This section deals with the set of activities that happen in each and every store. These activities are performed extensively at the store level. There are broad organizational guidelines on the basis of which these activities are performed.
For ease of understanding, these activities can be classified into four main sub sections:
- Store Front-End Management
- Store Back-End Management
- Sales Management
- Customer Relationship Management
Every Store in a retail chain performs certain activities to ensure that the functioning of the store is proper and optimal. Most of these activities are to ensure that the store delivers best customer service to the consumers and that the entire process where the consumer interacts with the store is functioning well. There are certain activities performed at the back which are not visible to the final customer. These activities are explained in the next sub-section. However, still there are certain activities which the final customer is aware of and sees them with his own eyes. These are activities for a part of the Store Front-End Management.
Work Force Management
This activity is in addition to the normal activities performed at the corporate level by the Human Resource division of the retailer. Human resource planning and management at the store level and scheduling the work timetable ensure efficient attending on the customer and service. The entire gamut of activities performed towards this function is as follows:
- Recruitment of the Store level Personnel
- Task and activity assignment to the Store personnel and ensuring that the entire activities to be performed by them are well planned and co-ordinated.
- A personnel training for the various activities each person is supposed to perform.
- Personnel evaluation and motivation at the store level.
- Compensation for the store part-time and full-time employees.
Catalog Retailing
Catalog retailing is the activity where the retailer provides the customer with a catalog of goods and the potential buyer submits his order by mail, telephone or in person in a facility maintained by the store. This activity requires preparing the catalogs and arranging them as per the requirement of maximizing sales. Any local influences of the market are also taken care of under this activity.
Customer Services
Every store, in addition to carrying its normal business activities of sale of merchandise performs and delivers certain service activities as well. These activities are not the core business activities of the retailer, yet are performed to ensure that the maximum satisfaction and value is delivered to the customers.
Most of the retail stores offer a variety of services to the customer to ensure that her shopping experience is extremely pleasurable and the customer is served in the best possible manner. What often distinguishes one retailer from the others are superior customer services leading to better revenues and better profits to the company in the long run. Therefore, these services play an important role for any retailer since most of the products offered are also available at competing places with almost the same price and features.
Some of these customer services delivered to the customers at the store level may include any one or more of the following services. In today’s times of intense competition for providing the maximum customer satisfaction and delight, worldwide Retailers are striving to come up with newer ways to achieve this.
- Parking facilities: Most of the retailers provide free parking facilities to the customers purchasing from their stores. These facilities are easy to access, well secured & managed as well.
- Customer Information: A typical large store will have thousands of different products for sale. Therefore, there is often an activity to guide a prospective customer through his search of the store to find exactly what he needs. Quite often store layout diagrams, banners and placards etc. is used for this activity in addition to personnel.
- Shopping assistance: Retail Stores also have certain assistance services for specialized products and services and/or for certain privileged customers where they are assisted by store personnel through their store visit.
- Coupon Services: A coupon is a certificate that entitles a consumer to a price reduction or a cash refund on some purchase. A manufacturer, chain, or a local store can issue these coupons and the responsibility of managing this service activity and making the necessary corrections lies with the retail store.
- Gift Certificates: This is a purchased certificate written on paper where the bearer is entitled on some cash rebates or a free gift in future or at the time of the purchase.
- Redemption of Coupons: A Retail Store will have a well-managed and well defined activity to ensure that the coupons presented by clients are redeemed and honored with the least possible inconvenience to the customer.
- Special Period Discounts: A Retailer may decide to offer special discounts in a particular period or season. This discounting exercise is managed in its entirety by the store and a proper process is set up for this and necessary changes are made in the accounting of the merchandise sold during this period.
- Card Members Sale: Some stores offer special card memberships to some privileged customers. These special customers are given special offers and their entire shopping experience is managed well by these stores. This requires a complete set of activities for the staff of the store to take care of.
- Co-branded Card Services: Quite often Retailers tie up with other business organizations like banks, entertainment companies etc. to deliver special card services to its customers. The Retailer and the financial organization usually share the customer information from each other’s databases and the associated costs attached with operating such service.
- Customer Credit: Almost every Retail Store allows the use of credit for purchases by its customers. This activity is managed through some intermediaries like Banks, Credit services companies etc. or on its own by the stores.
- Layaway services (Booking merchandise through a small advance): This is a method in which the customer gets to use the product through installment payments, but the store owns the product till the full payment is received from the customer. These services are extremely useful in some specific retail business like Car Renting etc.
- Wrapping services: Store take care to wrap the sold goods in suitable wrappings. An example of this is the use of safe wrappings for fragile goods etc. This activity is also sometimes performed to accomplish customer delight by providing gift or attractive wrapping or even advertisement carrying activities.
- Customer checkout services: Once the customer has finished his shopping experience at the store, the checkout services are performed for him. These may include services like drop of the goods to the parking, complimentary flowers or small novelty items etc.
- Home-Delivery services: Many stores operate a Home Delivery service where the required products are delivered to the customer at home. Store often have to maintain specialized staff to take care of these services.
- Complaint handling and complaint solutions: Most stores will have a Customer Feedback and Complaint Handling system. This is maintained to ensure increased customer loyalty among the customers and to ensure that the Store performance in the eyes of the final customers can be improved in future.
- Product Exchange: Many customers after completing their shopping experience are not satisfied with the purchase for a variety of reasons. Stores set up a system to handle the Product Exchange requests from such customers and set the changes in the overall system accordingly.
- Alterations & Repairs: In some other cases, the customers might want some changes to be made before or even after the purchase. Every store has to think and set up a complete system to handle these requests and carry this activity.
- Customer Refunds: When a customer is completely dissatisfied with an item, which has been bought, the retailer would quite often make the refund to ensure customer loyalty. However, in order to ensure that only genuine customers avail of this service, a certain process is defined for this activity. The various items are divided into classes with relative levels of refund with-in specific time frames. The POS receipt is used for identifying the items. The cost of these refunds can be shared by the manufacturer and the retailer or can be taken up by one of them in accordance with their predefined agreement clause.
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