University Report: Zara Customer Service and Loyalty Program Analysis

This memo report, addressed to Zara's management, details significant customer service issues observed in Zara stores in Canada. The report highlights problems such as difficulty reaching customer service representatives, rude and unhelpful staff, and ineffective brand loyalty programs. It also addresses issues with poor staffing levels, long wait times, and frequent stockouts, negatively impacting the customer shopping experience. The report suggests hiring and training new staff, implementing advanced inventory management systems, and improving customer service strategies to retain customers and enhance the brand's image. The author, a long-term customer, emphasizes the need for immediate action to prevent further customer dissatisfaction and potential loss of business to competitors, providing a concise overview of the problems and recommending areas for improvement to enhance customer satisfaction and loyalty.

Running head: MANAGEMENT
Management
-Memo to Zara
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

1MANAGEMENT
To: Óscar Pérez Marcote
Date: February 6th, 2019
Subject: Poor customer service at the stores
Introduction
Dear Mr. Marcote,
I am writing this memo to you with the intention to bring to your notice a lack of
effective customer service across several stores operated by Zara in Canada. I have been a
loyal customer for Zara for more than 10 years and trust on the brand and have been regularly
visiting the stores every year. However over the last two years, I have seen a consistent
deterioration of the customer service at the stores along with a chronic shortage of staffs to
assist the customers and ineffective brand loyalty programs to retain customers.
Discussion
-Poor Customer Service
The customer services at the Zara stores have deteriorated significantly over the last
two years. Firstly, it is very difficult to reach a customer care representative on the phone
after an extended hold time. The calls of the customers moreover are routed to foreign (non
English speaking countries) such as India and China wher the representatives are unable to
understand and communicate with the Australian customers effectively causing frustration
and mistrust among the customers on the brand. Secondly, customer complaints are hardly
acknowledged and addressed over time due to which several customers have turned to other
brands for better customer support. Thirdly, many staff at the stores also lack empathy and
patience and often behave rudely with the customers which adversely affects their shopping

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experience. I have personally faced such misconduct on a number of occasions at the Zara
stores across Canada which have disappointed me immensely.
-Poor brand loyalty programs
The brand loyalty programs currently utilized by the company are also not adequate
enough to improve the brand image and loyalty. Currently the company uses strategies such
as discounts and offers to offer selected products at lower prices. However the discounts and
offers are mostly for a fixed range of products only and therefore limits the choice of the
customer. The strategy of using social media communities to develop brand loyalty also lacks
energy as the communities mostly remains inactive and poorly engages with the customers on
a day to day basis. Moreover, the brand also fails to utilize strategies such as customer reward
programs and prize competitions that have been used successfully by several brands such as
Woolworths to develop customer loyalty instead of just depending on product discounts.
Additionally, companies such as Woolworths have also provided more choices for the
customers on how they would like to use the discounts by offering them more options to
choose from.
-Poor staffing
On several occasions I have noticed that the sores of Zara often lacks adequate
number of staffs. The number of attendants at the changing stations is inadequate to support
the number of customers who wants to use the trial rooms to try the garments. As a result of
which the trial rooms are always overbooked and the customer have to wait in long queues to
try different clothes before purchasing them. The number of sales representatives at various
sections is also poorly staffed as a result of which the existing ones are constantly
overburdened with customer queries and is unable to support all the customers. Moreover,
even at the billing counters, there is an acute shortage of staffing, due to which only a handful

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of sales person are present to bill the customers. During the peak hours of shopping, this
greatly causes inconvenience to the customers as they get delayed unnecessarily.
-Running Out of Stock:
On a number of occasions, I have experienced a problem of various items being out of
stock. This shows a poor system of inventory management and updating which does not
happen in real time and hence can result in useful commodities being inadequately stocked in
advance. Due to this I was bound to choose different brands on a number of occasions as I
was unable to find the specific garment I needed to purchase.
Conclusion
I would therefore request you to kindly look into such matters and resolve them at the
earliest so that you do not lose more loyal customers to other brands and retain other
customers who are willing to continue doing business with your esteemed organization and
thus continue the relation in the future. I believe that by hiring new staff, training them on
effective customer service and using advabced technologies for inventory management can
help Zara to overcome such challenges and support better customer experience in the future.
Regards,

4MANAGEMENT
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