Services Marketing (MKT412)

Unimart Services Marketing Audit

Name of the Team: The Marketing Kids

Section: 03

Name of the Student ID Serial Number

Ahmad Hasan Zuhayr 1612388630 34

A.K.M Zafar Sadik Rifat 1611663030 30

Rashad Al Ibrahim 1611092030 29

Neon Rahman 1620706030 39

Mudasser Habib Khan 1610859030 28

Shiekh Tanzid Islam 1530426020 21

Ismail Mia Alif 1612031630 33

Submitted To

Israt Jahan Linda (IJL)

Lecturer, Marketing & International Business, SBE

North South University

Date of Submission: April 12th, 2019

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Acknowledgement
We would like to thank our honourable faculty, Israt Jahan Linda, for giving us the opportunity to
conduct services marketing audit in Unimart, a retail chain organisation. Her assistance with
lessons in class lectures has actually helped us to relate different marketing theories to the project
works. Besides, her guidance on the formulation of this marketing plan has eased us completing
this services marketing audit for Unimart and applying the theories in real time scenario.

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Executive Summary
Unimart is a shopping mall established by United Group. The organization was established in
2012. Unimart was established with the purpose of giving customers a great shopping experience,
where under one roof the customers will find any product they want to purchase. The organization
started its operations with the Gulshan branch. However, in 2018, a new branch in Dhanmondi
was opened. The competition in the retail market or super shop industry in Bangladesh is
increasing gradually. Customer services and customer satisfaction is becoming the key
differentiators among the competitors. Unimart services are customer oriented. They keep almost
all necessary products. Unimart offers a large variety of product by combining a grocery
supermarket and a department store and claim to be a ‘hypermarket’. Unimart is a super store and
sells a wide range of products, therefore monitoring all the product quality is a difficult task.
Customers always tend to blame the company (Unimart), rather than at the parent brand of a
product in case of product quality failure. Employees of Unimart are well aware of this fact and
have been trained to face customer complaints with certain empathy. Unimart is extensively
proactive when it comes to service recovery. As Unimart already has a good brand image for its
satisfactory products and services, the organisation should focus on expansion of its operational
regions. Opening new stores in potential areas like Uttara, Mirpur and others can actually help the
organisation to reach new customers, gain more profits and eventually more market share.

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Table of Contents
Introduction ..................................................................................................................................... 6

Company Overview ........................................................................................................................ 7

History......................................................................................................................................... 7

Service Offered by Other Players ............................................................................................... 7

SWOT Analysis .......................................................................................................................... 8

Analysis of the Marketing Mixes .................................................................................................... 9

Service Blueprint ........................................................................................................................ 9

Supply & Demand Scenario........................................................................................................ 9

Typical service failure instances and existing service recovery strategies ............................... 12

Performance Monitoring Mechanism ....................................................................................... 13

GAP Analysis............................................................................................................................ 15

Comparison of Service by Other Major Provider ..................................................................... 20

8Ps of Service ........................................................................................................................... 22

Flower of Service ...................................................................................................................... 25

SERVQUAL ............................................................................................................................. 27

A Survey of the Users to Find Gaps ............................................................................................. 30

Conclusion & Recommendation ................................................................................................... 36

Bibliography & References........................................................................................................... 37

Appendix ....................................................................................................................................... 39

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Introduction
Rather than focusing on increasing the number of branches, the management of Unimart put their
sole focus on customer satisfaction. With a view to provide great shopping experience to both
locals and foreigners, Unimart has developed customer centric service designs. As a result,
Unimart has successfully created a loyal customer base, along with thousands of other regular
customers. The competition in the retail market or super shop industry in Bangladesh is increasing
gradually. Customer services and customer satisfaction is becoming the key differentiators among
the competitors. Unimart is a renowned super shop which is one of the service sectors of United
Group. In order to serve the customers with the highest service quality, Unimart, as a company,
should be aware of the customer needs, habits and expectations. This report will focus on service
providing and other activities of Unimarts and their impacts on customer satisfaction through
conducting market research.

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Company Overview
History
Unimart is a shopping mall established by United Group. The organization was established in
2012. Unimart was established with the purpose of giving customers a great shopping experience,
where under one roof the customers will find any product they want to purchase. The organization
started its operations with the Gulshan branch. However, in 2018, a new branch in Dhanmondi
was opened. Rather than focusing on increasing the number of branches, the management of
Unimart put their sole focus on customer satisfaction. With a view to provide great shopping
experience to both locals and foreigners, Unimart has developed customer centric service designs.
As a result, Unimart has successfully created a loyal customer base, along with thousands of other
regular customers.

Service Offered by Other Players

The competition in the retail market or super shop industry in Bangladesh is increasing gradually.
Customer services and customer satisfaction is becoming the key differentiators among the
competitors. Unimart needs to face challenges of few key players of the industry, and they are:

Shwapno: Shwapno is a retail store opened by ACI group. The retail chain started its journey in
2010 and at present, it is the largest retail chain in Bangladesh. Operations of the organisation
spread over 51 districts of the country through 536 regular and express stores. In 10 stores across
Dhaka and Chittagong, Shwapno tries to provide mall facilities to the customers, and thus
Shwapno is the biggest competitor for Unimart.

Agora: The Rahimafrooz Group with the promise of quality retail-shop experience launched
Agora back in 2001. Agora entirely focuses on daily shopping necessities of the customers. The
organisation operates with 24 outlets all over Dhaka, Chittagong and Sylhet. Agora is considered
as the second largest retail store of the country.

Meena Bazar: Meena Bazar is a daily shopping retail chain store which was established in 2003.
Agora entirely focuses on daily shopping necessities of the customers. The organisation operates
with 17 outlets in Dhaka and Chittagong.

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SWOT Analysis
The SWOT analysis for Unimart is done below:

Criteria Assessments

Strengths • A large shopping mall, rather than regular superstores

• Skilled and dedicated on the store employees to serve consumers
according to their needs
• Nearly 2000 varieties of products that gives customers the freedom to
make purchase decisions
• Digital inventory system that ensures proper inventory management
processes(Watson, H. 2018)
• Customer loyalty or card program for regular customers
• Training the employees on regular basis

Weaknesses • Absence of mass promotions is causing lack of mass awareness

• Holding little portion of the market share in the industry (about 5%)
• The organisation is more foreign customer centric rather than local
ones.

Opportunities • Opportunity to conduct mass promotions to attract more customers

• Increase the number of outlets to reach more customers
• Opportunity grab more local consumers through focusing on them.

Threats • Operational expansion of other established superstores are causing

loss of market share
• Greater challenges in new regions from the existing superstores there
• Promotion avoidance tendency causes unawareness of potential
customers.

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Analysis of the Marketing Mixes
Service Blueprint
The service blueprint of Unimart is presented below:

Supply & Demand Scenario

Supply Scenario

Unimart is a renowned super shop which is one of the service sectors of United Group. In order to
serve the customers with the highest service quality, Unimart, as a company, should be aware of
the customer needs, habits and expectations. (Lovelock & Wirtz, 2015). Therefore, to match the
demand of the customers and be more customer centric, Unimart does extensive research along
with using past shopping database to keep its products in stock. This procedure is made easier for
the company due to technological advancements in the recent years. Interviewing one the Unimart
employees, it was revealed that Unimart uses a computer software called ZAP. Since products are
scanned in when stocking up the shelves and scanned out upon sale, ZAP identifies the amount of
items coming in or getting out, at that instant, automatically accesses, integrates, and prepares the
business data. Unimart employees check upon this data every week to analyze two factors: the

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number of items need to be restocked & the trend of consumer demand of items throughout the
week.

Fig: ZAP Software Used by the Unimart Management

The interviewee disclosed us some of the scenarios where specific items have been in more
demand during the weekends rather than on the weekdays. In order to manage the demand of the
customers, Unimart uses the stretch and shrink strategy. (Lovelock & Wirtz, 2015). Unimart has
trusted base of suppliers, both local and international. These suppliers have signed contracts to
supply different products to Unimart according to the customer demand cycle of Unimart.

For instance, Unimart’s suppliers supply the supply of perishable goods (such as vegetables, fish
and meat) more on weekends. Upon further queries about supply conditions of the market, the
interviewee critically responded that although the market scenario was to be at scarce, due to the
contract between Unimart and its trusted suppliers, the suppliers are bound to provide the goods
to Unimart first prior other firms and companies (Watson, H. 2018).

Demand Scenario

“Customer demand theory states that demand decreases over time. Even if you have a hot-selling
item, the longer you offer it, the more indifferent your customers will become.” (Johnston, 2016).
This means that demand for goods and services will decrease over time if a company does not
come up with new deals or improved services every now and then. In the super shop business, the
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services are people processing (Lovelock & Wirtz, 2015) since consumers must physically enter
the service factory actively participate in the buying process. It is vital for Unimart to keep the
employees satisfied in the first place in order to make the service encounter experience delightful
for the customers and as a result, create a differentiation point from its competitors.

Our team conducted an online survey which was distributed amongst people of different categories
randomly. In the survey it was seen that people tend to have a changing perspective towards super
shops and visit them on a regular basis, at least once a month, for grocery shopping. Although
Unimart is a renowned super shop, due to its lack of advertisement policies, people have been
attracted more towards its competitors such as Shwapno and Meena Bazar. The demand for people
going to Unimart is not as much compared to other super shops but a great number of people
(42.9%) gave 4 points in a Likert scale to the customer service of Unimart along with 20% of them
facing no drawbacks while shopping in Unimart. This proved that the service quality of Unimart
is highly appreciated by the customers. Since service experience is the differentiating factor, the
demand of customers for Unimart is increasing accordingly.

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Typical service failure instances and existing service recovery strategies
Since products and services differ in properties, it is more difficult to manage services and keep
consistency. Services are intangible, inseparable, and variable, perishable, needs customer
participation and lacks in ownership, it opens up to thousands of possible ways in which a company
might face service failure. Service failure is inevitable for any firm but the probability of a service
failure leading to a loss of customer can be reduced using different strategies.

Unimart is a super store and sells a wide range of products, therefore monitoring all the product
quality is a difficult task. Customers always tend to blame the company (Unimart), rather than at
the parent brand of a product in case of product quality failure. Employees of Unimart are well
aware of this fact and have been trained to face customer complaints with certain empathy. Unimart
is extensively proactive when it comes to service recovery. The employees go through a screening
procedure and are well trained before they get on the field themselves. Their moto is that
“Customer is always right” (Harry Gordon Selfridge). Hence, during the service encounter,
“Moment Of Truth” (Lovelock & Wirtz, 2015), employees are advised to serve with a smile.
Complaints are always welcomed by Unimart and employees are given some right to compensate
customers with instant remunerations such as changing the faulty product, providing goodie bags
in order apologize for any service failures. Although, upon more critical service failure scenarios,
employees apologize to the customer first, regardless of further questions and report to their senior
members who contact the manager in order to come up with a coherent solution.
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Performance Monitoring Mechanism
Performance monitoring ensures quality service delivery by monitoring employee activities both
on stage and back stage. Unimart goes through regular monitoring of individual and office
performance. By using monitoring and evaluation mechanism –

• Products are on track

• Ensures service delivery from the employees

• Monitoring any issues

Tracking employee movements

Unimart has hundreds of employees and over thousands of products in both branches. So,
organizing and distributing products needs to be monitored. Unimart has multiple CCTV camera
inside the shops to monitor movements and it’s controlled by the security team. To track products
barcode scanner is used. All the data is transferred to the application “ZAP” and awaits to get
reviewed by the analysis team later (Davis, W. 2015).

Performance Review and Evaluation

On the basis of visual and numerical data Unimart supervisors and coaches reviews and evaluates
employee performance. The data is collected and analyzed by –

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 • Logistics Team

• Zap Software application

Source: (Davis, W. 2015)

Based on review and performance assessments employees get performance ratings. The results are
published and discussed in the monthly performance review conference. The assessments are also
taken quarterly. From the performance assessment report-

• Employee performance tracking

• Finds out strong and fail points

• Comments, Observations and Recommendations(Davis, W. 2015)

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GAP Analysis
Customer gap

• Unimart services are customer oriented. They keep almost all necessary products. Unimart
offers a large variety of product by combining a grocery supermarket and a department
store and claim to be a ‘hypermarket’ ("UNIMART Redefining the shopping experience",
2019). But different location deserves different type of consumer. Such as, in Gulshan, the
probable customer is of high economic class. But in Dhanmondi, the probable customer
belongs to high economic, higher middle economic and middle economic class. For that
they need to have products that are of different price category. This is the gap of not
knowing what customer expects created for the branch of Unimart in Dhanmondi which is
almost has been overcome in Gulshan branch. Another factor is the parking system. Both
in Gulshan and in Dhanmondi branch parking is a problem due to insufficient parking
space.

• For service standards, Unimart is in the top position in supermall industry. Multiple
category of products for different consumer want is there. The positions of shelves and
product segments are well established and it is up to the standard. For both branches of
Unimart the outlays are very specific and well guided. However, having many shelves can
distract customer as this becomes congested. The customer gap is applicable for not
selecting right service design. But for right service design, customer gap is not applicable
for Unimart (Damiani, E. 2015).

• Unimart deliver their service up to the standard. Well trained sales assistants are always
there to guide. The cashing out system is also effective. Multiple cashing points helps in
this aspect. So the customer gap for not delivering to service standards is not applicable for
Unimart.

• Unimart emphasizes on fulfilling customer expectations. Their promise matches with

performance almost every time. However, in rush hours they tend to lack in fulfilling the
promise. Another factor of customer gaps forms in this scenario (Damiani, E. 2015).

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Provided gap 1

Inadequate marketing research orientation

• Unimart is not very effective in marketing research. Considering the fact that they have
opened up a branch in Dhanmondi where people of different economic class exists, they
did not consider keeping lower cost products. As it seems, people of Dhanmondi prefers
product of different cost scales. Again, different other supermarket like Agora, Shwapno,
Mina market increases competition. So different price strategy would be helpful here. This
is the gap of inadequate market research orientation.

Lack of upward communication

• Unimart conveys proper communication with consumers. When a customer needs guiding,
they provide this efficiently. Also, when there are any issues that customer faces, manager
is always there to help. Communication between contact person and manager helps in
better customer experience. Unimart reduces the gap in upward communication (Lindell,
T. 2016).

Insufficient relationship focuses

• Unimart focuses on maintaining customer relationship rather than only focusing in

transactions. They always try to satisfy customer and thus focus on building relationships.
Again, different segmented products tend to attract more customer and also creates the
opportunity of building good relationship. Unimart has membership advantages that gives
extra benefit to the customers who has shopped worth 2500tk or above. Also, Unimart
focuses their old, loyal customers as well as new customer and try to build good
relationship with them. In fact, most of their outreach is done by word of mouth. So, these
conditions omit the gap of insufficient relationship focus (Lindell, T. 2016).

Inadequate service recovery

• Unimart cares about customer perspective. They also assign well-mannered as well as well-
trained stuffs. These combination gives Unimart the privilege to take care of customers
when is needed. They always hear out complain and make changes according to the

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 suggestions of customers. They make the corrections if something goes wrong and does
that with a smile. There is a reception desk and also a dedicated manager who roams around
to solve the problems. So, the provider gap 1 for inadequate service recovery is not
applicable in Unimart (Vickers, F. 2017).

Provider gap 2

Poor service design

• Service design of Unimart is very much efficient. Their shelves are will equipped with
symbols and instruction. Their service design is accurate and easily accessible. Their new
service development process is however not quite developed. The Gulshan branch of
Unimart is rich in development but in Dhanmondi, stuffs seem doings tasks of backstage
in front of customer like restoring of products and arranging. This quite hampers customer
experience. For that a gap is created here (Vickers, F. 2017).

Absence of customer driven standards

• Focusing on customer wants, Unimart maintains its service standards. Process management
handle carefully the customer requirements. The gap for the absence of customer driven
standards is absent here.

Inappropriate physical evidence and servicescape

• Unimart has its competitive advantage in designing of servicescape and physical evidence.
The segmentation of products is well developed and does meet customer expectations as
well as needs. In their servicescape, to ease the experience of shopping for parents with
kids, Unimart has Kidszone for kids (Anik, 2017) and also food service, like, krispy Kreme
to satisfy hunger with quality food service.

Provider gap 3

Deficiencies in human resource policies

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 • The stuffs of Unimart is well trained and also embodies the culture of Unimart. They are
well mannered and always energetic to give proper service and make customer delight.
This has been possible by effective recruitment process. Also, the stuffs of Unimart are
well trained for the technology there (Vickers, F. 2017). So, it’s a fit for both the stuffs and
the technology. The stuffs also have the right of control and make decisions accordingly
with conditional limits.

• In the condition of jaycustomer handling, Unimart follows effective procedures. They

handle the customers who reacts for unnecessary needs carefully and does not let them
affect other customer experience. They have proper authority and security to handle those
customers. Thus, the gap is reducing here.

Customer who do not fulfills role

• Unimart has a system that is so much well defined that allows customers to do their roles
properly. Even if customer fails to follow their responsibility and roles, Unimart stuffs
guide them and make sure the customer is organized and also well satisfied. Thus, the
provider gap 3 is also minimized here.

Problem with service intermediaries

• The management of Unimart maintains good relations with their intermediaries. They
focus on quality assurance, consistency and maintaining same goal as well as same
objective. A consistence service can bring customer trust easily.

Failure to match demand and supply

• Unimart provides wide variety of product and this attracts wide range of customers. This
can be hard for such a big organization to meets supply and demand. Their strategy focuses
on maintaining smoothness in peaks and volleys of demand. To meet demand, Unimart
does stockings after 1-2 weeks of checking (Powell, P. 2015). Appropriate customer mix
helps them being well organized and thus let them be efficient. For groceries Unimart
follows daily basis tracking and formulate contracts accordingly. Attractive marketing
initiatives helps them in maintain the demand curve constant. This has helped them
attracting new customer in the newly started branch in Dhanmondi.
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Provider gap 4

Lack of integrated services marketing communications

• To maintain the consistency in service design and quality, Unimart makes its external
communication as a whole. This decreases the chance of getting confused about the service.
Their marketing plan is interactive and also as they consider customer perspective and
views, their outreach gets high (Targett, D. 2018). Most of their promotion is done by word
of mouth of customers. This is helping in increasing the footprint of customer. However,
Unimart is not doing big promotion. This has created gaps for Unimart in integrated
marketing communication.

• Unimart has a strong hand in internal marketing communication because of customer-

oriented mentality and customer driven views. Their stuffs work on same goal in promoting
a good brand advocacy. Their consistency in service delivery is also a result of good
internal marketing communication.

Ineffective management of customer expectations

• For proper service quality assessments for consumers, Unimart puts educative

communication plan in their marketing advertisements. Unimart also provides services as

per customer expectation. This has been done because of proper customer expectation
management. The gap is minimized in ineffective management of customer expectation.

Overpromising

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 • Because of the lack in big promotion, Unimart creates most of the impression and brand
personality in personal selling. They maintain their standards and do not do overpromising.
This has allowed them to become customers’ trusted source for shopping. Also, their
servicescape design standards meets with the service delivery standards. So, the provider
gap due to overpromising is not applicable here (Targett, D. 2018).

Inadequate horizontal communication

Being a team and working as a whole, Unimart maintain sufficient communication between each
department. This has made them efficient in maintaining efficiency and work flow. Unimart also
maintain policies and procedures consistency in all of its operations

Comparison of Service by Other Major Provider

In the Targeted Market of Unimart the Major Competitors of Unimart are Agora, Shwapno, Meena
Bazar, Mostafa Mart etc.

In the scale of Price, reach, convenience, market share, Promotions they have difference among
them.

Unimart Agora Shwapno Meena Mostafa

Bazar mart

Pricing Premium Moderate Moderate Moderate Moderately

High

Market Less than 22% 30% 18% Less than

Share 10% 10%

Outlets 2 13 59 18 1

Owner United Rahimafrooz ACI group Gemcon International

group group Chain shop

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 Promotions Very Low Moderate Very High High Low

Reach Low High Very High High Low

Convenience Good Good Good Good Good

Figure: Unimart Target Market scenario.

Source: Light Castle BD.

According to the BSOA (Business Supermarkets Owners’ Association), currently, there are 121
supermarkets in the country. However, the industry is largely dominated by three major players –
Shwapno (536 Outlets), Agora (13 Outlets) and Meena Bazar (18 Outlets).

Rapid Urbanization is helping to grow this industry with super-fast speed. Besides this, there are
also other reasons like Economic growth, change in per capita income, change in social structure,
Standard of living and consumer awareness are influencing this industry to grow fast on a large
scale(Cordock, R. 2017).

Currently, Shwapno is dominating the superstore market as being the market leader. It has the
highest number of outlets in the market and the highest amount of market share (30%) is owned
by it. The next big competitor in this market is Agora with possession of 22% of the market share.
Big Business groups of Bangladesh own all of these top superstores.

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8Ps of Service

Source: (Cordock, R. 2017)

Product

Unimart’s product is in the form of retail service. The company brings in international products
and are sold to the locals of Bangladesh, as most shoppers prefer one stop shopping. It has
maintained higher standards compared to its competitors by providing effective and convenient
service. For example, Unimart has been well trained its personnel to provide assistance to the
customers in finding a good or an item. In order to be quick and efficient, they had hired a number
of personnel to do the job, so that they don’t have to face shortage crisis during rush hours, which
basically happens throughout the day (Murphy, R. 2017).

Price

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Unimart charges premium price compared to its competitors. As it mainly focuses on selling
imported products which are rare to find in other stores around the city. It is quite reasonable for
them to charge premium prices as their target market is mostly corporate households (Murphy, R.
2017). They also opened up a kid’s zone so that customers can shop at ease without worrying about
their children, hence reducing the cost incurred by the customer to look after their children.
Although, they have a 3 storied car parking, it is mostly filled which signifies that there is a huge
number of customers coming in to purchase from Unimart. But the cost incurred due to the loss of
parking area hampers the customers as well.

Place

Unimart Gulshan branch is located at the heart of Gulshan 2. Working hours ranging from 9 am to
10 pm, it gives the opportunities for corporate households to shop after their office hours.
Occupying a large area in Gulshan, it has ranged its channel for distribution intensively. They also
have recently opened another branch in Dhanmondi, providing the same variety of goods, while
the responsibilities for their employees remains the same.

Promotion

Word of mouth. That has been Unimart’s main focus for its advertising and promotional strategy.
They rely on customer’s positive experience which allows them to attract more and more
customers. They have not done any sort of other advertising campaign, other than the Unimart
logo on the shopping bags. This is due to the owner’s religious beliefs, where they tend not to do
any sort of advertising (Arnold, H. 2015).

Process

A retail service provider depends solely on the customers in order to function. Here as so, the
customers of Unimart are definitely the coproducers of their service. Customer participation is
very high in the retail service hence Unimart has designed it in such a way that customers are
satisfied. It involves the customers to enter the mart, take a hold of the shopping cart, stroll around
and find the items they are looking for. Each section of Unimart is labeled with danglers so that its
very convenient for the customers to locate the items. Assistance is provided by Unimart’s
personnel in need. And lastly checking out the items which they are willing to purchase. Unimart

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uses the latest technology which helps them to clear the items in process for check out and refill
the stock once it has been gone to a certain level. They use their own software, known as Zap Data,
which helps keep track of the stock of items and ensure no shortage or surplus, hence meeting the
demand of the customers.

Physical Evidence

The physical evidences of Unimart is the mall itself. The store itself is painted white to give a calm
feeling, allowing the bright colors of the packaging of the items to pop up. Dozens of bright lights
fill the place up, with the assistance of warm yellow spotlights at certain sections to highlight
shelves and product itself. The store is filled with danglers hanging from the ceiling, indicating the
sections and the subsections. Unimart’s personnel are dressed with green t-shirts with the Unimart
logo on it, allowing them to be detectible easily.

People

Given that Unimart is a high customer involvement service provider, maintaining relationship with
the customers is very crucial. As they target corporates, they expect their customers to be well
aware of how the service works. In order to enhance the experience of the customers, they have
added membership features which allows the customers to attain more benefits by shopping at
Unimart. There can be fail points where the employees cannot understand what the customer is
demanding and giving them the wrong item (Ruben, A. 2016).

Productivity and Quality

As mentioned, Unimart has hired a numerous number of employees so that they can be very quick
in their service. They are very efficient in maintaining the service standards by assisting the
customers quickly and they have maintained the productivity by refilling the stock as soon as it
runs down. They quality is ensured by intensive training of the employees so that they can maintain
high quality service.

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Flower of Service

Source: (Ruben, A. 2016)

Facilitating Service

Information:

UNIMART is sister concern of United Group. They have well devolved information providing
system through different channels.

1. Social Media: Unimart has their own Facebook page to inform people about their products
and new arrivals to the potential consumers. In their facebook page their contact
information, Direction of the mart, Product lines and Promotional offers are displayed

2. Webpage: Unimart has a well devoled and user-friendly webpage with the United Group.
Their webpage has pictures of the store from the different angle to consumer can get an
idea of what they are getting into (Ruben, A. 2016).

3. Zapta Application: Unimart has dedicated app for the convience of the customer. You need
to become a member to prevail that service

4. Like any other Unimart also does their billing by the barcode scanner and provide receipts
or tickets

Order taking:

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Order taking usually happens in their inside food stores. In super shops like Unimart people are
allowed to roam free and pick whatever they desire to buy. Most cases retailers provide wheel cart
to make carrying the product easier. In food stalls people order food and drinks after their long and
tiresome shopping.

Billing:

Unimart follows a regular billing system. After choosing the products of your likings you put them
in a cart and bring it in front the front desk to check out and pay the dues.

Barcode Scanner: Every product has its own identity information within the barcode. The staffs
scan and give you a price estimate after that you proceed to check out (Cordock, R. 2017).

Payment:

Payment is very convenient for the customer in the Unimart. Transection simpler and way faster.

1. Cash/ Credit cards: Unimart takes both cash and credit cards for the payment that makes
easier for lot of people who carry cards.

2. Automated Machine: The total payment system is done by the machine so the billing
information is accurate and easy to understand

3. Trained employee: Unimart train their checkout employee to ease of the transection process

Enhancing Service

Consultation:

Consultation is badly needed in a place where you have a lot of things to choose from, but u have
to choose one. The trained employees of unimart helps the customer with their shopping by
providing necessary details of each products and give a recommendation of a product (Cordock,
R. 2017).

Hospitality: Customer and employee contacts are carefully monitored in Unimart.

1. Welcoming Manager: Uniamrt has a well-trained manager who roam around the store,
greet customer, welcome them in store, and answer any questions.

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 2. Food and beverages: Unimart has a “Krispy Kreme” food stall inside their retail store.
Customer can enjoy food or refreshment after or in between shopping.

3. Security: There are two security checking before entering Unimart. One is at parking other
one is before entering the store.

Safekeeping:

Unimart tries their best to minimize the concerns of the customers of their possessions and kids.
So, they provide

1. Kids Zone: Kids can play and hand out while the parents can shop peacefully. That is an
added point of difference in the service of Unimart

2. Parking: Unimart has a underground parking system for the consumer’s safekeeping of the
cars

3. Security box: Unimart has a secure locker to keep your extra bags and stuffs you carry
from outside the store. A guard is always on duty to protect the belongings

Exceptions:

1. Membership Policy: Unimart provides membership to their loyal customers and they
welcomed them with cash-backs and many bonuses. To prevail that you need to atleast
shop for 2500 or above.

2. Refund: In Unimart if the customers can show receipts within the two days of purchase
you get full support of the Unimart team (Cordock, R. 2017).

SERVQUAL
Tangibles:

Unimart is a superstore filled with modern equipment’s. Now they have two Branches in Dhaka
city. In their Gulshan Branch, they are operating their business for almost 6 years. In their store,

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they have all kinds of modern equipment like escalators, lifts, digital displays, TVs, Scanners, etc.
These types of equipment have increased the standard of their service. Dhanmondi Branch is their
new addition.

Reliability:

Unimart is an exclusive supermarket that promises to meet all the domestic shopping requirements
of the customers. It also Promises that in Unimart customers get all these under one single roof,
with open wide space and a clean fun environment that makes the shopping experience enjoyable.
To provide the services as promises they have a good number of employees. They are well trained
by the company to provide the customers the best shopping experience, solve any problem
customers face, performing services right the first time, providing services at the promised time
and maintaining error-free records. These facilities make the service very reliable to its users
(Morisson, P. 2018).

Responsiveness:

The superstore sector is highly competitive, it is very important to provide the best service to retain
its customers. Hence Unimart tries to maintain it. To meet the customers' problems and complaints
they have floor managers in the store. The floor manager listens to them carefully and tries to
respond to those accordingly. So that they can manage the quality of their services and provide
prompt services.

Assurance:

To ensure the best quality of service, Unimart appoints smart people and train them well in order
to create an effective workforce. This effective workforce provides customer-oriented services.
They give the customers’ needs and demands the highest priority. This makes the customers more
confident about the service. It makes them feel comfortable in their transactions. Moreover, they
send the message to the customers that in any situation Unimart is there for them (Morisson, P.
2018)

Empathy:

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Unimart tries to make the service convenient for its customers. Keeping the customer’s
convenience in mind they have trained their employees to behave and come to assistance in a user-
friendly way. So that the customers can easily avail their services. The employees are instructed
to give customers individual attention. Provide the necessary information they need to know about
the products and services. To show the care towards their customers Unimart also comes up with
the exchange of products (no damage is done) that has been bought and taken home by the
customers.

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A Survey of the Users to Find Gaps

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Conclusion & Recommendation
Unimart is a super store and sells a wide range of products, therefore monitoring all the product
quality is a difficult task. Customers always tend to blame the company (Unimart), rather than at
the parent brand of a product in case of product quality failure. Employees of Unimart are well
aware of this fact and have been trained to face customer complaints with certain empathy. Unimart
is extensively proactive when it comes to service recovery. The following recommendations are
being made for Unimart:

1. The organisation needs to focus on promotions of its services and facilities. Promotions
will help the organisation to attract new customers and to gain more exposure to the market.
2. Online presence can be a great option for targeting new generation of customers. Shawpno,
the biggest competitor of Unimart, has presence on internet. Therefore, introduction of
online shopping can help the organisation to reach to more customers.
3. As Unimart already has a good brand image for its satisfactory products and services, the
organisation should focus on expansion of its operational regions. Opening new stores in
potential areas like Uttara, Mirpur and others can actually help the organisation to reach
new customers, gain more profits and eventually more market share.

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Bibliography & References
Arnold, H., (2015). Business Management: In Recent Times. The Business Journal, VI(4), pp. 33-
45.

Cordock, R. P., (2017). Employee Assessment and Workplace. The Executives, X(6), pp. 45-51.

Damiani, E., (2015). System Tools Applications. 4th ed. Berlin: UFP Press.

Davis, W. S., (2015). Business System Applications. 7th ed. New York: Cengage.

Johnston, K. (2016, October 26). Customer Demand Theory. Retrieved from

https://smallbusiness.chron.com/customer-demand-theory-37253.html

Lindell, J. T., (2016). Services Marketing. 3rd ed. Manchester: McGill.

Lovelock, C., & Wirtz, J. (2015). Services marketing: People, technology, strategy. Singapore:
Pearson Education South Asia Pte.

Morisson, P., (2018). Services Marketing Studies. 3rd ed. Manchester: Cengage.

Murphy, R., (2017). Services Marketing & Management. 4th ed. London: Pearson.

Powell, P., (2015). Business Management. 4th ed. Chicago: Amex Publications.

Roubtsova, E., (2014). Services Management Tools. 3rd ed. Amsterdam: Apex.

Ruben, A., (2016). Management Leadership in SMEs. Montly Business, X(14), pp. 55-61.

Services Characteristics: 6 Key Distinguishing Characteristics of Services. (2014, April 07).

Retrieved from http://www.yourarticlelibrary.com/services/services-characteristics-6-key-
distinguishing-characteristics-of-services/34008

Targett, D., (2018). Employee Training & Developments. 5th ed. Amsterdam: UFP Educations.

Vickers, F., (2017). Managerial Decisions. 7th ed. New York: Apex Boo

ZAP Data Hub. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.zapbi.com/product/zap-data-hub/

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6 Key Differences Between Services and Products. (2017, October 31). Retrieved from
https://www.infosurv.com/6-key-differences-between-marketing-services-and-products/

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Appendix

The Marketing Kids and the Unimart Employee

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 Vegetable Shelves

Customer Shopping at Unimart Gulshan

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 Survey Questionnaire conducted by The Marketing Kids

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