Professionalizing customer management includes two tasks: collecting customer information, analyzing data; and planning customer care.
To collect accurate customer information, businesses can get it from many sources: government reports, trade associations, surveys, and polls. At different times, customer information is different. For example:
- Before having customers, retailers can get demographic information (residential characteristics, age, gender, income, race, etc.); information about psychological characteristics (personality, interests, lifestyle) to determine what types of goods and services to sell and how to market them.
Through initial research, retailers can determine which customer groups spend the most, and who are likely to be long-term customers of the store.
- After having the above information, to approach some potential customers, businesses need to collect the following information: How do customers know about the store? What is their first impression of the store? How long does it take them to get to your store? Why do they buy goods at other competing stores?
- Once a customer has started shopping in a store, the retailer can get the following information: When did the purchase occur? What did they buy? What was the total purchase price? Were they satisfied or had any complaints?
- When customers have regularly come to buy products from the store, retailers can recognize which customers often come to their store. At this time, retailers need to classify their customers, and conduct separate and specific surveys for each type, to know: What type of goods and services do customers like the most? From there, research trends in products, sales methods, transportation and other trends in customer relations.
- When a regular customer suddenly stops shopping at a store. The reason could be that the customer has moved to a new place of residence or job… But that does not mean that the customer no longer comes to the store, because that person can introduce the store or supermarket to relatives, friends and family. The task of businesses at this time is to research what these customers like or dislike about their store.
- When customers stop buying from a store, businesses need to find out: Are there any problems with customer service? Are the store's products and services no longer meeting their needs? Are they starting to buy from other stores? Is it because conditions such as their income have changed? [22]
By clearly analyzing the information that needs to be collected above, retailers can easily organize surveys and investigations without incurring costs. Managers can place survey forms at the supermarket door, at the checkout counter, or at the service counter so that customers can conveniently answer the store's survey forms.
Based on the collection of complete information, appropriate customer care plans also need to be established in a detailed, systematic, skillful and flexible manner. Currently, many retailers only stop at collecting customer information, without paying attention to improving service quality, even researching that information is only to know which types of goods sell well, but the quality of customer care service does not increase at all.
For each type of customer, retailers need to have separate strategies:
- For potential customers, or those coming to the store for the first time, retailers need to flexibly apply promotions and discounts, carefully take care of product display and sales staff to attract and leave a good impression on customers.
- For regular customers, stores should find ways to regularly contact customers (possibly by email or letter) to introduce products,
promotions, birthday gifts, building clubs to attract customers to exchange shopping experiences, thereby better understanding customer needs.
b) Optimizing customer benefits
Thanks to effective and professional customer management activities, Carrefour always seeks to optimize consumer needs, not only in one store but also in the entire area where the company operates. Therefore, this group has developed a chain system, and these chains are not only supermarket chains, but also convenience store chains and discount stores. This measure not only meets the needs of different customer groups, at different times, with different needs, but also optimizes profits for the business.
Currently, large retailers in Vietnam are also developing their chain systems because the chain system has many advantages: not only meeting the needs of customers well, but also contributing to promoting their brands, enhancing their position in centralized sourcing agreements.
To improve the efficiency of chain operations, businesses need to have an appropriate management structure, because the operation of a chain is more complex than that of an individual supermarket. Typically, the management model of a supermarket chain is as follows:
Figure 6. Organizational chart of the retail chain's human resources
Source: Solutions for supermarket development in Ho Chi Minh City until 2010 and vision to 2020 – Nguyen Van Tien
In the diagram above, each part of the system will have sub-parts managed at each store, operating under the control of the management agency.
3. Solution group applying Korean experience through Shinsegae Group's retail system management experience
3.1. Develop appropriate employee management policies
Like Carrefour Group, Shinsegae also has successful management experiences such as customer management, meeting consumer needs well, reducing auxiliary costs in an optimal way, self-sufficient in goods sources by establishing or acquiring some auxiliary companies. However, Shinsegae not only beat Walmart in the Korean retail market thanks to understanding consumers, but also thanks to effective employee management policies, leaving a good impression on customers. Meanwhile, Walmart
Walmart is often accused by employees of discriminating against women by paying them less than men, hiring temporary and part-time workers, and frequently turning over employees to avoid paying costs such as health insurance and pensions for permanent employees. This has led to boycotts of Walmart products in some countries around the world, especially in some Asian countries, including Korea. Shinsegae has done much better than Walmarrt in managing employees by providing good treatment policies, sharing profits with employees, and always training employees throughout the working process.
Learning from this experience, retailers in Biet Nam need to pay more attention to building employee management policies and improving their working conditions. The reason for this necessity is that for retail businesses, most employees will be in regular contact with customers and suppliers. Customers and suppliers can easily recognize whether the store's employees are treated well and professionally or not, thanks to observing their working and service manners. This has a profound impact on the image of the business.
First, in selecting employees, managers need to have a consistent selection policy, recruited according to professional standards, meeting physical requirements, knowledge, professional qualifications, and expertise. Standards for retail staff are summarized in the table below:
Table 6. Recruitment standards for retail staff
The managing director needs to: | Director and sales staff Retail businesses need: | |
- Always positive and enthusiastic - Energetic at work and outgoing - Work effort (maybe) | - Good communication skills - Flexible, good health because of having to work all day - Have leadership qualities | |
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Solutions for developing modern retail systems in Vietnam - 2 -
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Factors Affecting the Development of Retail Distribution Systems -
Building and Perfecting the Legal System to Create a Favorable Environment for the Development of Modern Retail Systems -
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have to work overtime)
- Good relationship with everyone
- Honest
- Withstand work pressure
- Mature
- Flexible
- Can work anywhere |
Source: http://detail.monster.ca/14076_fr-CA_p1.asp
In addition, the recruitment of security guards must also be very careful, because this is the force that controls all areas of the store. Enterprises need to organize training, improve the ability to recognize and report theft for store employees, along with coordinating with local security forces, building situations and realities right at the store, maintaining a regular cooperative relationship with local security agencies to handle. [2]
During the process of employing workers, enterprises need to regularly train and coach to equip employees and officers with knowledge about goods, markets, customer psychology, communication skills, and behavior during sales. All three levels of primary, intermediate, and senior staff need to be trained thoroughly, especially senior staff who need to be trained in international vision and capacity, because they will be the ones to plan business and personnel development strategies for their enterprises. Purchasing specialists must be knowledgeable about contract signing, understanding suppliers, as well as customer needs.
In addition to training programs to improve employees' knowledge and productivity, retailers must also pay attention to employee benefits, with reasonable salaries and bonuses to promote a sense of responsibility for work, stores and customers. This also helps prevent brain drain, when good employees leave the company to work elsewhere. The measure that businesses often take today is to share profits and profits with employees. Health standards
Health, safety, and the way the company and its partners treat employees are also very important to employees.
Enterprises also need to have a clear strategy for using human resources. Currently, there are two main methods: considering employees as dependent objects, or considering employees as active subjects. In our country, the tendency of managers to consider employees as dependent objects still often occurs, meaning that they force employees to obey their orders, considering employees as hired objects, thereby causing employees to lack initiative and creativity in their work, only following the instructions of their superiors, completely lacking the concept of dedication, research and innovation.
On the contrary, the strategy of considering employees as the main subject of activities has a different effect, which retailers should apply. In this strategy, the role of employees is promoted, thanks to which they will work actively and proactively, because their contributions are respected and encouraged. This strategy requires democratic, open-minded leaders with long-term goals, motivating all employees. And thanks to the common goal, solidarity between employees and business officials will be formed, the business will become a friendly community, the basis for making employees feel secure and highly develop their capacity. Not only that, managers must also know how to promote competitiveness, motivate employees to study, improve their abilities, find new solutions to better meet the requirements of work and labor productivity.
In managing employees, retailers need to consider employees as the center, but in the direction of collective management, meaning that employees are the subject of activities, but under the direction, management and encouragement of the leadership. This model has the following characteristics:
- The benefits of the business are distributed to each employee, all proposed policies come from the common interest.
- All employees have the right to express their opinions, there is democracy, policies are planned scientifically and according to the consensus of the majority.
- The management mechanism is decentralized and always changes to suit different conditions.
- Looking at the right person, assigning the right job is the most general principle.
- Stimulate employee dedication with both rights and obligations, focusing on work efficiency, considering it the top criterion for employee evaluation.
This is the most optimal employee management model today. Retailers need to avoid managing employees according to the nepotism model (power is concentrated in the leader, employees are just tools), or the old collective leadership model (many people give instructions but do not know who is responsible).
After studying and analyzing 20 companies considered to be the world's leading developers, experts commented that: there are about 29 factors that help regulate good organization, of which 7 factors are repeated the most, which are leadership, training, connecting with employees, working in a successful company, recognized achievements, working together, and giving employees a sense of respect [19]. This shows that human resource management is extremely important for retailers.
3.2. Enhance brand development
Another experience that Vietnamese retailers need to learn from Shinsegae is brand management experience. Shinsegae has promoted its brand not only through advertising and marketing, but also through good overall management from product management, employee management to business relations with partners and customer care services.
Today, businesses need to realize that branding is not just about promoting the company's brand on social media.