Reliance Fresh Customer Satisfaction
Reliance Fresh Customer Satisfaction
Reliance Fresh Customer Satisfaction
Institute of Management Studies & Research, M.D. University, Rohtak In partial fulfillment for the requirement for the award of degree of Master of Business Administration(2009-2011).
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DECLARATION
I,PRAVEEN DAGAR, hereby declare that the work presented herein is genuine work done originally by me and has not been published or submitted elsewhere for the requirement of a degree programme. Any literature, data or works done by others and cited within this dissertation has been given due acknowledgement and listed in the reference section.
PRAVEEN DAGAR
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This is to certify that the project report titled Customer Satisfaction Regarding Product and Service Available at the Reliance Fresh carried out by Mr. Amit Kumar Yadav has been accomplished under my guidance & supervision as a duly registered MBA student of the IMSAR, MDU, Rohtak. This project is being submitted by him in the partial fulfilment of the requirements for the award of the Master of Business Administration from IMSAR.
His dissertation represents his original work and is worthy of consideration for the award of the degree of Master of Business Administration.
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
My all praises to Almighty God, who blessed me with sufficient courage and capacity to carry out and complete this study. Being aware of the limitations and shortcomings, it was not possible for me to accomplish this work without his help. I sincerely feel that the credit of this project report could not be narrowed to only one individual as the whole work is outcome of integrated efforts of all those concerned with it through whose cooperation and effective guidance I could achieve its completion. I wish to place my profound indebtness and deep sense of obligation to my Guide Dr. Pradeep Ahlawat, for providing me with the opportunity to work on such an interesting topic. I also want to pay my gratitude and sincere thanks to everyone who helped and guided me throughout this entire project. Last but not the least I am thankful to my parents and friends that supported me through out this project.
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CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION COMPANY PROFILE OBJECTIVES METHODOLOGY DATA TABULATION & INTERPRETATION FINDINGS RECOMMENDATION STORE ACTIVITY CONCLUSION LIMITATION REFERENCES ANNEXURE
5 7 8 9 10 24 27 30 35 37 38 39
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INTRODUCTION
Retailing consists of the sale of goods or merchandise from a fixed location, such as a department store, boutique or kiosk, or by mail, in small or individual lots for direct consumption by the purchaser. Retailing may include subordinated services, such as delivery. Purchasers may be individuals or businesses. In commerce, a "retailer" buys goods or products in large quantities from manufacturers or importers, either directly or through a wholesaler, and then sells smaller quantities to the end-user. Retail establishments are often called shops or stores. Retailers are at the end of the supply chain. Shops may be on residential streets, shopping streets with few or no houses or in a shopping mall. Shopping streets may be for pedestrians only. Sometimes a shopping street has a partial or full roof to protect customers from precipitation. Online retailing, a type of electronic commerce used for business-to-consumer (B2C) transactions and mail order, are forms of non-shop retailing. Retail in India started with the concept of weekly markets, where all the traders gathered at one big place to sell their products every week. People came to these weekly markets to buy the household items for the next one week. Village fairs and melas were also common as it had more of an entertainment value. Once the people started getting busy with their lives and turned entrepreneurial, there emerged the mom and pop shops and the kiranas in the neighborhood. After independence, came into existence the system of Public distribution of foods through the ration shops, where food grains, sugar and oil for the daily consumption were distributed at subsidized rates through the government ration shops. The modern corporate retail formats are of the exclusive brand outlets, hypermarkets and supermarkets, departmental stores and shopping malls. But still a large number of Indian consumers depend on the self-organized retail shops for their daily needs. Retail business is a profitable sector in the first world countries and an emerging sector in India with tremendous potential.
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Retail is usually classified by type of products as follows: Food products Soft goods - clothing, apparel, and other fabrics. Hard goods ("hardliner retailers") - appliances, electronics, furniture, sporting goods, etc. There are the following types of retailers by marketing strategy: Supermarkets - sell mostly food products. Department stores - very large stores offering a huge assortment of "soft" and "hard goods". General store - a store which sells most goods needed, typically in a rural area. Convenience store - a small store often with extended hours, stocking everyday or roadside items.
During my Summer Internship Project, I was given a project titled A Comprehensive Study on Retail at Reliance Fresh under which I was given a number of options. As we know Comprehensive Study means a vast study which is not possible within the short period of two months. So, under the guidance of my Store Manager Mr. Palash Chakroborty I have chosen the following subject as our projectCustomer Satisfaction Regarding Product and Service Available at the Store.
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COMPANY PROFILE
Reliance Fresh comes under Reliance Retail Ltd. It is the convenience store format which forms part of the retail business of Reliance Industries Ltd of India which is headed by Mr. Mukesh Ambani. It was incorporated on 30th October 2006. It launched its first retail format called Reliance Fresh in Hyderabad on11 Nov in 2006. Spread over 2,000-5,000 sq ft, 11 such Reliance Fresh neighborhood convenience stores were come up in the city. Its head quarter is situated in Mumbai and is known as NHQ, i.e., National Head Quarter. Now it has almost 720 stores across 13 states including Chennai, New Delhi, Hyderabad, Jaipur, Mumbai, Chandigarh, Ludhiana, Orissa, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal. The strategy is to open one Reliance Fresh store in a radius of three to four km to serve 1,000-2,000 families. This means about 30-40 stores in the major metros. All the stores opened have an average area of about 1,800 sq ft and an average of about 20 sales associates attending to customers. Each store opens from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. on all seven days of the week. It has got license of keeping the store open for 365 days. Reliance Fresh sales staples, grocery, FMCG food items, dairy products, FMCG non-food products, stationery products and a whole lot of other categories at a very competitive price. It has its own in-house brands in both food and nonfood section like R-Select, R-Value (food) and Mopz, Sudz, Scrubz (non-food). These are known as Reliance Private Label Products. It sales fresh fruits and vegetables through Keventer Agro and that is known as Keventer Fresh. In West Bengal, Reliance Fresh has 12 stores. I have done my Internship from Deshapriyo Park store. It was opened on 14th August, 2008. It has an area of 2393 sq ft. Its store code is 2313. Store code is a number given to each sore by the Mumbai head quarter. Every store has its unique code. Sale for the month of May was Rs. 11, 37,000 approximately.
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OBJECTIVES
During this project my objectives were
To find out the level of awareness of the customers at Reliance Fresh- Deshapriyo Park- My main objective was to find out how much customers know about the store, whether they are aware of the price, products and services available at the store. At the same time I wanted to increase the awareness.
To find out Customers satisfaction about the products and services available at store and also find out their expectations (if any)- I also wanted to find out whether customers are satisfied with the products and services available at the store and if they have any additional requirement.
To improve customer service based on the feedback- Based on the feedback that I have got from the study I wanted to improve customers satisfaction regarding the store.
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METHODOLOGY
I did a research on customers satisfaction. My objective was to find out whether customers are satisfied with the store and I did this by interviewing the customers and collecting qualitative data and quantitative data. Data Source- Primary Data- All the data I used in my research were primary data because those were collected directly from field.
Research Approach- Personal Interaction with Customers- My research approach was basically personal interaction with the customers as I directly went to the people and communicate with them about the concerned matter and gathered all the necessary data.
Research Instrument- Questionnaire- I used a questionnaire made under the guidance of the store manager.
Sampling Technique- Convenience Sampling- I used the Convenience sampling technique, because I collected all the information from those members of the population who were conveniently available to provide it. It is not advantageously placed to get information required.
Sample Frame- Regular Customers at Reliance Fresh Deshapriyo Park- I did this survey on those who were regular customers at the store. Regular customers are those who come at least once in a month or monthly basket purchaser.
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once a week 14% 21% 29% 6% 30% twice a week or more once a month twice a month thrice a month
I was mainly concerned about those customers who come at the store often. So, according to my objectives I asked them first how frequently he/she visits the store. In response I got this statistics 30% of the customers come at least once in a week. 29% of them come twice in a week or more frequently. 21% come once in every month. 14% come twice in a month. 6% come thrice in a month.
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1% 1% 5% 53% 22%
18%
News Paper
Others
Next I asked them how they got to know about Reliance Fresh and I saw that 53% of the respondents live in the same locality and so they automatically get to know about Reliance Fresh as they share the same locality. 22% of them have come to know through their friends and relatives. 18% have come to know from news papers. 5% have got to know through brochure. Very few people got to know through mail and other sources, i.e. 1% each.
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1% 5% 14% 25%
It is very important to make a proper display of the product. Display of the product means presenting the product in an attractive way. A planogram of the store comes from the office but it is the duty of store to give it a good look and to set a good display of the store.
When I asked customers whether they are satisfied with the display of products, I got the following replies
55% of the customers are satisfied. 14% are highly satisfied. 25% think they are moderately satisfied. 5% are dissatisfied. And a very negligible number of people, i.e., 1% are highly dissatisfied.
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1% 10% 15%
41%
33%
Moderate
Satisfied
Highly Satisfied
It is necessary to know that whether the customers are satisfied with the availability of the products at the store. Availability of the products means all variety of products which the store sells. When I asked customers whether they are satisfied with the availability of products in the store, almost half of the respondents fall in satisfied category (both satisfied and very satisfied) and thus I got 41% are satisfied. 10% are highly satisfied. 33% are moderately satisfied. 15% are dissatisfied. 1% is highly dissatisfied.
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2%
10%
Highly Dissatisfied
10%
Dissatisfied
35% Moderate Satisfied Highly Satisfied
43%
According to the survey, majority of the respondents are satisfied with the price and offers available at store. I got 43% are satisfied. 10% are highly satisfied. 35% are moderately satisfied. 10% are dissatisfied. 2% are very dissatisfied.
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First I need to know what basket offer actually is. Basket offer actually means combo offers. This includes some specific combination products at a discounted price, like 5kg Pillsbury Atta, 3 liters Nature Fresh Actilite Soybean oil and 2 kg R-value Sugar can be bought for Rs. 349/-, but the MRP is more than Rs. 400. This is a basket offer. When I asked how many customers avail basket offers I observed- most of them do not avail these offers. 60% of the respondents dont avail it. 40% of them avail basket offers.
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19%
33%
Dissatisfied Satisfied
Now the question comes if customers are satisfied with combination of products of basket offers. Almost half of them, i.e., 48% are satisfied. 33% are dissatisfied. But 19% of the respondents are not aware of the combinations offered.
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2%
17% 15% 20%
7%
39%
Earlier it has been mentioned what Reliance Private Label products are. When I asked if customers are satisfied with Reliance Private Label products regarding price and quality 39% said they are satisfied. 7% are highly satisfied. 20% are moderately satisfied. 15% are dissatisfied. A very few are highly dissatisfied, like 2%. But almost 1/5th, i.e., 17% are not aware of it.
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Highly Dissatisfied
Dissatisfied Moderate Satisfied
42%
Highly Satisfied
From the survey it can be said that customers are very satisfied with the billing speed during rush hour. More than half of them fall in satisfied category 42% are satisfied. 20% are highly satisfied. Whereas 23% think it is moderate. 12% are dissatisfied. 3% are highly dissatisfied.
The problem with Reliance is that it has two cash tills, but only one till is working and the other is not working for a long time.
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4% 10% 6% 20%
50%
10%
Highly Satisfied Not Availed
Reliance also offers home delivery facility free of cost. But the chart says that 50% of the respondents do not avail home delivery facility. This may be because of two reasons- first, customer has to shop for at least Rs. 700 and second, it offers home delivery within 2 km distance. Among those who avail this facility 20% are satisfied. 10% are highly satisfied. 6% say its moderate. 10% are dissatisfied. 4% are highly dissatisfied.
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4% 23%
5% 18%
Reliance Fresh scores good in terms of customer satisfaction. 50% of them are satisfied. 23% are very satisfied. 18% are moderately satisfied. 4% are dissatisfied. 5% are very dissatisfied.
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39%
When I asked the customers who they think is the closest competitor of Reliance Fresh, I got to know that Majority of the customers almost 39% think that Spencer is the closest competitor. Followed by Big Bazar (28%). Food Bazar (15%). A very few respondents supported Spinach and More (1% each).
Some of them voted for two, like 3% voted for Food Bazar and Spencer. Page 23
2% for Big Bazar and Spencer. 4% for Big Bazar and Spencer. 1% of them supported all three of Food Bazar, Big Bazar and Spencer. But some of the respondents (6%) could not answer the question as they are not aware of other stores well.
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FINDINGS
I have two kinds of findings from my project. Some I got from the survey among the customers and others I got from my observations. Let us first discuss what I found from the survey.
53% of the customers who come to Reliance Fresh (DP) are mainly local people. It
means local people are very much aware of this store rather than outside of the locality.
59% of the customers prefer to visit the store once in a week or twice in a week. That
means they prefer to visit the store frequently. They buy their products on weekly basis.
51% of the customers are satisfied with the products available, though 48% of total
customers fall on the dissatisfaction category and they need more variety of brands.
69% of the customers are satisfied with the display of products. That means they find
their products very easily when they visit the store.
53% of the customers are satisfied with the price and offers provided by the store,
though 45% of total customers are not satisfied fully. They think more discounts should be provided on products.
60% of the customers dont avail basket offers. But those who avail it are satisfied
with the combination of products. Some customers are not aware of the combinations offered.
39% of the customers are satisfied with the price and quality of Reliance Private
Label products. But 17% of the customers are not availing it. Many of the customer said that the price of private label product is high compared to other brands.
50% of the customers dont avail home delivery facility. One reason is that, reliance
provides home delivery facility within 2km around the store. So, the customers who do not live within 2km of radius from the store cant avail this facility. Another reason
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is, if customers shop for at least Rs. 700/- then only they can avail this facility. But 36% of total customers are satisfied with this facility.
62% of the customers are satisfied with the billing speed and check out time. 73% are satisfied with the overall customer service at the store.
FINDINGS (By Observation): Now comes what I found from my observations and experiences during the project. I have not used any questionnaire and this is based only on my observations.
The billing speed of cashier during rush hour is very good. But the problem with
Deshapriyo Park store is that it has two cash tills but one till is not working due to system issue. So, the store has to depend on one till only, making the customers wait in a queue during rush hour.
There are some products which were available in the store earlier but it is no more
available now, like Dosa rice, Dudheshwar rice etc. Though these products still has demands.
Many Customers want non-veg products at the store. There is a high demand for nonveg food product.
Many customers are not aware about the offers which are going on at the store. They
want more tele calling and sms from the store, so that they can know about the offers.
Customers face problem if the planogram are changed frequently and they complain
for this.
I often noticed that CSAs are not conveying the offers to the customers and some of
them dont push sale much.
CSAs are less motivated to their work. Customers often complain about the quality of fruits and vegetables. Fruits and
vegetables are often not fresh and rotten.
Customers often complain that price in Reliance Fresh is higher compared to local
market and other organized retails provide more discounts than our store.
According to the customers local market and other organized retail have more variety
of products.
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RECOMMENDATIONS
According to the findings I want to suggest some recommendations. I have two kinds of recommendation. First is what I derived from the findings from survey and the second is based on my observation and experiences in these two months. First come recommendations based on Survey:
Reliance Fresh (DP) should increase their store awareness among the existing customers and try to attract new customers by doing different types of promotional activities, like competitions, game shows, distributing leaflets etc.
50% of the total customers are not availing Home delivery facility. This basically can be because of two reasons- Reliance Fresh Deshapriyo Park offers home delivery if customers shop for Rs. 700 or above and the maximum limit is 2 km from the store. If the minimum limit of shopping bill is decreased more customers can avail this facility. It will increase the acceptability of the store to customers.
Store should introduce more discounts & offers, as 45% of the customers think they should have more discount and offers. Store can introduce offers on those products that have high profit margin. It will attract more customers.
The store can offer good combination of products and make customers aware of basket offers by more promotion and display of it, as19% of the customers are not aware of the combinations of products in a basket offer. I have seen many people do not avail basket offers as they do not like the combination offered. Store can observe which products are high in demand and make basket offers with those products so that more customers buy it.
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RECOMMENDATIONS (By Observation): I would also like to suggest some recommendations which are based on my observations. I did not use any data or questionnaire for this. These are based on my experiences at store during these two months. Recommendations based on observation: Earlier I have mentioned that during rush hour customers have to stand in a queue and it creates dissatisfaction among customers. The closed till should be repaired immediately to make the billing speed faster and reduce check out time. Store can again start to sale those products which were available earlier but not available now. Store can talk to Local Bazar Samiti to start selling non-veg items in store. Store can provide more tele calling and sms to make the customers aware of the offers going in the store. Planogram and position of bays should not be changed frequently. Some staffs of the store need more training on customer service and push selling. Each staff should be made aware of the offers and prices available at the store to provide better customer service. Staffs should be motivated by frequent praises and appraisals. Store can try to sale fresh fruits and vegetables as customers often complain about the quality of fruit and vegetable. Reliance Fresh can keep the price at par with local market to gain competitive advantage over local stores. Reliance Fresh can introduce more variety of products to satisfy customers need.
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STORE ACTIVITIES
These activities can be divided into two categories. One is Activities at Floor and other is Activities at System.
ACTIVITIES AT FLOOR Planogram Implementation Product Stacking Customer Dealing Promotional Offer Handling FEFO & FIFO Maintenance Push Selling Communicating Offers Issuing R-One Card Expiry Check Preparation of Job Sheet
ACTIVITIES AT SYSTEM SOD GRN GRDC Mark Down Dump RTV Redeem R-one Voucher SEL Printing EOD
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Planogram Implementation and Product Stacking- The first task that was assigned to me is Planogram implementation and product stacking according to that. Planogram is basically a store lay out. It is the structural format of the bays and racks of a store and shows which product should be kept where and in what quantity. It shows the vertical facing, horizontal facing, depth etc. Product stacking is done in such a way so that customers can find the products easily. It is very important to make a proper display of the products. Display of the product means presenting the product for viewing especially in an attractive way.
Dealing with customers- My primary task was to deal with customers, like knowing customers need and help them to find their products. Promotional Offer Handling- I handled promotional offers. I was given a list of offers. I had to check if the cash till is accepting those offers or not. If the offers are accepted I had to print those offers on papers using MS-Power Point and place those papers on respective bays.
FEFO & FIFO Maintenance- FEFO stands for First Expire First Out and FIFO stands for First In First Out. It tells that the products which expire first should be kept in the front and the products which have current manufacturing dates should be kept at the back. This is to ensure that the store should have less expired products.
Push Selling- I tried to create interest on customers mind about the products. I insisted the customers to take those goods which have high profit margin, like I insisted them to take Reliance Private Label products like R-Select, R-value.
Communicating Offers- I communicated the offers and discounts which were available at the store by tele calling, smsing and also through direct interaction. Issuing R-One Card- R-one card is a loyalty card or membership card which customers can get free of cost. They get some benefit on these cards. To get these cards they have to fill up a form. I issued those cards from Customer Service Desk and helped them to fill the forms.
Expiry Check- I also checked expiry dates of products so that there is no expired products at the bays. Preparation of Job Sheet- During the last few days of my project I helped the store manager and store supervisor to prepare job sheet. Job sheet is prepared to assign jobs
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to each employee. Though I am not officially authorized to do so but I helped them with my suggestions and feedbacks.
SOD- SOD stands for Start of the Day. It is the first job that the store needs to do. Without SOD the store cant start any of its activities. It involves certain activities, like the store has to mention previous days cashier and the amount of cash done by him. Its known as Cashier Declaration. Store gets a mail from the head office declaring stock of certain products. Store has to check those quantity and reply back to head office. Its known as Stock Declaration. SOD also declares the offers of that day.
GRN- GRN is basically Goods Received Note. When store receives any good from either Distribution Center or Vendor it issues a GRN. The name, quantity and price of products are mentioned here. One copy is kept with the store and one copy is kept with the sender of the products.
GRDC- GRDC stands for Goods Returned to Distribution Center (DC). When there is any quality issue regarding the products sent by DC the store returns those goods back to the DC. This process is known as GRDC.
Mark Down- When a product is very near to its expiry or its shelf life is going to finish the store sells those products at a lowered price. This is known as Mark Down. Store manager can set up to 15% mark down. The store has to send a mail to the zonal office. But for more than 15% mark down they need to take permission from the Category Manager and Cluster Manager.
Dump- When the goods are totally expired or damaged store cannot sale those goods. They need to dump those goods and make an entry in the system and to inform the SLP (Security and lose preventions).
RTV- Reliance has contracted with some of the companies regarding expiry of some products. If those products are expired or get damaged, store cannot dump or mark
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down those goods. They have to send those goods to vendors. This process is known as RTV or Return to Vendor. This is done in case of brands like Daily, Mayurank etc. Redeem R-one Voucher- R-one card holders are given certain points with each purchase if they swipe their cards. When they collect at least 25 point they can redeem those points against a voucher with which they can buy products from store without paying cash. I redeemed those R-one vouchers through system. SEL Printing- SEL means Shelf Edge Label. It is a small tag with name, code, and price of the product and these are placed on each shelf having that certain product. I have printed SEL with the help of HHT machine (Hand Held Terminal). EOD- EOD stands for End of the Day and it is the last activity done in the store. It is a declaration about total sales, item sold and quantity sold in a particular day.
CONCLUSION
Now at the end of my Summer Internship Project when I think what I got during these two months, the one thing that comes to my mind is that this has been a life time opportunity and a great learning experience for me. A Comprehensive Study on Retail in Reliance Fresh Page 32
How to handle customers: The first thing that I learned is how to handle customers.
After a lot of experience at store I realized that it is a very difficult job to make a customer satisfy as they are always complaining about something or the other.
Flexibility in work: One of the major lessons that I got is flexibility in work. I had to
work there for 9 hours every day and sometime more than that. I had to stand there all the day and finish the tasks assigned. I realized it is very difficult to adjust with the schedule of retail stores. For the first time in my lives I learnt to work on Sundays and holidays.
Exposure of Retail industry: Before going to the SIP I did not know much about
Retail Industry. But after finishing this project I got an exposure of Retail, an extremely profitable and established business in the first world countries and an emerging sector in our country. As I have chosen Retail as my minor specialization this experience will help me in my future.
Experience of working in a group: The last thing that I learned is how to work in a
group. I worked with other staffs at the store. It was my first experience to work as a team in the corporate world.
LIMITATIONS
During the project I faced certain limitations. All customers did not respond to our survey. That may be because of two reasons. Some of them were in hurry; they didnt have time for answering the questions. Some of them were not interested to answer the survey. A Comprehensive Study on Retail in Reliance Fresh Page 33
REFERENCES
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SITES: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reliance_Fresh
http://www.reliancefresh.info/
http://ekikrat.in/Reliance-Fresh
ANNEXURE
Questionnaire used for conducting survey:
Sex:
[1- Highly Dissatisfied, 2- Dissatisfied, 3- Moderate, 4- Satisfied, 5- Highly Satisfied] 1. How frequently do you Visit Reliance Fresh? a) Once a week b) Twice a week c) Once a month
2. From where did you get to know about Reliance Fresh? a) News paper b) Relatives c) Brochure d) Mail
5. How would you rate Reliance fresh regarding the price and promotion offers available? a) 1 b) 2 c) 3 d) 4 e) 5
6. Are you buying the basket offers available in Reliance fresh? a) Yes b) No
7. Are you satisfied with the combination of products of the basket offer in Reliance Fresh? a) Yes b) No Page 36
8. How do you rate reliance Private Label Products regarding price and quality? a) 1 b) 2 c) 3 d) 4 e) 5
10. How do you rate the billing speed of the cashier in Reliance Fresh during rush hour? a) 1 b) 2 c) 3 d) 4 e) 5
11. Who do you think is the closest competitor of Reliance Fresh? a) Food Bazar Spinach b) Big Bazar e) More c) Spencer d)
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