Customer Service is one of the strongest stakes which forms part of the Tesco as a business. The customer service is there to respond to queries from the UK based business by phone, letter and email. Customer service culture at Tesco is not about the simple training of employees in customer service skills, in fact its about how things are done on a more personal level this involves beliefs, values and actions for example contacting customer via personalised letters, emails, phone calls and specially interacting with customers when they are in store.
All these steps are taken to create a society between Tesco and its customers in addition to that, communicating with customers brings out their views and the opinions about the business and the performance of their staff members, as Tesco says “Our success is based on listening to customers”. Tesco has set this as a tradition to follow for its staff to create that personal effect in communication in customer service. a dedicated section on their website which is called ‘Talking Tesco – Customers’ where Tesco customers can write a review about the service that they received while they were in store a certain store.
Tesco knows about their target markets, who they are and what is required to achieve success in that market, the number one and the most attention grabbing strategy is ‘Low prices then the competitor’. Tesco is known for its value for money in the retail food industry as I have described in the ‘Tesco profile’ above. Tesco is the single largest food retailer who owns nearly 1/3 of the retail market in UK and this has been accomplished by offering consumers what they, being conscious about the competitors activities, performance and, always being the one to offer similar good for a cheaper price, all this is to fill the customer requirements which eventually satisfy the need of the people.
Tesco understands that customers want low and fair prices, to be fair Tesco offers smaller prices in smaller stores in and around the country, Tesco prices are higher in some of their larger town centre and neighbourhood store as the running cost for running those stores is high, on average the prices in Tesco metro stores are 2-3% lower then the prices in their Tesco express stores. I have picked up a few comments from Tesco website which were originally taken from Tesco Customer Question Time research which is held in store: Tesco’s number one objective is to understand their customer and provide customer care, I consider that Tesco comprehends its customers and by creating a mutual understanding using various techniques e.g. Tesco club card so that Tesco knows what the customers desires and interests are and then Tesco can highlight certain products and giving discounts to different club card holders to show a personal touch to show that they care for their customers as a business.
Be first to meet their needs. As Tesco grows they gain more knowledge about the country that they are doing business in and this knowledge is useful to Tesco because their competitor might not be aware of such facts and practically Tesco can then introduce the service to the end user before Tesco’s competitors become aware of any activities e.g. Tesco was one of the first companies in UK to introduce the self-service checkouts. Act responsibly for our communities.
Tesco is known to be one of the most socially responsible companies in the UK, last year October 2009 Tesco’s chief executive Sir Terry Leahy who is also an education advisor to the prime minister said “As the largest private employer in the country, we depend on high standards of education in our schools”, Sir Terry has a personal and a professional interest in the education system in UK as the chief executive of Tesco and as an advisor for the government this makes Tesco a very ethical business in the public eye.
My recommendation to Tesco would be to improve on their in-store and out-store cleanness because this is also a part of customer care and this also shows that Tesco shows care for the local community. From my personal visit to a few of Tesco’s retail stores I have noticed that there is a lot of clutter on the roads nearby which consist of leaflets, plastic bags and even trolleys, not all of these cause a threat but it does look unfriendly.
