Customer Satisfaction in Supermarkets: A Case Study of Walmart

This research project aims to assess and evaluate customer satisfaction levels at Walmart, a leading global supermarket chain. The study will analyze factors influencing customer satisfaction, including product quality, price, quantity, customer service, and store ambiance. It will also examine challenges faced by Walmart in delivering customer satisfaction and explore strategies for improvement. The research will utilize both primary and secondary data collection methods, including questionnaires and literature reviews, to provide insights into customer perceptions and preferences. The findings will be presented in a comprehensive report, offering valuable recommendations for enhancing customer satisfaction and loyalty at Walmart.

RESEARCH
Walmart

Table of Contents
PROJECT STATEMENT...................................................................................................1
RESEARCH AIM...............................................................................................................1
RESEARCH OBJECTIVES...............................................................................................1
RESEARCH QUESTIONS.................................................................................................2
JUSTIFICATION AND POTENTIAL OUTPUT..................................................................2
POTENTIAL OUTCOME OF RESEARCH........................................................................3
CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK.........................................................................................3
METHODOLOGY..............................................................................................................7
ORGANIZATION OF THE STUDY, THE BUDGET FOR PROJECT AND SCHEDULE 16
REFERENCES................................................................................................................18
APPENDIX.......................................................................................................................20
1

PROJECT STATEMENT
Title- A study to asses and evaluate the customer satisfaction in a supermarket – a
case study of Walmart
The research project is based on the theme of customer satisfaction with a
supermarket, here Walmart. The aspects related to the contentment of the customers in
Walmart will be focused upon since the major factor that decides the success of a
supermarket is its ability to satisfy its customers which results in the increase the sales
ratio. This depends upon the factors which help in meeting the requirements of the
customers such as the supermarkets offering its consumers the value for money, good
quality products offered in great quantity and faster services. The better the customer
satisfaction, the bigger will be the brand image of the firm.
RESEARCH AIM
The main aim of this research project is to conduct the assessment and a detailed
evaluation of the satisfaction level of the customers in Walmart, a public retail company
and a top leading supermarket chain worldwide. The aim of the research will help to
study the contemned of the customers with the services and products offered by
Walmart and how these help in delighting the customers and accomplishment of great
scores in customer satisfaction.
RESEARCH OBJECTIVES
The objectives of the research project as per the aim of the research are as follows-
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 To analyze the aspects that have an impact on customer satisfaction in Walmart
 To examine the factors that need to be kept in mind while delivering the best
quality customer services for providing customer satisfaction
 To study the factors that degrade the customer satisfaction level in Walmart
 To study the methods used to enhance and maintain the satisfaction level of
customers
RESEARCH QUESTIONS
The research questions are based on the aim and objectives of the topic of research.
These questions will provide aid in addressing the problem statement that is formed for
the research project. The questions for the customer satisfaction in Walmart are-
1. On what factors do the customers focus more upon- the quality of the product, its
quantity or the price of the product?
2. What are the challenges faced by Walmart in delivering the customer
satisfaction?
JUSTIFICATION AND POTENTIAL OUTPUT
Importance of the project
The research on the satisfaction level of customers holds a great significance both in
practical and the theoretical terms. The selected project topic needs to be researched
as even the loyal customers may leave the company in the blink of an eye due to their
dissatisfaction with one or the other services. The thorough research on this theme will
provide assistance to the firm to communicate directly with its consumers to get
information regarding their requirements and providing the assurance that the quality
standards established reflect the customer’s voice (Hair, et al. 2015).
The research will provide aid in differentiating the brand, Walmart from the other
supermarket brands and personalizing the customer experience. The other rationale for
selecting this research topic is that it will help in collection of data both in theoretical
form and practical manner about the behavior of the customers which is important to
study in order to get knowledge about the strengths and weaknesses of the firm,
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allocation of resources for maximum impact, get additional insight regarding the
dissatisfaction sources and areas of improvement and deliver a system for notifying the
problem management that require immediate action (Angelova & Zekiri, 2011).
POTENTIAL OUTCOME OF RESEARCH
The research outcomes will be as follows-
 After the research, it will be analyzed that what is the present satisfaction level of
the customers with the services and products offered by Walmart
 The result will be the study of all the aspects that need to be kept in mind in the
process of the delivery of best quality of services such as pricing strategy in
Walmart and conclusions will be drawn regarding the same
 The outcome will be the analysis regarding on what aspects the customer gives
more emphasis, the quality or quantity or the price of the products. By collecting
the information regarding this, the firm will focus more on the aspect that is being
more emphasized by the customers
 The research will be able to give the outcome in the form of the challenges that
the firm is facing regarding the customer satisfaction with the help of which it can
formulate effective strategies to overcome the same and therefore enhance the
services (Ryu, et al. 2012)
CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK
Literature review
According to Hill & Alexander (2017), customer satisfaction is a measure about in what
manner the requirements and the responses of the customers are delivered and
collaborated in order to excel their expectations. Also, it exposes the behaviour of the
suppliers regarding the customers’ expectations. Another definition by Goetsch & Davis
(2014) has defined customer satisfaction as the occurrence of an event when the needs
and the demands of the customers are met and they gain a level of contemned with the
firm’s services. In similar terms, Hill & Brierley (2017) state that it is important to
achieve a good level of consumer satisfaction in order to gain consumer loyalty. The
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better the purchase level of the customers, the more profit will be earned by the firm.
Hence, the good levels of customer satisfaction achieved by the supermarkets will
encourage them to introduce better products and services for the consumers and thus
generate many more potential customers and retain the loyal ones for a longer span of
time (Hill & Alexander, 2017).
Orel & Kara (2014) states that one of the major factors that affect the satisfaction of
customers in a supermarket is the quality of products and services. Also, effective
marketing of the services and products to make them stand out in the bulk of similar
kind of products and services is important. According to Narayan & Chandra (2015), no
barriers to the accessibility of the services and products make the customers much
happier and enable them to avail their facilities repeatedly. One of the most significant
factors is providing great customer service than whether the service will be expensive,
the customer will opt for the particular service only due to its great quality of the
customer services provided (Orel & Kara, 2014). There are some other aspects that
affect the customer satisfaction in Walmart such as the ambience of the store, in case of
supermarkets, the waiting time which is more and always miss the delivery milestones
will disappoint the consumers, the reliability of the services provided whether it is
truthful or hides the information (Terblanche, 2018). One of the emerging aspects that
are impacting the satisfaction level of customers is the ability of the supermarkets to
adopt the use of latest technology. The supermarket like Walmart makes the use of the
technologies through installing the latest software’s for data collection, generating the
bills and maintenance of the data of the employees and the customers. This includes
the use of ERP and BPM systems as well as the cloud computing to store the data in
bulk amounts. The care robots for maintenance of the shelves in supermarkets is also
introduced to minimize the efforts of the workers (Blackman, 2013).
According to Oliver (2014), in order to deliver the best quality of services to the
customers to stand out in the crowd and increase the satisfaction level of the
customers, it is important for the supermarket business to respond to the needs of the
clients as quickly as possible. The grievances of the customers and their issues related
to the purchased goods must be addressed as quickly as possible in order to maintain
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the brand loyalty and the reliability of the customers. The personalization campaign also
works well in improving the quality of services provided. This involves the marketing
team reaching the loyal customers through personal approaches like telephone calling
or emails and text messages and offering them exclusive offers and loyalty points to be
added to every purchase they make. The supermarket must realize their mistakes
quickly and improve upon them in order to leave their customers pleased and
contended without any complaints (Eichorn, 2018). Similar views are shared by
Bergman & Klefsjö (2010) stating that the customers who are unhappy by the service
will post on social media whereas these days people are ready to pay more for the
services they get and the good quality of services provided will help in rising in sales,
multiply the number of customers and also give rise of labor cost. Hanif, et al. (2010)
has given the principles of customer service which are identifying the customers,
identifying their expectations, taking a follow up on their positive and negative reviews
and feedback, considering the customer service to be on top of priority list and seeking
for the methods to enhance the quality of the customer services delivered (Beneke, et
al. 2012).
Dominici & Palumbo (2013) state that there are certain aspects which have caused the
levels of satisfaction of the customers to decrease in the recent times. These include
the non-availability of the customer support executives and other customer support
services at all the times. Along with this, the low quality of the services provided to the
customers which are resulted from the improper training given to the team. The
customer service representative fails to treat the customers in the manner that is
satisfying for the customers and thus this sometimes cuts down even the loyal
customers. Thirumalai & Sinha (2011) state that not abiding by the rule of taking
responsibility, respecting the customers and slower resolution of the problems limits the
customer satisfaction. One more factor is taking the loyal consumers for granted which
causes the loyal ones to migrate to other brands due to less attention being paid by the
brand. According to Liu, et al. (2011), poor teamwork causes the departments of the
firm to communicate poorly and this increase the time of addressing the issues. Thus,
due to the time delay, the customers are frustrated with the services of the supermarket
and switch to some other providing better response services.
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According to Mohan (2013), in order to enhance the customer experience and thereby
improve the satisfaction level of the customers, the strategy that can be adopted is to
keep the employees happy and content with the products and services offered by the
supermarkets. Keeping them satisfied will encourage them to provide better services to
the customers thus indirectly improving the customer experience. Also, augmenting the
customer’s experience through a positive environment is the most important thing to be
kept in mind. In supermarkets, a healthy ambience must be built to make the customer
feel comfortable and thus buy a product from the store rather ten shopping the same
online at lower prices. Another method that can be adopted is to keep a track of
customer’s interests through recording the foot volume traffic and the media attention
data by installing the video screens at the checkout and waiting counter to keep the
customers engaged and also draws their attention towards the new products and
services (Flint, et al. 2011). All the methods for improving the customer experience in
the supermarket, Walmart will help in generation of profits and increase the sales ratio.
This will ultimately help the firm to excel in terms of providing great services to the
customers and maintain its popularity in the market and thus increase the market share
and enhance the brand image.
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METHODOLOGY
Data collection methods and tools
The tools that are used for the data collection are the tools for primary data collection
and secondary data collection. The tools for primary data collection include the survey
method which can be done with the help of a questionnaire, interviews which may be
structured or semi-structured, online surveys or the email surveys which include the low
costs and give feasibility to the customers to complete the survey as per their time
convenience and easy to form. The face to face interviews are helpful in responding to
the queries that arise in the minds of the respondents, also invites the open-ended
questions and self-completion of the scalar responses. There are also telephonic
interviews which also involve lower costs and have control of the interview standards
and are a quick turnaround of the fieldwork. Another method to collect the primary data
is through the descriptive researches (Neuman, 2013). The data in this type of research
is obtained from the observation or the communication with the respondents though
interviews as discussed above.
The methods for collection of the secondary data are the keen study of the published
and the unpublished data. The sources of the secondary data may be the publications
by the governments at the central, local or state level. Also, the secondary data may be
collected from the journals which may be technical or trade. The other sources are the
books, articles or the newspapers. Also, the reports which are published by the
industries and the reports written and published by the researchers and economists or
the academicians.
Taking all of the sources of the secondary data, the best tool for the secondary research
is literature review which contains the data collected from the peer-reviewed journals
and the scholarly articles by the prominent researchers and authors. The secondary
data collected provides a conceptual basis for conducting the research on the customer
satisfaction level in Walmart.
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The primary data here for the research project is collected from distribution of a
questionnaire to a sample size of 100 people through email. First of all, 200 people
were contacted for taking part in the questionnaire survey. Out of 200, only 100 of them
responded with their emails. The questionnaire prepared below was sent to 100 people
who gave their responses and then on the basis of their responses the primary data will
be further assessed and evaluated. After collection of the primary and secondary data,
the analysis of the same will be done (Matthews & Ross, 2010).
For the analysis process, the tool used is through depicting the figures of the primary
data obtained in the form of Pie charts, graphs and doing the entry of the data in the
spreadsheets (Chambers, 2017). Through the pie chart and graph method, it is easy to
understand the correct ration of the people selecting the options given in the questions
of the questionnaire.
Primary data collection
The questionnaire for research on the customer satisfaction in Walmart is attached in
the appendix-
How frequently your visit Walmart?
Twice in a month 55
Once in a week 35
Once in 3 months 5
Twice in 3 months 5
Total 100
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Frequency of visit
Twice in a month
Once in a week
Once in 3 months
Twice in 3 months
Maximum of the people responded by saying that they visit once in a month and after
that 45 of them said that they visit once in a week. According to the primary research,
the number of people visiting the supermarket, Walmart twice in a month is 55 which is
the maximum of the total 100 people. Also, 35 of the people visit the supermarket every
week which depicts that the customers are contented with the services of the
supermarket and prefer to do their household and daily needs shopping from the store
outlets of Walmart only
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What do you think of the customer service offered at Walmart?
Excellent 35
Very Good 45
Average 10
Not good 10
Total 100
Customer service
Excellent
Very Good
Average
Not good
The respondents think that the customer service offered by the firm is very good and 35
of them think that it is excellent.
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What is your metric of purchasing a product in Walmart- quality, quantity or
price?
Quality of product 20
Quantity of product 10
Price of product 30
All of above 40
Total 100
Metric of purchase
Quality of product
Quantity of product
Price of product
All of above
According to the survey, 40 people think that all the metrics quality, quantity and price
are important for purchasing the products.
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What enhances your purchasing behaviour the most in Walmart?
Fast checkout time 30
Membership benefits 20
Helpful assistance from staff 15
Shopping offers and discounts 35
Total 100
What enhances purchasing behaviour
Fast checkout time
Membership benefits
Helpful assistance from staff
Shopping offers and discounts
The factor enhancing the purchasing behaviour is faster checkout time and shopping
offers and discounts. Also, the staff assistance and membership benefits are considered
by some of the respondents.
13

According to you, which one of the drawbacks need to be improved in customer
service in Walmart?
Lack of customer support representative at
all time
35
Lack of training to the staff for greeting
and attending the customers
10
Lack of frequent schemes and offers to
loyal customers
30
Lack of addressing of customer grievances 25
Total 100
What enhances purchasing behaviour
Lack of customer support
representative at all time
Lack of training to the staff for
greeting and attending the
customers
Lack of frequent schemes and
offers to loyal customers
Lack of addressing of customer
grievances
35 of the people think that lack of customer support is the major limitation that needs to
be improved by Walmart. Also, the firm lacks schemes and offers to be introduced at
regular time intervals along with the lack of addressing of the customer grievances.
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How much will you rate your overall experience with Walmart as per your
satisfaction level?
Excellent 30
Very Good 50
Average 15
Not good 5
Total 100
Overall experience
Excellent
Very Good
Average
Not good
Exactly half of the sampled people have said that their satisfaction level with Walmart
has been very good and 30 of the people said that it is excellent. While 15 had an
average experience and 5 of them had a bad experience.
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ORGANIZATION OF THE STUDY, THE BUDGET FOR PROJECT AND
SCHEDULE
The chapters in the research report will be as follows-
 Introduction- to the research project
o Project aims and objectives
o Research questions
 Rationale- it will provide the basis for conducting the research on the topic
selected.
 Project outcomes- will demonstrate the possible outcomes of the research
 Literature review- will contain the relevant literature related to the topic of
research i.e. the customer satisfaction in Walmart
 Primary data collection- will contain the data collected through the questionnaire
 Analysis of the data- will comprise of the primary and the secondary data
analysis
 Conclusions drawn on the basis of the research conducted
 Recommendations for future research
The budget for the project
The budget for carrying out the research study is illustrated in the table below-
Amount
Personal €500
Travel €1000
Materials €500
Research of secondary data €1000
Primary data collection €500
Total €3500
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Gantt chart
Activities
Dur
ation
1
Week
2
Week
3
Week
4
Week
5
Week
6
Week
7
Week
8
week
Brainstorming
session
Selection of the
topic
Collection of
Secondary Data
preparation of the
Research
question
Sampling stage
and
segmentation
collection of
Primary data
Data analysis and
interpretation
Conclusion and
suggesting
recommendations
17

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retail service quality dimensions on customer satisfaction and loyalty: The case
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3. Bergman, B., & Klefsjö, B. (2010). Quality from customer needs to customer
satisfaction. Studentlitteratur AB.
4. Blackman, T. (2013). Care robots for the supermarket shelf: a product gap in
assistive technologies. Ageing & Society, 33(5), 763-781.
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customer satisfaction and loyalty: An empirical examination. Industrial marketing
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loyalty measurement. Routledge.
13. Hill, N., & Brierley, J. (2017). How to measure customer satisfaction. Routledge.
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14. Liu, C. T., Guo, Y. M., & Lee, C. H. (2011). The effects of relationship quality and
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APPENDIX
1) How frequently you visit Walmart?
a) Once in a month
b) Once in a week
c) Once in 3 months
d) Twice in 3 months
2) What do you think of the customer service offered at Walmart?
a) Excellent
b) Good
c) Average
d) Not good
3) What is your metric of purchasing a product in Walmart- quality, quantity or
price?
a) Quality of the product
b) Quantity of the product
c) Price of the product
d) All of above
4) What enhances your purchasing behavior the most in Walmart?
a) Fast checkout time
b) Membership benefits
c) Helpful assistance from staff
d) Shopping offers and discounts
5) According to you, which one of the drawbacks need to be improved in customer
service in Walmart?
a) Lack of customer support representative at all time
b) Lack of training to the staff for greeting and attending the customers
c) Lack of frequent schemes and offers to loyal customers
d) Lack of addressing of customer grievances
6) How much will you rate your overall experience with Walmart as per your
satisfaction level?
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a) Excellent
b) Very good
c) Average
d) Not good
21