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Winter internship on South City Pantaloons Retail India Ltd.

Project title:

Helping employees to improve customer service standard: A case study on Pantaloons outlet at South City Mall Ko

Submitted By : Tara Devi Rai MBA(sem-II) Global Leadership Forum school of Mgmt. HB-217,Salt Lake, Sec-III

Guided By

: Ms Pujarini Ghosh HR. Panataloons Retail India Ltd. South City Mall.

Acknowledgement
I would like to acknowledge with thanks to Mr. Kankan Bose (HR, Eastern Zone, Future Group) for granting me permission to undertake the training in the esteemed organization and Ms Pujarini Ghosh (Store HR) for her guidance and support to complete this project. I would also like to thanks to all the staff and employees of Pantaloons Retail India Ltd for providing me with the needful information on the related topic and for being patience and co-operative to me. I would also like to thanks to the Director Prof A. Banerjee & Prof. Lopamudra Banerjee for their guidance and assistance to complete this project. I would also like to thanks to my institute (GLF School of Management) for providing me an opportunity to do internship in a big Organisation like Pantaloons Retail India Ltd. South City Mall.

Abstract
My project helping employees into customers service standard which I undergone in PRIL involves studying employees behavior on the shop floor. Their ways of dealing with the customers, interacting with them, taking their views to improve the customers service. It is very important to know the customers demand in order to serve them better and the employees attending the customers on the shop floors are the best persons who know about their choice and demands. In order to improved customer service the management needs to look after the behavior of the employees working on the shop floors, not only this, they also have to look after the quality and price of the product as Indian customers are price conscious. As we all know, Customer satisfaction is the primary goal of every retail organizations, in order to satisfy and serve the customer in a better way, we need to have the most well behaved and well trained employees on the floor. This study and observation on the behavior of employees can provide with the required information to the Management on improving the service towards the customers. An unsatisfied customer will share his experience to more people than as compared to satisfied customers share his experience to others, so a retailer should think of providing with the best service than its competitors.

Objective of the study

The main aim of the study is to see the areas where pantaloons need to look after in order to provide improved customer service, as in retail, customer is the GOD. A happy and satisfied customer means retaining a customer for longer period of time in the stores without any sort of boredom. Though all the staffs of Pantaloons are well groomed & well behave. There are many more areas like the employees attitude, their behavior, their interest in the works etc. Following are the main objectives of my study:

Table of Contents
Sl.no. 1 Product offering 2 Buying factors in a store 3 SWOT Analysis 4 Introduction to Research 5 Data collection 6 Data Analysis & interpretation 7 Employees Feedbacks 8 Facilities that customers want 9 1 0 1 1 1 2 1 3 1 Annexure 27-29
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Contents Company Profile

Page no.
6 7 8 9-10 10 10 11-19 20 21 22 23 24-25 26

Facilities that PRIL provides Findings Recommendations & Conclusions Limitations

4 15 Bibliography 30

Company Profile
Pantaloons Retail India limited south city was started in 16th January 2008, it covers the area of 35074 sqft. Pantaloons Retail India Limited was first incorporated as Menz wear private limited in 1987 by Mr. Kishore Biyani who is the managing director. The Company was converted into a Public Limited Company on September 20, 1991 and on September 25, 1992 the name was changed to Pantaloon Fashions (India) Limited and the same time it went public Pantaloon Retail India Limited, is one of the Indias leading retailer, which is part of the Future Group and operates multiple retail formats in both the value and lifestyle segment of the Indian consumer market. The company is headquartered in Mumbai. PRIL serves 85 cities and 60 rural locations across the country through over 15 million square feet of retail space and employs 30000 people.

Products Offering
P a n t a l o o n s s t o r e s h a v e a wi d e v a r i e t y o f c a t e g o r i e s l i k e :

Accessories Home Dcor Luggage

T-24

E-Zone Apparels Planet Sport

Watch Sunglass Jewellery make-up

Men

Women

Kid

Casual

Ethnic

Formal

Accessories

Pantaloon is positioned as an entire family store and it deals in with mens wear, ladies wear and kids wear. It mainly focuses on its Private label program because the share of private label has increased over the previous year and stands at nearly 75%. Below are some of the companys private labels: MENS WEAR John Miller Jm sport Bare denim Rig Lombard Ajile Umm Bare leisure WOMENS WEAR Honey Akkriti Annabelle Mix & Match Ajile Rig

Buying factors in a store

Before buying any products customers looks for: Price of the product. Quality of the product. Store ambience. Service offer by the store. Product variety. Product availability. Satisfaction. Previous experience. Discounts on green cards. So the company needs to know the customers choice, by wide variety of products availability with good quality and affordable prices. Mostly the employees need to be quite approaching as the competition is very high in retail stores.

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SWOT Analysis of Pantaloons: Strength

Product of different price range. Renowned brands. Customer loyalty program. Customer service desk solving problem promptly. Availability of different stores location. Enthusiastic employees. Ambience. Well groomed & well behaved employees. Wide variety products available under one floor. Special facilities and discounts for green card members.

Weakness
Prices are higher as per industry norms, mostly high earning people can only buy the products. Low employees retention due to better pay packages by the competitors. Not having proper sizes & products as the stocks is limited. Loyalty programs of competitors are more attractive due to better scheme. Merchandising not clear, customer get confused.

Opportunity Increasing mall culture in India. More people these days prefer to visit big stores where they can find large variety of products under one roof. Store Location.

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Threats
Economic slowdown & due to offseason, customers had already spent their money during the puja season. Competition from the rivalry like Shoppers stop, Westside, Fashion yatra etc. there is chances of less customers visiting and buying the products. Low employees to attend the customers may results to shift in different retail store.

Introduction to research
Research process is a series of systematic steps that are followed by an organization to solve various problems. It is the framework of the entire plan of action. It clearly describes the crucial issues like the study purpose and its objectives, the type of data needed, the technique to use for selecting samples, collecting data & analyzing it.

Data collection
Basically data are of two types:

Primary data: it

is collected directly from the individuals using data collection method like surveys interviews, filing up the questionnaire, direct observation etc.

Secondary data:

it is the data already existed and is collected by some other person or organization. Sources of secondary data include journals, websites etc.

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Data analysis & Interpretation Employees behavior towards customers

1 security staff at the entrance.(on 33 customers)
greeting the customer who enter the store security saying please leave your baggage at the counter(in case of customer with bags) security carrying on the customers count in a proper manner

YES 26 33 33

NO 7 0 0

This analysis shows that the attender at the entrance is not greeting to all the customers who visits the stores.during sell season the number of customers is very high.

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Security staff at the baggage counter (0n 40 customers)

greeting the customer asking is there anything precious valuable in the bag appropriate token being issued to customer

YES 33 29 40

NO 7 11 0

Security staff at the baggage counter sometimes do not greet the customers especially during the rush time. They just took the baggage and give the token to the customers.

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3 Security staff at the exit (on 44 customers)

greeting the customer at the exit with a thank you

YES 44

NO 6

This analysis shows after the shopping is done, at the exit point, the attenders many times dont greet the customers. As sometimes they were busy attending the customers at the entrance and with their baggage.

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4 On the Floor

(on 60 customers)

TM/TL on the floor making eye contact with the customer & greeting them customer being escorted or guided to another section

yes 48 60

no 12 0

This analysis has been done on the floor, by taking the employees who actually deals with the customers and sell the products, it is found that many times they are not giving proper attention to all the customers visiting the store, it can be due to less employee and more customers. Sometime due to fatigue, lethargy etc.

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5 Housekeeping staff (on 38 housekeeping staff)

housekeeping staff keep out of the customers way while cleaning/moping able to help the customer if he/she needs help? came across as need & clean in appearance

YES 35 37 38

NO 3 1 0

The housekeeping staff are neat and clean in appearance but seldom, they dont work as it is to be done.

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6 At checkouts / cash counter

(on 27 customers)

the cashier make eye contact & greet the customer While scanning items, is he/she checking for loyalty program memberships(green card) Is he/she mentioning the bill & any change with the right hand the customer before the final billing? Is he/she giving the bill & any change with the right hand to the customer? Is he/she saying thank you for shopping at pantaloons?

YES 7 27 27 27 17

NO 20 0 0 0 10

Analysis shows that at the cash counter, the cashier often dont greet the customers, after completing the billing procedure they very seldom thanks the customers.

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7 At the customer desk (on 35 customers)

yes 27 31 35 29

no 7 3 0 6

Is the person at CSD making eye contact & greeting the customer? Is the CSD paying attention to the customer without interrupting? Is he/she solving the problem as quickly as possible? Is the CSD thanking the customer for bringing up the complaint/querry?

At the customer desk customers who come with their problems is being solved by the CSD departments but they sometime dont greet the customers.

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This analysis has been made by taking the 30 employees from the shop floor of Pantaloons South City:

1) Do you face any problems while dealing with the customers? a) Yes b) No

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From the analysis it is found that almost all employees faces problems while dealing with the customers, some said they enjoy the challenges and dealing with different customers gives them a good experience.

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2) What types of problems do you usually face in sale season? a) Excess customers & Less employees problem b) Price & Sizes of the product c) Less stocks d) Quality

9 11 6 4

From the analysis it shows that during sale season they faces mostly problem with the prices, discounts and the sizes as the stocks are limited and the customers are large in numbers, about the quality, less employees, all this are the problem that the employees face.

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Employees Feedbacks on the Floor for improving the Customers service:

Need to be cheerful and approaching to the customers. More stocks of different size and prices should be made available. More employees need to be recruited.
To make survey on customers choice before sale season so that the

products of customers choice can be brought in the store.

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Facilities that customers wants

Free parking facilities. Drinking water. Neat and clean toilets. Free alteration. Carry bags without paying any charges. Signages placing properly with proper description. Supportive customer service desk. Enough trail rooms. Special discounts and privilege for green card members. Cooperative & helping sales people. Affordable price with good quality. Proper shopping ambience.

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Facilities that PRIL South City provides: Customers

Discounts for green cards members. Home delivery services. Free parking facilities. Resting place. Proper ambience for shopping. Enough trails room. Free alterations.

Employees
Extra discounts for employees. Four paid leaves in a month. Incentives for achieving the targets. Good working environment. Helping and motivating management.

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Findings
Recyclable bags should be introduced as customers complaints lots, for deducting extra amount for plastic bags. Tags are not removed properly from the product after the billing that irritates the customers as they have to come back again to the billing counter.
Employees should be given proper training, as sometime their attitude

and behavior towards customers is not good.

On the store some employees are there who works very cheerfully and

few are there they work forcefully. They are not cheerful and approaching to the customers.
Due to huge numbers of customers during sale season it is difficult for the

permanent staff to attend all the customers, so more casual workers need to be recruited for the sale season.
Brands staff, though not a part of pantaloons, needs to take care of

customers and behaved properly, as their ignorance can affect the reputation of pantaloons.
Time taken for alterations process is long. Many customers complaints

about it.
There should be enough trails rooms for the customers, so that they dont

have to stand on the queue for longer time.

Customers using T-24,connection complaining about bad network and

customer care, seriously need to look on this matter, as there is chances of losing huge number of customers.
At the CSD, the attender needs to be very calm and intelligent, but the

new trainees who attending the CSD cannot handle the problem properly.

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Recommendations & Conclusions

It is very important to provide the best customer service as because competition is very tough, if we dont improved the customer service then there is a hundreds reasons to lose the customers, therefore in order to retain the customer for a longer period of time, we need to provide with excellent customer service and it is only possible with the effort and contribution of the employees working on the shop floor. Because they are the one who deals with the customers, so it is the responsibility of the management to take care of the needs and demands of the customer as well as of the employees. South City Pantaloons is a very renowned and big store with lots of experience people taking care of. From my study, I found out that PRIL should take into considerations some few things in order to provide better customer service. Moreover employees need to be provided with different trainings on better customer service at regular intervals. Training in the sense how to deals with different customers at a time. They should be sent to different stores to look how competitors serve their customers.

Following are some of the points through which we can improve our customer service: Fast billing process:-people at the cash counter should be trained properly so that the billing can be done at a faster rate without any mistakes. If the billing machines is not working properly than it should be checked before opening the store, so that the billing process can be done without any problem.
Customers care associates should be made proper delegation of

authority to solve the customers problem immediately without consulting to their supervisors, as the time taken to consult may frustrate the customers.
In retail customer is always right, so in order to retain one

customer, there should be no hesitation for the retailer to go to any end

In

the entrance, there need to be two security standing every time, as pantaloons is a big store, one side customers can exit, one side customers can enters, so one can attend the customer at the exit & one at the entrance to maintain the ambience. customer support, the first impression in the store is outlook of the
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Proper shopping environment should maintain by providing good

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store, how it displays the product, how attractive it looks, things like fragrance, musics, lights, neat and clean, all this add a good impression on customers mind.
At customer service desk, the customers have so many problems

with them, so need to make sure that whoever is sitting in customer desk, should be polite, patience, calm, because many

times customer are in frustrated mood, they need to solve the

customers problem promptly.

As there is lots of competitors coming out in retail sector, so PRIL

needs to add some international brands in its store to attract the customers.

Basically in CSD customers comes with a problem of : Billing problem about the discounts. Misbehavior on the floor.
Customers want to change the product, due to improper size,

defective etc. Discounts on green cards, Complaining about the lost green card, applying of new green card. Came to know the availability of product in other store.

So the attender at the CSD needs to be very patience and need to solve all the queries promptly. PRIL (South City) is one of the very renowned stores of Future Group. It has very good shopping ambience, managing with very well trained and experience management. It has well groomed and supportive employees. PRIL has a very bright future as these days people prefer to visit a store which has a brand, variety of products, affordable price and PRIL is one of such store, although the
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competitions is very tough because there are lots of retail industry are coming out in India with international brands. So PRIL needs to look not only on the improved customers service by the employees but it need to add some more renowned brands in its stores. A high qualified management, a well trained employees. A good ambience. Good quality products. Lastly affordable price makes a complete store with an increasing customer each day.

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Limitations
During sale season employees are very busy due to large numbers of customers, so it is difficult to take feedbacks from them.
Some employees dont want to co-operate.

As the numbers of customers is high so its difficult to observe on every employees at a time. Time limits.

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Annexure
SL.no checklist (Please appropriately tick) YES 1 a) b) c) 2 a) b) c) 3 a) 4 a) b) 5 a) Security staff at entrance Is he/she greeting the customer who enter the store? Is the security saying please leave your baggage at the counter(in case of customer with bags) Is the security carrying on the customers count in a proper manner? Security staff at the baggage counter Is he/she greeting the customer? Are they asking is there anything precious valuable in the bag? Is the appropriate token being issued to customer? Security staff at the exit Is he/she greeting the customer at the exit with a thankyou On the Floor Is the TM/TL on the floor making eye contact with the customer & greeting them? Is the customer being escorted or guided to another section? Housekeeping staff Does the housekeeping staff keep out of the customers way while cleaning/moping? NO

b)

Are they able to help the customer if he/she needs help?

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c) DO they came across as need & clean in appearance?

6 a)

At checkouts/cash counter Does the cashier make eye contact & greet the customer?

b)

While scanning items,is he/she checking for loyalty program memberships(green card)

c)

Is he/she mentioning the bill & any change with the right hand the customer before the final billing?

d)

Is he/she giving the bill & any change with the right hand to the customer? Is he/she saying thankyou for shoping at pantaloons?

e)

7 a)

At the customer desk Is the person at CSD making eye contact & greeting the customer? Is the CSD paying attention to the customer without interrupting? Is he/she solving the problem as quickly as possible?

b)

c)

d)

Is the CSD thanking the customer for bringing up the complaint/querry?

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Questions for the employees:

1)

Do you face any problems while dealing with the customers? a) Yes b) No

2 )

What types of problems do you usually face in sale season? a) Excess customers & Less employees problem b) Price & Sizes of the product c) Less stocks d) Quality

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Bibliography www.google.co.in www.pantaloonretail.in www.futuregroup.in www.scribd.com

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