A

Survey Report
On
Customer satisfaction
towards
Metro Wholesale outlet
Jalandhar

Submitted To :

CUSTOMER SATISFACTION : METRO

Submitted By:

ACKNOWLEDGEMNET
It has been a great pleasure for us to work on this project. Our sincere thanks to Mr. Sunny
Gulati, Our HR Teacher for giving us the opportunity to work on this project whereby we
were given a chance to study the Customer satisfaction towards the METRO wholesale
outlet in Jalandhar. Which helped us to enhance our knowledge related to the Wholesale,
B2B, operations as well as the impact of such services on customers and their satisfaction
level . And it also helped us in developing our thinking on more practical lines. We thank
him for his guidance and support throughout the time when we were working on this survey
report.

CUSTOMER SATISFACTION : METRO

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION

About the customer satisfaction

Company profile
Metro stores in India

OBJECTIVE OF STUDY

.. 4
. 5
. 6

.
.

8
9

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

Research Process
Research Design
Sampling methodology
Data collection
-Questionnaire Method

. 10

DATA ANALYSIS & INTERPRETATION

11-17

FINDINGS & RECOMMENTDATION

LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY

CONCLUSION

..

ANNEXURE
Questionnaire

CUSTOMER SATISFACTION : METRO

INTRODUCTION

About the customer satisfaction

Customer Satisfaction,a term frequently used in marketing, is a measure of how products

and services supplied by a company meet or surpass consumer expectations. Consumer
satisfaction is defined as the number of consumers, or percentage of total consumers, whose
reported experience with a firm, its products, or its services (rating) exceeds specified
satisfaction goals.In a survey of nearly 200 senior marketing managers, 71% responded that
they found a consumer satisfaction metric very useful in managing and monitoring their
business.
It is seen as a key performance indicator within business and is often part of a balanced
scorecard. In a competitive marketplace where businesses compete for consumer, consumer
satisfaction is seen as a key differentiator and increasingly has become a key element of
business strategy.

Customer satisfaction in our study

Wholesale service has become very much important in the competitive environment. Service
quality has been widely used by Wholesalers as one of the important strategy. The sector is
witnessing a radical change as traditional wholesaling is replacing with new format such as
discount stores, departmental stores, supermarkets etc. In this competitive market the
wholesalers are more forced to concentrate towards customer perceptions.
Service quality and customer perception are thus two core concepts of contemporary
marketing theory and practice in wholesale industries. The link between service quality and
customer perception is now firmly established, and it has been shown that this link produces
higher revenue, higher customer retention, repeat purchasing behavior, and expanded
market share.

CUSTOMER SATISFACTION : METRO

INTRODUCTION

COMPANY PROFILE:-

Metro Cash And Carry

!
Type

Private

Industry

Wholesale

Founded

1964

Headquarters
Key people

Dsseldorf, Germany
Olaf Koch, CEO

Products

Fast-moving consumer
goods

Revenue

31.6 billion (2012)

METRO Cash & Carry is an

international self-service
wholesaler. It operates across
Europe and in some countries
of Asia and Northern Africa. It
is the largest sales division of
the German trade and retail
giant Metro Ag.
METRO Cash & Carry is
different from B2C retail chains
(such as Walmart, Carrefour or
Tesco) in that its business
concept is targeted towards
professional customers rather
than end consumers. The cashand-carry concept is based
around self-service and bulk
buying. METRO Cash & Carry
serves to registered customers
only. Core customer groups are
hotels, restaurants, caterers,
traders and other business
professionals.

Number of employees ~ 100,000 (2012)[1]

Website

www.metro-cc.com

Metro

in India:

The first METRO Cash & Carry

wholesale center in India opened in Bangalore in 2003. Currently there are 16 wholesale
centers in operation, including three in Bangalore and two in Hyderabad ,of which one was
opened on 30 November 2006. The first Mumbai store was opened in 2008 at Bhandup. The
Kolkata store located at Kalikapur, EM Bypass was opened in 2008. A Metro Cash & Carry
store was opened at Ludhiana city in Punjab in the first week of September 2011, located on
the Jalandhar Bypass road. The second store in Mumbai was opened on 17 November 2011,
near Western Express Highway, Borivli (E). In the beginning of 2012 Metro opened 2 more

CUSTOMER SATISFACTION : METRO

stores in northern India including one in New Delhi and one in Jaipur, with plans to open
more.
Metro has stores in the following cities:
Amritsar
Bangalore
Delhi
Hyderabad
Indore
Jaipur
Jalandar
Kolkata
Ludhiana
Mumbai
Vijayawada
Zirakpur
The Metro concept:

Wholesale exclusively for business customers.

Customers are registered and need a customer card to enter the premises.

The point of sale is a large warehouse.

The customer picks merchandise, pays and transports the goods or uses our transportation
services.

A high percentage of the goods are from local suppliers.

CUSTOMER SATISFACTION : METRO

Membership Basis
Metro modern wholesale divides its customer base into 3 target business member categories:

Resellers
HoReCa
O&I

Resellers
Resellers include all the small and big shops which can purchase from the best price and sell
the stuff in the market.

Kirana shops, stationery shops, apparel/footwear shops, toy shops, fruits and vegetable
shops, meat shops etc. come under the category of resellers.
Resellers contribute almost 65% of sales of Metro Cash& carry store.
There is a separate marketing strategy with separate marketing team which looks in this
department known as reseller.

HoReCa (Hotels, restaurants and catering)

HoReCa includes all types of restaurants, catering, Dhabas, Sweet Shops which can
purchase the grocery and other things from Metro cash & carry wholesale store.
HoReCa contributes around 20% of sale of the store.
A separate marketing segmentation is also done to cater to the needs and identifying
demand in this area which is known as HoReCa.

O&I (office and institutions)

All type of offices and institutions come under this marketing division of Metro cash &
carry Wholesale store.
Offices, parlors, hospitals, schools, colleges, industries etc. come under the category of O &
I.

Membership procedure
Basis of Filling Membership Form:For the purpose of development, knowing the basics of membership procedure is must.
As it helps one to know about the legal documents requirements required for the
membership, validity of the Units to become and preserving of records for any further use.

CUSTOMER SATISFACTION : METRO

Process of becoming a member of Metro Cash & Carry

Fill up the
application
form

Business/
trade license

Visit store
with ID proof

Get
permanent
membership
card

Membership Cards are of two types:

1.) Primary card- issued to the owner of the business entity, person is called the primary
holder of the card.
2.) Add on:- issued only if requested by the primary holder for 2 other people who could
purchase for the business unit, on behalf of primary holder. An authorization letter for the
same is required which is given is given on given on the valid letter head of the business unit.
Hence, overall 3 cards (1 primary and 2 add on) are issued for single business entity.
Membership Services:
Gold Loyalty program@2.5%
Benefits and Privileges offered under this loyalty program:
Monthly bonus of up to 2.5% your total purchases
Privileges Outside Metro world
Exciting gifts & surprises
Dedicated Billing counters
Dedicated Relationship Managers

Silver Loyalty program;

This loyalty does not provide any direct monetary benefits
it only offers
Exciting Gifts & Pleasant Surprises
Assured Rewards

CUSTOMER SATISFACTION : METRO

OBJECTIVE OF THE STUDY

The study has been under taken to analyze the customer satisfaction towards Metro
wholesale outlet stores with a special reference to the Metro store in Jalandhar, punjab. The
other objectives are:

To gather information about customer satisfaction toward Metro wholesale outlets

store in the geographic region of Jalandhar(Punjab).

To provide suggestions, in improving the customer satisfaction and the company sales
and profitability

To know the customer satisfaction towards customer services provides by Metro.

To understand the impact of Wholesale Service Quality in Cash & Carry Stores.

To know the Customer perception of satisfaction.

CUSTOMER SATISFACTION : METRO

REVIEW OF LITERATURE
For the purpose of the study, several articles and websites were reviewed. As the study is
about customers satisfaction for wholesale service quality and availability in Cash and Carry
store, Metro. It was very important to read various articles about customer satisfaction,
wholesale service quality, customer buying behavior etc. with the help of the literature
reviewed, the study became simpler and clearer.
J. BENEKE, C. HAYWORTH, R. HOBSON AND Z. MILA (2012) in their article Examining
the effect of retail service Quality dimensions on customer satisfactions and loyalty: They
have tried to study in their article about the wholesale service quality in a supermarket. The
result from the analysis into the path model shows that a statistically significant relationship
exist between only two of the five wholesale service quality dimensions and satisfaction at or
below the 10% significance level. These two factors are physical appearance and personal
interaction. reliability was shown to be very weakly linked to satisfaction. the remaining two
factors, problem solving and policy, do not appear to have a significant effect on satisfaction.
the analysis revealed a strong relationship existed between customer satisfaction and loyalty.
ALUREGOWDA (2013) Article retail services quality and its effect on customer
perception: a study of selected supermarket in Mangalore;
IN this article and his study he tried to show the consumer perception Retail services Quality.
Retail services quality was measured by using five dimensions like reliability, personal
interaction, physical aspects, problem solving and policy.

CUSTOMER SATISFACTION : METRO

10

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
Research Methodology:- MEANiNG
Research Methodology is way to systematically solve the research problem. A researcher has
to study the research problem along with the logic in it for researcher should not only the
methods and techniques but also the methodology. The researcher has to apply particular
research techniques in the problems and he should also known which method or technique is
so relevant or not so that, means, it is necessary for the researcher to design his methodology
for his problems as the so may differ from problem to problem.

RESEARCH PROCESS
Formation of objective
Secondary data collection
Selection of sample size
Questionnaire preparation
Primary data collection
Data analysis
Findings and suggestions
Limitations
Conclusion

CUSTOMER SATISFACTION : METRO

11

Research Design:Type of research:- Analytical research, Conclusive research

Sources of data :-

Primary Data and Secondary Data

Primary Data- Questionnaire

Secondary Data-Internet, Company in house brochures, Literature

Data collection method:Survey Instruments:Sampling technique:Sample size :-

Survey method

Questionnaire
Convenient sampling

20 Businessman including retailers, HoReCa and O&I

Sample Frame:- Visitors/ customers of the store

Area of the survey:- Jalandhar

CUSTOMER SATISFACTION : METRO

12

Type of research:Conclusive Research:Conclusive research provides information that the executives make a rational decision. In
some instances particularly if an experiment is run, the research in many come close to
specifying the precise alternative to chose, in other cases especially with descriptive studies,
the research will only partially clarify the situation and much will be left to executives
judgement.
Conclusive study can be classified into two types either descriptive or experimental.
Analytical Research:In Analytical research, the researcher has to use facts or information already available and
analysis these to make a critical evaluation of the material available or collected.Here in our
study we analysis the data, collected through questionnaire method, and analysis the data on
various basis.

Data collection methods:Data is nothing but simply collection of facts and figures. the two type of data:

1.) Primary Data: The primary data are those which are collected fresh and for the first
time, and thus happens to be original in character. The method used for research for primary
data collection are:
Interview Method
Questionnaire Method

Questionnaire method
For the collection of primary data,questionnaire method was followed in this survey report. A
formal list of questions is prepared under this method and the respondents are asked to
answer these questions. Questions are related to the objective of the study.
Merits:1. Low cost even when universe is large.
2. It is free from bias of interviewer.
3. Respondents have proper time to answer.
4. respondents who are not easily approachable can also reachable.

CUSTOMER SATISFACTION : METRO

13

5. Large samples can be made.

Collection of data through questionnaire is quite popular, particular in case of big enquiries.
It is being adopted by private individuals, research workers, private and public organizations
and even by governments.

2.) Secondary Data:- These are those data, which are not collected a fresh and are used
earlier also and thus they cannot be considered as original in character. there are many ways
of data collection of secondary data like publications of the state and of the state and central
government,website , journals, companies reports, reports prepared bye researchers report of
various associations connected with business, industries, banks etc. For this study we used
secondary sources :
Secondary resources used for the project:
Internet
Company in house brochures
literature
personal meetings with store employees and visiting.

SAMPLING TECHNIQUES

AREA OF RESEARCH :
The area of survey serves the entire area where the research is going to conduct and the area
with in limit where the, problem of the study or objective of survey got affected or having
any kind of impact over the population of the particular area. Here in our research Area of
research is not wider as per the time and cost constraints.Thus the area of research for our
report is restricted only on to the customers of the Metro wholesale outlet of Jalandhar.

Sample Frame/ size:

The sample Frame is generally concerns with those particular area or proportion of the
population which has gotten maximum weightage and is elected to study over it. simply
saying the sample frame or design provides the possible proportion of the universe which is
having the capability of being sample for the study.
Here in our study the visiter customers of the store, Metro Jalandhar is the sample frame and
size of sample is 20 customers.

Sampling technique:

CUSTOMER SATISFACTION : METRO

14

The researcher must have to decide the way of selecting a sample or what is popularly
known as the sample design. And the method of selecting is known as sampling technique .
There are two type of sampling techniques used while sampling:
Non probabilit sampling techniques
Probabilit sampling techniques
here whiling conducting our survey we have used the non probability sampling technique.
Non probability sampling technique, the samples selected do not allow the researcher to
determine probability. Non probability sampling techniques may be of following types:
Convenient sampling technique
Quota sampling method
Judgement sampling method
purposive sampling method
Here in our study we used the convenient sampling technique.
Convenient sampling technique is, where researcher chose the samples as per their
convenience and per the requirement of the survey. Here in our study we also used the
convenient sampling technique of non probability sampling techniques, because we found it
suitable for our purpose and as well as we have limited time and cost.

6.4 Profile of Sampling

The survey was conducted in METRO- Cash & Carry, Jalandhar and the questionnaires were
filled with different demographics like age, gander and occupation. As we can see, total
numbers of people were 20. Out of them 14 were having Retail Business, 4 were having
Catering as well as Hotel Business, and rest of 2 were having membership under office and
Institution category.
As we can see that the total number of respondents were 20.

CUSTOMER SATISFACTION : METRO

15

Data analysis & Interpretation

Data analysis & Interpretation
Q.1 : What is the type of business, in which you are dealing with?
Retailers

HOReCa
13

O&I

Others
2

10%

Retailers
HoReCa
O&I
Others

25%

65%

Interpretation:
In our study we found people visiting metro, are mostly from retailer business profile. here
out of 20, 14 were having retail business, 4 were having catering as well as hotel business,
and rest 2 were having membership under office and institution category.

CUSTOMER SATISFACTION : METRO

16

Q.2) Which source made you to know about the store Metro ?
News paper

35%

F.M.Radio

10%

Outdoor hoardings

20%

Friends/ others

25%

cable TV

10%
news paper
F.M Radio
Outdoor hoardings
Friends/Others
Cable TV

10%

35%
25%

10%
20%

Interpretation:
As per the our survey we found that the store Metro having good advertising and
promotional channels.Out of 20 people 7 people came to know about the store from the news
paper, and 2 from the Radio channels and 4 people from outdoor hoardings and 5 from the
friends and others and 2 came to know from cable tv channels. thus we came to know that
the store metro having wide communication and adverting channels.

CUSTOMER SATISFACTION : METRO

17

Q3.) How frequently do you visit Metro?

Once in a week

Once in 15 days

Once in a month

Once in 2-3 months

11

Once in week
Once in 2-3 months

Once in !5 days

Once in a month

15%

55%

30%

Interpretation:
In our survey we came to know that most of people visit the store Once in 2-3 months. 55% of
the 20 people came after the 2-3 months and 30% once in month and 15% visits the store after
15 days.

Q 4.) How was your experience at the store on the following parameters?

CUSTOMER SATISFACTION : METRO

18

Table 3
V Good

Good

Prices

11

Quality

13

Membership services

10

Time taken in billing

15

Parking facilities

18

Store display (inside outside)

14

Store utility (Trolleys,Toilets etc.)

11

Location of store

Poor

V poor

V good
Good
Poor
V Poor

Prices

Quality

Membership services

Time taken in billing

Parking facilities

Store display (inside outside)

Store utility (Trolleys,Toilets etc.)

Location of store
0

CUSTOMER SATISFACTION : METRO

4.5

13.5

18

19

Interpretation:
Price: As per our study concerned about the price range provided by the store Metro, Out of
20 respondents 11 people are having a very good reception in they mind about the price
range provided by the store its actually a bigger part says, more than 50% respondent feel
satisfied from the price range and 7 respondent are having good reception in there mind.
Quality:As per quality concerned most of the respondent are satisfied from the quality of goods
provided by the store and are 13 out of 20 respondent are having a very good perception in
their mind regarding quality of products provided by the store and 7 are having good
reception about the product quality. so over all we notice that most of the people are having
good perception in their mind regarding quality.
Membership services:As concerned with the membership services provided by the store about 9 people are having
very good experience with them and 10 people are having just good experience and only 1
out of 20 respondent are having poor perception regarding membership services provided by
the store.
Time taken in billing:As per the concerned about the billing services most of the were having a bad experiences.
Out of 20, 4 were in view of very poor services in billing section and about 15 people were
having a poor perception their mind. And only few of people are satisfied with the time taken
in billing. so the overall result of satisfactory level at billing section is poor.
Parking facilities:Metro store Jalandhar having a wider area for parking so in our survey most of the people
were having good experience with parking facilities provided by the store. Here we found 18
out of 20 people are having very good experience in parking facilities. and 1 customer is
having good perception only 1 customer is dissatisfied.

CUSTOMER SATISFACTION : METRO

20

Store display ( outside and inside):As per concerned with the store display features most of people were having good perception
towards the store ease of locating merchandise. Out of 20, 14 customer having very good
perception and 4 customer were having the good perception towards the store display
options. And only 2 costumer were having difficulty while locating their desired items.
Store Utilities ( trolleys, toilets):As per the survey concerned to peoples perception towards the store utilities most of the
people are satisfied with the other utilities provided by the store. Out of 20, 11 customer
were having a very good experience regarding store utilities and 6 are having good
experience and only 3 customers were dissatisfied.
Location of the store:As per our survey concerned to the location of the store, most of the people were having not
so good experience regarding the store. Its in high distance than the city Jalandhar. Out of 20
only 3 people are satisfied with the location of the store and 7 people are having good
perception towards the store and 7 people were in mind that its far away from the city and
having poor perception towards the location of the store an 3 people found it very poor and
are dissatisfied.

CUSTOMER SATISFACTION : METRO

21

Q5.) Which product do you purchase more often in Metro?

Groceries

Electronic goods
70%

10%

Apparels

other
15%

5%

Interpretation:
In our survey we came to find out that most of the people who are concerned with retail
business are much interested in this store and most of the people are purchasing groceries
products like food and beverages and the grocery goods. 70% of people are visiting the store
for grocery products and only 20% are purchasing electronic goods and 5% people are
visiting for the appeals and 5% are purchasing other sort of products like stationary etc.

CUSTOMER SATISFACTION : METRO

22

Q.6 ) Do you think that the Metro wholesale store provide you the required items of
your need?
All the items

All the necessary items

3
All the items

Only some items

9
All the necessary items

Very few
4

Only some items

1
Very few

Interpretation:
On the basis of availability the customers nod for all the necessary item is 56% which is the
highest. For almost all items all items is 17% and for only some items it is 22%. for very few
items is 11% . the percentage of dissatisfactory customers is 11%.

CUSTOMER SATISFACTION : METRO

23

Q 7.) Does Metro Offer any special discount on prices?

Yes season wise service

No special offer

100%

Buy one get one

50% to 60% off (e.g)

Buy one get two

Get two for Rs.999(e.g.)

11

Buy one get second one 60% off on price

Other discount

Buy one get one

50% to 60% off (e.g)
Buy one get two
Get two for Rs.999(e.g.)
Buy one get second one 60% off on price
Other discount

CUSTOMER SATISFACTION : METRO

24

Q.8) Customer Service survey:

Excellent
Staff was available in a timely
manner?

Good

Average

Poor

11

13

Staff showed knowledge of the

products/services?

11

Staff answered your questions?

12

Staff greeted you and offered you

help?

Excellent
Good
Average
Poor

Staff was available in a timely manner?

Staff greeted you and offered you help?

aff showed knowledge of the products/services?

Staff answered your questions?

3.5

10.5

Interpretation:
In our survey we came to know that most of the customers are satisfied from the customer
services provided by the store. The overall performance of the staff towards the customers
was good. The satisfaction level of the customers from the customer handling services is
quite good and impressive. Only few of people were in view that the were not taken well care
by the staff.

CUSTOMER SATISFACTION : METRO

25

Q 9.) Will you visit the Metro Store again?

Yes

No

100%

0%

yes

no

Interpretation:
Through analysis we came to know that customers are happy with the store visit. And they
are ready to visit the store again.Though some of having some kind of factors of
dissatisfaction yet they are still interested in revisiting.

CUSTOMER SATISFACTION : METRO

26

Q.10) How do you feel (satisfied) after shopping at Metro?

Satisfied

Not satisfied
19

satisfied
disstatified

Interpretation:
In our study we find most of the people are satisfied.here only 1 person we find out of 20 who
was not satisfied yet he has some issues regarding the customer services provided and billing
section. yet 95% of people are satisfied.

CUSTOMER SATISFACTION : METRO

27

LIMITATION OF STUDY
In each research work there is always some limitations and this research is no exception. so it
also effected by many of the limitations. some are written as below:
Limitation of Time:Availability of time was one of the biggest limitation faced. Due to shortage of time we had to
limit the work in its present from such as we had to limit our self near only.
Limitation of Cost:Money was also one of the limitation faced while conducting the survey . Because there are
so many retail customers of the store but as per the level of our study and money constraints
we only covered few of them.
Limitation of Area:The research is limited to the Jalandhar only. Most of the respondent are the visitors of the
store. The study is basically limited to the METRO-Cash & Carry, Jalandhar carried out by
questioning people from store itself
Limitation on the part of the respondent:Some of the people were not actually interested in filling the questionnaire, some people were
taking this research seriously. some of the people were were engaged in their job hesitate to
fill questionnaire and their personal details.
One of the major issue was that some of people were hesitating because they took
membership for their shop name but they were just using it for their household purpose not
business.
Other limitations:Since we didt have any previous experience in research work and report writing so it may
have lead to discrepancies in the report. Our sample size was only 20 yet we tried to cover up
each category of membership holders since it would not be sufficient to prove equivalent
results. The result may vary Different cash & carry store in india.

CUSTOMER SATISFACTION : METRO

28

FINDINGS

1) Most of the members are resellers as compare to organization and industry.

2) Kirana shops are highly engaged in this B2B marketing.
3).Membership drive plays the most important role in making the people aware about
the Metro cash & carry.
4.)Customers are more attracted towards Metro store because its offers best product
with good quality, regional price and also because of variability of different type of
products under the one roof.
5) Billing time taken at best price store is one the main drawback of the store.
6.) People were not fully satisfied with location of the store, most of the find it
uncomfortable and some of people were having good perception regarding the
location of store.
7.)It is found that almost all the necessary items are available in the store.
8.) As per the opinion of the customers staff of the Metro store is almost up to the
mark.
9.) Keeping the facilities offered by METRO store in mind people are more attracted
and satisfied with services and products of the store and hence would recommend to
this store users.
10.)The other services like store display, store utilities etc. are very effective and people
find it convenient and attractive.

CUSTOMER SATISFACTION : METRO

29

RECOMMENDATIONS
1.) We find that most of people were visiting to the store for grocery and other consumable
goods. The store must work on its other products like electronic products, as per quality as
well as variability of the products.
2) Most of people were having difficulties while summing up their bought up goods . So the
store must provide some of the packing the products.
3) The main reason for the dissatisfaction is billing section, as per our study we would
recommend that they must have to work on their billing section. On the special festivals and
offers they should provide best possible facilities to reduce time period on billing section.
They should increase the number of billing counters.
4) Though the store is providing good customer services yet some of the customer find it not
sufficient comfortable. So they should work on so that people could find the customer
services as best as possible.
5) The store should also work on increasing the links and increase the span of area to cover
up maximum customers.

CUSTOMER SATISFACTION : METRO

30

Conclusion
Metro wholesale cash & carry is distinguishing it self from its competitors because of
providing largest collection of brands, Activations and Events. It has a huge market
potential. so that it becomes enable to cover up the large area of business customers though
having an outer location from the city. Here customers are delighted with large variety of
products.
It is concept of providing all materials under one roof for wholesale products is new of kind
and has the potential of attracting more of the customers in the developing cities like
Jalandhar. People are here much attracting towards such stores to getting high benefits and
curies to attain more services that are provided by such stores so the metro store having a
very good market potential.
Metro store is adapting unique marketing strategies to attract the most of the customers.for
instance, its providing a unique gold & silver membership holding, mango mela, unique type
of offers on festivals that are enjoyed by their customers.

CUSTOMER SATISFACTION : METRO

31