week5

Essay by marlieA, September 2014

download word file, 1 pages 0.0

The CEO of Walmart, Dough McMillion states in the 2014 annual report that Walmart's focus will shift to add in improving customer experiences (cdn.corporate.walmart.com). The reason for this addition to the organization's strategic plan is the decline in market share and profits that began in 2010. The company has not been able to recover fully from this decline and the main reason for this is poor customer perception and experiences of the organization. The 2014 annual report states boldly that the company will become customer centric. This change comes about from the recent organizational changes Walmart has made to compete with other big box retailers like Amazon.com. However Walmart cannot compete with customer experience and satisfaction or perception with companies like Amazon.com. According to the American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) Amazon.com is ranked number one for the retail industry. Walmart ranks in last position. The ACSI states the average score for the retail industry is 77.9.

Walmart's rank is 71, where Amazon is 88.

The president for The Center For Client Retention, Richard Shapiro suggests Walmart employees train in soft skills improvement. Professional socially acceptable behaviors such as communication with customers, answering questions, being visible to customers, and handling complaints are each areas where Walmart employees have great room for improvement. Training needs for Walmart frontline associates needs improvement. Frontline associates are employees such as greeters, cashiers, and department employees. Any employee who will interact with a customer needs to improve their soft skills to improve Walmart's customer experiences.

Customer service training is available already within the Walmart locations and is mandatory for all Walmart employees. However, the training available is not adequate. Outdated poorly executed videos are currently the method of training for customer service within Walmart locations. The videos do not engage employees and are failing to train...