MG526 Report: Evaluating Unilever's Customer Experience Strategies

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of Unilever's customer experience, focusing on its value proposition, customer demographics, and the impact of digital disruptions. The report begins by outlining Unilever's value proposition, emphasizing its commitment to creating a healthy environment for its customers through its diverse range of products. It then evaluates how Unilever delivers customer experience, particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic, highlighting its ability to maintain supply chains and provide sustainable products. The report further examines the company's customer relationship strategies, considering key demographics such as age and income. The study then applies the Six Pillars of Customer Experience model to Unilever, assessing its performance in areas like personalization, integrity, and empathy. It also discusses the implications of digital disruptions, such as loyalty apps and electronic receipts, on the customer experience. Finally, the report offers strategic recommendations to improve Unilever's customer experience, aiming to benefit both the customers and the organization itself.

Customer Experience

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................3
Value proposition of the Unilever...............................................................................................3
Evaluating the ways in which Unilever delivers customer experience.......................................4
Pillars of customer experiences in order to achieve excellence..................................................6
Digital disruptions in respect to the customer experience..........................................................7
Recommendations to Unilever to meliorate the dimensions of customer experience................8
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................9
REFERENCES:.............................................................................................................................10
Books and Journals...................................................................................................................10

INTRODUCTION
Customer experience is one of the most important concept that business organisation
should consider while carrying out activities in at the workplace. This concept helps business to
become more successful in the market (Roggeveen, Grewal and Schweiger, 2020). A satisfied
customer will not only turn into the regular and loyal customer but also facilitates the business to
earn more revenue in the future. For this report, Unilever has been undertaken into the account
for better understanding the elements of the customer experience. It is a British multinational
consumers goods company that is based in the London, United Kingdom. It was founded in 1929
by the Lever Brothers and the Dutch Margarine. They have operations in various sectors such as
foods & refreshments, home care and beauty & personal care. In this report, there will be the
discussion on the value proposition that the organisation have and along with that principles of
the customer experience will also be analysed. Implications of the digital disruption will also be
discussed. At the end of the report, recommendations will be undertaken in relation to the
improve the customer experience for the chosen organisation.
MAIN BODY
Value proposition of the Unilever.
One of the main objective of the organisation is to create a healthy environment for their
customers in which they can move towards their personal hygiene and nutritional facts. This is
the main vision of the company in order to enhance the lifestyle of their customer in the market.
Value proposition in relation to the Unilever are as follows:
 Unique culture: managers of the company ensures that they maintain a healthy and good
culture in the workplace. Leaders of the organisation values their employees and enables
them to grab the various opportunities (Waqas, Hamzah and Salleh, 2021). The always
believe in motivating their employees by involving them in the decision making process.
 Successful partnership: Managers of the organisations focuses on to develop and
maintain trusted relationship with the stakeholders that are involved in the activities of
the business in order to create a healthy brand image in the market. They carry out all the
activities in regards to the laws that have been made by the government of UK. It
facilitates them to use the resources of the company in a effective manner.
 Directing the growth: Hiring department of the Unilever ensures that they should hire
the employees according to the specific skills that they require to perform a particular
job. The upper level of the management critically analyses the performance of the
managers in order to find out their effectiveness in the.
 Immunity to form a difference: This means the people that have a direct relation with
the organisation given the power to give suggestions and feedbacks in order to improve
the performance of the company in the market (Sidaoui, Jaakkola and Burton, 2020). In
relation to the Unilever, they involves their stakeholders in all the activities through
which they become able to improve their course of actions.
Evaluating the ways in which Unilever delivers customer experience.
The main purpose of the generating the goods and the services is to satisfy the needs and
wants of the customers in the market. Customers mainly consider that the products should
contains the basic features like safety, values etc. organisations should also consider the aspect of
the society and the environment while delivering the products and the services in the market.
Some of the points are mentioned below:

 Maintaining the accessibility of the stock: Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, marketing
condition at that time was got completely affected. Lock down was imposed across the
globe and the it put so much challenges on the consumer goods company to fulfil the
demand of the customers at that time. Managers of the Unilever company deal in a very
effective manner at that time (Trivedi, 2019). They were able to maintain the supply
chain at that time which results in the overall growth of the their business.
 Sustainable products: One of the major role that enhances the customer experience is
the sustainability in the products and the services that are offered by the organisations and
the business firms to their customers. In relation to the Unilever company, they critically
analyses the needs and wants of their customers and according to that they develop
products and services. They consider that they should develop the quality products and
services which does not any negative impact on their customers. They focus on that they
should effectively use the resources so that the needs of the future generations can't be
neglect.
 Earning trust: One of the main factor that plays an significant role in enhancing the
customer experience is to earn the trust of the customers by the businesses organisation.
Managers of the Unilever company do various exercises like sustainability in the
products and services, eliminating the use of the plastic, considering the human rights etc.
These activities of the company facilitates them to attract more customers towards their
business. This also helps them to achieve the goal of the sustainability by doing various
practises in the workplace (Schallehn and et.al., 2019). Quality department of the
company checks the quality of the products and the services on a daily basis through
which they become able to provide effective goods to the customers in the marker. This
enhances the experience of the customers to a positive side.
 State to the COVID-19: Unilever plays an significant role at the time of the pandemic in
the UK for supplying the basic needs to their customers. Management department of the
company ensures that they maintain the supply chain and will deliver the products and
the services even in those areas which are very far. This helps the company to enhance
the experience of their customers during that period of time.
Customer relation in terms of the Key Demographics:
The concept of the customer relationship is highly practised in the Unilever. For this the
management department of the company make effective strategies in order to make healthy
relations with the customers in the marketplace. Formation of the healthy and good relation of
the customers with the company results in increase the sales of the company. Some of the key
demographics points are mentioned below in relation to the Unilever:
 Age: It is one of the major factor that shape the behaviour of the consumer in the market.
This factor means that the needs and wants of the customers changes when they grow
older. This means that the tastes and the preferences of the customers are kept on
changing with the time and the age of them (Pandey and Chawla, 2018). Unilever mainly
focuses on to provide the products and the services related to each and every group age.
They critically analyses the needs and wants of the customers of the different age.
 Income: It is the crucial part of the customers when they takes decisions related to the
buying of the goods and services in the market. This means that the customers buys the
products and the services according to their income. This can be defined as the customer
prefers the expensive and the luxurious products and services in the market when they are
earning enough money. This demographic factor highly shapes the behaviour of the

customer. Production department of the company focuses on to provide the reasonable as
well as the expensive products and services to their customers in the market.
Pillars of customer experiences in order to achieve excellence.
The concept of the consumer understandings can be better analysed by the appropriate
framework which mainly forms the pillars (Trischler, Zehrer and Westman, 2018). These are the
most crucial part of the that organisation should practise in order to achieve more success in
relation to the customer relationship. Main points of the pillars are mentioned below in relation
to the Unilever:
 Personalisation: It is one of the main element of the customer experience and this means
that this can be done in the organisation by considering the customer preferences, needs
and experience they gain after using the products and the services. In relation to the
Unilever company, marketing department of the company analyses the personal needs of
the customers in the market.
 Integrity: This can be defined as that how much values they are providing with the
products and the services to the customers in the market. This focuses on that the
companies should build trust with the customers as well as in the workplace through
which they can promote the integrity (Klaus, 2022). In relation to the Unilever company,
managers ensures that they carry out the activities that can build more trust by fulfilling
the demands of the customers according to their promises.
 Expectations: In today's business environment the demands of the customer is
continuously changing. Unilever is one of the valuable brand and they have the
capabilities to meet the expectations of the customers according to the trends of the
market.
 Resolution: This means that changing the bad experience of the customer that they have
faced after using the products and the services. Established organisation ensures that they
should take the feedbacks of the customers after using the products or the services. In
relation to the Unilever they uses various methods to solve the problems of the customers
when they uses the products of them (Siqueira and et.al., 2020). They take corrective
measures on a urgent basis.
 Time and effort: This means that eliminating or minimising the time and efforts of the
customer in taking the decision related to the products and services. In relation to the
Unilever, they provides their customers with the best products and services in a less time
by removing the obstacles of their customers they faced in buying the products and
services.
 Empathy: This means that organisations should make emotional connections with their
customers through which they can shape the behaviours of the customers to a positive
side. Unilever managers focuses on to make strong relationship with the customers that is
interrelated with the empathy.
Digital disruptions in respect to the customer experience.
In today's time, techniques of production has seen a significant change in relation to carry
out the activities of the business (Rahimian and et.al., 2021). Due to this it becomes very
important for the organisations to provides the products and services with the updated
technology. Sometimes it causes disruption while providing the goods and services to the
customers on time. In relation to the Unilever they have analysed departments that can creates
difficulties:
 Loyalty apps: Organisations provides the rewards and the schemes to the customers with

the products that comes out to be the biggest factor that creates a disturbance in carrying
out the activities of the business. This can helps the companies to increase their sales in
the future but this cannot prove to be the effective strategy in order to retain the loyal
customers with the organisation. In relation to the Unilever have started analysing
another options apart from the rewards and offers. They are now mainly focusing on to
find out those areas which is impacting the operations at the workplace.
 Investing in the wrong approaches: This means that organisation sometimes uses
inefficient tools and techniques which does not facilitates them to satisfy the customers
according to the promise they have made with them. Organisation fails to effectively used
the online platforms through which they can't provide the customers with the appropriate
solutions. Unilever mainly faces issue in collecting the data of their customers in the
market.
 Electronically generated receipts: This means that generating the profs that the
customers has made purchase by the online methods. This method is now adopting by
each organisation in the market (Batat and Addis, 2021). Through this the customers get
facilitates about the details of the purchase in their emails. The personal information of
the customers retained with the company and it creates privacy concerns for them.
Customers information sometimes shared by the individual of the company that can
create a problem for the customers.
Recommendations to Unilever to meliorate the dimensions of customer experience.
Financial performance of the organisation is highly dependent upon their customers that
how much they support them. This facilitates the companies and the business firms to formulate
the effective strategy in order to make healthier relationships with all the individual that are
involved with the activities of the business (Rajaobelina and et.al., 2018). In relation to the
Unilever there are some recommendations for them to use effective approach that can helps them
to increase the customer experience and the overall performance in the market. Some of the
recommendations are mentioned below in relation to the Unilever:
 Forward-looking supply chain: This means that the organisations should use the
effective supply chain in order to eliminate the chance of failure while carrying out the
activities. Production department of the company should focus on to develop
innovativeness products and services in the market which can helps them in achieving the
goal of the sustainability. Communication gaps between the different production
department should be filled by the mangers of the company.
 Equity across the value blocks: This means that the stakeholders of the company should
treat each and every individual in a fair manner. Unilever should more focus on the
lifestyles of the customers with profit generating (Silva and et.al., 2021). Quality products
and services should be provide by the company that should consists hygiene, nourishment
values. This facilitates the organisation to make the socio-economic environment more
healthy.
 Considering the ideology of the investors along with the customers: This means that
the investors are the most crucial part of the organisation that wants to know the exact
position of the business. Unilever should involves the investors in the decision making
process and should also takes feedbacks from them in order to formulate effective
strategy. This will make the valuable brand image in the market.

CONCLUSION
From the above report it has been analysed that enhancing the customer experience for
the organisation is very important in order to increase the sales and making healthier relationship
with customers. In the above report values proposition of the chosen organisation has been
discussed that explains the objectives of them. Various ways of the organisation have been
analysed that how they deliver customer experience. Pillars of customer experience have also
been undertaken. Disruption of the digital technology have been evaluated in relation to the
customer experience. At the end of the report, recommendations have been discussed in relation
to the chosen organisation which helps them in improving the customer experience.

REFERENCES:
Books and Journals
Batat, W. and Addis, M., 2021. Designing food experiences for well-being: a framework
advancing design thinking research from a customer experience perspective. European
Journal of Marketing.
Klaus, P.P., 2022. What matters most to ultra-high-net-worth individuals? Exploring the UHNWI
luxury customer experience (ULCX). Journal of Product & Brand Management, 31(3),
pp.368-376.
Pandey, S. and Chawla, D., 2018. Online customer experience (OCE) in clothing e-retail:
exploring OCE dimensions and their impact on satisfaction and loyalty–does gender
matter?. International Journal of Retail & Distribution Management.
Rahimian, S and et.al., 2021. A framework of customer experience management for hotel
industry. International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management.
Rajaobelina, L and et.al., 2018. Towards a better understanding of mobile banking: the impact of
customer experience on trust and commitment. Journal of financial services marketing,
23(3), pp.141-152.
Roggeveen, A.L., Grewal, D. and Schweiger, E.B., 2020. The DAST framework for retail
atmospherics: The impact of in-and out-of-store retail journey touchpoints on the
customer experience. Journal of Retailing, 96(1), pp.128-137.
Schallehn, H and et.al., 2019. Customer experience creation for after-use products: A product–
service systems-based review. Journal of Cleaner Production, 210, pp.929-944.
Sidaoui, K., Jaakkola, M. and Burton, J., 2020. AI feel you: customer experience assessment via
chatbot interviews. Journal of Service Management.
Silva, J.H and et.al., 2021. Customer experience research: intellectual structure and future
research opportunities. Journal of Service Theory and Practice.
Siqueira, J.R and et.al., 2020. A Bayesian examination of the relationship of internal and external
touchpoints in the customer experience process across various service environments.
Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, 53, p.102009.
Trischler, J., Zehrer, A. and Westman, J., 2018. A designerly way of analyzing the customer
experience. Journal of Services Marketing.
Trivedi, J., 2019. Examining the customer experience of using banking chatbots and its impact
on brand love: The moderating role of perceived risk. Journal of internet Commerce,
18(1), pp.91-111.
Waqas, M., Hamzah, Z.L. and Salleh, N.A.M., 2021. Customer experience with the branded
content: A social media perspective. Online Information Review.