Nestlé Nigeria: Products, Presence, And Customer Satisfaction

Nestlé Nigeria’s History and Industrial Presence

Discuss about the Loyalty Formation Model in Electronic Commerce.

The first sale of Nestlé products in Nigeria dates back to the initial phase of the 20^th century. This was through the local importing agents who positioned their orders directly to the British trading organizations who had been actively participating in the nation.  The industrial presence of Nestlé initiated in the year 1971 during the times when the country witnessed steady rise in sales which encouraged the organization to introduce the packaging system part of its wide range of production at the Ilupeja factory. Nestlé articulates its unique Creating Shared Value approach to execute effective business operation whereby the action related to the stakeholders must further formulate value for the communities where it develops its operation along with the wider society (Nestlé Nigeria 2018). The activities of Nestlé amount to around 60 million Naira with an employee base of around 4000 with two factories in Nigeria namely Agbara manufacturing Complex and Flowergate. Two of the primary competitors of Nestle Nigeria are Enfamil Nigeria and Yummy Tummies. Enfamil introduced is also recognized as one of the most prominent producers of baby formula in Nigeria and rest of the world. Enfamil contains a natural defence dual pre-biotics blend which is highly nutritious for infants. However, though both the food products have similar composition it has been noted that Nestle formulated in a way which is easily digestible to newborns in comparison to Enfamil (Liechti, Pasquier and Reis 2017) . While Yummy Tummy is one of the popular food products which are made from simple and easily accessible ingredients which claim to have more nutritional value than other commercial food products with no additives.

Customer satisfaction is regarded as a customer feedback in the form of assessment following to the purchase of products or services in comparison with the expectation level of the customer. As the idea of customer satisfaction is evaluated by using the customer expectations with the level of performance of goods which can further accomplished the demands and desires of the customer base, it has been stated that a satisfied consumer draws similarities between the performance of the products and services with the anticipation level of the consumer by further encouraging them to re-purchase the similar products (Verhoef and Lemon 2013). It has been noted that customer feedback is established by the idea of quality and price of the products desired by the customer along with the price which is considered as a foundation to establish customer satisfaction level (Parveen, Jaafar and Ainin 2015). Modern theorists are of the opinion that enhanced customer value can be compared to the extent the competitors in the market will aim to deliver in order to create a satisfaction and contentment level for the customer base for the develop their brand loyalty. Thus there have been considerable rate of observations which comprehend the causality between product quality and price with customer feedback between product quality and price with level of customer satisfaction and between customer values with customer satisfaction (Laudon and Laudon 2016). Furthermore research indicated that customer feedback has the propensity to play a decisive role in developing satisfaction level of the customers (Lee 2013). For instance, the FMCG industry in Nigeria is dominated by few significant brands namely Nestlé Nigeria, Enfamil Nigeria, Yummy Tummies Diageo, and Flour Mills of Nigeria. However in the food and beverages industry Nestlé Nigeria has attained a position among the top organisations within the span of 2010 to 2015 further denoting that the company has surpassed the other leading FMCG organizations (Rainer et al.  2013).

Competitors

Marketing metrics have been considered as statistical measurements which organizations such as Nestlé Nigeria has been implementing in order to evaluate the efficiency of the company’s marketing activities. However, the concept of marketing metrics is highly reliant to the volume and the type of marketing strategy and campaign the company is using (Plummer et al.  2013). In regards to the financial knowledge, marketing metrics primarily sheds light on the response to the investment of the marketing strategy approaches Nestlé is implementing in Nigeria. Quantitative data is a kind of data which cannot be evaluated with the usage of statistical figures or metrics such as examining individualistic perceptions and views by further focusing on characteristics or notions and is considered to be more descriptive in nature (Tosti and Herbst 2014). Furthermore, quantitative statistics and figures provide enhanced level of information to Nestlé Nigeria but also necessitate a considerable degree of action in the collection and analysis phase. However, it has further been noted that qualitative statistical figures in comparison to quantitative data can provide inclusive understanding on things. Quantitative evaluation methods have gathered considerable rate of recognition because of the collection being relatively comprehensive in comparison to other quantitative metrics (Mintz and Currim 2013). Often the process of evaluating customer feedback is executed with the implementation on certain significant statistical figures whereby the lowest figure measured represents the stronger side if not comprehensive dissatisfaction whereas the highest figure symbolizes higher side if not complete satisfaction level (Melián-González et al. 2013). However, Nestlé Nigeria must keep in consideration that such quantitative approaches of measuring the capacity and value of customer feedback can sometimes fail to accomplish success as certain numerical data may fail to represent sincere perceptions and views of the customer base (Liechti, Pasquier and Reis 2017). These quantitative data may further develop the ability to conceal sincere emotions of the views which symbolizes the opinion of the customer base as a figure.

However the decline in the top brand index of Nestlé Nigeria has been accounted due to the immense rate of competition between other food and beverage organisations and innovation. Thus several studies emphasized more on the observation of perception for Nestlé Nigeria customer base which was segmented as a convenience product to the metropolitan community (Hill and Brierley 2017). However it has been noted that the quality of the product is not evaluated by the company perception and further is perceived through the standpoint of the customer base. Customers perceive a certain price range way by the high and low price of the product offered by the organisation can play a significant role on the degree of customer intention to purchase the product (Khodakarami and Chan 2014). As a result consumers will focus on the price range paid by other customers further emphasising one the product price which will impact the perception of the customer base and further influence their willingness to confirm the rate of commitment towards the specific brand (Laudon and Laudon 2016). As the food and beverage industry is recognised as one of the major and oldest industries in the world and most importantly the essential part in the economy of the whole world, the level of steadiness and reliability along with growth are therefore recognised to be supreme to the economic performance of the individual nations including Nigeria (Parveen, Jaafar and Ainin 2015). As nutrition serves a significant role in the lives of newborns and their mothers, the primary strategy focus of Nestle Nigeria is to deliver distinctive benefits to its customer base. As Nigeria, has a low rate in the child nutrition level, Nestle Nigeria aims to establish, share and apply nutrition awareness and knowledge and further empower its consumer base to make informed decision making procedures about the food they feed their babies and its nutrition level (Nestlé Nigeria 2018).  Nestle in Nigeria have further establish with the most advanced Research and Development association in the food and beverage industry. By sustaining itself relevant in the globalized era, the company aims to deliver industry-centric progress by persistently creating innovation and refurbishing the company’s portfolio.

Customer Satisfaction in the Food and Beverage Industry

It has been noted that Nestle Nigeria’s Q3 revenues has been regarded as the basis for their valuation in the market in comparison to the its statistical figures in 2015 which revealed the market revenue decline to around N790 from N 850 in 2015 (Beneke et al. 2013). However, the revenue growth failed to commensurate for the period as it has impacted by the financial expenditure of the foreign loans  which raised by around 410% to N 22 billion from around N 4.50billion in 2016.

Insights from observation aid insurers to make their decisions on areas where they will invest whereby effectively reframing customer journeys which require discipline. Customer journey with the organization can further be optimized in accordance to five step structure:

• Step 1- Break down the journey implementing customer opinions as a primary agendas
• Step 2- Map the journey against existing internal operations
• Step 3- Evaluate strengths and weaknesses significant to its customer base
• Step 4- Prioritize primary points based on the needs and demands of the customers.
• Step 5- Radically re-formulate the course of customer experience to focus on the limitations and prioritize customers’ requirements.

As a result the process of customer feedback is recognised as a common and fundamental approach to quantify the satisfaction level by comparing the customers’ perception of an experience with their expectations. However this is considered to be a beneficiary factor to the organisation as the consumers tend to elevate brand image by spreading positive word of mouth communication among other individuals and further reduce promotional costs to attract new customers. However it is has been noted that the value of customer feedback is not possible unless the dimensions leading to customer satisfaction are well established (Bilicki and Roeder, Target Brands Inc 2016). There can be witnessed both external as well as internal factors whereby the external factors are the ones which tend to influence the system from outside the company and affect the value of customer feedback system (Safa and Ismail 2013). Organizations which provide service across the world aim to sustain their market position by maintaining the level of customer satisfaction. People belonging from various backgrounds might pose factors of cultural differences towards the brand further impacting the value of customer satisfaction.

As public services have undergone critical evaluation by the public, several societies tend to reveal their inclination towards advanced digitalization and further generate increased level of needs and demands from the citizens of Nigeria regarding service and product quality of Nestlé as well as public accountability (Lemon and Verhoef 2016). Thus Nestlé has considered customer feedback as an essential metric to establish a well-established ground for communication with the key segment of their customer base. There has further been an enhancement in the number of customer-centric models used by leading organizations which has been established on the basis of five stage process of service mechanism design as well as management (Kumar and Reinartz 2018). However modern theorists are of the opinion that customer retention can further be measured from Churn rate which significantly refers to the percentage of contractual customers or subscribers the company comprises that has the propensity to leave a distributor during a given period. Thus churn rate is regarded as a significant indicator of customer discontent, or better offers from the competition within the customer life cycle. However, Nestle can overstate the churn rate while evaluating their customer feedback when a customer refuses to take any services from the company but tends to commence the same within a year (Retention Rate = 1 – (Churn Rate). Thus, the company must take into account a distinctive requirements to be formulated between the ‘annual churn’ that is the aggregation of absolute associations along with the ‘net churn’ that is referred to the overall loss of subscribers or members.

Marketing Metrics and Measuring Customer Feedback

An exploratory observation involving 50 respondents in perceived generalized rate of satisfaction has been developed implementing a five point Likert Type scale where excellence = 5, good = 4, just okay = 3, poor = 2, or very poor = 1.

	Excellent	Good	Just okay	Poor	Very Poor
Quality of products and services offered		4
Do you think standard price of Nestle Baby Products is fair?	5
Are you a frequent purchaser of our products?		4
Do you think Nestle baby products are easily digestible for infants and children below 5 years?		4
Are you satisfied with the powder milk quality?		4

 
Dashboard to show the way evaluation system are used to measure customer feedback

Recommendation of approaches it can be used to measure customer feedback of young parents in Nestlé Nigeria

Nestlé requires applying strategies and approaches in order to encompass the emerging areas of Nigeria and further aim to sustain the health nutritious factors of infants and children and further ascertain their adequate nutritional value. As the level of child nutrition in recent times has witnessed significant improvement, the country has therefore made a significant development in the sphere of micronutrient deficiency regulation. Thus Nestlé Nigeria has been proficiently exerting their activities in primary cities of Nigeria and further focus on a wide-range of baby food products (Yusuf, Sukati and Chin 2014). Thus drawing connection to these facts, Nestlé Nigeria target the potential customers and to position their profitable products by delivering new and improved products on frequent basis. Furthermore, the organization segmented a market domain for its essential products and services on the basis of the generation. It has been noted that for products such as Cerelac, Lectogen and Nido, Nestlé has segmented the market area domain for new mothers.

A wide range of web-based as well as other information technologies has recently been introduced to permit organizations like Nestle Nigeria to offer high rate of enhancements who serve world-wide customers. The technologies are:

• Integrated multi-channel contact allocate broad range of communication base with the customers to be regulated in effortless approach by contact centre despite their occurrence on the phone, by online chat or email or an amalgamation of these media.
• Interactive communication in real time by utilizing online chat, web mail or video conferencing can understand the developments in the customer feedback of Nestle as a major section of Nestlé’s customer base is new mothers whereby a considerable proportion constitutes of young mothers; it facilitates the company to maintain a database which offers a contact centre staff to handle enquiries with an inclusive record of interactions with the customer base (Kumar and Reinartz 2018).

• Furthermore, analytical mechanisms aid to track the behavioural of the mothers on its website, evaluate the content of textual communications and further search for improved patterns in the customer database.
• Evaluation of the way dashboard can be implemented to analyse and modify marketing activities to enhance the value of customer satisfaction evaluation system for new mothers

As Nestlé Nigeria comprise of stacks of data along with considerable degree of analytical statistical figures, company might encounter challenges on focusing on the generalized customer perception (Ogbari and Borishade 2015). However, it has been noted that marketing metrics tend to reveal variance from one organization to the other, whereby every dashboard must possess certain degree of variation comprising the following factors

• Essential customer behaviour indicators of new mothers who are recognized as the primary consumers of Nestlé and purchase the wide range of infant and baby food products
• High engagement of customers and redemption

At this juncture, Nestlé Nigeria must take into account the critical factor concerning suitable program-health dashboard which purposes to analyse the statistical figures and data of the company, and further establishes a target threshold for each which supports the organizational goals (Beneke et al. 2013). Furthermore, the primary concern of dashboard lies on the sphere of organizational attainment and facilitates the understanding level which must be supplied to the executive management level of Nestlé Nigeria in terms of program profitability.

Nestlé Nigeria’s Strategy and Research Advancements

Modern theorists have stated that online data sources have been facilitating the use of online data resource usage in order to enhance the rate of competitiveness in the domain of food and beverage industry with the use of advanced technologies by providing avenues for such companies to compete on equal terms with its competitors like Diageo. Furthermore, online data resources have broadened the scope of opportunities for such companies dealing with baby food products to harness the beneficiary factors of advanced technologies in an effortless and affordable manner (Beneke et al. 2013). Thus online data resources have been regarded as the successful aspect of essential service of Nestlé Nigeria as well as leading an environment for effective process of promotion and advertising (Kotler 2015). Furthermore, as a major proportion of media exposure of Internet and e-commerce have been focusing on adopting social media significance, Nestlé Nigeria has been focusing on implementing social media coverage like its contemporaries.

Though advanced technologies have facilitated the organizational growth of Nestlé Nigeria, modern theorists revealed that website communication business have often lost the competence of delivering the appropriate as well as adequate amount of data and statistical figures which could have served the ideas and approaches for enhancement (Kotler 2015). Furthermore, it has been recognized that the potentiality for improving the engagement of the consumer base in communication with Nestlé Nigeria to receive data from the new mothers regarding their shifting needs and demands as baby food products are considered to be immensely vital for any mother who is a consumer. Studies further reveal the email links send to consumer base acts as a vital way of customer feedback but often fail to establish effective domain of discourse whereby the respondents can post their sincere reviews and feedbacks.

Modern organizations have been supporting the volume as well as incentives of the system of customer feedback by integrating executive dedication to the front line. Few essential approaches in marketing metrics have been identified which can further aid the organizational providers in measuring customer feedback.

• Support volume and incentives from the beginning
• Enquiry
• Appropriate Inquiry

Organizations such as Nestlé can further implement “Micro-survey” which has been recognized as an essential model for interrogation and analysis. These approaches tend to reduce the rate of response burden but can reveal divergence and further enhancement in order to accumulate a wide-encompassing range of relevant information (Kumar and Reinartz 2018). Thus with the implementation of these approaches organizations like Nestlé Nigeria can facilitate the level of their customer experience and further reinforce their business strategy.

• Some organizations have considered the factors of accountability as fundamental function of essential analysis and further focuses on the way learning and accountability concentrates on the needs of learning in order to establish as being in opposition to it (Kumar and Reinartz 2018).
• This factor has been further regarded as effective in order to decide on a case-by-case basis whether the factors related to learning can be recognized as a priority in specific evaluation process.

Conclusion

Therefore, to conclude it can be noted that customer feedback system must be given the position within Nestlé Nigeria with distinctive accountabilities whereby management can perceive the rate of profitability which the company attains from having an effective customer feedback process. However, the customer satisfaction evaluation process has to be analysed on regular basis along with the company’s financial revenues and benefits. Thus companies in order to attain an effectiveness of implementing customer feedback it are vital for every organization to comprehend the system of customer feedback process. Furthermore, organizations such as Nestlé Nigeria must acknowledge the system of customer feedback process and enhance their level of understanding which would be effective in determining if the goods offered by the company reflect the demands and requirements of Nestlé’s consumer base.

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