Serving customer as a factor of improving enterprise’s image

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Vinnytsia trade and economic institute of State university of trade and economics

Vinnytsia cooperative institute

Serving customer as a factor of improving enterprise's image

Sharko V.

Andrusenko N.

Havenko M.

Introduction. An important factor of economic security in the conditions of war, survival and development of the retail trade enterprise is to ensure and maintain the position of its competitiveness. The criterion of competitiveness at the macro level is an indicator of the country's development, its entry into the world economy as an equal partner in economic terms; at the mesolevel - an indicator of sustainability and financial well-being of a particular enterprise.

Often in the study of competitiveness the task of its increase is set and the issue of its provision is not sufficiently considered. Meanwhile, if the level of competitiveness of the enterprise is initially low and it is raised to a certain level, this measure may be insufficient. Therefore, in our opinion, setting the task as competitiveness assurance is more accurate and correct.

Presenting main material. It is impossible to solve this task without the customer as the main «face» of any retailer's activity. With the active development of information and communication technologies, the use of mobile technologies and cloud systems, it is necessary to realise the opportunity of digitalisation in the direction of forming and maintaining effective communications with customers and their trade service. Unfortunately, at present, its quality is not given proper attention. Its assessment is not carried out or is carried out without the necessary reliability. In this regard, the authors propose a hypothesis: ensuring the competitiveness of the regional enterprise on the basis of analysing, evaluating and improving the quality of trade service to customers will allow:

- at the macro level: to turn regional competition into a factor of the development of innovative entrepreneurship and sustainable increase of competitive advantages of a trade enterprise;

- at the meso-level: to balance the interests of the consumer and the enterprise, to balance and effectively use its personnel, information and commodity resources;

- at the micro level: to form a loyal consumer, to strengthen and increase his loyalty to sales.

The aim of the research is to analyse and evaluate the quality of trade service of customers as a basis, factor and condition for ensuring the competitiveness of the regional enterprise.

Its implementation was facilitated by the complex application of general scientific methods of cognition (system analysis, synthesis, generalisation, systematisation, comparison, deduction, induction), methods of economic and statistical analysis, methods of expert evaluations and ranging.

Such foreign scientists as G. Hamel, P Drucker, K. Endrus, R. Eschenbach, P Zenge, K. Christenson, R. Coase, F. Kotler, M. Porter, K. Prahalad, D. Ricardo, A. Smith, R. Solow, M. Stroper, J. Schumpeter have studied the problems of competition and ensuring the competitiveness of economic entities. The theoretical and methodological foundations for assessing the level of competitiveness of an enterprise and its products are considered in the works of many national and foreign scientists, including L.S. Kobyliatskyi, S.M. Klymenko, S.I. Savchuk, M. Tkachenko, V.N. Osipov, A.N. Lytvynenko, B.V. Bukrynskyi, I.O. Tarasenko, G.I. Trehub, O.V. Horbach, R.A. Fathudynov, K.H. Hrishchenko, F.I. Spih, T.B. Kharchenko, V.V. Sharko and others.

The issues of trade service and assessment of its level are considered in the works of foreign and national researchers on retail trade problems [1, 2, 5, 6, 10, 11, 13, 14, 16, 20]. Despite the significant theoretical and methodological development of the studied problem, the issues of the essence of retail services, assessment of their quality, impact on meeting the demand of the population, and competitiveness of a trade enterprise are still insufficiently studied and debated.

The concept of enterprise competitiveness has been the object of study for many years and does not cause disagreement among theorists and practical experts. It is defined as a complex characteristic of a subject of economic entity, reflecting its advantage in relation to other enterprises in this industry, its superiority over competitors in terms of financial and economic, marketing, personnel and other indicators. Competitive advantage of one enterprise over another can be assessed when both enterprises satisfy identical needs of buyers belonging to related market segments.

At the same time, researchers have not reached a common opinion on a number of aspects of this problem. The studies have not sufficiently reflected the issues of maintaining a high competitive status, competitive positions and advantages of the trade enterprise on the basis of ensuring the quality of trade services to consumers.

This justifies the choice of the research topic and the range of scientific problems that are the subject of study. This work is divided into four blocks.

Block 1: Business competitiveness factors

The functioning of any enterprise is impossible without studying competitors and taking into account their activities. In the conditions of the spread of the coronavirus infection Covid-19 and war (Russia's attack on Ukraine), many enterprises were on the verge of losing competitiveness, bankruptcy, etc.

Modern theorists and practitioners [3, 4, 7-9, 12, 13, 15, 17-19, 21] define the competitiveness of a company as:

- a measure of the efficiency of its financial and economic activity in a given segment and at a given time;

- a complex characteristic of an economic entity reflecting its advantage over other enterprises in a given industry;

- the ability to function without crisis, to organise economic activity efficiently and to generate profits sufficient to improve production, to maintain the necessary level of product quality and commercial service, to achieve superiority over competitors in a number of indicators (financial and economic, marketing, human resources, etc.);

This concept is relative: a company may be considered competitive within, for example, a regional group of industries, but not within the industries of the world market or its segment. The assessment of the degree and level of competitiveness, i.e. the identification of the nature of the competitive advantage of an enterprise in comparison with others, consists first of all in the selection of the basic objects of comparison - the leading enterprise in the country's industry or outside it [16, 20].

Since the competitive advantage characterises the efficiency of resource use and is revealed in comparison with other economic entities, its level should be assessed in relation to a specific base (identity of the nature of the satisfied need, the «profile» of consumers, the phase of the life cycle of the enterprise).

In our opinion, the concept of «competitiveness» is broader than «economic efficiency of production», as it affects not only internal, but also external factors (level of competition, sales markets, selling price, consumer demand, population income, etc.) [18].

Ensuring the company's competitiveness, which changes over time, can therefore be achieved through continuous and progressive improvement of all its internal and external factors and indicators (indicators of economic efficiency of activity and financial position; specific indicators characterising the product range, the process of selling goods, service conditions and additional benefits for customers) [17, 18].

Internal factors are objective criteria that determine the company's ability to ensure its own competitiveness: financial, economic and human resources potential, level of material and technical support, service support. External factors are socio-economic relations that allow the company to create and sell products with more attractive price and non-price characteristics (measures of state influence, opportunities of competitors and consumers, etc.).

The existence of certain factors is not enough to ensure competitiveness: factors can cause changes in its level, both in the direction of increase and decrease. Knowledge, accounting and analysis of the dynamics of factors and indicators reflecting the level of competitiveness allow the enterprise to control them, to determine the tools, means and directions of using the reserves of competitiveness, to take measures to maintain and improve it. Thus, the solution of the tasks of ensuring competitiveness is connected with the level of management, management of marketing business processes, information and financial, personnel and customer flows. Achieving a positive result in the competitive struggle is a natural result of constant and competent efforts of management activity.

Block 2: Analysis of a retailer's competitiveness

In order to analyse and evaluate the competitiveness, we conducted a survey among three experts - employees of the shop. They identified the competitive positions of the store and calculated their weighting coefficient. To do this, each of the experts assessed the importance of the parameters by assigning a rank to each of them (Table 1).

Table 1. Indicators of store competitiveness and its weight coefficient (1-9)

Table 2. Information on retail trade enterprises from 01.01.2023

Each of them was rated by a group of experts (E1, E2, E3) on a ten-point scale. Taking into account the weighting coefficient of the indicators, we made an adjusted assessment of the competitive positions of the companies and their overall rating (Table 3). The data of Figure 4 indicates that the Store «Yakisna kantseliariia» is inferior to all competitors in terms of quality of trade service (1.21; 1.31; 1.26 points).

Table 3. Adjusted assessment of competitive positions of enterprises

Notational symbols:

EA - expert assessment;

E 1 (2, 3) - assessment of the first expert (second, third);

KO - adjusted expert assessment.

Source: created by the authors.

Prices for goods in «Yakisna kantseliariia» are at the average level, the quality of goods sold by all analysed retailers is at the same level (1.65). According to all other indicators (range of goods assortment, business reputation of the enterprise, its mode of operation and location, promotion of its goods - advertising and merchandising) the analysed enterprise «coincides» by the sum of adjusted scores with one of the competitors (store «AKtsentr» or «Mahik»).

As we can see, the competitive positions of the store «Yakisna kantseliariia» (8.05) and «Mahik» (8.15) differ slightly (Fig. 1).

Thus, we can say that in Vinnytsia city on the market of school-writing and stationery goods a peculiar rating of enterprises on the level of competitiveness was formed: «Yakisna kantseliariia» (8.37 points), «AKtsentr» (8.15 points), «Mahik» (8.05 points). According to the sum of points, the analysed enterprise currently occupies the third place.

Block 3. Trade service for store customers and its quality

The conducted work indicates the following: the weak side of the store «Yakisna kantseliariia» is the low level of trade customer service (Table 1); the quality of trade customer service has a high weighting coefficient (Table 2); the weak competitive positions of the analysed enterprise are identified in relation to the quality of trade service (Table 3); the store «Yakisna kantseliariia» also has the lowest competitive status (Table 4, Fig. 1).

Taking into account the obtained results, we will focus on the concept of «trade service». This is a direct interaction with the customer, aimed at satisfying his needs in the process of purchasing goods.

As a complex concept, it includes the quality and level of service, trade and service culture, which are based on attention to the customer and care about him. They are expressed in the fact that «the customer has the opportunity to buy everything he needs with the least amount of time and with the greatest convenience in trade» [11].

Quality as an economic category is sufficiently fully researched from the theoretical and methodological point of view, but its analytical aspects concern products, while the quality of services is given insufficient attention [2]. The quality of trade service is a set of characteristics of the process and conditions of trade service [20]. It implies the creation at a particular trade enterprise of the most favourable comfortable conditions for the choice and purchase of goods and the provision of the envisaged services. It is the compliance of trade and technological processes and the level of service with consumer preferences. It can be considered as a component and a factor in the formation of the established standard of living, which forms a variety of needs or wants (dominants of the standard of living) in combination with consumption indicators [16].

Forming the «microworld» of a retail trade enterprise, the quality of service is an important criterion for assessing the activity of a trade enterprise, a tool for forming its positive image in the eyes of customers, is formed from the technological (perceived by the mind: location, product range and pricing policy, exterior, shop window, advertising) and psychological (perceived by its feelings and emotions, emotional and psychological mood) components. It depends on the level of culture of sales personnel, the degree of their professionalism, and the knowledge of shop personnel about the psychology of customers.

A necessary condition to improve the quality of trade service is the establishment of control over the safety of commercial and material assets, rational organisation of work of trade personnel, their compliance with the necessary labour discipline, rules of trade and technology of customer service, availability of trade offer and loyalty programmes in the electronic environment and social networks.

Block 4. Assessing the quality of trade customer service

In modern scientific research [5, 16, 20] on the issues of assessing the quality of the trade service of consumers, various directions and criteria of the existing methodology for assessing the quality of trade consumers service for retailers are adapted.

Customer service in a trading house is carried out by sellers, whose responsibilities include performing the following operation to serve customer: meeting the buyer and identifying his intentions; offer and demonstration of goods; assistance in choosing it and consultation; offering related and new products; working with customer objections, performing settlement transactions; packaging and delivery of purchases.

Customers who come to the shop should observe the friendly attitude of sales staff, their tidy appearance, as all this affects the culture of trade service. Sellers should identify the intentions of customers about the goods they need, offer them, if necessary, characterise the goods and emphasise their merits, explain the principles of action, methods of preparation, etc., as well as to explain the product's characteristics and advantages.

The objectives of trade service quality assessment are to collect data on the observance of consumer rights to the safety of goods, the appropriate quality of goods and trade services, the necessary accessible and accurate information on the quantity, quality and range of goods and services, etc.

The assessment of the quality of trade services was made on the basis of collecting information on the following aspects of the enterprise's activities: compliance with the Rules of Trade for groups of goods located on the trading floor and other regulatory documents defining the requirements for the quality of service; the presence of appropriate conditions for compliance with regulatory requirements for the organization of services; the presence of a system for selecting suppliers of goods, reflecting in contracts their responsibility for the quality and safety of products; eliminating the possibility of suppliers selling counterfeit, dangerous products; level of special training of sales personnel; its actions to comply with the requirements of legislative and regulatory documents; procedure for considering complaints and requests from customers. The conducted research allowed us to identify factors influencing the quality of trade service to customers in a trading house (Table 4).

To assess the degree of significance of the identified factors and their ranking, a survey of buyers and sales personnel was conducted.

Table 4. Factors influencing the quality of trade services and their ranks

Source: created by the authors.

From the buyer's perspective, the factors were ranked as follows: professional (41% of respondents); trade and technology (34%); structural (22%); economic (3%) (Table 5).

From the point of view of sales personnel, trade and technological factors (37%) have the greatest influence on the quality of sales service. We will dwell in more detail on those components of trade service, the central place in which is occupied by trade personnel (it is they who directly interact with visitors).

Seven secret shoppers were trained to assess the quality of shopping service. When they came to the shop as ordinary customers, they asked for help in choosing goods. In the conversation they asked typical «buyer» questions, checked the seller's orientation in the range of goods and their prices, his reaction to objections, and the buyer's inducement to buy the goods again. At the end of the task, the secret shopper refused to buy. Based on the results of his visit to the shops «Yakisna kantseliariia», «AKtsentr» and «Mahik» a questionnaire-questionnaire was filled in, which reflects the facts of fulfilment/non-fulfilment of the requirements to the sales staff and the culture of their trade service.

Each of the indicators of the quality of trade service, as we see from Figure 2, was assessed on a 5-point scale.

The competitive advantages of service quality in a trading house were 2 out of 12 studied indicators - material and technical base and consumer convenience (Table 5).

Table 5.Generalized score for the quality of customer service

Source: created by the author.

The main criteria of assessing the quality of service were consumer convenience, time spent waiting for service, completeness of the information provided about the product, etc. (Fig. 1, 2).

Fig. 1. Assessment of the quality of trade customer service

Source: created by the authors

Fig.2. Assessment of the quality of trade customer service

The summarised assessment reflects the generally negative situation with an important indicator of the enterprise's competitiveness - the quality of service as the creation of the most favourable conditions for the choice and purchase of goods by the population and comfortable provision of services.

Sales service is a constant source of interest and concern to customers, for obvious reasons. It is based on customer care; service has moral and economic content and influence, since it directly concerns people.

The conducted research made it possible to construct a polygon of the quality of trade service (Fig. 3).

Fig.3. Radar of the competitiveness of the quality of trade service to buyers of the trading house «Yakisna kantseliariia» and its competitors

Source: created by the authors

The weak sides of service quality, as we can see from Figure 3, were knowledge of goods, provision of full and correct information about them, provision of consulting assistance, time spent waiting for service, behaviour in conflict situations, correctness of sales registration, politeness, attentiveness.

Taking into account the high proportion of «weak» competitive positions in customer service, the store «Yakisna kantseliariia» received the minimum number of points - 3.6, which is lower than the same indicator of its competitors: («AKtsentr» - 4.1 points and «Mahik» - 3.9 points) (Fig. 4).

competitiveness economic security trade

Fig. 4. Generalized assessment of the quality of trade service for customers of the store «Yakisna kantseliariia» and its competitors

The analysis of the quality of service in «Yakisna kantseliariia» allowed to identify the following major shortcomings: ineffective organisation of feedback and lack of individual approach to consumers, their insufficient satisfaction with the attentiveness and speed of trade service, insufficient level of staff qualification in certain issues. All this causes the need to develop recommendations to eliminate the above problems in trade customer service.

Thus, the competitiveness is an instrument, which in good hands can become the most terrible weapon for any opposing organisation, but with weak control and inappropriate application - to destroy the one who tries to copulate with it. Building competitive advantages will be facilitated by ensuring successful interaction and mutual understanding of enterprises with consumers. Their requirements to trade are reduced to the creation of conditions for the timely acquisition of necessary goods (use of services) of high quality, in the right assortment with the least amount of time with maximum convenience, i.e. high quality of trade service. In modern conditions of decreasing purchasing power, it becomes one of the most important tools and factors in ensuring the competitiveness of the regional enterprise.

Providing a benevolent positive attitude to the buyer and creating a favourable emotional and psychological background of the shop, promoting emotional involvement in the purchase and optimising its process with the help of modern technologies, it always depends on the sales staff, its culture and degree of professionalism, emotional mood and knowledge of the psychology of buyers. It is they, the personnel of the enterprise, being its «face» in the sphere of organisation of sale of goods and trade service, who influence the customers, their decision to buy or refuse to buy. No matter how attractive the prices of goods and their display in the sales area are, the quality and culture of service in the modern conditions of digitalisation of the economy continue to be a condition and a tool for the survival and development of the enterprise.

The degree and level of consumer satisfaction, determined by the quality of trade service, has prognostic value for the development of business in general, as it allows to assess the possibility of maintaining the market position of the enterprise if it is studied in dynamics. An important indicator in this study is the comparison of its value with a similar indicator of direct competitors, so the quality of service is an indicator of competitiveness of a trade enterprise. The assessment of this indicator, as well as the formation of a circle of loyal customers in the online and offline format, as the results of our study have shown, requires systematic marketing research.

Conclusions. Thus, in the current conditions of digitalisation of the economy, in order to maintain and strengthen their competitive position, regional trade enterprises need to create a new «digital service culture» under new trends and business needs, integration of digital technologies into the processes of selling goods and trade services to customers, revision of the business model and restructuring of internal business processes of service, transition from the sale of goods to integrated service.

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