Introduction
Wal-Mart Company engages in wholesale and retail operations, which take place in different formats worldwide. The company operations have three segments: International, Sam’s Club, and United States Wal-Mart (Barney & Ray, 2015). It has developed unique rules, policies, procedures, and principles that help improve customer service. An excellent experience for customers and improved service to them will be achieved through providing training to all department managers and store assistant managers. The training will focus on how the managers can be customer-oriented and enhance the customer experience (Gattorna, 2017). The company is attempting to improve and raise the level of service provided to the customer.
Statement Of The Problem
The volume of sales at Walmart has reduced drastically, and customers are complaining about the services the company provides. It has become hard for customers to find the products or services they want in the company (Weill & Woerner, 2015). Some of the shelves are empty, and the number of workers is lower than that of regular employees. Customer service is inferior due to poor selection and long check-out lines. Therefore, the company needs to improve the services provided to customers and create an experience that is good for them.
Research Questions
- What are some of the factors that affect customer service at Wal-Mart?
- In which ways can Wal-Mart Company improve the services provided to the customer?
- How can the company develop a good experience with its customers?
- What are some of the employees’ benefits, appreciation programs, and policies?
Literature Review
Wal-Mart is one of the leading supermarket stores in the United States and worldwide. However, over the years, complaints have been registered against how customer service responds to issues. Research has established that Wal-Mart takes issues related to customer service very seriously and provides necessary support to customers to make sure that all its customers are satisfied (Stapp, 2014). Though there have been incidents that have made some people form a perception against Wal-Mart customer care service, Wal-Mart stores have improved their customer service delivery to make sure that every customer is satisfied. It has been noted that Wal-Mart not only conducts customer service assessments to find out the gaps but also improves customer care delivery to its clients (Wei & Wei, 2012).
It is believed that consumers’ perceptions are affected by incidents that happened earlier, and it does not really matter how old the incidents are. Stapp (2014) argued that the perception of bad customer care at Wal-Mart is caused by previous incidents but is not actually the current truth. According to Stapp (2014), Wal-Mart is one of the supermarkets in India and other countries that provides the best services to its customers. A survey conducted by Consumer Insight based on satisfaction discovered that 45% of Wal-Mart customers are satisfied while 55% are not (Seetharaman, John, Saravanan, & Bajaj, 2013).
Research established that Wal-Mart has placed a customer care desk where issues can be addressed within the mall and has established a feedback platform and survey. These help the company to establish the perceptions of customers and try to address them as well. A study has also shown that over the last two years, customer care service has really improved to address the negative perception against the company (Hayden, Lee, McMahon, & Pereira, 2012). Wal-Mart has employed several customer service people and established a customer service center as well. It is, therefore, important for Wal-Mart to address the attitudes of customers that have built perceptions among some of its customers in the market.
Research Method
The research will use questionnaires to gather information on the opinions and attitudes of customers toward the services that are provided by Wal-Mart Company. Data will also be collected through interviews. Employees will be interviewed on the benefits, protection policies and appreciation programs that the company has put in place to motivate and encourage employees. An interview will also be used to find out the issues that are facing the customer service provided by the company. The observation method will be employed in understanding how the stores run, customer service, the condition of the stores and general customer experience. Quantitative data will be collected, and both independent and dependent variables will be used.
Participants
The study shall be conducted among shoppers and employees, and even top managers of Wal-Mart shall be involved. The participants are expected to be 340, drawn from employees, customers and top managers. However, to get good representation that can reflect the views of the customers, the participants in the study shall be aged between 18 and 55 years. The selection of the participants shall be based on age, family background, level of education, gender and marital status as well. The participants shall be recruited by signing a form at the entry point of the Wal-Mart store, where customers shall be requested to fill in forms and answer the questionnaires, and discussions shall be held.
Data Analysis
The data from the study will be analyzed using various tools such as SPSS and Microsoft Excel to make sure that accurate results are obtained.
Result
The result of the research shall be written based on the data analyzed. It shall be represented using graphs and tables so that a clear and self-explanatory result is established. It shall be based on the perception of customers, how it influences their attitudes, and the effect it has on Wal-Mart’s performance. Statistical techniques shall also be used to represent the data in a way that is understandable.
Recommendation And Conclusion
The recommendation shall be provided based on the gap discovered during the study, especially from the results obtained. The conclusion of the study will be drawn from the results of the study and the literature review conducted.
References
Barney, J., & Ray, G. A. U. T. A. M. (2015). How information technology resources can provide a competitive advantage in customer service. Planning for Information Systems, 3(2), 444-460.
Gattorna, J. (2017). Strategic supply chain management Creating shareholder value by aligning supply chain strategy with business strategy. In Strategic Supply Chain Alignment (pp. 32-52). Routledge.
Hayden, P., Lee, S., McMahon, K., & Pereira, M. (2012). Wal-Mart: Staying on Top of the Fortune 500. A Case Study on Wal-Mart Stores Inc., 2-35.
Seetharaman, A., John, R. R., Saravanan, A. S., & Bajaj, S. (2013). A consumer’s perception of Wal-Mart in India. 134 | Part B. Social Sciences And Humanities International Journal Of Academic Research, 5-45.
Stapp, J. (2014). The Walmart Effect: Labor Market Impacts In Rural And Urban Counties. Ss-AAEA Journal of Agricultural Economics, 5-45.
Wei, Z., & Wei, R. (2012). Performance assessment of customer service. Journal of System and Management Sciences, 2-34.
Weill, P., & Woerner, S. L. (2015). Thriving in an increasingly digital ecosystem. MIT Sloan Management Review, 56(4), 27.
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