Question:
Discuss about the Business Research Of Countdown Supermarket Chain.
The chosen business organization for the current study is Countdown supermarket chain, which is one of the largest retail units operating in New Zealand. The business firm is one of the subsidiary units of the Woolworths Limited, which is the largest retail supermarket chain of Australia. Countdown has the largest number of retail stores in all over New Zealand with a total number of 275 franchise shops. The company was established in the year 1981 and is currently having its headquarters in Auckland. The owner ship of the company is with the group of Progressive Enterprise. However, in the initial stage the ownership was under Rattrays Wholesale Group. The ownership shifted to Progressive Enterprise in the year 2002, which occurred after the group decided to buy the Woolworths Limited enterprise (Countdown, 2017).
Hence, it is evident that the Countdown has undergone several organization changes from 1993-2005. This had great impact of the organizational decision making process and upon the quality of service and products that are sold the company. The company has been able to build their reputation in the consumer market of New Zealand due to the effective and quality level of customer service. This has allowed the company to build high level of brand reputation over the years, as the customers are able to have high level of trust over the service and the products. The company has also been able to gain high level of competitive advantage with the help of the better level of customer service.
In the recent times however, due to the poor quality of customer service, it is not possible for the company to maintain high level of customer satisfaction, thereby compromising on the level of brand reputation and brand popularity of the company. The aim and scope of the current study is to discuss about the existing literature that is related to various parameters that can ultimately affect level of customer satisfaction. It is important for a business organization to focus upon these factors as it can help in improving upon the brand popularity of a company. The scope of the existing literature is to discuss about the expectation level of the customers, which is believe to be the primary factors for implementing high level of customer satisfaction. It is also important to understand about the fact that in the recent days the customers have the option to switch over different brands if they are not satisfied with the quality of service and products. In this context, the scope of the current study will include about the matters related to that of competitive environment that has huge influence over the matters related to that of customer satisfaction. The study will also discuss about the factors that are related to high level of customer satisfaction in the supermarket retail industry of New Zealand.
The Concept Related to Customer Satisfaction
The concept of customer satisfaction is one of the basic elements of marketing plan. Satisfaction is believed to be one of the major outcomes of the marketing activity and is believed to serve a link between culminating purchase and consumption. This is also believed to be one of the major factors that decide upon the customer buying behaviour. As a customer chooses a brand and decides to stick with the same for longer period, it gives rise to the concept of brand loyalty. This concept is important due to the fact that can help a company to maintain brand reputation. As said by Haumann et al., (2014), the concept of brand loyalty is entirely dependent upon the satisfaction level of the customer. Hence it is essential for all business organisations to satisfy the needs of the customers, which can be achieved by considering several factors of business.
Rogers et al., (2015), have mentioned that customer satisfaction can also help to measure and monitor the quality of product or service that is sold in market. It can also help to measure the extent to which company has been able to fulfil the expectation level of the customer. Chen et al., (2015), have defined the concept of customer satisfaction as a shared process of understanding the nature of service or product that is available in the market. It can also help to understand the level information that is being provided to the customers about the ultimate experience of the service or product. On the other hand Pizam et al., (2016), have suggested that customer satisfaction can be achieved by enhancing the feeling that are experienced by an individual after using a product or service. The consumer’s perception is also one of the important aspects of customer satisfaction, which helps to fulfil all the concerned related to the quality of the product.
Bansal, and Taylor (2015), have mentioned about the concept of desired and adequate level of service, which is believed to be one of the primary essential for understanding the level of customer satisfaction. It can be said that if the desired an adequate level of the product quality are not fulfilled, it is never possible to achieve high level of customer satisfaction.
Dominici and Palumbo (2013), have added about the various levels that are involved in achieving customer satisfaction. The primary level there is negative disconfirmation, where the quality of the service ends up being much worse than expected level of customer. In the following step is a positive confirmation, where company is able to better the quality of service buy meeting up with the minimum level of customer’s expectation. In the later stages, it is possible for the company to go beyond the level of customer satisfaction by bringing about new changes in the protocol of customer service. This type is essential in maintaining sustainability in business and ensuring that the company is able to retain old customers.
With the growing competition in the supermarket Retail Industry of New Zealand, the customer satisfaction level is one of the primary essential concerns that can help the companies to achieve competitive advantage. For large-scale Supermarket Giants like Countdown, it is highly essential to bring about changes in the quality of customer service, as they are always encountering the threat of new competitors, who are incorporating innovative ideas in providing efficient and high quality of customer service. Saeidi et al., (2015), have highlighted up on the importance of getting feedback from the customer, which can help to bring about necessary changes for large scale business organisations. It is often highly challenge for large scale supermarket retail stores to investigate upon the primary needs of the customers. This is mainly due to the fact that need and expectation level of the customers vary hugely in different places. For example, the need of the customer in Rotorua from Countdown store may be different from that of Auckland. Hence, it is necessary to provide customer satisfaction at different level depending upon the needs of the local customers.
In the middle of tough and fiery competition in the grocery retail sector of New Zealand, it is important to provide wide range of options for the customers. This is believed to be one of the effective ways that can help large scale industries to retain the old customers. Yadav et al., (2014), have mentioned about the importance of implementing digital form of marketing, which can help the large scale Supermarket companies to easily communicate with the customers. This is also believed to be one of the effective ways to maintain high level of customer satisfaction as the company are able to collect direct feedback. The major level of expectation of the customers is primarily to get fast and accurate service. Hence, it is highly necessary to resolve all the issues that are encountered by the customers while purchasing products. It is important to mention that better level of after sale service is also believed to be one of the key to retain customers.
Due to tremendous growth in the service of Retail Industry, it is highly challenging for the supermarket chains like Countdown in Rotorua to enhance the rate of productivity that is necessary to meet up with the growing demand of the customers. Oreland Kara (2014), have suggested that understanding and giving priority to the needs of every group of customers at primary level can easily help the supermarket franchise to deal with the complex level of challenges that they face while retaining customers. Kursunluoglu (2014), has also mentioned the importance of digital form of communication, which is Highly Effective in the modern days to establish effective business relationship with the customers.
It is essential for the marketing agents of the Countdown Supermarket to identify the root cause of all the service related issues. This can be achieved with the help of extensive level of market investigation that focuses upon the recent crisis and economic loss. Jahanshani et al., (2014), have mentioned about the importance of implementing the tool of Porter’s five forces, which can help to understand methods that exist in external business environment and has the potential to disrupt the level of customer satisfaction. It is important to mention in this context that with the growing number of organisations in the grocery and retail sector, the customers have the choice to switch over to other brands if the encounter any issues with the level and quality of customer service. The maintenance of brand loyalty is believed to be one of the primary essential needs for maintaining high level of customer satisfaction, thereby ensuring about the fact of customer retention.
It is also important for the Countdown supermarket retail unit to regularly monitor the level of their customer service, which is an important part of market investigation. Holistic mode of evaluation is believed to be highly essential that help them to identify the gaps in the existing customer service, which are causing them to lose customers. As mentioned earlier, digital mode of communication can be useful in collecting feedback from the customers. These feedbacks are the primary information that is necessary in market investigation work related to customer satisfaction (Paparoidamis et al., 2015).
It is ultimately important to consider the parameter of customer satisfaction as the primary goal of all business and marketing strategies. Only with the help of high level of customer satisfaction, it is possible for Countdown to achieve their organisational objectives and improve upon the total revenue of the company. As the popularity of the brand will be raised through high level of customer satisfaction, it will be possible for the company to sustain for longer periods in the fast growing changes of the current age.
Conclusion
From the section of literature review it is clear that customer satisfaction is one of the essential goals of all business and marketing strategies. For Large scale Supermarket retail units, it is highly important to maintain high level of customer satisfaction. This can help them to retain customers thereby helping them to achieve competitive edge in the tough and fast changing sector of retail units. At initial stage, it is important for the companies to understand the concept and underlying cause for customer satisfaction. Having a clear concept of customer satisfaction, it is possible for the companies to implement upon different strategies in customer service and understanding the relationship between brand loyalty and customer satisfaction.
From the review section it is also clear that the fast growing network of Supermarket grocery chain in New Zealand is one of the primary challenges that barrier to understand the expectation level of customer. Implementation of digital form of business communication is believed to be one of the primary goals of that can help the companies to collect feedbacks from the customers. With the help of the information from the customer’s feedbacks, it is possible for business to bring about changes in the quality and features that are associated with the customer service. This will ultimately help in the market investigation work that is necessary to maintain and retain customers.
References
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