Analyzing Customer Journeys: A Case Study of ALDI and Woolworths CX

This case study delves into the customer experience at ALDI and Woolworths, two major Australian supermarkets, examining both online and offline interactions. It utilizes customer journey maps to analyze the experiences of customers visiting ALDI stores and the Woolworths website, highlighting the strengths and weaknesses of each. The study identifies positive aspects such as helpful staff and product variety at ALDI, and extensive online options at Woolworths. It also notes negative points like long waiting times and inconsistent product placement at ALDI, and a cluttered website design at Woolworths. The case study further explores the application of customer experience theories like CSAT and customer feedback mechanisms. Finally, it offers recommendations for both companies to improve their customer experience, including simplifying the Woolworths website and enhancing staff training at ALDI, emphasizing the importance of positive CX for business growth and customer loyalty. Desklib provides a platform for students to access this and other solved assignments.

Case study on
customer experience

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION ..........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY ..................................................................................................................................3
Customer Journey map and experience..................................................................................3
CX theories used.....................................................................................................................7
RECOMMENDATIONS.................................................................................................................8
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................9
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................10

INTRODUCTION
The modern business environment has made is very easy to not only conduct businesses
but to also sale them according to the needs of the market compared to past times but one thing
has remained constant which is that customer still remains the king. Businesses can no longer
afford to simply setup their trading operations and simply exist to earn profit and in order to
sustain their competitive advantage in the market and remain profitable over a long period of
time, they must prioritize positive customer experience (CX) strategies. Customer journey map
refers to the story which is created using the experience which customers have when interacting
with a brand its operations and is used to study the pain points and level of CX a company is
currently providing. This report will focus on the customer journey experience of visiting two
major Australian supermarkets, ALDI and Woolsworth and will analyse the customer experience
strategies with customer journey maps to support the experiences incurred during both online
and offline visits to their premises (Jones, 2022).
MAIN BODY
Customer Journey map and experience
ALDI
This company is discount supermarket chain with over 10,000 stores in 20 countries. It is
founded in 1946 dealing in the products of supermarket, hypermarket and convenient shop. My
experiences during my physical visit has been given below as a customer journey map.
The customer journey map defines visual representation of customer experience with
company and provides understanding of needs & concerns of potential customers which
motivates their actions (Biedenbach and Marell, 2010)
Phases Phase 1 -
Motivation
Phase 2 –
Physical visit
Phase 3 –
Product
checking
Phase 4 – Staff
experience
Activities
performed
The Aldi store
motivated me to
The customer
searches several
In product
checking the
The customer
when visit to

have physical
visit in order to
make the
purchase of
product which is
offering varieties.
products on
websites and
stores. While visit
to store customer
will search
product according
to its needs.
customer will
check its details
and discounts
available. It will
process forward
to make purchase
of product.
store take help
from staff to have
guide regrading
product.
Emotions When there was
visit in store the
emotions were
good and excited
because there was
opportunity to
explore large
varieties of
products.
When having the
physical visit
there was rush in
store and happy
customers that
were making
purchase of
product.
In product
checking
customer was
very careful
regarding the
information
mention in
packaging .
The customer
were helpful as
they were given
guidance.
Overall
experience
Good Good Good Good
Customer
expectations
While visiting to
store the customer
have the
expectations of
easily available
products and
discount options.
The customer
expects that while
visiting store they
are not facing any
problem, treated
well, guided by
their staff
members.
In product
checking
customer expects
to have proper
payment and
billing. The
correct product is
delivered.
In store customer
expects to treated
and welcoming
well with staff.
When I had physical visit to ALDI store I experienced lot of positive and negative thing.
The store was having the good ambience with proper manage of all products. I found different
sections for different products which made easy for me to select and purchase of product which

I experience as positive (Hill, N., Roche and Allen, 2007). The staff member were very helpful
in guiding me regarding the product and I received a great customer service which made me feel
happy and valued in the store. I was getting a quick response when asking question or having any
problem that showed me my opinions are valued which resulted in positive experience.
With this there were some staff which were very rude to others and not helping them in
finding the product that I face as negative. I found that in Aldi some products were placed on
wrong shelves. I experience the long waiting times for making product purchase due to high
customer footfall. I found that there were some products which were not available in store which
made me feel low and found to be waste of time. I experience that the environment was not good
and store was smelling bad (Kumar and et. al., 2014).
Woolsworth
Australia's retail sector is very competitive and comprises of many major players which
compete daily for market share and loyal customer bases which has made the overall importance
of customer experience very vital for companies to succeed in their retail operations as the retail
industry is entirely customer oriented and bad experiences while shopping from both online and
offline methods. Among these major competitors is Woolsworth which is a retail sector
heavyweight in Australia and is the country's largest supermarket chain which operates more
than 1000 stores all over the country (Shaikh and Shaikh, 2021). The firm is also very innovative
and it has a properly defined online channels via a well functioning website as the company
proclaims to understand the modern consumer and their need to execute most of their shopping
and basic needs from the comfort of their computer. I wanted to see just how well the company
commits to its online retail channels and the type of experience its website visit has for people
which is why I did not visit the physical supermarkets of Woolsworth but chose to visit their
website instead. My entire experience from the onset to the final click off the website has been
detailed below in the form of a customer journey map.
Phases Phase 1 -
Motivation
Phase 2 –
Website
search
Phase 3 –
Clicking on
the first
result
Phase 4 –
Checking
the website
Phase 5 –
Product
evaluation
Phase 6 –
payment

Activities
performed
Want to
purchase a
food item
Searches the
Woolsworth
website on
google
Analysis of
search
results
Taking a
through
evaluation
of the
website and
its options
Evaluating
the item
which needs
ordering
Proceeding
towards the
payment
gateway
options to
finalise the
purchase
Emotions Happy and
excited
The results
were
accurate and
comprehens
ive so happy
Extremely
happy as I
did not have
to spend
time
searching
and
navigating
Mild
sadness as I
found a lot
of design
problems
Relieved as
fruit items
were
available in
a wide
variety
Happy as
the payment
was smooth
with
multiple
options
Overall
experience
Good Good Great Average Good Good
Customer
expectation
s
Ease of
purchase
and a stress
free
experience
Not having
to spend
much time
in searching
The first
link to be
what I am
looking for
A well
designed
website with
numerous
options for
customer
convenience
Well priced
products
with great
quality so
that I don't
regret my
purchase
Multiple
payment
options with
an option
for cash on
delivery
My overall experience during my visit to the Woolsworth website was a mixed bag as
despite the site being quite extensive and has plenty of strong points, there were some obvious
pain points which I incurred during my visit. The strengths and weaknesses of the website and
the company's online customer journey has been listed underneath.

Strengths
 The amount of sheer options that are given by the website is staggering as I was even
asked if I needed extra accessibility options as soon I clicked on the link
 The product variety and the options present on the website were amazing as it truly
represented a brand which is the largest supermarket in Australia
 The wide variety of products were properly dissected in the UX design
 There were numerous options for me when I searched for some fruits with multiple
brands being offered to me
 The website presented me with numerous payment options
Weaknesses
 The website design was very cluttered as the UX design was extensive but not well
thought out
 The website was a bit confusing to navigate at times due to the confusing layout
 I experienced differential pricing in the website as same products of different brands
carried major price differences
CX theories used
The visit to Woolsworth website was worthwhile as there were clear identifications of the
various models of customer experience that were used in the website which are listed herein.
 Customer feedback – The website had dedicated options which were especially
designed so that customers can note down there experiences on the website, whether
positive or negative. There were also options present regarding product recalls and return
policies (Bascur, Rusu and Quiñones, 2018).
 CSAT – This is a very heavily used metric of measuring and regulating the customer
experiences which companies like Woolsworth seem to be using on their website and
online operations. CSAT works by analysing the satisfaction level of customers and their
fulfilment of expectations. The website had multiple product categories with wide variety
of customizable options which were done to meet the expectations of their customers
(Chevalier and Gutsatz, 2020).

The customer satisfaction theory was used by ALDI is one of the effective in customer
experience as it is used as KPI which helps in defining how satisfied customers are with the
organisation. Customer satisfaction is measurement that determines how happy customers are
with a company’s products, services, and capabilities (Sachdeva and Goel, 2015). Customer
satisfaction information, including surveys and ratings, that can help a company in determining
how to best improve or changes its products and services. This is psychological attribute that
helps in measuring the customer expectations. The customer in the store make purchases on the
basis of some expectations, attitudes and intentions. The customer satisfaction can be enhance in
store by offering them effective customer services, warm welcoming and guiding them regarding
the product to make choices. For the organisation customer satisfaction is important which helps
in increasing the revenue and growth and motivates customer to have revisit.
RECOMMENDATIONS
The following recommendations have been listed for the malls that we visited to better
develop their current aspirations and goal development.
 Woolsworth should immediately start uncluttered and simplifying its website in the short
term as streamlining the customer journey delivers quick results. Over the medium and
long term the firm should start applying use of Artificial Intelligence systems to its
website as bots, smart assistants help in overall customer experience.
 The Aldi is recommended to improve the customer experience by hiring the skilled staff
so that they have adequate knowledge about the products and helping customers in their
queries. The organisation is required to understand customer types and offers products in
accordance to there preferences and needs so that they can have revisit in store (Shi and
et. al., 2020). It is recommended to create an emotional connection with customers so that
there can be build trust and better relations. The customer feedback is required to be
considered and response immediately to make feel customers that there problem are
being heard. It is recommended to omnichannel to build effective customer experiences.

CONCLUSION
From the above it can be concluded that customer experience is the interaction between
customer and business throughout the entire duration of their relationship. The remarkable
customer experience is essential for the business growth. The positive customer experience helps
in promoting loyalty, retention of customers and brand advocacy is encouraged. The positive
customer experience is crucial for the business success. It is impression of customers having
brand as a whole throughout all aspects of the buyer's journey. It results in their view of brand
and impacts factors related to bottom line including revenue.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Bascur, C., Rusu, C. and Quiñones, D., 2018, October. User as customer: touchpoints and
journey map. In International Conference on Human Systems Engineering and Design:
Future Trends and Applications (pp. 117-122). Springer, Cham.
Biedenbach, G. and Marell, A., 2010. The impact of customer experience on brand equity in a
business-to-business services setting. Journal of brand management, 17(6), pp.446-458.
Chevalier, M. and Gutsatz, M., 2020. Luxury retail and digital management: Developing
customer experience in a digital world. John Wiley & Sons.
Hill, N., Roche, G. and Allen, R., 2007. Customer satisfaction: the customer experience through
the customer's eyes. The Leadership Factor.
Jones, A., 2022. Supermarket wars-Woolworths still healthiest, but Coles the most Aussie.
Journal of the Home Economics Institute of Australia, 27(1), pp.46-47.
Kumar, V. and et. al., 2014. Assessing the influence of economic and customer experience
factors on service purchase behaviors. Marketing Science, 33(5), pp.673-692.
Sachdeva, I. and Goel, S., 2015. Retail store environment and customer experience: a paradigm.
Journal of Fashion Marketing and Management.
Shaikh, A.A. and Shaikh, M.M., 2021. A VIEWPOINT ON SUSTAINABLE PRACTICES OF
COLES AND WOOLWORTHS DURING COVID-19. Academy of Marketing Studies
Journal, 25, pp.1-4.
Shi, S. and et. al., 2020. Conceptualization of omnichannel customer experience and its impact
on shopping intention: A mixed-method approach. International Journal of Information
Management, 50, pp.325-336.