From the outset, an academic puzzle of sorts. The researchers already knew that: Southwest Airlines in the airline industry's highly respected customers and employees; Dell is the computer industry on a prime customer satisfaction; while Toyota is still the company to emulate in the automobile industry objects . However, in retail, customer and employee satisfaction, what company sets the standard for?
Wharton operations and information management professor Scotch? Netessine (Serguei Netessine) and colleagues studied that there is no Toyota in the retail industry pioneer. Wharton started the two closely related projects, trying to explore how the complex in the retail industry to achieve profitability and long-term growth. They studied the initial conclusion is drawn from the service industry since ancient times to pursue a criteria: customer satisfaction. Their conclusions were as follows:
* Item availability - that customers can be found on the shelves of products they need. Understanding of customers out of their ideas may be different retailers.
* Solve the problem of shortage of stock, the less good thing. If too much inventory, storage room is too large, then, employees often can not find the goods, or goods need to be supplemented to the wrong place. Store managers work longer, less out of the situation.
* Customer satisfaction is equal to qualified employees.
* Customer satisfaction can not only avoid the loss of customers, increase sales, but also through word of mouth to attract more customers.
Wharton professor Fisher said to each retail sector, in order to determine the optimal level of sales service is often difficult. Need to correlate customer satisfaction and you are interested in operating results and customer retention link.
Staff: revenue center and cost center
Fisher, Netessine and Krishnan invite a number of major retailers for a research project designed to seek to improve store operations, customer experience and financial performance of the store operating policies.
Research on store operating policies will focus on payroll, shop area, storage area, assortment, management tenure, employee retention and training of the situation. Store business objective of the study include goods, out of stock, the accuracy of inventory records, customer-friendly layouts, integration of additional services, and signs and price accuracy. The customer experience, the researchers will examine whether the staff friendly and helpful, the shop is organized, and convenient checkout the benefits, but the main question is: Can customers find the required items ?
In one study, Wharton Christon out the problem and its concern for the impact of customer purchasing experience. He said: "This is definitely an impact on customer satisfaction. Almost half of the customers will buy other brands and the same brand of the other models, but one-third of customers chose to leave the shop."
Christon said the average retail rate is 8.3% out of stock. In 2002 he was the Food Processing Industry Association to submit the report has a suggestion: "If you solve the shortage problem, the retailer can make earnings per share increased to 5%."
Christon said that the root causes of inventory shortage in supply chain management is not an error, or purchase or external distribution factors. Most out of stock is in the store - error estimates, lost or misplaced inventory, goods storage or shelf display properly, the calculation of inventory and inadequate or erroneous.
"Holes"
In the group study, Fisher notes in the audit inventory to check out, there are some interesting happens. For example, a large consumer electronics retailer hired an outside company to "hole" - the retail term for a day when the wind through the aisles checking out the situation and the shortage of goods bar code scanning. Fisher found a strange thing. He said: "In the nearly 30% of cases, the computer will say that there is no shortage of stock. But the employees how they could not find whether the goods. This a clear store problem."
Out what the customer impact? Christon recalled one pair of 20 countries, more than 71,000 consumer survey found that customers are out of stock usually have five kinds of response: customers buy at another store (store); delay the purchase of ( later at the same store); buy the same brand but different size or type of product; buy another brand of product; or give up buying the (lost sale).
Interestingly, out of stock associated with consumer satisfaction is clearly a regional difference. European consumers face shortages of products like, he will probably buy another brand of similar products, but not likely to switch stores, while U.S. consumers love the brand, if a row out of two or three times, then more likely to change a shop.
Netessine that in exploring the process of improving customer satisfaction factors, the researchers faced a challenge that is at the same time combine two processes into one. He said: "In the service industry, you have to take care of customers. In manufacturing, your main focus is to optimize the manufacturing process. In retail, you have to take care of customers, and you must ensure that items put in time right place, and a sufficient number of staff to customer service, so that normal operation of cargo flow. These two processes are parallel. This is one of the reasons retail so elusive. "
Wharton experts study will involve all aspects of the retail industry and ultimately to establish all aspects of retail best practices. Fisher said: "This research could eventually create a market for the retail industry Toyota."
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