An Analysis of Customer Service and Satisfaction: Sainsbury Glasgow

This research project examines customer service and satisfaction at a Sainsbury's store in Glasgow. The study investigates customer service levels, satisfaction among customers, customer expectations regarding services, and identifies ways to improve service. The project includes a literature review on factors influencing customer service and satisfaction, such as quality, employees, price, and innovation, as well as customer loyalty. The methodology involves both primary and secondary data collection, utilizing questionnaires and published sources. The project outlines the research timescale, expected outcomes, and provides conclusions and recommendations based on the findings. The aim is to evaluate and potentially improve the customer service experience at the selected Sainsbury's location.

RESEARCH
PROJECT

TABLE OF CONTENTS
CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION.....................................................................................................1
Research project description........................................................................................................1
Background of the organization...................................................................................................1
Research aim and objectives........................................................................................................2
Reason for selection.....................................................................................................................2
Research Methodology................................................................................................................2
Timescale.....................................................................................................................................3
Chapter 2 Literature Review............................................................................................................4
Introduction..................................................................................................................................4
Literature Review........................................................................................................................5
Factor influencing the customer services and satisfaction......................................................5
Customer Loyalty....................................................................................................................6
Ways of improving the services..............................................................................................6
Importance of customer Service..............................................................................................7
Chapter 3 Methodology...................................................................................................................9
Methodology, Methods and Techniques......................................................................................9
Sampling....................................................................................................................................10
Data collection...........................................................................................................................11
Ethical considerations................................................................................................................11
Chapter 4 Data Collection and Analysis........................................................................................12
Data Collection..........................................................................................................................12
Data Analysis and Discussion...................................................................................................14
Chapter 5: Conclusions and Recommendations............................................................................21
Conclusion.................................................................................................................................21

Recommendations......................................................................................................................22
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................24

CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION
Research project description
Customer service plays an important role in every business industry. They are the ones on
which the success of an organization depends. It has to be noted that they are not only concerned
with the buying but they also look to expect high quality services from the firms (Azulay, 2012).
Even after the process of buying, a company needs to maintain a long term relation with its
clients. The present retail environment is highly competitive and changes are seen at regular
intervals. Due to globalization the market has become so wide that companies are having
customers at beyond the boundaries of the nations also. It has become difficult for them to deal
with the consumer behaviour as it is influenced by many factors such as cultural, language,
background, tradition, beliefs etc (Bailey, 2009). Now a days, people can change their perception
related to products and services in couple of seconds. That is the reason terms like customer
satisfaction, loyalty and services have become very crucial for the companies. They need to
make sure that people remain loyal towards their respective brands always. The subject of this
research study also deals with evaluating the satisfaction & services at Sainsbury Glasgow
(Bernoff and Schadler, 2013). The motive is to examine the level of customer services and
satisfaction at a retail store of Sainsbury. This research makes an effort to bring improvements in
the services of the store in case if they are discovered not up to the mark.
Background of the organization
Sainsbury comes on second position in the list of supermarkets in UK. Currently it is
holding 17% of share in the supermarket sector. The brand was established in 1869. It has been
realized that Sainsbury was the first company to adopt self-service retailing. The business of the
company is divided into three segments that is supermarkets, convenience stores and banks. The
vision and mission statements of Sainsbury has remain unchanged for several years (Sainsbury,
Annual report, 2013). The vision is to become the most trustful brand within UK where people
can come in large numbers and do sopping. This report puts an check on how the company is
performing and how it is fulfilling the needs of it customers.
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Research aim and objectives
The major aim of the research is to examine the level of customer services at Sainsbury
store in Glasgow. In order to achieve the above aim following objectives have been framed:
 To investigate the customer service level at Sainsbury store
 To examine the satisfaction level among the customers at Sainsbury store
 To discover what the expectation are of customers with regard to services
 To identify the way through services at the Sainsbury can be improved
Reason for selection
There are many reasons which contribute toward the selection of topic for this research. It
is evident that customer service and satisfaction plays an important role in the retail industry.
Companies are required to pay huge attention on these two aspects. The services are required to
be improved at regular intervals. Customers are the most vital stakeholder within the business as
they act as the key to achieve success. Hence this research work can be very useful in
understanding the retail environment and the customer’s needs and expectations.
Research Methodology
The methodology is concerned with the tools and techniques which are applied for
collecting the primary data. It is essential that a research should have an effective methodology
which can contribute towards the achievement of goals and objectives of the study.
 Data Collection – In the task of data collection, relevancy and validity are very crucial.
There is a need to obtain the data from valid and authentic sources. For this research data
has been collected from both primary as well as secondary sources (Kimmel, 2009).
Primary data has been collected from customers of Tesco by applying the questionnaire
approach. On the other side secondary data has been compiled from published sources
such as books, annual reports, newspapers etc.
 Sampling – Sampling is an activity which is undertaken to make the data collection work
easier and simpler. It is performed to identify the representative set of sample from which
the primary data is needed to be collected. For this research work sample has been chosen
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by applying the combination of random and purposive sampling (Kumar, 2005). A
sample size of 50 customers has been kept for the questionnaire process.
 Research type – It decides the framework under which the research is to be conducted.
Researcher has the option of applying two different type. One is qualitative and other one
is quantitative. The qualitative type is related with investigating the human behaviour
such as satisfaction, comfort etc (Marlow, 2010). Quantitative is more concerned with
numbers, figures, tables etc.
Timescale
ACTIVITY/WEEK 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
 Identified the problem
 Systematic analysis to choose
the topic for the study
 Chose the research
 Conduct literature review for
secondary data collection
 Set the objectives
 Primary data collected from
customers
 Identified research approach
 Design research methodology
 Preparation of structured
questionnaire
 Make Fill up the questionnaire
from customers
 Organize collected data in
excel sheets
 Apply suitable technique to
analysis data
 Interpretation of the data
 Evaluation and finding of the
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research
 Recommendation and
suggestions for further study
 Outline the findings chapter
 Create report in a presentable
manner
 Submission to instructor and
awaiting for feedback
 Revising the final draft
 Submit report
 Present report to the audience
Expected outcomes
The major objective of this research is to investigate the level of customer services at the
Sainsbury Store in Glasgow. This study makes an effort to bring any improvements in the
services if they are discovered to be not up to the mark. In order to fulfil that primary data has
been collected from the retail customers of Sainsbury. It is expected that by conducting survey
on the visiting customers at the stores, their issues, requirements and expectations can be find
out. This research can prove to be a valuable source for the different retail firms as they will get
to know how the customers can be kept satisfied.
Chapter 2 Literature Review
Introduction
This section is the most vital part of the study as it helps in understanding the learning
which is going to be derived from the study. It will demonstrate the knowledge associated with
the literature and tries to establish a critical link with the research question. The review relies on
published academic journal articles within the research area. It facilitates the researcher to lear
about the various theories and views which have been contributed towards the subject. It also
includes some specific terms such as customer service, loyalty, satisfaction etc. A brief
understanding of the above terms is also established. This section will lay down the basis for the
outcomes of the study.
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Literature Review
Factor influencing the customer services and satisfaction
There are many factors which puts an impact on the minds of the customers. The factors can
be lined up in the following manner:
 Quality – According to Chiu and et.al., (2011), it is a factor which is reflected from the
products and services. The characteristics of a particular good or service are also
measured in term of quality. In the present context, customers are highly concerned about
the quality of the services. They expect the product to be long lasting and highly
sustainable. This factor helps in giving satisfaction to the customers and loyalty to the
companies. It is also a source of gaining competitive advantages.
 Employees – According to Cook, (2008), employees are the biggest assets for an
organization. The business cannot be imagined without their contributions and efforts.
They are also responsible for maintaining customer relationship management and
satisfaction. The services are reflected from them as they are the face of the organization.
According to Lam, and Chen, (2012), within the retail industry, employees are the ones
who remain in face to face interactions with the customers. They hold the responsibility
for developing the good reputation and image of the firm in terms of the services
 Price – This has been concluded from several authors that price is the biggest motivating
factor for the people. They are tend to be attracted towards the discounts, offers and
schemes. According to Cang, Lai and Cheng, (2012), Entities while designing their
business strategies, gives a special consideration on the setting of prices. This is because,
price is the factor which is associated with the emotions and mentality of the customers.
They expect a high quality product at reasonable prices. In order to increase the sales,
companies should focus on different schemes and offers related to their products and
services.
 Innovation – According to Zeithaml, Bitner and Gremler, (2006), innovation is another
factor which highly influence the minds of the consumers. People wants that innovation
must be seen in offering of products and services from the side of the companies. While
the comparison, they will notice how the service is unique and different from what has
been offered from the other companies. Hence this factor is very crucial for the success.
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Customer Loyalty
According to Karten, (2013), the market has become highly competitive and companies
faces various difficulties in acquiring the new customers. It has been observed that cost of
procuring new clients is comparatively very higher as compared to the cost of procuring new
ones. Hence in that sense, the concept of customer loyalty has come into existence.
According to Kazanjian, (2007), customer loyalty can be considered as the trust which is
detained by the customers on the brands which they are using. They also concluded that cost of
acquiring a new customer is five times higher within business. It is quite difficult to maintain the
loyalty as it needs confirmation of high level of trust among the people.
According to Lam and Chen, (2012), if rate of customer retention increases by 5% then,
profit could rise from 25% to 100%. The loyalty can be divided into two categories which are
behaviour and attitude. Repetitive purchase, patronage of products, word mouth publicity etc are
various components of loyalty. It also act as immunity to the promotional activities of other
companies.
According to Raulerson, Malraison and Leboyer (2009), customer loyalty can be
regarded as the repeated purchases from the same brand for a long period of time. It is a stage
where customers started feeling that they are being considered as the partners of the company.
The study derived that loyal customers helps in achieving competitive advantages and their
existence within business is imperative.
According to Ryu Lee and Gon Kim (2012), Customer loyalty is not easy to derive as it is
gained after establishment of very high amount of faith. An individual develops a mentality in
his mind that one specific brand only can fulfil all its requirements and wants. It takes a long
period of time develop that mentality from the side of the company. That is the reason the
competition in retail market has become extremely high.
Ways of improving the services
There can be various ways though which services of an organization can be improved.
These can be described in the following manner:
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 Discounts & offers – Customers are highly attracted towards the things such as discounts
and offers. They become happy to receive any kind of discount on products and services
like buy one get one, one product free with one another, loyalty cards etc (Siebelink,
2007). This motivate them to come to the door of the stores at least. If these things are
offered at constant intervals, then it will be easy for the company to achieve loyalty and
satisfaction.
 Training & development – Employees are the medium through which services are
rendered. To bring improvements in the services it is essential that workforce must be
given proper training (Alam Mohd and Hisham, 2011). Training must be given about
how to satisfy the needs and requirements of the customers. It will enhance the skills of
the employees which will further contributes towards the goals and objectives of the
business.
 Constant feedback – Services can also be enhanced by taking constant feedback from the
people. It is a very effective technique of bringing the improvements. The feedbacks can
be obtained on any platforms such as at the time of purchase, through online surveys,
through phone calls etc (Awmechi and Long, 2013).
Importance of customer Service
Customer service is the act of taking care of customer's needs by providing quality
service before, during and after purchase of goods and service. If a organization want to be
successful in competitive market; it must use customer service as a business model. It create
advantage for both customers as well as business (Christodoulides and de, Chernatony 2010).
Customers get benefits because the business is providing service that meet their desires and the
business get benefits because satisfied customers may come again. Good customer service
helping out a organization to establish itself in market.
Importance of customer service in retail sector:-
Satisfy customers are the best indicator of quality of customer service providing by a
business. It helps a business to increase number of repeated customers. A big part of the
company's profit come from repeat sales and it cost a business five time more to get a new
customer then existing one (Clarke-Hill, Comfort and Hillier, 2008). Organisation must be create
a friendly environment for customers so that they feel comfortable. Customers are not only
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interested in the product offering to them but also want additional service from company's side.
If a business actively interacting with it's customer this help the organization in inviting new
customers.
Customer’s service is organization's liability because customers are a valuable resources
for organization. When a company take care of it's customer's issues effectively, it make a
positive image of the business in mind of customers. In retail market level of competition is very
high so business should focus on services like shipping, return, and after sales services (Bernoff
and Schadler, 2013). The Organization should improve customer service by finding solution for
their problems. It will ultimately help the company to increase it's profitability with higher
number of satisfy customers.
Quality in customer service giving opportunity to expand the business throughout the
market. The company should always try to think from customer's point of view so that service
can be improved as customer's requirement. Maintaining long term relations with customers is
also type of service (Kazanjian, 2007). It helps the company to build an image of brand in the
mind of customers and also helps to attract new customers. Good customer services increase the
loyalty among the customers and helps in improve the brand image of the company. One from
three new customers come to the retail store as a direct result of recommendation of existing
customers.
According to Zeithaml, Bitner and Gremler, (2006.), Price is not the main reason for
customer attraction; they look for overall satisfaction through services, product quality etc.
Customers are backbone of the organisation and they are responsible for increasing its sales and
profitability. Good customer service helps the business to maintain reputation and goodwill in
the market. High number of satisfied customers reduce risk of business failures or losses. Large
number of satisfy Customer directly motivate organization's employees. It decrease load of
achieving targets so employees can work in comfortable corporate environment, it help them to
work with their maximum capacity. This benefits the company to increase its overall
productivity.
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Chapter 3 Methodology
Methodology, Methods and Techniques
This section offers a detailed rationale about the researcher intend to achieve the research
objectives. It is developed with regard to perform discussion on different research tools and
techniques. It includes different types of terms such as data collection, philosophy, approach,
analysis, validity, reliability, ethical consideration etc.
Research Approach
Research approach which is selected for the study is to be identified by defining the
purpose of the work. It recognize the path of development for the research. There are mainly two
types of approaches first is inductive and other is deductive (Kimmel, 2009). Inductive approach
explores an existing phenomenon from a different perspective. It makes use of research question
in order to narrow down the scope of the research. On the other side deductive approach is
concerned with testing a theory and is related with quantitative research.
For this study, inductive approach has been applied because customer service is a very
common subject and has been widely researched by many researchers (Kumar, 2005). In this
case, the researcher will make effort to analyse the subject from different angle. The main idea is
to explore something new from the subject.
Research Philosophy
It is a tool which helps in disclosing the assumptions related to the subject. It plays an
important role in the data collection activity (Marlow, 2010). Researcher has the option of
selecting different types of philosophies such as positivism, realism, pragmatism, realism etc.
Positivism philosophy is useful for making quantifiable observations and generalization.
Interpretative philosophy is developed on the assumption that social world of business
management is of complex nature (McBurney and White, 2009). Realism philosophy is useful in
the case when there is interdependency between the human believes and perceptions.
For this research, interpretative philosophy has been applied because it will help in
achieving satisfactory results on the basis of responses collected from the respondents. Further
the study is of qualitative nature and hence that is the reason this approach has been selected.
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