A STUDY OF CUSTOMER CENTRICITY PRACTICES OF ADITYA BIRLA FASHION

RETAIL LTD.,

AT PANTALOONS, WESTEND MALL, AUNDH, PUNE

PROJECT REPORT SUBMITTED TO

SYMBIOSIS SKILLS & OPEN UNIVERSITY

In fulfillment of Summer Internship for BBA (Retail Management)

2017-20

SUBMITTED BY
SONICA SINGH (1700201037)

UNDER THE GUIDANCE OF

MR. ADITYA KHODE
ASSISTANT STORE MANAGER (PANTALOONS, WESTEND MALL)
ADITYA BIRLA FASHION RETAIL LTD. (ABFRL)
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 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

I am highly grateful to Aditya Birla Fashion Retail Ltd., Pantaloons for providing me with the
opportunity to complete my internship training with them. I acknowledge my gratitude to Mr.
Aditya Khode (ASM, Pantaloons, Westend Mall) and his employees for providing me their
valuable guidance and constant co-operation at every step of the project. Without their support
and encouragement, the successful completion of this project would not have been possible.

I convey my gratitude to all the staff of Pantaloons, Westend Mall, Pune for their kind co-
operation throughout my project.

Also, I am thankful to Symbiosis Skills & Open University and Prof. Aditya Kalia, my mentor
for allowing me to do my internship and complete my project with their support.

I also express my sincere gratitude to all those people who have directly or indirectly extended
their help to complete this project report.

Sonica Singh

1700201037

July 2019

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 INDEX

Sr. No. Content Pg. No.

01 Certificate 2
02 Acknowledgement 3
03 Executive Summary 5
04 Ch 01- Introduction: 6-9
 1.1. About the Company 6-7
 1.2. About the Topic 8
 1.3. Objectives of the Study 9
05 Ch 02- Organizational Chart 10
06 Ch 03- Detailed Description 11-26
 3.1. Process of Sales & Customer Service 12-20
 Marketing & Promotional Activities 21-26

07 Ch 04- Feedback & Analysis 27-40

 Mission Happiness Feedback & Analysis 27-33
 Non-Buyer Feedback & Analysis 34-40

08 Ch 05- Learning Outcomes 41

09 Ch 06- Conclusion & Recommendations 42-43
10 References 44

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 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

This project report basically focuses on the customer centricity practices undertaken by Aditya
Birla Fashion Retail Ltd. (ABFRL) at Pantaloons, Westend Mall, Aundh, Pune.

ABRL has coined a term “Bosstomer”. It was observed that in Pantaloons, customers are
considered equivalent to boss. It is believed that customer satisfaction it the ultimate guide for
continuous success and therefore,

BOSS+CUSTOMER= BOSSTOMER.

This project report will give in depth information regarding all the Customer Centricity
Practices and all the practices being implemented in favor of customers and how all those
activities are resulting from customer’s point of view.

The project encompasses detailed description about the sales process, customer service,
customer service desk, marketing and promotional techniques.

It focuses on “Mission Happiness” index wherein customers are asked to give feedback at the
POS on the MH machine which consists of questions related to customer satisfaction and
experience.

It also includes an analysis on “Non-Buyer Feedback” where in customers who returned

empty handed from the store were surveyed and asked for the reason why they didn’t shop for
anything.

Thereby, conclusions were drawn and recommendations were made based on the study
conducted.

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 CHAPTER 01- INTRODUCTION:

1.1. ABOUT THE COMPANY-

Industry Retail
Founded 1997
Headquarters Mumbai, Maharashtra, India
Number of Locations 86
Key People Mr. Subal C.H. kundu & Santanu kundu
(Managing Director)
Sangeeta Pendurkar (CEO)
S. Visvanathan (CFO)
Suraj Bahirwani (COO)
Products Department Stores, Fashion Clothes etc
Number of Employees 5300
Parent Aditya Birla Group

Pantaloons, a division of ABFRL has always been one of the most loved large format
fashion retailers in India. Pantaloons is today the fastest growing large format retailer
in the country. It follows a hashtag of #StyleYourChange

Pantaloons was launched amidst much fanfare in Gariahat, Kolkata in 1997. Over the
years, the brand has undergone several transitions therefore reinventing it to bring forth
compelling trends and styles for men, women and kids. It started as a discount format,
moving to a family concept store and finally evolved into a fashion destination with a
sharp focus on bringing the latest in fashion.

The company offers a wide range of brand offerings across apparel and non-apparel
categories and across varied price points.

It operates across categories of casual wear, ethnic wear, formal wear, party wear and
active wear for men, women and kids. Womenswear is the lead category contributing
to half of total apparel sales. Non-apparel products include footwear, handbags,
cosmetics, perfumes, fashion jewelry and watches.

Pantaloons today retails over 200 licensed and international brands, including 24
exclusive in-house brands.

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The Pantaloons exclusive brand bouquet includes Rangmanch, Ajile, Honey, Akkriti,
Chalk, Annabelle, Trishaa, Alto Moda, Poppers, Chirpie Pie; besides, it also
features brands licensed on a long- term basis: Bare, Rig, SF Jeans, Byford, JM
Sports and Lombard.

Fig. Brands at Pantaloons

pantaloons.com is the official online store for Pantaloons in India. It is also available
on all other leading e-commerce portals.

Pantaloons runs a multi-tier loyalty program called Greencard Loyalty Program.

Greencard is India’s most rewarding loyalty program and boasts of over 12 million
members.

The greatest asset of Pantaloons is its exclusive brands that keep customers coming
back to the stores. What sets these brands apart is that each of the designs are crafted
keeping the consumer’s fashion sensibilities and fashion needs in mind.

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 1.2. ABOUT THE TOPIC-

Customer centricity is a way of doing business with your customer in a way that provides
a positive customer experience before and after the sale in order to drive repeat business,
customer loyalty and profits.

But, a customer-centric company is more than a company that offers good service. Both
Amazon and Zappos are prime examples of brands that are customer centric and have
spent years creating a culture around the customer and their needs. Their commitment in
delivering customer value is genuine – In fact, Zappos is happy to fire employees if they
do not fit within their customer centric culture!

Customer centricity is not just about offering great customer service, it means offering a
great experience from the awareness stage, through the purchasing process and finally
through the post-purchase process. It’s a strategy that’s based on putting your customer
first, and at the core of your business.

When you put your customer at the core of your business, and combine it with Customer
Relationship Management (CRM), you collect a wealth of data, which gives you a full 360
view of the customer. This can then be used to enhance the customer experience.

For example:

 You can use customer data to understand buying behavior, interests and
engagement
 You can identify opportunities to create products and services for your best
customers
 You can use customer lifetime value to segment customers based on top spending
customers

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1.3. OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY-

Primary Objective-

 To study the various customer centricity services provided at ABFRL.

Secondary Objective-

 To observe GUEST model (B2C sales) of Pantaloons.

 To observe services provided at Customer Service Desk (CSD) of Pantaloons.
 To understand customer expectations via feedback and suggestions through
“MISSION HAPPINESS”

 In this project, the main objective is to study and observe different customer

centricity practices performed at Aditya Birla Fashion Retail Ltd.

 Customer Centricity is a way of doing business with your customer in a way

that provides a positive experience before and after the sale in order to

drive repeat business which helps build Customer Loyalty and profits.

 In order to maintain the brand image, any organization should overcome the
problems faced by customers related to service, ambience, staff behavior,
hygiene, product, billing, unavailability, quality. These can be done only by
understanding the customer’s experience at the store and area of
improvement.

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 CHAPTER 02- ORGANISATIONAL CHART

PANTALOONS, WESTEND MALL, AUNDH, PUNE:

1. Store Manager (SM): Mr. Vishal Dani

A. Assistant Store Manager (ASM): Mr. Aditya Khode

B. Human Resource (HR): Mr. Vinayak Salunke
C. Head Cashier: Mr. Satyanarayan Sitha
 Sub Cashiers- Total No. 05
D. Department Managers (DM)- Kids, Men, Women Western, Women Ethnic
 Men’s Dept. DM: Mr. Shyam Kendre
 Fashion Assistant (FAs) total- 08

 Women’s Western Dept. DM: Ms. Reshmi Nair

 Fashion Assistant (FAs) total- 08

 Women’s Ethnic Dept. DM: Mr. Kushagra Prakash

 Fashion Assistant (FAs) total- 05

 Kid’s Dept. DM: Mr. Bablu Mallik

 Fashion Assistant (FAs) total- 06

Fig. Organizational Chart of Pantaloons, Westend Mall, Pune

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 CHAPTER 03- DETAILED DESCRIPTION

CHALLENGES FOR FASHION RETAIL IN INDIA-

 Rapidly Changing Customer Demands- Fashion awareness has greatly

increased because of social media, blogs and forum discussions. Customers’
fashion interests can change very quickly, making it difficult for fashion
retailers to produce according to the demand.
 Lack of Adequate Infrastructure- Indian fashion retail industry is hit by
infrastructural bottlenecks due to the poor conditions of roads, highways, etc.,
which creates supply chain constraints and increases lead time, inventory
holding cost and inventory carrying cost.
 Supply Chain- The entire supply chain needs to be integrated, as managing
logistics requires close coordination across the network of suppliers,
manufacturers, co-packers, distribution centers, transportation providers, and
stores.
 Heterogeneity of the Market

In this project, the main objective is to study and observe different customer centricity
practices performed at Aditya Birla Fashion Retail Ltd.

Customer Centricity is a way of doing business with your customer in a way

that provides a positive experience before and after the sale in order to drive
repeat business which helps build Customer Loyalty and profits

For this Aditya Birla Group has developed customer centricity program called
Mission Happiness. This project mainly consists of study on Mission Happiness.

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3.1 PROCESS OF SALES AND CUSTOMER SERVICE-

3.1.1. GUEST Model (B2C sales)-

 G- Greet the customer “NAMASTE” with a smile

 U- Understand Customer’s requirement and explain the product.
 E- Encourage customer to go for trial
 S- Suggest the suitable and Sale the product
 T- Thank the customer for shopping with us and ask them to visit again

Hence the sales process at Pantaloons is called as GUEST model.

Greet the customer-

Pantaloons has established its own norms of showing respect to its customers and
greeting them with delight.
Further, following the Indian culture and tradition, all the customers are greeted with a
“Namaste” at the entrance with a warm welcoming smile to develop a familiar
shopping environment. The customers are also handed shopping bag at the entrance.

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Understand customer’s requirement and explain the product-
Once the customers enter the store, the FAs (Fashion Assistant) are supposed to
approach the customers in order to ease their shopping experience.
Understand what the customer is looking for- the size, color, pattern, fabric material
etc.
Once you have understood the customer’s requirement, present the customer or help
the customer with product selection.

Encourage the customer to go for trial-

After the customer has selected the options and is satisfied with the selected options,
encourage the customers to go for a trial for complete satisfaction.
Guide the customer towards the trial room, check for the tags in all the pieces, ensure
that the customer is comfortable. Help the customer to select if he/she is alone by
complimenting the customer like “This dress fits you perfectly” or “I will bring another
option which will suit you more” etc.

Suggest the suitable-

Help customer select options for final sale and if the customer is confused, sort it by
saying “since both the dresses suit you well you should buy both, as very rarely we find
dresses which suits us well” etc.
Acknowledge and encourage the customers to go for Loyalty (Green Card) Card by
letting them know its benefits.
Guide the customers towards POS for final billing.

Thank the customer for shopping with us and ask them to visit again-
Once the sale is done and billing is completed, thank the customer for shopping with
Pantaloons and showing their trust in the brand.
“Thanks for shopping with Pantaloons. We look forward to see you soon. Have a great
day. NAMASTE.”

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3.1.2 Customer Service Desk (CSD) and other Services-

The function of Customer Service Desk (CSD) is to provide various services to the
customers in order to ease the shopping for customers and make it a hassle-free
experience.

Fig. Customer Service Desk at Pantaloons, Westend Mall

Following are the services offered at the CSD in Pantaloons-

 Gift Wrapping-
If you’re purchasing the product for gifting it to someone else, you can avail the
service of gift wrapping on any product purchased and it is free of cost.
The customer can select their choice of gift-wrapping paper for it.
 Alteration-
If the customer wants some alteration to be done to the item purchased, two
alteration slips are prepared; one for the customer and other for the tailor,
containing information about alteration metrics, date and time of delivery etc.
This service is free of cost.
 Product Exchange-
Product once purchased can be exchanged under following circumstances:
a. Size Difference
b. Customer wants different color

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 c. Defective Product
d. Did not like the product

There are two methods of product exchange offered i.e. “Piece-to-Piece”

exchange and “Credit Note”.

Customers can exchange “piece-to-piece” if the new piece has the same MRP
as exchanged piece.

Whereas customers are given “credit note” incase the customer doesn’t want to
purchase anything in exchange. The credit note is equivalent to the money
returned which can be redeemed at any Pantaloons store within 30 days from
the issue date.

Other Services-

 Trial Room
 Ample number of billing counters
 Ample walking space
 Clean drinking water
 Air Conditioning
 Free of cost fashion assistance
 Good atmospherics (music, smell, hygiene etc.)

Green Card (Loyalty Card)-

Pantaloons offers Green Card to all the loyal customers.

Further, the green card customers are divided into tiers (1, 3, 5 and 7) depending on
the numbers of purchases. The points get registered with continued purchases in the
customer’s green card account which they can avail.

Different tiers have different offers and discounts.

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 Fig. Green Card

Fig. Loyalty Programs

according to tiers

3.1.3. Mission Happiness (MH)-

Mission Happiness is a campaign which was launched by Pantaloons. It describes

the happiness and satisfaction of the customer during and after the shopping.

It is a feedback system which collects the feedback of customer as the customer rate
the services.

Mission Happiness focuses on following points:

 Customer centricity program

 Gear up for future competition model, shifting from price and product to
customers and solution (total value)

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  Use voice of customer as real-time feedback, to build sustainable
competitive advantage.
 Improve on all the KPIs (Key Performance Indicator) and profitability from
feedback.

LISTEN LEARN ACT

CUSTOMER
DELIGHT

LISTEN to the customers

LEARN from their feedback = HAPPY CUSTOMER
TRAIN & ACT on feedback

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 Cycle of Delight-

1. Customer visits the 2. Call center team calls

store & shares experience back the customer

4. Solution forwarded by 3. Respective team

the management address the feedback

Steps in MH are represented by circle of delight, it contains 4 steps as follows,

 Customer feedback-
Customer visits the store and shares feedback with respect to the shopping experience
at the POS in MH feedback
 Call center team calls back customer-
If a customer shares a low rated feedback, the call center team calls the customer as
Pantaloons has all customer data and registers those complaints.
 Addressing the feedback-
Pantaloons follows a motto of “Complaints to Compliments, i.e. C2C” and believes in
celebrating complaints. As soon as the complaint is registered the call center team
forwards it to management for addressing.
 Resolution by Management-
The management has a team looking into the complaints and finding solutions to those.
The solution is then forwarded by the management team.
All these steps contribute to Mission Happiness, which result in Happy Customer
(Customer delight)

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Customer Problem Resolution-

Happy Customers High Sales High Incentive Earning

Following module is used to handle customer issues effectively-

Empathize-

E
Listen Carefully to the customer
 Let the customer know that he/she has
been heard.
 Give assurance that it will be acted
upon.

Apologize-

A
 Acknowledge and take ownership.
 Say sorry to the customer for
inconvenience.
 Do not blame others

Respond-

R 

Propose one or more solutions.
Become a partner in resolution.

Close the Loop-

C
 Take follow up for the complaint.
 Notify the customer within time.
 Take help of manager if needed.

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Customer Delight Stories-

Mrs. Nandita Rao with Ms. Aqsa Sayyed Letter of appreciation given by Mrs. Nandita

Mrs. Nandita Rao came with a mindset of buying only a few sets of clothes from the
store during the weekend sale. The offer which was present at that time in the store was
“shop for Rs. 5000/- and get free merchandise worth Rs. 5000/- for free and gift
vouchers for Rs. 5000/- for free on al Pantaloons Brands (PT Brand). The FA Ms. Aqsa
Sayyed convinced Mrs. Nandita Rao to make a purchase of Rs. 10,000 and provided
great service-assistance throughout.

The employees are recognized for their customer delight activities as,

•Customer gives feedback and agrees to receive a call from us

•MH call center team calls back the Customer
•During the call, Customer shares his/her pleasant experience and states your name
•MH team recognizes your efforts

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3.2. Marketing and Promotional Activities-

This season is the “End of Season Sale” season or commonly known as Monsoon Sale followed
by Ganesh Chaturthi in case of Maharashtra.

The sale started on June 13th, 2019 and went on till July 14th, 2019.

The first three days of the sale were meant specifically for all the 3, 5 and 7 tier green card
customers as “Preview Sale”.

All the weekends witnessed special huge discount offers for all the customers like-

 1st week- Shop for Rs. 6000/- and get Rs. 6000/- for free on all brands.
 2nd week- Shop for Rs. 5000/- and get Rs. 5000/- shopping for free+ Rs. 5000/- Gift
Vouchers for free on all PT brands.
 3rd week- Buy 3 and Get 3 free on all PT brands.
 Buy 3 and get 50% flat off on all PT brands.

Fig. Poster for weekend sale 02 Fig. Poster for 1st weekend sale

Whereas, weekdays used to have offers like “Great Deals, Everything Under 999, Best Deals”
etc.

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There are majorly two types of marketing activities performed-

 Above-The-Line-Marketing (ATL)- Widespread brand building advertising

 Below-The-Line-Marketing (BTL)- Highly targeted, direct marketing, focused on

conversions.

ATL (Above the line) is very expensive and companies are looking for expenditure
cuts. That is the main reason that below-the-line spending has added impetus in the
market today and has become a preferred choice in the list of the retailers.

If the target group is limited and specific, it is always advisable to use BTL promotions
for efficiency and cost-effectiveness. BTL techniques ensure recall of the brand while
at the same time highlighting the features of the product.

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Activities undertaken by Pantaloons to sensationalize EOSS-
1. Visual Merchandising-
 Posters (at entrance, in mall, in trial rooms, at POS)
 Standees (Entrance)
 Signages (to communicate the offers)
 Mannequin Display (to attract customers)

Fig. Mall entrance poster drops, standees, in store sale signage, in store hangings

2. Tele-calling:
All the green card customers were called and informed regarding the upcoming
EOSS.
Their response used to be recorded as “Hot leads, Warm leads and Cold leads” and
a rough estimation was made for EOSS.

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 Throughout the EOSS, it was mandatory to conduct tele-calling for all the
customers to inform them about the new and upcoming weekends offers every
week.

3. Text Messages and Mails-

Text messages and mails used to be delivered to all the customers informing them
about the various offers. The messages used to be customized according to the tier
of the customer.

4. Ushering-
In store promotion to inform the customers who haven’t been informed or are
coming for the first time by handing them pamphlets and telling them about the
offers.

5. In store Announcement-
In store announcement every 30 minutes during weekends to remind the customers
of ongoing offers.

Announcements like-
“Namaste dear customers, welcome to Pantaloons flat 50% sale. Now get flat 50%
off on purchase of 3 merchandise from Pantaloons exclusive men’s wear brands
and woman’s wear brands. Keep enjoying shopping with Pantaloons. Thank you.”

6. Advertisements in newspapers, in radio, through pamphlets, letterbox inserts etc.

7. Corporate calling for Gift Vouchers (GV) and Gift Cards (GC) sales-

Advantages of GVs and GCs:

•End user enjoys the freedom to choose product of his/her choice from any of the
Pantaloons store across India.
•Best substitute the cash gifting & easy to handle/carry.
•An Ideal gifting tool for corporate e.g. festive gifting, bonus, sales promotion,
contests etc.

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 •A very common gifting tool in occasions like Marriage, Birthday, Farewell, Events
etc.
•Vouchers are transferable, bearer gets the freedom to gift/handover it to others.
•Available in easy denominations of Rs. 100, 250, 500 & 1000.
•Comes with the attractive gifting envelopes.

Fig. Gift Card Fig. Gift Voucher

8. Collaborations-
Collaboration with companies like Bajaj Finserv, ICICI, Amazon.
Gift Vouchers are available on Amazon. During EOSS if payment was made
through Pantaloons vouchers on Amazon, the customer used to get additional
discount.
In case of payment of Rs. 3500/- and above through through ICICI cards, the
customer used to get 7% cashback.

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Roadshows, standees and hoardings are some branding collaterals, which act as constant brand
reminder for the buyer. Uniquely done outdoor hoarding always serves the purpose, it educates
the probable buyer about the brands, tells them where they can be accessed from and reinstates
the brand visibility and adds value to the perspective buyer’s decision-making process of
selecting the brand.

Advantages-

•Massive impact

•Increasing Brand awareness

•Customer excitement

•Well informed customers

•Market offer penetration

•Improved Ratings

•Maximized Reach

•Higher customer visit and conversion frequency

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 CH 04-FEEDBACK & ANALYSIS:

4.1. Mission Happiness (POS)-

4.1.1. Customer Feedback & Analysis (Mission Happiness)-

Mission Happiness is an initiative undertaken by Aditya Birla Fashion Retail Ltd. (ABFRL),
Pantaloons to ensure that all the customers experience a hassle free and an amazing shopping
experience and as the end result are delighted by the overall performance and service offering
of the store.

It also looks into the loop holes of the system functioning. As the customer gives feedback and
is on a negative side, the call centers call the customers to ask about their experience and
register complaints and soon after the complaint is registered, the problem is forwarded to the
management and is solved as soon as possible ultimately leading to customer satisfaction.

This step makes the customer feel important to the store and makes them realize that their
feedbacks are valuable to the organization which it tries to solve showcasing that each and
every customer is equally important and valuable for the organization.

Customers are the most important asset. Its economically 4-5 times costlier to acquire new
customers than to retain the current customers. Customers often follow a loyalty ladder when
they enter into a business with the organization. When the customer makes the first transaction,
the customer enters the category of “Client”. When the customer makes 2-3 purchases from
the same company, it becomes a customer in literal meaning, and when finally, the customer
becomes loyal and start referring the company to their relatives, friends, acquaintances etc., the
customer becomes an “Advocate”. The journey from client to customer is demanding and
costly, and when the customer becomes an advocate, he/she becomes the ultimate promoter of
the brand.

Thus, ensuring the customers that they had a good shopping experience and were satisfied is
an important factor from promotional and economical point of view of the organization.

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Customer feedback is taken at POS on a voting machine named “Mission Happiness Voting
Machine”. The cashier asks the customer to feed in their feedback in the machine during the
process of billing. The Voting device gets activated when the first article is scanned by the
cashier and deactivated after giving 5th question’s answer.

Fig. MH Feedback Machine at POS

The machine has questions like (in sequence)-

1. Based on your EXPERIENCE today, how likely are you to RECOMMEND Pantaloons
TO A FRIEND?
The scale varies from 1 to 10 (not at all recommended-definitely recommended)
2. What is the SINGLE MOST IMPORTANT REASON for the rating?
 Staff Service
 Billing
 Range & Variety
 Product Quality
 Pricing
 Any Other
3. DURING YOUR VISIT TODAY, WERE YOU (SELECT YES OR NO)
 Greeted at the store
 Explained product features
 Encouraged to try our products

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The feedback starts with question, “Based on your EXPERIENCE today, how likely are you
to RECOMMEND Pantaloons TO A FRIEND?”

The scale varies from 1 to 10 and the ratings are considered as following-

Customer Rating Category Conclusion

09-10 Promoter Strengths
07-08 Passive Needs Improvement
00-06 Detractor Concerns

How likely are you to recommend Pantaloons to your friend?

Fig. Rating Scale

Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)-

A Key Performance Indicator is a measurable value that demonstrates how effectively a

company is achieving key business objectives. Organizations use KPIs at multiple levels to
evaluate their success at reaching targets.

1.Ticket size:

It can be said as average sales in rupees,

Ticket size = Sales (rupees)/Number of Bills

2.Basket size:

It is also known as quantity/bill,

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Basket size = Quantity sold/Number of bills

3.Conversion:

Conversion is in percentage, it is the percentage of people you converted into customer,

Conversion = (Number of bills/Number of foot fall) *100%

4.SSPD:

SSPD is Sales per square feet per day, it is calculated in rupees

SSPD = Total sales/Number of days. Square feet area

5.Average selling Price:

It is the average price per product sold,

ASP= Total sales/ Quantity sold . (rupees)

6.People Productivity:

PP is a term which indicates the average product quantity per employees,

PP = Total quantity sold/Number of staffs present

7.SOH (Space on hire):

It is the utilization of space available, pillars and other space in the store can be given on
rent.

Present SOH rate at ICC Pantaloons, Pune is Rs. 14,000/- per pillar

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Taking the data of 2019-04, Timing- 11:00hrs-20:00hrs, Bills: 155-

1. Based on your experience today, how likely are you to recommend Pantaloons to a
friend?

Score Category
9%

25%

66%

Promoter Passive Detractor

We can observe from the above pie charts of promoter, Passive and detractor that the number
of promoters is significantly more than passive and detractor customer feedbacks.

2. What is the single most important reason for the rating?

Single Most Important Reason

40
33 34
35
29
30 27
25

20
14
15

10 7
5

0
Staff Service Billing Range & Product Quality Pricing Any Other
Variety

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 It was observed that majority of the buyer favored Pantaloons as their option for fashion
as according to them it was “Pricing” i.e. reasonably priced for good quality followed
by a liking for “Range & Variety” available. It can also be concluded that customers
were satisfied as Pantaloons was the ultimate stop wherein there was fashion going on
hand in hand with “Value for Money”.

Also, it was noted that the customers were assisted at a good rate and pace by the staff
resulting in good staff service and delighted customers.

3. During your visit, were you?

Greeted at Store Explained Features

14%
28%

72%
86%

Yes No Yes No

Encouraged to Try
20%

80%

Yes No

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 Greetings are the very first step to make the customer feel comfortable, familiar and
welcomed in a retail store in order to give a delighting shopping experience. 74% of
the customers agreed that they were greeted by the staff at the entrance and by the
FAs in the store giving it a good start for customers.
 Many at times, customers seek for help and assistance. But there are times as well
when the customers want to have a “no-interference” shopping experience as many
shoppers consider shopping as their stress buster and therapy. 58% of the buyers said
that they were assisted and were explained the features of the product by the staff
which helped in their shopping experience.
 63% of the customer agreed and appreciated the fact that they were encouraged to try
out the clothes and assisted for the same.
 Therefore, it was seen that continuous assistance and greetings ultimately contributed
in making the customers delighted throughout their shopping experience, and that’s
why Pantaloons considers its FAs to be an asset.

CONCLUSION:

It can be concluded that majority of the customers developed a good image of the store
and its service offerings as the feedback shows majority of promoters.
However, still being a way to go for converting maximum of non-satisfied customers
into promoters. The call centers should consistently take follow ups with customers
giving bad feedback. Many at times it happens that reimbursements are made in order
to satisfy customers like delivering bouquets along with paper bag to customers those
who complained on charging for paper bags.
Also, it can be concluded that Pantaloons as a brand has a bigger image for “Value for
Money” and not exactly fashion. Customers moreover opt for core products like kurtis
at Rs. 699/- and not for fashion products.
However, greetings, feature explanation, assistance and encouragement by the store
staff showed a positive impact above all the factors.

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4.2 Non-buyer Feedback and Analysis-

Non- buyer feedback is a type of spontaneous feedback taken from customers who entered the
store and increased the number of football but didn’t make any purchase and returned empty
handed.

This feedback is taken in order to gain insights as to why the customer didn’t make any
purchase, determining the loop holes that can be looked after to improve the same.

It is basically a step taken to know the reason behind non-purchasing of the customer like size
issue, pattern issue, better offering at competition etc.

Non-buyer feedback is considered to be elusive yet so powerful. In order to tap the largest pool
of potential customers, retailers need to invest in advanced analytics that provide insights into
why potential customers walk out the door without making a purchase. Existing methods for
collecting retail customer experience data rely heavily on receipt-based invitations served to
buyers, but it leaves out the crucial non-buyer data.

By combining non-buyer experience data with purchaser experience metrics, retail

organizations will have at their disposal a unified, holistic and actionable picture of shopper
feedback sentiment.

The non-buyer is a big opportunity for almost every large brand and retailer. Convert more
shoppers to buyers and the business grows. Besides expressing negative feelings about the
retail brand as a result of not finding the items they were looking for; these non-buyers represent
untold millions of dollars in lost revenue for the business. Worse yet, customers who can’t find
an item in a given store are more likely to visit and buy from its direct competitor, driving down
one retailer’s market share and driving up the other’s.

Non-buyer feedback taken on a regular basis helps the organization to work on their flaws and
serve the customer better leading to customer satisfaction, i.e. a practice of Customer
Centricity. Also, it gives and overall view as to what areas to improve in in order to convert the
non-buyers into buyers.

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A non-buyer feedback was taken at Pantaloons, Westend Mall on Friday evening from 5:00pm
to 8:00pm and there were 100 non-buyers whose feedback was taken and then analyzed.

As Friday, Saturday and Sunday are considered the most profitable days for fashion retail, the
number of non-buyers was also more during Friday evening from the beginning of prime-time
shopping

A questionnaire is prepared for taking the non-buyer feedback wherein the data collected gets
stored in the organization’s database for further use.

On an average, in Pantaloons it was mandatory to take 70 non-buyer feedback on a regular

basis.

Fig. Screenshots of Non-buyer Feedback Form

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So, the feedback was taken from 100 Non-buyers as they walked out without making any
purchase.

We were asked to stand at the entrance and question those customers who left the store without
getting the transaction bill stamped by security or without a shopping bag.

Following were the observations-

1. Observations based on OCCUPATION:

Occupation
12%

8%

58%
20%

2%

Service- Pvt Service- Govt Student

Business Housewife

 The occupation matters a lot in approximate determination of the bill value, ticket size,
no. of purchases etc. as the occupation is directly proportional to the amount spent on
the purchases.
 58% of the non-buyers were into private service i.e. out of 100 there were total 58
business owners who were at service jobs in private firms. Thus, it can be also
concluded from the occupational behavior that private service shoppers are more
particular about their transactions and purchases and demand more as they stay up to
date with the latest trends in fashion and want to experience the same while investing.
 2% of the population were involved in govt. services.
 20% were student. The student buying behavior also gets reflected due to the pricing of
the products. As students can’t afford expensive goods on their own, they
comparatively make fewer purchases.
 8% were business owners and 12% were housewives.

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 2. Observation based on GENDER:

Gender
60
52
50 46

40

30

20

10
0
0
Male Female Others

MEN BUY, WOMEN SHOP-

The process of shopping is a mission for men. They don’t like the process of shopping but
they love having something bought. It’s a subtle difference but an important one. The biggest
misconception is that men don’t like shopping. Women-they love shopping even when they
have a deadline, men-they shop and they leave.

The gender is an important factor in determining the reason behind non-buyers as the gender
angle is used to better comprehend the differences in impulse buying emotions so that males
and females can be targeted with greater success.

 Here it can be seen that 52 males were categorized as non-buyers out of 100. So, seeing
the buying behavior based on gender, it can be concluded that men buy what they really
want and what they enter the store for and if they don’t find it or if that particular item
isn’t available, they will return without making a purchase as they don’t browse while
shopping but directly buy.
 However, women have known to have a habit of browsing in detail and doing window
shopping and while doing so half of the time it is probable that they buy at least 2-3
items.
 Hence, men were seen to be more in number of non-buyers as compared to women.

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 3. Observations based on FINAL EMOTIONS AFTER LEAVING THE STORE:

Final Emotions
10%
1%

21%

68%

Neutral Happy Angry Dissappointed

Even the emotions after not being catered to their exp3ectations, were recorded as it can
determine whether the customer will return back to the store, will refer the store to
acquaintances etc.

 68% of the non-buyers were neutral about not being able to find what they were looking
for but were neutral in their emotions as they said that they will browse in another
competitive store like FBB and Max for what they were looking for. This way the
potential customers majority are lost to neighboring competitors just because the store
didn’t serve the customers for what they were looking for.
 21% were happy. 10% were disappointed as they came to Pantaloons with a hope to
find the piece but didn’t.
 1% were angry as that particular customer was looking for party dress and didn’t find
it and was in a hurry as she had to go to the party the following hour.

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4. Observations based on WHAT THE CUSTOMER WAS LOOKING FOR:

What were you looking for?

16 15

14 13

12 11
10 10
10 9
8 8
8

6 5
4 4
4
2
2
0
0

 15 of them were looking for “Others” like party dress, floral dress, swim wear, evening
gowns etc.
 13 of them were looking for Kurta in Women’s Ethnic Dept.

5. Observations based on IS THERE A REASON YOU DID NOT END UP BUYING:

 Majority of them faced an issue related to size. Also, as there was sale season (EOSS)
there used to be issues related to size stock out for fast selling items.
 15 of them didn’t like the style available at the store.

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 no.
40
36
35

30

25 23

20
15
15

10 7
5 6
5 3 2 2

 Rest of them didn’t end up buying due to reasons like color, competition, brand not
available, price issue (mainly in students), fabric issue (customers were searching for
pure cotton products more), fit issue etc.

CONCLUSION:

It can be concluded that the major reasons for increasing number of non-buyers at
pantaloons can be seen as-

 Pattern and style issue

 Better offering at competition
 Size issue
 Price issue (least major because Pantaloons is known as “Value for Money” brand)

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 CH 05- LEARNING OUTCOMES:

This project enabled me to gain insights into the aspects of customer interaction, customer

satisfaction, customer loyalty ladder, store organization, employee inputs, customer

feedback, problem solving, customer delight and these aspects collectively generated

results in favor of profitability of the store.

Learned about:

 Customer Centricity Practices undertaken by Aditya Birla Fashion Retail Ltd. At

Pantaloons, Westend Mall.

 GUEST Model and B2C sales process.

 Service offering for customer at Customer Service Desk i.e. CSD.

 Mission Happiness’s importance and how the feedback collected is used for

further development and improvement it mentioned aspects.

 Customer Loyalty Programs at Pantaloons

 Effectiveness of Marketing Offers and Promotions in Pantaloons

 Customer Perception about Pantaloons.

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 CH 06- CONCLUSION & RECOMMENDATIONS:

The mission happiness is a very unique customer-oriented program of The Aditya Birla group
keeping in accordance with the group’s attention to giving quality service and products to
customers and always keenly paying attention to feedbacks for improving overall quality.

Mission Happiness results in increase in loyal customer base / repeat buyers.

As a Fact is, “92% of customers trust recommendations from friends and family above all other
types of advertising”, Hence by mains of MH Promoters, the sales can be increased.

Mission Happiness helps in Less Troubleshooting, Fewer Complaints, more fulfilled Promises
resulting in CUSTOMER HAPPINESS.

Trainer identifies improvement areas, Continuous process of improvement & Gets embedded
in our way of working.

MH is about actions taken to DELIGHT CUSTOMER

Thus, following the idea of “Listen, Learn and Act” for happy customers as customers are our
boss i.e. “Bosstomers”.

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Recommendations:

This project highlights all the steps taken by Pantaloons, Westend Mall as a fashion retail outlet
to improve customer service and render maximum number of satisfied customers. However,
there still are some aspects and areas that needs to be worked upon for betterment of the
organization as a whole. Following are the points that can improved-

 Need for better visual merchandising, setup and displays: Window Displays/
Decompression Zones act as the attention seeker and pace slower in any of the fashion
retail outlet. But Pantaloons at Westend Mall misses out on either of this.
 Improved atmospherics: in-store atmospheric factors like light, sound, smell, walking
space etc. directly influences the mood of the customer. Pantaloons can play songs some
happy soothing songs in order to pep up customer’s mood. Also, lights and signages to
guide the customer better, and soothing smell throughout the store to give the customers
a good shopping experience.
 Added lingerie and swimwear section for women: it was found in the non-buyer
feedback that many females returned empty handed as they came looking for swimwear
or lingerie or inner wear but hesitated to state it.
 Color blocking: color blocking can be done in men’s shirts section in order to grab
attention and stimulate impulse buying.
 More size options: it was also observed that many people weren’t able to find the piece
of their size. Thus, it should be in mind to always keep a track of size availability and
stock availability of the items displayed on floor especially the top sellers.
 Improvised POS: The Point of Sale is known to improve and increase the average
basket size and bill value in general. But, Pantaloons at Westend Mall lacks the
presence of effective and attractive POS. it can include items like fragrances, body care,
added accessories like key chains, caps, gift cards, gift boxes etc.
 Additional section or amenities for kid’s care like strollers.

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REFERENCES:

 www.pantaloons.com
 www.abfrl.com
 www.google.com
 www.wikipedia.org
 scholar.google.co.in
 www.slideshare.net
 www.scribd.com

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