Task One: Customer Feedback 

Part A: Response to the Consumer 

Hi ABC, 

Hope this mail finds you in good health. Thank you for your feedback.

We deeply regret the inconvenience caused to you due to the mismanagement from our end concerning the purchase of your train tickets in Europe. Please, allow us to resolve this issue at the earliest, so that you can avail a seamless travel experience. 

I would request you to kindly share with me the transaction details of your European train ticket purchase using your credit card, coordinated by our staff Kristen over the weekend. Kindly share your itinerary along with the dates of travel. Also, please share the details of the passengers mentioning their respective individual credentials. 

I am personally looking into this issue and assure you to provide you with a solution in regards to purchase of your train tickets within twenty-four hours from now. I will see to it that the same staff unprofessionalism is not repeated.

I would personally deliver your train tickets at your address by tomorrow first half upon all the necessary validations. Would request you to kindly share your residence address and contact number. Please feel free to reach out to me via email/mobile lest you require to provide us with any other detail from your end. 

Looking forward to hearing from you at your best.

Warm Regards,

XYZ

Refer to Appendix 1 for email screen shot of response to the consumers

Part 2: Reporting consumer complaints and taking actions 

Subject: Customer complaint concerning train ticket booking and staff unprofessionalism on duty. 

Hi ABC,

Hope you are keeping well.

I am writing to keep you looped regarding the inconvenience caused to our customer Sharon Sullivan concerning her train ticket purchase for their Europe travel. Our staff, Kristen had attended her over the weekend on telephone to assist her with the purchase of the train tickets. The customer purchased their tickets and completed the transaction-using credit card. She was assured that her tickets were booked, and she could collect her tickets from our office this morning.

Unfortunately, when one of our staff attended her this morning, her ticket booking status was untraceable. Moreover, the customer added that she had to wait for 20 minutes before being attended at our office while apparently; our attendants were busy chatting to each other and using their mobile phones.

I am personally resolving this issue within 24 hours, with all the necessary validations.

Moreover, I have had a meeting with the staff members sometime back concerning the issue and asked them to be more professional during business hours. Also, I have asked them to refrain from using their mobile phones as much as possible in the office.

Kindly, let me know your feedback and any other changes, which needs to be implemented. In anticipation of a reply from you.

Regards

XYZ

Refer to appendix 2 for screenshot of consumer complaints and action taken. 

Task 2: Organisational needs and priorities

A: Providing name and detailed overview of selected organisation 

Organisational business structure

Woolworths Group Limited is a locally owned listed public company, deriving revenue from the retail sale of supermarket food, liquor, general merchandise, and the operation of hotels. Industry. The company has three divisions and a four-fold market strategy that mainly focuses on market dominance of liquor and food segment. They have systems like pet recycling, refrigeration system, cloth bank, and waste management and so on. The company provides proper training to its employees to conduct work ethically and sustainably. The employees here learn how to grow and develop through the organisation strategies provided to them (Celuch & Walz, 2020).  The company spend a lot on training costs to provide employees with proper leadership skills. They motivate, and reward them accordingly. They have a decentralised method when it comes to decision making and maintains a transparency while communication. The company maintains its social responsibility and sustainability by making the staffs aware through educating then about the environment. The values of the companies are shared by their whole supply chain such as customers, employees, stakeholders, and suppliers.

Industry

Woolworths is an Australian food industry belonging to the Retail sector. The company was started in 22^nd September 1924. The company’s margin in retails has increased considerably amidst 2004 and 2011. Definition of retail margin is the liquor and food earnings prior to the application of income tax as a portion of the sum of liquor and food sales. The company group consists of various kinds of supermarkets, petrol and gas stations and liquor stores through Woolworths known as Caltex petrol alliance. The retail margin of Woolworths’ was 7.5% between 2010 and 2011 that is 4% more than that of Coles who margin at 3.5% in the same time span (Wooldsworth, 2020).

Size/number of employees

As per Forbes, as of May 12 2020, Woolworth’s current market cap of 29.5 Billion dollars. Headquartered at Sydney the group’s employee’s number at 196,000. The overall sale of the company as of May was 43 Billion dollars. The group supermarkets are based in Australia, India and New Zealand. 

Products and/or services 

There are various food segments though which the group operates like Australian Food, BIG W, Endeavour Drinks, New Zealand Food, and Hotels.  Australian Food buys food and liquor and then uses them for resale to the Australian customers. The food segment of New Zealand acquires liquor and food to resale them to New Zealand customers. The Big W group acquires merchandise which are general and sales them in Australia. Endeavour Drinks group re sales drinks to the Australian customers. The group of hotels provide hospitality and leisure services include drinks and food, entertainment, gaming and accommodation in Australia. 

B: Organisation’s needs in terms of delivering their product and/or services to their customers

Getting staff trained as per industry qualifications such as WHS and from of safety

According to the world health and safety and other form of safety standards in retail industry, staffs should be trained. There are three level of training that is provided to the staffs such as Provision of Information, Proficiency training and Training based on Competency. Proficiency or the first level is a training level for induction. The proficiency training can be stated as training under SWP (Safe Work Procedure) which includes doing a job under scrutiny until the supervisor thinks fit. This training is needed to be done if recognised as a control measure during a risk assessment (Putra, Hartoyo & Simanjuntak, 2017). The last training that is Competency based training for licence acquisition. Thus, food provided to customer should be hygienic and free from contamination.

Getting certified accountant for handling company budget

Budgets’ setting is very important for any company because the budget if not properly accustomed then their internal expense would increase. Thus, if the internal expense increases then it ultimately impacts the customer’s pricing (Schallmo, Williams & Boardman, 2017). Thus certified account professionals holding professional accounts degrees shall be employed so that they can make a budget that is best fit for the company.

Implementation of technological advancement at various levels of operation and mechanisation

The advancement and refurbishment in regard to technology is a major plus point in case of Woolworths, and the super market it has a lot of new machinery and technology for smooth running of the business. Application of computers, cash registers, barcode scanners, automatic doors, handheld, walkie-talkie, app and website is a major tool of the company.

C: Organisation’s priorities in terms of delivering their product and/or services to their customers

Differentiating food consumer proposition

The company always probes for differentiation of products and services. In this context, the management tends to provide food products to consumers as per their individual choices. The products take active participation in delivering beyond the basic necessities. A perceivable benefit is provided to the consumers which has assisted in building a strengthened consumer base. Different product variations provide a wide array of options to the consumers to choose from. 

Accelerating digital, eCom and convenience for connected consumers 

Having a pricing technique that is not diverging to the social platforms helps build customer confidence. Aligning online pricing with store pricing will be implemented to make customer experience convenient.

Value Pricing and Improved loyalty program

Membership Cards with points and additional discounts and loyalty programs help the company grow a loyal customer base. This, way the customer will be satisfied with the services given by the company.

Task 3: Short answer Questions

A: Four principles of customer service

Supporting Customers in a team: 

The employees should always work as a team to support customers and should always back their colleague up when in need.

Be a human and not a robot:

Customers should be dealt in a more humanly nature and not just with a mentality of doing a job (Naidu & Reich, 2018). There should always be a personal touch.

Knowing the product: 

Employees should have a thorough knowledge of their products when demonstrating it to a customer or when a customer raises a query.

Practicing Empathy: 

Staffs should be empathetic while dealing with customers and should not lose patience.

B: Providing an explanation of how it can be applied by the organisation  

C: Three sources of information/techniques that can be used to identify customer needs and review customer satisfaction. 

Social media monitoring

Social media helps to reach millions of people at a time thus by utilising this platform various data can be collected nationally and internationally in regards to the services provided(Xu et al. 2017).

Customer Satisfaction surveys

The main customer satisfaction surveys may include in app surveys, post service surveys and long email surveys. Feedbacks are sought while using the website or app of the company and data is collected from the surveys to decide the bent of customer likeness. Post service surveys involve taking feedbacks after instant receipt of a service from the company. That can be via rating links, email links etc. Lastly, long email surveys involve in-depth insights from a customer in regards to a service (Sutherland et al. 2020) . Google forms etc are an example of the same.

Customer satisfaction scores

The scale is provided while checking out from a supermarket whereby feedbacks are asked from customers. The primary question that this process involves is “how much would you rate your interaction and experience with our teams”. The options depend on various scales such as poor, average, good, very good, excellent. Results depend on the number of respondents giving the feedback. It is quick and easy to implement changes post customer approvals (Abbas, Gao & Shah, 2018).

D: Best practice model with an example. 

Best practice model is set of rules, ethics, ideas and guidelines, which demonstrates the best possible way to go forward and carry out an action in a business situation, which is given.  Any external authorities and regulatory bodies can imply the decree of best practice or an organisation may self apply the decree. This model helps to derive a superior alternative to a result than any other results derived using other models. Thus, this becomes a standard method of complying with ethical and legal requirements (Metz, Ilieș & Nistor 2020). An example of updating previous company software can be stated as a best practice in a business. 

E: Research into product and/or service standards relating to customer service. 

After conducting a research in relation to customer service standards, the three standards that a company should maintain to increase its level of customer service are:

Response time: 

The level of response time should be minimal so that the customer grievances are addressed quickly (Krishna & Deshwal, 2016, March). 

Transparency: 

The Company should not have any thing hidden and make the customers aware of all the policies that the company follows.  No customer should feel cheated by the company concerning their policies or any hidden costs.

Efficiency standards: 

The Company shall be more efficient while dealing with customers and should maintain a positive attitude.

Appendix 1

Appendix 2