and for this purpose, in order to investigate into the customer satisfaction the following mechanism will be used:

Characteristics of Woolworths’ Customers

Under the direct method, the different customers are contacted directly and their valuable feedback is largely obtained for the welfare of the organization and for their corrective measures. The direct methods are:

• Attaining customer feedbacks through surveys with third party firms.
• Engaging in methods like direct marketing, in house call services, and complaint department surveys (Martin 2016).
• Getting direct feedback through questionnaires. 

The direct methods have a great flaw which states that it is a costly mechanism and requires large scale preparation and moreover they are also biased in nature, hence, some indirect mechanisms are as follows:

• Analysing customer complaints which will assist in understanding where the customer service lags
• Regular communication with the customers is important as it helps in the identification of any loopholes in the system. 

Customer Satisfaction Survey

The different survey questions are as follows: 

1. Describe our product or service in one word
2. How well does the product meet your needs?
3. Which three crucial features are valuable to you as a customer
4. Where do you think we are lagging?
5. If there was one thing which could be changed about our product, what is it?
6. How would you rate the value for money of our product and service
7. Is our e-commerce website easy to navigate?
8. How does out efforts compare to your expectations
9. How has our customer service been?
10. Why would you choose a competitors product rather than ours?
11. How likely would you recommend out product to your friends?
12. Will you be purchasing from us again? 

Assuming that the survey revealed a large number of issues and problems with respect to customer satisfaction, then it can be stated that the following series of strategies will be required to be adopted at large: 

• Firstly, the root cause of the complaints need to be analysed in order to determine the direction of the strategy which is to be adopted at large.
• Secondly once, the root cause of dissatisfaction has been identified, it is important to analyse the cause behind the complaints (Martin 2016).
• Moreover, once the cause has been identified, the most efficient strategy to be adopted will be as follows:

1. Resource based strategy: If it is found that the primary reason, why the organization is lagging at large is because of a lack of resource or a set of resources, then it is crucial to ensure that those resources are available for the service.
2. Service based strategy: The second strategy is the service based strategy which checks where the service of the employees has been lagging and hence, the focus of the strategy lies on the service. 

Methods of monitoring the team performance of the customer service team:

The team performance of the team can be monitored in the following manner: 

1. By conducting regular surveys: This will help in the identification of the meetings as well as the decisions (Cook 2017).
2. By conducting regular meetings: With the help of regular meetings, one can understand where the team lags.
3. By ensuring that the actions are going according to the plans: Once the actual performance is measured against the planned performance, deviations can be identified.
4. By conducting one to one sessions:  This will help in identifying mistakes. 

After the identification of the staff incompetency, the following strategies need to be adopted: 

• Training session: Proper training sessions need to be held for the staff so that they can easily work on their competencies and ensure long term success for the organization as a whole.
• Monitoring session: Their performance needs to be closely monitored in order to ensure that the key areas where they are lagging can be clearly identified and worked upon  (Cook 2017)
• Identifying incompetencies: Moreover, through a survey further incompetency need to be identified.
• Conducting interviews: Lastly conducting interviews serves as a good method of the identification of the areas where the customer lags    

There are different considerations which are required to be considered by team in developing plan are as follows:

Proper online presence is one of the major aspects which is required to be considered as this will help in managing the overall effectiveness of the firm. In this kind of competitive business environment, this is essential in nature to improve their customer service efficiently.

Secondly, the customer service delivery is required to be improved by Davis Supply Company which will be essential for the overall growth of the firm in an effective and appropriate manner.

Lastly, creative plan is required to be established by the company which will be helpful in managing the overall functions and operations of the organization in an appropriate manner.

The planning tool which is necessary and useful in analysing these respective considerations is Prioritization Matrix which will be helpful in making the different decisions down by systematically comparing the choices and this will help them through selection of the most important aspect which will satisfy the needs of the customers. 

Designing of Questionnaire

Question 1- How would you rate the cleanliness of the shop?

Question 2- Are you happy with the product availability in our store along with the current system of ordering?

Question 3- How helpful were the different staffs in the organization in dealing with the different queries and needs of yours?

Question 4- Are you confident that the different staffs in the organization are having perfect knowledge regarding the different products along with services? Were they able to solve the different issues efficiently?

Question 5- Were you satisfied with the different purchase of the products from our store?

Analysis of Customers

The customers who will be surveyed for the respective different questions are the ones who are the daily customers of the Woolworths supermarket. The main target customers would be the different household individuals who purchases the different grocery items along with the household items. 

SWOT Analysis of Davis Supply Company is inclusive of the following:

Strengths

• Market penetration or the market research
• The company will allow the proper integration with the different websites along with the different applications
• The experience of the user is excellent along with this helps in understanding the needs and wants of the customers
• Has more than one billion active users

Weaknesses

• There is increase in the number of internet users
• The slow rate of the online marketing
• Users have the ad-block extensive
• The business model is weak in nature

Opportunities

• Proper partnership with the advertiser or publisher
• Joining along with creating proper online presence on the different sites wherein the organization currently do not exist such as Facebook
• There can be huge penetration into the geographical market
• New target or the niche market which are untapped in nature

Threats

• There are different macro factors which is economic factors which will affect the campaign
• There are different obstacles from the existing competitors in the market which will be a threat for the company in a negative manner 

With the help of the training needs analysis, this helps in managing and understanding the different kinds of training which is required to be provided to the customer executives who are responsible for the different activities which are required to be performed by the organizations efficiently. The training need analysis helped in managing the overall effectiveness of the different tasks in an effective manner which will be beneficial for the overall success of the firm appropriately.

Job Position	Customer Executive	Department	Customer Service
Reviewed By		Review Date

Meeting Customer Needs and Requirements

Serial Number	Task Description	Core skills and knowledge Required	Training Resources
1.	Training for solving the queries of customers	Proper knowledge regarding the different tasks which are being done by the employees in the organization	On the Job Training
2.	Effective communication Techniques Training	The communication plays a major role in managing the different tasks effectively	On and off the Job Training

From the overall data analysis, this can be identified along with analysed that there are major issues which are required to be analysed and solved efficiently. From the data survey from the different customers, it was analysed that the average score regarding the helpfulness of the staffs were less and it was rated as 1.8 which was less in comparison to the other aspects which are required to be taken into consideration. Furthermore, this was seen that the determinant was responsiveness in nature and this can be analysed that the enquiries of the customers were not being solved effectively and this affected the overall performance of the organization in a negative manner.

Furthermore, the historical complaints data in the analysis of the level of the customers play a major role as this helps in understanding and managing the overall viewpoints of the customers efficiently without much issues. However, the measurement of the customer satisfaction is relatively the new concept in different organizations which are being focused maximum on the balance sheets and income statement of the organizations in a huge manner and aspect.  Furthermore, the different competitors in the market are progressing at a rapid speed which will be difficult for the respective company to cope with such issues in an efficient manner. The different major problems which are being faced by the different companies is relating to the quantify and measuring the exact aspects which are required to be considered in tracking the satisfaction which is required to be provided to the customers (Baker and Cronin 2015).

Moreover, this has been noticed that the different historical data which is essential in managing the customer satisfaction as the positive aspect is the sense of the needs which are required to be measured in such a manner which will be beneficial for the overall success of the firm appropriately. However, there are many companies which rely on the unreliable and outdated measures of customer satisfaction which will be less reliable for gaining competitive advantage in the entire market.

As the competition has developed considerably, for Davis Supply Company, it is essentially important, that the company uses various training strategies to overcome their difficulty in managing the quality of the service.

1. Workshop and onsite trainings: The Company can make use of various workshop and onsite training techniques in order to improve the competencies of the different employees and ensure that they are successfully able to perform well in scenarios where the customer service needs to be optimum (Daugherty, Bolumole and Grawe 2018).
2. Theoretical training: The different members of the organization also need to be provided with adequate training based on the theoretical knowledge used to train the customers and deal with the complaints adequately.
3. Communication: Moreover, it would also be a good strategy to train them on the basis of improving their communication skills. 

The monitoring of staff would take place in the following manner: 

1. Through continuous examination: The management would be required to place a continuous tap on the kind of performance the team members are executing post the training program and where there exists certain loopholes.
2. Through surveys: The management would also be required to conduct adequate surveys from the staff on an anonymous basis to analyse their faults (Chen, Zhu and Zhou 2015).
3. Through feedbacks: Regular feedbacks would be required to be taken from the immediate supervisors and related parties.
4. Through application of Key Performance Indicators: The management also needs to make use of various Key Performance Indicators like Customer satisfaction index, Employee performance and increase in revenue to review their performance. 

As per the analysis of the survey which is required to be taken by the audience, the following suggestions can be made to David Supply Company: 

1. The company needs to ensure that the staff is up-to-date about product features

The customers need to be told about all the features of the different products which are present and hence, for this reason it is important to ensure that the staff is up-to-date with the features.

1. Moreover, the staff needs to be trained on the helpfulness aspect

The staff lacks helpfulness and adequate assistance requirements which are crucial aspects of any company and hence, for this reason it becomes important to ensure that the staff is trained adequately to ensure that they help the consumers (Daugherty, Bolumole and Grawe 2018).

1. Additionally, the current product system as well as ordering system also needs to be improved

The current ordering as well as the product system also needs to undergo a change.  

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