Customer gratification There exists a blanket customer relationship programme called the reliance one membership programme for

the purpose of maintaining customer loyalty. The membership programme is a very simple one where a willing customer is required to fill a form giving personal information and he gets a temporary card which will be made permanent after six months. On each purchase of rs. 100 the customer gets one redeemable point on the production of card at billing counter. The collected points can be redeemed in form of discounts on future purchases on demand of the customer. The customers also get the opportunity of availing four different kinds of insurance on the payment of a nominal fee. For example a customer can get an accidental death insurance of rs six lakhs on the payment of rs. 400 only. Other forms of insurances are disability, hospitalization and home insurances. The members of relianceone get the opportunity of taking part and winning prizes by the way of lucky draws on regular intervals. Customer retention policy implementation is at the zonal level. Generally each state is regarded as a zone and the offers and discounts in a zone are not available in other zones. Such policy helps reliance retail to understand and capture the local markets better. The products which show improvement due to offers and discounts on them are repeated with these offers again so as to retain the sales of the customers who bought it the last time. Also such the days best offers are constantly announced in the store making the regular customers aware about them. Maintaining a good store ambiance is also a part of customer retention policy of reliance retail. Clean and hygienic environment with properly and well spaced products along with a uniform color theme attracts the existing customers to the store again and again. A fast billing system and good and easy grievance handling system which can be accessed thru customer service desk and company website, ensures that customers feel satisfied with the store management. Less harassment to customers means better customer retention. Communication to existing customers takes the form of sms and e-mails, generally sent to reliance one members. They get information about ongoing offers and also information and latest news about their nearest stores and the company in general. Another source of customer database is the information collected during the organizing of special events in the stores. Customers participating in such events provide their contact information which are also used in form of database for communication purposes. Thank you and festive cards on special occasions are an innovative way of communicating with the customers. Trained salespersons make customer gratification very easy. A simple thank you with a smile goes a long way for the store to keep the customers happy. The special events organized by the stores across india are also a way to gratify the

customers by allowing them to play and win prizes. Gift vouchers and discount coupons are an attraction for the customers and give them the feel that the store cares about them and their money. Local customers many a times make limited personal contacts with the store staff just like that made at a kirana store and help the store to some extent to maintain a relationship with the customers. 11

The implementation of the policies brings out certain limitations in them. Few major ones are as follows The personal contact numbers of reliance one members are open to tele marketing calls from various marketers as they leak out of the reliance retails database, causing unnecessary harassment to customers. The customer communication policy is less followed in small towns and cities and is more concentrated towards the metro cities. There is a common crm policy for both reliance fresh and mart. This should not be the case as both the stores offer different kinds of merchandize and generally attract different kinds of customers. Reliance retail generally delays the processing of permanent membership cards to those customers who have not paid for such a card. Customers have been waiting for over three months for their card. Those who have paid the nominal fee of rs. 50 get their permanent card within 15 days but the rest who have optioned not to pay the fees do not receive the card until too late. Unmanned billing counters create long queues at the open counters. This creates impatiens in the customers as they expect faster billing at the stores and do not want to stand with too much of goods held in their hands while billing. CRM @ BIG BAZAAR 12 CHAPTER 4

 Database is formed through the issue of future card and card is of three types silver card, gold card and sakthi card. Sakthi card is issued to ladies and this card provides, free sugar(1 kg) per month. Customer profitability analysis (CPA) is done on the basis of transactions made through the future cards.

Platinum customers (most profitable). Gold customers (profitable). Iron customers (low profitability but desirable). Lead customers (unprofitable and undesirable).

Differentiate customers in terms of: (1) their needs and (2) their value to company. Interact with individual customers to improve the knowledge about individual needs and to build stronger relationships. There are four type of analysis done for analysis of CRM Periodic Surveys: Its done on quarterly, its an overall survey done by the future group authorities and CRM is a part of it. Customer Loss Rate : Mystery Shoppers: They pose as normal customers perform specific tasks such as purchasing a product, asking questions, registering complaints or behaving in a certain way and then provide detailed reports or feedback about their experiences Monitor Competitive Performance Complaint Handling Procedures: Screening And Logging -- The type of product or service; manufacturer/brand name; model name/number; date of purchase/contract; warranty expiration date; salesperson; cost of product/service; date problem occurred; and a description of the problem is listed. This allows organization to exercise control, and assure proper follow-through. Investigating -- customer's explanation of a problem provides much information. Nevertheless, to assure they have all the information needed for a thorough review of the facts involved, by:

Researching in-house records on the customer;

Requesting receipts, or other records;

Inspecting the product, or service performed; and

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Following-up with the customer for any necessary additional information.

 Acknowledging -- When Big Bazaar cannot resolve an issue immediately, it is important to let customer know that the matter is receiving attention. Customer is given information about how long it will take to complete action on the complaint. If there is further delay, its made sure to advise customer why and when Big Bazaar expects to have an answer. Formulating A Solution -- solution is made to be consistent with established customer relations policy and important criteria are taken into account:

Contractual and/or warranty obligations;

The customer's expectations;

expectations of the customer;

The cost/benefit of alternative solutions;

The probability and cost of customer seeking redress in some other way;

The comprehensiveness and fairness of solution;

ability to perform the solution; and

What to do if the customer rejects solution.

Responding -- The response is made clear and appropriate. The customer must understand the response, and the response must address the issues raised in the customer's original complaint. An explanation of decision preserves the goodwill of customer, even if the decision itself is adverse. Following-Up Customer is contacted following response to verify whether

or not the matter has been resolved satisfactorily. If customer is unhappy with response, organization refers the matter to a third party dispute resolution mechanism for assistance. Steps Involved in customer Satisfaction through Service:

Seeing problems from the customers perspective

Managing customers' "moments of truth"

Communicating effectively through better listening

Analyzing how customer perceptions are formed

Managing anger and other service behaviors

Dealing with long-term consequences of service breakdowns

Negotiating solutions

Generating an action plan for improved on-the-job effectiveness

CUSTOMER COMMUNICATION: Future group maintains its records of customers by observing their purchasing habits & categories them into various groups like high revenue, moderate revenue & low revenue customers. They communicate to the customers through various medium like SMS,E-mail, Mobile vans, Print media etc.This is the way to built a strong presence in the existing customers & prospective customers. Presently they are using oracle software to maintain database. Recently they have tied up with California based firm GREENPLUM to provide new software for data warehousing.

The company boasts strong share of its profits from top line customers who provide them around 70% of their revenues in total. The company can said to be going on the famous management principle i.e. 80/20 PRINCIPLE which says that 20 percent of variables cause 80% effect. In big bazaar it can be related to the fact that 20% of its top line customers provide 80% of its revenues in a year. This is the reason why the retail giant is focusing strongly on customer retention in order to boasts its sales numbers substantially.

CUSTOMER GRATIFICATION is an important element of a sales process. Every company should survey their customers in order to find out the satisfaction level among the consumers. Big bazaar also conducts periodic surveys in order to ascertain the satisfaction level in their consumers. Various activities are done in order to enhance the shopping experience among buyers & various offers, discount coupons; exchange offers are initiated by the firm in order to develop a good satisfaction level in their existing customers. Special coupons are given to customers who can be redeemed by the costumers in their future purchases from the store. CUSTOMER PERCIEVED VALUE (CPV) is calculated by the retail store in order to asses the costs and benefits received & given to the buyers. The following are some key features of CPV 1. CPV is the difference between the prospective customers evaluation of all the benefits and all the costs of an offering and the perceived alternative. 2. Total customer value is the perceived monetary value of the bundle of economic, functional & psychological benefits customers expect from a given market offering 3. Total customer cost is the bundle of costs customers expect to incur in evaluating, obtaining, using, disposing of the given market offering, including monetary, time, energy & psychic costs. LOOPHOLES: The retail store has also various loopholes especially here at ranchi.The major drawback which was found out initially was lack of proper parking place but now it has been corrected to some extent. Secondly the store is very slow in execution of online orders which is given through company web portal FUTURE BAZAAR. To quote a few examples of late delivery Mr. David Kerketta,a resident of lalpur-peace road purchased a furniture for Rs 37000,the date of scheduled delivery was 15th of November,2008 but he received his order 37 days late. One more incident of such late delivery is MR Pradeep Kumar, a resident of Upper Bazaar who purchased a dining table for Rs. 15000,but as usual he got his final delivery a whopping 65 days late than the scheduled date of delivery. So these incidents speak a lot of inefficient delivery. The other drawbacks are inefficient billi.ng counters as they are not updated with the current offers and schemes. Also the billing counters remains unmanned that add to the problem of customers who needs to stand in long queue in order to get their purchases billed. The other problem is related to the slow processing of applications of membership cards like Shakti card, future cards etc.It takes around 30 days minimum to become a member of future card schemes. This is very slowly considering the industry average of 15-20 days to process a card. Finally the contact numbers of customers are open to the telemarketing personnel as they get the database from the future group through some sources or the other.