Answer

Customer Experience Management

Organization Background

Woolworth group limited is an Australian based company with a retail interest in Australia and New Zealand. It is hallmarked to be the second largest Australian organization in terms of revenue. The organization operates hospitality groups, liquor retailing outlets, hotels, restaurants and pubs, and supermarket under the Woolworths’s business name. Therefore, the organization’s operations cuts across a number of industries such as alcoholic beverages, fashion industry, hotel industry and retail industry. For the purposes of this write up, fashion industry and retail industry will be taken into account. The organization was incepted in 1924 under Walworth Bazaar limited name. Since the organization was not registered to operate in Australia, Woolworth never had plans to operate on a global scale. For this reason, the organization was renamed ‘’Woolworths-limited’ on 22^nd September 1924 (Lyer, 2017). The shareholders were reluctant to contribute to the organization’s capital base during its initial stages. Nevertheless, with continued trading, more shareholders brought forth more capital and, therefore, the dividends that the organization paid increased from five to fifty percent in its third fiscal year. In December 1924, consumer interest significantly grew and this was characterized by many stores being established in Australia. Two decades after, Woolworth had a store in each Australian state. Woolworth gradually transitioned to become a big grocery store and this resulted to the establishment of the Big W store 31 years after its inception. From January 2017, almost all supermarkets under Woolworth use the Woolworth logo depicted by green apple.

Differentiating Customer Segment

Segmentation depicts how Woolworth’s market is divided into various sections on the basis of demography, social-economic aspects, and the characteristics of the product (magento, n.d.). The two segmentations that will be taken into account include; demographic segmentation and the Behavioral segmentation. Demographic segmentation constitutes the age of the customers, their gender, and education levels. However, gender plays a crucial role towards development of Woolworth retailing services. In equal measure, clothing as well as homecare products provided by Woolworth are differentially manufactured depending on customer preferences and their genders. In a bid to reduce incidences of overstocking, handling costs and obsolescence, the segregation of the retailing products is based on the age group of the customers. Alcoholic drinks targets customers who are eighteen years and above which is the constitutional age of an adult.  For instance, infants that are below five years are provided with large quantities of products such as food, apparels, and napkins. Additionally, as depicted in the customer complaints forum depicted in assignment 2, the organization offers a variety of napkins amongst other apparels for infants.

Behavioral segmentation is based upon the actions, and spending habits of the customer. In this regards, the organization takes into consideration of the browsing history, and the spending habits of the customer. It is for this reason that the Woolworth’s online advertisements are tailored to target the youths who are the technocrats. Most of the youths in the contemporary society are interacting through the social media and it is for this reason, Woolworth’s has majored in online advertisements of the products that would grab the attention of the youths. For instance, on the Woolworth’s social media pages such as Face Book, the organization is vigilant in advertisements of the products that the customers are inclined towards in particular seasons such as Christmas. 

Customer Experience Strategy

• Implementation of the survey for customer satisfaction forum-Woolworths should implement a periodic customer satisfaction survey using either qualitative, quantitative or both approaches (Powerstream, 2012). This will be an approach towards being acquainted with the organization environment, main trends, and customer attitude towards specific products. In this regards, the major findings tailored to meet customers’ expectations and analysis of their comments in Woolworth’s complaint’s forum are identified and the strategy to address issues is established by the stakeholders.
• The customer contact center-In a bid to ensure that Woolworth’s customers speak to the organization’s customer service agent regarding their particular needs, assistance or feedback, the organization will invest in customer contact centers. This will facilitate operational interactions to enhance customer satisfaction. The customer care center will consider using file nexus system which will make it possible for the organization to keep customer’s contacts, and further offer necessary support regarding customer related information. Such information will be helpful in resolving issues that customers may face during any transactions with the organization.
• The organization website- Woolworth’s official website is used in a number of ways such as furnishing customers with information pertaining to various services and products that it offers. However, to facilitate proactive interactions with the customers, the organization will come up with a web based supportive application that will allow customers to interact with the organization’s representatives in real time. The corporate website will be linked to the live chat box from which a representative will be readily available to interact with any customer who may need assistance. As such, the customers will obtain assistance at the earliest convenience, hence improving their satisfaction.
• An integrative call-management-system– Woolworth will integrate a call management system such as the Avaya call management system. This system will be orchestrated to log client’s request for any services that they may demand (Powerstream, 2012). The system assists the organization to detect any changes with the sales volumes. For this reason, it will be possible for the organization to detect any flaw in customer services and implement the necessary measures in a quest for putting its performance to its rightful position.
• Implementation of the interactive voice response system (IVR) – Woolworth will integrate an IVR in a bid to record as well as report information that is accessed by customers who call the organization. The system will allow analysis of the reports and modify Woolworth’s telephone services with an aim to address the future requirements of their customers. In addition, automated transactions will be facilitated by use of the IVR system, hence improving the organization effectiveness.

Customer Experience Mapping and Alignment Diagrams

Fig 1. Customer Experience mapping

Fig 2. Strategy Mapping

Customer Alignment Diagram

How C.E.M Strategies Will Offer Better Service To Organization Customers

 C.E.M strategies will tailor different channels to reach out the targeted customers. In this regards, some of the customers will be informed of Woolworth’s products through its corporate site, after which they will go to their retail outlets. On the other hand, some might decide to visit the retail outlet and have an idea of the product to purchase, whilst others might consider using social media and mobile applications to be acquainted with the products that the organization offers (Gautam, 2017). An effective customer experience management strategy will ensure that the product brands reaches customers with relative ease. The product brand will be at any place wherever a potential customer is. The data that is collected in various platforms will be used to have a holistic view of the customers, know their likes and dislikes and tailor various customer services to reduce wait time.

An effective customer experience management system would address the customer’s issues in real-time. In the modern competitive business environment, grabbing a customer’s attention is never an easy feat. The attention spans are significantly dwindling since they are spoilt for choices. As such, a well thought-out customer experience strategy would make the customers happy that their issues are addressed at the earliest convenience.

A well-tailored customer experience management strategy will make the customers feel important, welcomed, valued and have a positive attitude towards organization. As such, the organization will have a good share of wallet due to loyalty and trust established between the two parties. As such, there will be more personal touch with the customers, hence more business will be initiated.

Through constant collection and analysis of the data pertaining to the organization customers, the business will establish strategies that best resonates with the interests of the customers. This will assist in determination of the correct investments that the organization should consider. In this regards, the organization would consider whether investment of a particular technology, amongst other investments, would have any benefit to their customer. As such, the organization would not unnecessarily spend money in areas that it will not improve on customer satisfaction.

Conclusion

Conclusively, Woolworth’s is a renowned company that can further improve its performance if it considers implementation of various customer experience management strategies. Usually, customers gravitate towards an individual or a cohort that they like. As such, they are influenced on the basis of their emotional desires. Therefore, while the organizations should attract more potential customers, it ought to orchestrate measures to retain the existing ones. Therefore, the customer experience management strategies would be aimed at improving share of wallet, customer satisfaction, customer loyalty, and sales volumes. Woolworth’s will significantly gain a competitive edge after implementation of the following customer experience management strategies; a customer satisfaction forum, a customer contact center, a regularly updated organization website, an integrative call-management system, and interactive voice response system.