Successful Supermarkets: Woolworths Australia

Consequently, it is clear that the firm does not have proper methods of pricing their goods as shown by the concerns that have been raised by the customers so far. Perhaps, something is wrong with the pricing model that company is using or may the people who have been deployed to conduct market analysis for the firm have failed in their duties. As a company that dominates the market of liquor and foods, Woolworths Australia should be in touch with the customers all the time. Hence, the fact that the firm is losing the attention of its c
ustomers means that the problem is essentially a matter of urgency. Apart from that, concerns have also been raised regarding the customer care services that are being offered by the supermarket. Some customers have been complaining that they usually wait for long hours unattended alongside going through a long period of time before their queries are attended. In fact, it is also unfortunate to highlight that even after presenting their queries; very few customers always manage to get their concerns being addressed accordingly. Thus, in short, Woolworths Australia has problems that if left unattended are likely to cost them their esteemed customers and consequently reduce their profit margins. Thus, the major issues of concern that company is supposed to address is its lack of proper pricing of goods, absence of some of the favorite brands of goods for some customers, and poor customer care services (Tsvetkova, Gustafsson & Wikström, 2014).

Benefits of The Proposed Innovation

The implementation of our innovation will be beneficial to Woolworths Australia in various ways. To begin with, the company will be in a position to boost its good will in the face of the public. More importantly, addressing the needs of the members of the public will be the best measure that will be employed to spread the good name of the firm to the other members of the public. Besides that, various supermarkets have been established in Australia lately offering the same goods and services that are also offered by Woolworths Australia. Hence, embracing our proposed innovation will be major step in ensuring that the competitive advantage of the firm in the market is beyond average. The fact is that various firms are trying to establish their positions in the market by coming up with quality services, goods, and customer care services. However, Woolworths Australia has good will and good history with the services and goods that it has been offering to its customers. Therefore, should the firm improve on the areas that have raised the concerns of the customers; it will not be surprising if it becomes the best supermarket in Australia in terms of the quality of goods that are offered as well as fair pricing and finally exceptional customer care services (Zwaal & Eringa, 2010).

Far from that, embracing our innovation will assist Woolworths Australia to create good relationship with its potential customers in terms of being free to express their concerns and suggestions. More importantly, it is extremely devastating that the company does not have quality customer care service at the moment. Nonetheless, the solution that will be provided will ensure that such issues have been addressed. Perhaps, firms and supermarkets that are currently successful in the sector of selling goods directly to the consumers have customer care services that have been established accordingly to ensure that the concerns of the customers have been addressed on timely and efficient manner. Thankfully, the innovation that we have aligned for the company will create a remarkable platform for ensuring that customer services that are offered by the firm are superb and with high degree of quality. In retrospect to that, the innovation has been designed to meet the goals and missions of the firm. For instance, one of the core goals of the firm is to improve their profit margins significantly and that there are no better ways of achieving that other than by ensuring the needs of the customers have been satisfied. It should be noted that, just like many other firms in Australia that are offering direct services to the consumers, Woolworths Australia also depends of the willingness of the customers to embrace the goods that are being offered for the achievement of sustainability. Thus, our proposed solution will not only assist the firm to meet its short-term concerns but also to meet it long-term goals (Schuurman et al., 2016).

Strategic Plan

We understand that the major problem that Woolworths Australia is facing now is the increase in the number of complains and concerns that are essentially retrieved from the customers. Thus, it is not surprising that the company has started to lose its public image and good will. On that regard, the strategic plan that we have designed to ensure that the firm remains profitable and competitive is to organize an advertisement plan that will necessitate the capturing of the attention of the customers to ensure that they remain loyal to the goods and services that are offered to them. On that regard, advertisement through the public televisions of the country as well as public newspapers will be the core strategic plan that the company should employ to boost its public awareness. It should be noted that some sections of the firm’s customers are not aware about some of the new goods and services that are available to them. In fact, some of the substitute goods that can be used to replace some of the missing brands are entirely not available to the awareness of the public. Thus, advertisements will not only assist the supermarket to ensure that people are aware about the substitute brands that can serve their interests, it will also capture their attention in the sense that they will be able to learn more about some of the new goods that have been brought into the market (Schmitt, 2014).

Far from that, there are other remote areas that are not aware about the goods and services that are being offered at Woolworths Australia. Thus, other than depending on the good will of the company and the use of the word of mouth that are likely to be spread by the customers who would be substantially satisfied by the goods, advertisements will play significant roles in ensuring that all the potential customers from remote areas are aware about some of the goods and services that are offered at the supermarket. More importantly, the company should also incorporate its fair pricing intervention into the advertisements that will be projected to the members of the public to ensure that they are aware about the service as well as goods that are offered by the company. Far from that, recruiting new employees will also be part of the strategic plans that should be employed by Woolworths Australia if it is to maintain its dominance and success in the market. Perhaps, it is extremely devastating that some sections of the firm’s customers are not satisfied with the customer care services that are being offered to them. Thus, incorporating recruitment programs as part of the strategic plans of the supermarket will create a remarkable platform for instilling particular sets of cultures amongst the employees of the firm. Perhaps, hospitality should be the core priority of the trainers. The employees who will be assigned the responsibilities of handling the company’s customer care services should have the capabilities of understanding the needs of their customers and ensuring that they are provided with every aspect of the services that they may require (Stampfl, 2015).

Project Options Analysis

The underlying problem that Woolworths Australia is currently facing is sensitive and requires urgency to address. Thus, the management of the company would be required to create a quality analysis team to conduct the analysis of the various possible solutions and options that are likely to be constructive in addressing its underlying concerns and needs. On that regard, the quality analysis team will be required to analyze the extent of the problem the supermarket is currently facing to ensure that the solution that would be tabled will have significant improvement to the productivity of the firm. In fact, it is advisable that the supermarket through the quality analysis team should conduct a pre-test to determine the actual concerns of the customers. Thus, they can achieve that by creating a room for interviewing their customers and aligning their views and concerns (Cantamessa & Montagna, 2015).

Perhaps, there are various possible solutions that may be employed to address the problem that Woolworths Australia is currently facing. However, the quality analysis team that the firm should employ will be required to ensure that the final pieces of solutions that will be incorporated into the cultural structure of the firm can be integrated easily with the goals and missions of the firm. More importantly, the solution that the quality analysis team will choose should ensure that the needs of the customers are prioritized whatsoever. Also, the fact that boosting the underlying profit margins of the firm is amongst the core objectives of Woolworths Australia means that the solution that the quality analysis team is supposed to approve should necessitate the improvement of the productivity levels of the firm (Schuurman et al., 2016).

Delivery of The Recommended Solution

Woolworths Australia can boost its productivity and the good will that it has been struggling to create for many years in various ways. To begin with, the firm should design measures for ensuring that the missing favorite brands that are preferred by some groups of their customers are mad available. Thus, the company has a great task to fulfill in ensuring that its supply chain management is working accordingly. More importantly, the firm should contact its management team that deals with handling of its supply issues to ensure that the stock of the company does not run out. Besides that, the supply team of the supermarket should also ensure that substitute product are available at the supermarket to ensure that they serve the needs and concerns of the customers in case they find that their preferred brands or products are missing (Bakan & Yildiz, 2010).

In retrospect to that, the firm should also conduct market research in Australia to determine the actual needs of the customers before coming with brands of goods that will address the consumer needs. Since creating a competitive advantage over other competitors in the market is the core priority of the supermarket, the firm should design a marketing plan that will foresee the appropriation of ground personnel in potential market areas including remote areas to boost the effectiveness of venturing into the opportunity of providing their customers with quality goods and customer care services. Consequently, ground personnel will be instrumental in collecting market information and presenting the preferences of the customers to the company. Moreover, ground personnel will also be utilized to update the company about the actual state of the market at the ground level (Rainey, 2012).

Apart from that, the firm should also work on coming up with a combination of HR policies that will enhance the productivity of its workers regardless of their cultural diversity as well as extending their market campaigns to include other remote parts of Australia. It is worth to highlight that the firm is aware about the significance of cultural diversity in the workplace and should incorporate the intervention as one of the initiatives that will be utilized in seizing opportunities as well as designing rational ways of addressing the upcoming challenges that the supermarket is likely to encounter in future. The company should also be willing to conduct a thorough pricing and marketing analysis as well as coming up with cheap ways of production and purchasing of goods from the producers to ensure that they remain competitive in the market by providing the brands of goods that are preferred by the customers as well as ensuring the their goods are subjected to fair pricing to boost their affordability. In short, the solutions that Woolworths Australia is supposed to employ to address its underlying concerns and problems are within reach. Consequently, the company should provide their customers with their preferred brands of goods at fair prices alongside working on improving their customer care services. By so doing, the firm will not only be able improve its profitability, it will also be in a position to address the needs of their customers and boost their goodwill to further significant levels. More importantly, the above proposed innovations will not only address the short-term concerns of the firm, it will also ensure that the firm is in a better position of meeting its long-term goals (Kurke, 2010).

Net  Present Value

Net present value is usually used as a tool for determining whether the company will make improvements in its underlying profit margins or not.

Net Present value= (Cash inflows from the investment activities of Woolworths Australia) - (Costs of the investments undertaken by the supermarket)

For instance, if the cash inflows that the firm has received from its investment activities are $1,000,000 and the cost of the investments is $785,000. Then the NPV of the firm will be: NPV = $1,000,000-$785,000 = $215,000. That means that the company will have made a profit of $215,000 from the investment.

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