Analyzing Customer Experience at Argos

This report analyzes the brand positioning, key customers, attitudes, and audit of customer experience at Argos. It provides recommendations for improving customer experience.

CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY..................................................................................................................................3
Brand and its positioning and Key customers.............................................................................3
Relevant attitudes of these customers..........................................................................................4
Statements....................................................................................................................................5
Audit of the customers of the brand............................................................................................6
Models and theories.....................................................................................................................7
Recommendations........................................................................................................................8
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................9
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................10

INTRODUCTION
Customer experience is the major point of consideration today where every brand wants to
optimise the overall experience that the customers visiting the brand or its outlets have
(Marchesani, Piccoli and Lui, 2017). Argos is already a prominent chain of household goods in
the retail sector of UK and the overall experience of the customers has been rated as positive. In
the existing report, an analysis of the overall brand positioning of the brand amongst the
customers and the different services that they are providing will be analysed. Further the report
will analyse different theories and models and lastly the recommendations will be made
accordingly.
MAIN BODY
Brand and its positioning and Key customers
The company Argos as a catalogue retailer operating under the ownership of Sainsbury Plc
and they deal in consumer goods as their major products. The company operates in the millions
in the entire UK with their 883 retail shops and the customers that are majorly served amount to
an almost 29 million customers who were shopping or were attached by the existing brand
(Keeping you in the know, 2020). The popularity and the reach of the company in terms of its
customers is extremely wide where the Argos company was giving its parent company Home
Retail Group turnover in millions even when the market as not very well developed. This
attracted the eye of Sainsbury and the company was purchased immediately.
Argos has been serving its customers through three main methods where they have a
huge online presence, the catalogue stores that are the main revenue earning joints for the Argos
company and the collection points where Argos has established smaller collection points inside
their Sainsbury super markets. The overall brand as an Argos has been placed and positioned in a
very strong manner spread throughout the UK and the customer’s base of the company is very
strong (Gacanin and Wagner, 2019).
In order to critically analyse the key customers as well the positioning of the company in
the main market, an STP Analysis i.e. Segmentation, Targeting and Positioning aspects of the
Argos company can be illustrated in following manner:
 Segmentation: The segmentation of any company can be done on the basis of major
classifications where the demographic, the psychographic, geographical and behavioural
grounds are adopted to target their customers (Homburg, Jozić and Kuehnl, 2017). The
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key customers of the Argos Company are selected on the basis of demographic means
where the company has conducted a study on the population and uses different aspects
like personal income, age, gender, profession etc. to target them accordingly. Since
people of any age or background can be a potential customer for Argos, it is essential to
develop a service where there is something for everyone. The overall balance that they
have created in the UK market segment has been significant due to this.
 Targeting: The targeting of the Argos Company has shifted with time where earlier they
used to have a limited number of mediums to target and access the customers, now that
range and mediums have increase significantly (Wilson and et.al., 2016). The identified
customer segments have been targeted on the basis of the different technological
mediums as well where the online presence of the Argos stores has been increased
immensely. This will help in attracting the attention of the targeted customer segments
but along with this the traditional mechanisms will also be used for some of the
companies where the company ensures that they have made themselves easily accessible
to all the segments of their consumers using different mechanisms.
 Positioning: Positioning helps in ascertaining which are those factor soar market areas in
which the company intends to place themselves i.e. whether it is accessible only to the
rich customers or to the middle as well as to the high etc. is determined by the positioning
strategy (Hwang and Seo, 2016). The price of the products being sold and the associated
quality of its products helps in ascertaining which positioning strategy will be adopted by
the company. It can be said that the company Argos exercises differentiated strategy as
the prices of the products are lower so that everyone can access these and in terms of
quality, the positioning is the best i.e. highest.
Therefore, the STP analysis helps in analysing the manner in which the company has
placed itself and the targeted key customers of the company.
Relevant attitudes of these customers
Customer attitude is the manner in which the intended customers of the company perceive
the brand to be and the manner in which they behave towards the brands and its products (Witell
and et.al., 2019). The customer services that are given by the company Argos have been hugely
appreciated by the customers where majority of them tend to acknowledge the fact that Argos
tries to address their multiple needs in satisfactory prices and excellent qualities through the
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products that it supplies to them. In fact the unique selling point of the Argos Company is that
the customers can easily buy from the company where the products of the company have been
made increasingly accessible through their services.
For Argos, the company has already simplified the process of handling any grievances and
complaints by starting the mobile service help and additionally the after sale services that are
available of the company have also been excellent such as guarantees and warranties on their
products, free deliveries, free maintenance up to a certain period after purchase etc.
(Kandampully, Zhang and Jaakkola, 2018). All these have made the customers of the Argos
Company extremely satisfied with their products and the company is also at the receiving end of
positive attitude and outlook from the customers where they approve to the different products
and services that are being sold by the company along with the practices that they adopt.
Statements
The Argos company has modified and played with its statements that has been modelled
and remodelled with since the initial years where it has varied from the “Find it, Get it” to “It's
So Easy” moving on to “Don't shop for it, Argos it” and lastly the present one that they are using
is “Helping you Live for Less.” All the statements that have been made by Argos ultimately
supports the customers of the company uplifting them to give assurance that every products that
they tend to find for their household and daily consumption will be available at the stores of the
Argos company (Keeping you in the know, 2020). The statements show that the company
believes that a customer when they once enter into the stores should not leave empty handed and
the store should have something that is in accordance with their choices or preferences
(Homburg Jozić and Kuehnl, 2017).
The overall organisational culture that is depicted by the company through their statements
and the customer targeting strategies shows that in Argos, the customers is everything and the
employees are bound to serve them with whatever they wasn’t to purchase assisting them at
every point of choices and decision making. For instance when the company really expanded its
online market and the scale at which it was operating, they changed their statements to the new
one stating Don't shop for it, Argos it. This shows that the statements are in direct accordance
with the present ideology and the culture that is being promoted and supported at the company
currently.
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Audit of the customers of the brand
The customers of the brand are the ones that are the most critical parties in ensuring the
success of the company and its activities (Pavan, 2018). For Argos as well the customers have
been the central and the sole reason for operating at such wide scale and to regularly improve
their existing policies and trends in the market overall. The brand audit is the one such
mechanism that helps in regularly evaluating that what is the positioning of the brand in the
customer’s eye and how satisfied or happy they are with the brand and its manifesting. This can
be understood by the following steps that are mainly adopted for Brand audit:
 Create Framework: The formulating a framework required consideration of the mission,
vision and objectives that have been set up for the company (Anker. and Chambers,
2019). Argos can do this by analysing their existing marketing strategies and by
developing a comprehensive platform that help in integrating the customers and the
overall brand in the evaluation process.
 Questioning Customers: This is the second stage where the numbers produced in reports
and surveys are not just enough and the company should collect their own data by
questioning their customers regarding their experience and the products and services that
were available in the organisation. This will help Argos in ascertain the true and relevant
feedback regarding the services that they give to customers.
 Reviewing web analytics: It is evident that the majority of the customers conduct an
online search before making any purchase and this helps the company in identifying what
is SEO level of the website f he company itself and the traffic can be analysed (Sahu,
Deng and Molla, 2018). For Argos this has always been the major objective and hence
they have implemented a number of strategies to enhance their online activity and
preference.
 Reviewing sales data: The sales data is the most realistic and evident data that can
correctly show the actual preference and results of the different stints and activities that
are being carried out by brands collectively. These helps Argos as well in ascertaining
that how effective are they as a brand and how much their products are preferred over the
others by the customers.
 Competitor analysis: This is the next basic step where the strategist ha are being adopted
by the competitors, the results that they are being able to draw form the implementation
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of such strategies, the overall industry trends and preferences etc. must be in knowledge
of the management of the company as well (Burt and et.al., 2018). For Argos, the
analysis of their competitors is a very challenging task and they have to conduct it
regularly in order to develop an insight into the manner in which customer is thinking.
 Monitoring: This is the last stage where the implementations of the different activities
help in ascertaining that they are being properly implemented and evaluated. Argos has a
strong brand performance and evaluation methods where the constantly measure the
results of the different efforts that the company is putting in.
Hence the brand audit is a regular process that is implemented at Argos where the company
clearly illustrates the objectives that it is able to achieve.
Models and theories
Top-level management of Argos is highly required to use different theories and models for
systematically assessing the customer experience. According to different business experts, when
any company or business properly assess customer behaviour, thenit can easily gain high
reputation in the market. Reason is, by assessing experience of customers any company will be
able to provide the best experience to its customers (Kimand Choi, 2016). That’s why existing
management at Argos highly need to assess the customer experience in its business environment.
Currently there are various theories and models has been mentioned below which can support to
this company for properly assessing customer experience.
Customer satisfaction theory
The management at Argos should use customer satisfaction theory which currently uses
many successful businesses or companies in the market. Currently every company want to
increase its levels of customer service, because this when any company provide quality services
it the market, then it will automatically be able to improve the experience of its customer. In this
situation, management of Argos need to adopt customer satisfaction theory within its daily
operations for making its different customers fully satisfied. The company need to make satisfied
its customers for improving customers’ experience. Upper management of company should
completely focus on developing quality of its products and services, because quality products
and services always positively affect customers’ experience.
Day by day there are market competition within the UK’s retail industry is increasing, in which
this company has highly required to improve experience of its customers in the market by using
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customer satisfaction theory. According to the customer satisfaction theory, a company’s
different people, like; manager, leaders, employees, workers are highly required to put their huge
efforts for making customers satisfied, because without satisfying customers no company can
survive in the market (Lammel, Korkut and Hinkelmann, 2016). That’s why top-level
management of Argos should give special instructions to it’s all leaders, employees and worker
for put their productive efforts in the workplace to give the best experience to different
customers.
Key performance indicator (KPI)
Top-level management of company need to use KPI model within its business operations
for properly measuring and assessing the performance fits brand in the market. Brand image
performance of a company also affect experience of customers. In this situation, company should
provide the best quality products and services in the market for increasing its brand value. When
Argos company will be succeeded in increasing its brand value in the market, then this thing can
positively affect customers’ experience in the market. On the other side, KPI model will support
to company for developing its performance and productivity as well. When existing management
at Argos implement KPI in daily operations, then this retail company can easily analyse
experience of its customers as well. Currently, the Argos ha very large customer base in the
UK’s retail industry, because existing management of company believes in producing quality
products and services. There are provide the best customer experience is the main aim of Argos
behind producing quality products and services.
Recommendations
On the basis of the analysis done above there are certain recommendations that can be made
to the Argos Company so that they can further enhance the overall customer experience:
 Since the competition in this industry is so high, it is better to work on improving the
overall experience where the after sale services can be made more innovative rather than
extensive. The company can implement new methods like integrating the AI in their
stores. Here previous experience of the customer is catalogues so that in future they can
be given and enhanced experience.
 Next aspect that could be improved is the implementation of a customer centred company
culture where the companies strive to make one broad objective for all its objectives i.e.
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to enhance the customer experience. Although Argos already has a positive and loyal
customer base but yet they can work on this aspect immensely in order to further develop
it.
 Developing better analytics and monitoring team in all aspects such as customer traffic,
customer experience, feedback evaluator, online review and feedbacks analysed etc. can
further increase the manner in which Argos is addressing the problems of their customers
effectively.
CONCLUSION
The research conducted the report above helps in concluding that the overall customer
experience of the customers in Argos is positive and uplifting. The company was able to analyse
effectively the existing positioning using STP analysis and then a brand audit was also carried
out. The different models were also applied for enhanced the customer experience and overall an
adequate set of recommendations were made for the company.
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REFERENCES
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implementing an evolving marketing concept. Journal of the Academy of Marketing
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Hwang, J. and Seo, S., 2016. A critical review of research on customer experience
management. International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management.
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hospitality. International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management.
Kim, H.S. and Choi, B., 2016. The effects of three customer-to-customer interaction quality
types on customer experience quality and citizenship behavior in mass service
settings. Journal of Services Marketing.
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Communication Technologies in Tourism 2017 (pp. 377-386). Springer, Cham.
Pavan, E., 2018. From analytics to conversion rate optimisation. Applied Marketing
Analytics. 4(1). pp.63-78.
Sahu, N., Deng, H. and Molla, A., 2018. A capability based framework for customer experience
focused digital transformation. In ACIS2018 (pp. 1-10). ACIS.
Wilson, A., and et.al., 2016. Services marketing: Integrating customer focus across the firm.
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Witell, L., and et.al., 2019. Characterizing customer experience management in business
markets. Journal of Business Research.
Online
Keeping you in the know. 2020. [ONLINE] Available through :<
https://www.argos.co.uk/features/service-disruptions>
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