Customer Satisfaction Report: Analysis for Luke Althorp Retail Chain

This client report, titled 'Customer Satisfaction,' analyzes the challenges faced by the retail firm Luke Althorp. The report identifies critical issues such as a lack of customer satisfaction, faulty inventory management, and inadequate employee training and retention. It uses evidence from customer surveys, Pareto chart analysis, and employee feedback to support its findings. The report provides detailed recommendations to address these problems, including strategies to enhance customer satisfaction through product and pricing adjustments, improve inventory management using efficient techniques, and implement employee training programs. The conclusion emphasizes the importance of adopting these operational changes to improve customer satisfaction, increase revenue, and gain a competitive advantage. Appendices include survey data, staffing details, and calculations supporting the analysis, making it a comprehensive resource for understanding the firm's performance and suggesting improvements.

Running head: CUSTOMER SATISFACTION

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CUSTOMER SATISFACTION
Name of the student
Degree
Subject
Semester
To,
Ms Gemma Hanson, CEO,
M/s Luke Althorp
Dear Madam,
Please find below the client report titled ‘Customer Satisfaction’ for your kind perusal and
further decision making. It would be a great pleasure to hear from your end.
Regards,
Name and details of the sender,
……..

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CUSTOMER SATISFACTION
Customer Satisfaction
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author note

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Table of Contents
Client report:....................................................................................................................................3
1.1. Executive summary:.................................................................................................................3
1.2. Introduction:.............................................................................................................................3
1.4. Main body:................................................................................................................................3
1.4.1. Issues Luke Althorps is facing:..........................................................................................4
Lack of customer satisfaction:.................................................................................................4
Faulty inventory management:................................................................................................5
Lack of employee training and retention:................................................................................5
Recommendations to deal with the issues:......................................................................................6
Enhancement of customer satisfaction:.......................................................................................6
Efficient inventory management:................................................................................................6
Retention and training of employees:..........................................................................................7
1.5. Conclusion:...............................................................................................................................7
2.4. Appendices:..............................................................................................................................8
2.4.1. Pareto chart calculations:...................................................................................................8
2.4.2. Staffing:...........................................................................................................................18
2.4.3. LA customer survey:........................................................................................................19
2.4.4. Telephone Converstaion a few days after the meeting........................................................45
Appendix 2.4.5. Email regarding agency staff:.............................................................................48

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References:....................................................................................................................................52

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1. Client report:
1.1. Executive summary:
Adaptation to the customer preferences and customer services have become inseparable parts of
retails to earn success. The lack of these two attributes can result in losses or even closure of
business. The firm Luke Althorp shows the devastating consequences of low customer services
and low level of personnel management. Finally, it has been learnt that achievement of these two
attributes earns business a strong market position.
1.2. Introduction:
Customer satisfaction and adaptation to the changing market conditions are very crucial
to ensure persistent success of business organisations in the market. The fact holds even more
significant for textile retail chains because preferences of customers keep on changing hereby,
having significant change in the business turnover. Secondly, it can be pointed out that employee
retention and appropriate training is extremely to ensure persistent customer services and
customer satisfaction. The third important criterion which premium textile businesses have to
fulfil in order to ensure availability of stocks of outfits in order to make them available to
customers is, efficient inventory management. The firm in the given case study has failed on all
these three parameters and the management has hired a consultancy to form strategies to turn
around. The paper would delve into the issues the firm is facing supported by appropriate
evidences.
1.4. Main body:
This section would analysis the three issues which are leading to dwindling profits at M/s
Luke Althorps and recommendations to deal with them.

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1.4.1. Issues Luke Althorps is facing:
The following are the issues Luke Althorps is facing which is causing its turnover to fall:
Lack of customer satisfaction:
The first issue which the premium retail store is facing is lack of customer satisfaction.
Chheda, Duncan and Roggenhofer (2017) point out that customer satisfaction is directly linked
to profit generation in the retail sector. Customer satisfaction enable the retail chains to prolong
customer lifecycle to earn perpetual revenue and repeat business. Lemon and Verhoef (2016)
point out that customer satisfaction is directly linked to customer service. It can be pointed out
that Luke Althorps failes in both these two fields. This is evident from the survey of the target
customer group which pointed out utter lack of customer services on the side of the staff
members of Luke Althorps. Customer E, aged 45 years commented that the in-store staff told
that the dress she chose was inappropriate on her but did not take the initiative of offering an
appropriate dress. Customer G reported that the stores lacked sufficient stock of clothes while
customer D pointed out that the pricing strategy of Luke Althorps was not appropriate and that
the outfits were too expensive. Customer E also commented that the outlets of Luke Althorps
lacked trendy outfits and the shapes of the dresses available at the store not appropriate. An
analysis of the comments of the customers points out that the staff at the stores did not provide
customers with appropriate services and were uncooperative. Moreover, the product and
strategies of the stores were not appropriate. This was because the stores offered old fashioned
dresses and charged very high prices. The outcomes of these faulty customer strategies were
losing customers to competitors and dwindling profits as shown by the Pareto chart below
(Appendix 2.4.4) (Lin and Bennett 2014).

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lack of staff training and
retention lack on inventory
management lack of customer services lack of customer
knowledge
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
45
35 33 37 40
Pareto chart showing four issues of Luke
Althorp
Figure 1. Pareto showing customer satisfaction issues
(Source: Author)
Faulty inventory management:
An effective inventory management is an inseparable part of business operations of retail
chains aimed to ensure customer satisfaction. Martino et al. (2017) point out that that fashion
trends of market keeps on changing which in turn leads to changing customer preferences
regarding their purchase of outfits. Sarulatha and Sasirekha (2017) point out that customers are
not dependent on retail outlets to obtain trendy outfits and are able to purchase outfits of latest
trends from ecommerce companies as well. It can be inferred from the opinion of these two
groups of authors that efficient inventory management is very crucial for retail chains to attract
and retain customers. Luke Althorps fails in both maintaining efficient stocks of outfits as well as
clothes of latest trends in sufficient amount. This was evident from the comments of customers F

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and G who complained about lack of availability of sufficient quantity of dresses of their sizes.
The similar lack of efficient inventory and product management at Luke Althorps was also
reflected in the statement of George, a fellow employee at the consultant (Appendix 2.4.9). Thus,
it can be inferred from the discussion that Luke Althorps did not maintain outfits of latest trends
and there also existed lack of maintenance in the existing models of outfits.
Lack of employee training and retention:
Retention and training of employees are crucial for efficient customer services and
inventory management in the retail chains. Kumar and Pansari (2016) mention that positive
employee engagement enable retail companies to serve their customers in order to achieve
customer engagement. This is because in retail chains employees interact directly with the
customers and assist them to find the right pieces of outfit, thus ensuring satisfaction of the latter.
Tang et al. (2014) strengthens this opinion by mentioning that retention of employees and
providing with training on customer services enable the retail companies to serve the customers
to a greater level. However, as far Luke Althorp is concerned, the firm suffered from low
retention of employees (Appendix 2.4.2). The case study does not mention training of employees
and on the other hand the customers reported against lack of cooperation from in-store
employees. It can be construed from this analysis that the firm did not provide training to its
employees and they lacked customer management skills. Moreover, low retention of employees
prevented Luke Althorp from aligning its employees with its long term business strategies. The
outcome of this issue of low retention, as shown in the figure below and lack of training resulted
in poor customer service which resulted in low level of customer satisfaction and waning
revenue generation (Erdil 2015).

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0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14
0
100
200
300
400
500
600
Scatter plot
2016 2017 2018
Months
Turnover of employees
Figure 2. Scatter plots showing low employee retention
(Source: Author)
Recommendations to deal with the issues:
Enhancement of customer satisfaction:
Luke Althorp should take steps to enhance customer satisfaction by restructuring its
product and pricing strategy. The retail firm should introduce outfits of both traditional as well as
modern trends. The firm should concentrate on the factors which attribute to the preferences of
the choice of its target customer segment namely, middle income segment. The firm should take
into account attributes of customers like age and lifestyle before forming its product assortment.
The firm should also form a pricing strategy and maintain high quality of its outfits.
Efficient inventory management:
Luke Althorp should maintain an efficient inventory management strategy to ensure
ready availability of outfits according to the choice of the customers. The case study did not
mention use of inventory control techniques like FIFO or LIFO. The case study does not mention

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use of techniques like just in time (JIT) or economic order quantity (EOQ) as well. Thus, it can
be assumed that Luke Anthorps did not follow any tool or technique to manage inventory
efficiently. Thus, it can be recommended that the firm should adopt an appropriate inventory
management strategy to ensure ready availability of its outfits.
Retention and training of employees:
The firm should retain and train its employees. The firm should train its employees to
cooperate with customers which would in turn ensure satisfaction of the latter. The firm should
reward its highly performing sales employees to motivate them. The apex management can
also apply team model based on Belbin’s theory. For example, the departmental heads can
play a the part of shaper who would form the strategies that would be applied to serve the
customers. The senior floor staffs can play the lead of chair with junior sales executives working
under their guidance. A senior employee can play the role of the company worker who would
be responsible for methodical execution of the strategies of the shaper of the departmental head.
This application of group dynamics would enhance the engagement of the employees and boost
customer service. This would enable the firm to serve customers more efficiently to generate
higher revenue.
1.5. Conclusion:
It can be concluded from the discussion that the firm should adopt new methods of
operations like adopting technology based inventory management. Luke Althorp should
simultaneously train and motivate its employees to serve customers better. Adoption of these
strategies would enable the firm to enhance customer satisfaction and regain customer support.
The outcome would be maximisation of revenue generation and competitive advantage of Luke
Althorps.

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