Operational Effectiveness of Supermarkets in Australia

Executive Summary

Supermarkets have been a part of life for many people living in the cities, people like you and me. It is hard to imagine not being able to go to one single place to get the groceries, the fresh vegetables, milk for the baby and food for my dog! In some places, supermarkets have became a tourist attraction of its own, like the 100-yen shops in Japan, where everything in the shop sells at 100 yen is part of a tourist itinerary. The sales concept is much similar to Daiso in Singapore where all products are S$2.00

In this report, the operations manager of one of the largest supermarket retail chain in Australia looks and analyses his operations based on the 10 determinants of the service quality. Applying to the current operations of the supermarket, he will evaluate each of the determinants and derive the recommendations to improve the overall service quality of the chain. With the decline of the quality of service currently, there is no time to be wasted for this analysis and to implement the strategic decisions to attain the objective of making the branch's operations more effective, efficient, productive and excel in customer service.

Introduction

This study hope to achieve an in-depth analysis of the level of service quality, in a high profile supermarket branch in Australia. By using the ten determinants of quality service model developed by Parasuraman et al. (1985), this report will zoom into each of the ten determinants namely: Reliability, Responsiveness, Competence, Access, Courtesy, Communication, Credibility, Security, Understanding and knowing the customer and Tangibles. This report will analyze each determinant in areas relevant to a supermarket scenario, and makes recommendations on strategic decisions that can be made to improve the efficiency, effectiveness, productivity and excellence of the branch.

Some of the total quality management (TQM) system are being brought into the scenario to effect the logistical part of a supermarket's operations. However, it is ultimately the employee's competency, courtesy and responsiveness that impact the customer's shopping experience in the largest way. Thus the operations with employees involvement is found to be the most useful yet unable to quantify.

The report also questions the quest for productivity in a service industry, and what is perceivable in numbers increase (increase in productivity) may not equate to dollars increase (increase in customer service leading to more sales.

Supermarket

The innovation of a retailing technology known as supermarket begun in USA in late 1920s, with the concept of customers doing most of the purchase work on a self-service manner; shoppers picking