Caroline Leighton and Richard Bent
Complaints handling is now a marketing tool for retailers. Intense competition within the food retail sector makes it an area for retailers to gain competitive advantage. However…
Abstract
Complaints handling is now a marketing tool for retailers. Intense competition within the food retail sector makes it an area for retailers to gain competitive advantage. However, the commitment to complaints handling through employee training is a largely unexplored area. Describes how an in‐depth questionnaire was used to survey UK multiple food retailers regarding the existence of complaints procedures; aspects of training such as prevalence, frequency, hours and methods; and the authority to resolve complaints in relation to employee status. Customer and staff communication, as part of the complaints handling process, was also investigated. Seven retailers took part in the survey and included a cross‐section of retailers (including one of the major multiples), based on number of branches. Reports the results, which showed that all the food retailers had some form of training. However, this varied with employee status. Generally, training was not given frequently in a formal manner, but on an ad hoc basis. Authority to resolve complaints appears to lie still with senior staff, although customer and staff communication facilities appear to exist. Argues that complaints handling can be effective only with appropriate staff training at all levels.
Details
Keywords
Caroline Hare, David Kirk and Tim Lang
Given the many potential negative factors that influence food choice behaviour in older people, it is important to understand the problem areas of food shopping. Uses critical…
Abstract
Given the many potential negative factors that influence food choice behaviour in older people, it is important to understand the problem areas of food shopping. Uses critical incident technique (CIT) to elicit consumers’ stories of dissatisfying/satisfying shopping experiences and, where dissatisfied, identifies their expectations. Volunteers from a cross‐section of locations in Scotland were interviewed, eliciting 248 incidents. Results identified eight key elements contributing to the food shopping experience with all, except social aspects, having positive and negative incidents. Argues that the factors influencing the food shopping experience are much wider than previous research indicates and that, given the breadth of dissatisfaction across the elements, older consumers are lacking “power” within the marketplace. Expectations indicate that some consumers feel they do not have the ability to exercise any alternative to overcome their dissatisfaction.
Details
Keywords
LIBRARY activity has been very great since the year opened. On all sides librarians report issues which are greatly in excess of any previously reached. This has been interpreted…
Abstract
LIBRARY activity has been very great since the year opened. On all sides librarians report issues which are greatly in excess of any previously reached. This has been interpreted by ourselves and by others as a reflex of the general unemployment. It is also due no doubt to the lack of pence on the part of many people for amusements, who find that reading is a cheap form of diversion. There can be no cause for anything but satisfaction in the fact that in such unhappy times our people turn to books. It is a hopeful sign, for the nation that reads gathers a resilience and buoyancy which can be got from few other activities.
Caroline Hare, David Kirk and Tim Lang
The number and proportion of older people in the UK are increasing and it has been found that this population segment is a nutritional risk group. Food choice research and health…
Abstract
The number and proportion of older people in the UK are increasing and it has been found that this population segment is a nutritional risk group. Food choice research and health promotion reports have sought to identify the influences on diet and the food retailing sector has been found to particularly impact upon older people. Low income, poor mobility and an inability to access food shops disadvantage many. This paper considers the food shopping experiences of older consumers by identifying, through critical incident technique, positive and negative aspects of the food shopping activity. A total of 120 interviews were conducted and 248 incidents collected from people aged 60/65+ in various locations in Scotland. Content analysis produced eight primary categories and 22 sub‐categories of key elements in the shopping experience. The main factors that contribute to the quality of the shopping experience were merchandise related, retail practices and staff issues. The internal store environment, accessibility, external shopping environment and personal factors were also identified and featured both positive and negative incidents, with social aspects only having positive incidents.
Details
Keywords
The growing numbers of older people represent an important market segment for retailers, particularly the food retail sector. The dominance of the food multiples and their growth…
Abstract
The growing numbers of older people represent an important market segment for retailers, particularly the food retail sector. The dominance of the food multiples and their growth strategies have been criticised for contributing to some older consumers being disadvantaged. This paper considers the satisfaction levels of older consumers in Scotland, with their food‐shopping experience. Drawing upon previous work by the author which identified the factors influencing satisfaction, 220 volunteers were recruited from various locations in Scotland and interviewed using a structured questionnaire. The survey focused on the main shopping trip. Results indicate that, whilst there is a general trend towards satisfaction, there are key areas of dissatisfaction, such as aspects of the products for sale (merchandise), the practices and procedures of the retailer (retail practices) and factors in the community which affected the shopping trip (external shopping factors). This suggests that policy‐makers seeking to encourage the participation of food retailers in health promotion need to recognise vulnerable sub‐groups of the older population and recognise that not all older consumers can signal their preferences in the marketplace.
Details
Keywords
Research undertaken in photograph collections presents unique challenges, both for the researcher and for the librarian or archivist attempting to provide access. Unlike a book…
Abstract
Research undertaken in photograph collections presents unique challenges, both for the researcher and for the librarian or archivist attempting to provide access. Unlike a book, which most frequently has a recognizable author and/or title, a photograph is not easily described or indexed. The identity of the photographer is sometimes unknown. The names of any people shown in the images are frequently not readily available, and even the location may be ambiguous.
From what was said in the previous article on this subject, it is obvious that a new profession has arisen in consequence of the passing of the Food and Drugs Acts, and of the…
Abstract
From what was said in the previous article on this subject, it is obvious that a new profession has arisen in consequence of the passing of the Food and Drugs Acts, and of the fact that their execution is now compulsory on all the local authorities legally concerned with the matter. This profession, under the fostering influence of certain scientific and academic bodies, now includes a considerable number of individuals who, in their general culture and education, as well as in their special scientific qualifications, are at least on a par with the members of the older so‐called “learned” professions. In the course of the early development of the analytical profession, as a body, the old Society of Public Analysts was a most potent influence for good, and did, and still does under another but unfortunate name, very excellent work in collecting and publishing any additions that are made to our scientific knowledge of matters connected with the analysis and adulteration of food by the scattered workers in this country and abroad.
THE catalogue, as a library appliance of importance, has had more attention devoted to it than, perhaps, any other method or factor of librarianship. Its construction, materials…
Abstract
THE catalogue, as a library appliance of importance, has had more attention devoted to it than, perhaps, any other method or factor of librarianship. Its construction, materials, rules for compilation and other aspects have all been considered at great length, and in every conceivable manner, so that little remains for exposition save some points in the policy of the catalogue, and its effects on progress and methods. In the early days of the municipal library movement, when methods were somewhat crude, and hedged round with restrictions of many kinds, the catalogue, even in the primitive form it then assumed, was the only key to the book‐wealth of a library, and as such its value was duly recognized. As time went on, and the vogue of the printed catalogue was consolidated, its importance as an appliance became more and more established, and when the first Newcastle catalogue appeared and received such an unusual amount of journalistic notice, the idea of the printed catalogue as the indispensable library tool was enormously enhanced from that time till quite recently. One undoubted result of this devotion to the catalogue has been to stereotype methods to a great extent, leading in the end to stagnation, and there are places even now where every department of the library is made to revolve round the catalogue. Whether it is altogether wise to subordinate everything in library work to the cult of the catalogue has been questioned by several librarians during the past few years, and it is because there is so much to be said against this policy that the following reflections are submitted.
TWO Government reports in one week—one at first unobtainable because of a union dispute, the other a vast opus of three volumes, with three separate volumes of maps—this was the…
Abstract
TWO Government reports in one week—one at first unobtainable because of a union dispute, the other a vast opus of three volumes, with three separate volumes of maps—this was the fate of librarians in Britain during the second week of June 1969. So long to wait for these reports of Dainton and Maud, then so much to read.