Case 2

BSM 405

Executive Summary

It has been brought to light that a manager of one of the Tip Top Markets, Karen Martin, has been experiencing numerous customer complaints, more specifically on Tuesdays. She investigated store complaint records for the nine Tuesdays (June 1st thru July 27th) to get a better understanding of what was happening. Some of the more frequent issues involved spoiled, bad or past due products, inventory issues, checkout issues involving lines and charging discrepancies, and to a lesser extent, the music and thermostat settings. On July 15th, changes were implemented to reduce out-of-stock complaints, maintenance issues, reduce checkout time and pricing issues. These changes will be studied to see if their implementations were positive.

Throughout this report, the problems will be analyzed in more detail and broken down using different methods and tactics to get a better understanding of the issues plaguing Mrs. Martin’s store. After organizing all the information gathered from the specified problem dates, before and after the changes were implemented, the information will be discussed, the changes will be evaluated, and further recommendations will be addressed. Solutions to the problems concerning Mrs. Martin’s store should be answered within the recommendations contained and future issues should be easier thwarted if any similar concerns arise to any other Tip Top Markets by implementing these same recommendations.

Analysis

Before the changes implemented on July 15th, based on figure 4, 80% of the complaints were stemming from bad or expired food, pricing issues, inventory, and customer service with the quality of food being the biggest issue. After the July 15th changes, figure 4 shows that there were no complaints at all about food being bad or expired and customer service and the complaints switched over to inventory issues and the condition of the store. From this information a conclusion could be drawn up that the...