Effect Of Changes In Customer Expectations On Tesco Employee Training Needs

Introduction

The grocery market has experienced many new innovations and growths over the last decade and as a result employment relationship has changed development and career prospects for all Tesco employees. This in turn with demographic changes in the population has a major effect on customer expectations, consequently affecting Training and Development of employees. The customer experience is the field on which Tesco’s success is built on and for this to prosper it is essential to have a competent employee experience and training strategy in place.

Changes in Customer Expectations

Customer expectations have changed drastically over the last decade due to changes in demographics as well as introduction of new services and technologies. This in turn has required Tesco to train and develop its employees to counter these new changes. A happy in-store shopping experience that a knowledgeable customer receives will insure that the customer has a repeat trip in the future (Sánchez-Fernández et al., 2009).

In modern society the customer experience in a store has become so important that people use social media to detail their encounters and share them on sites like Twitter and Facebook. According to Pine and Gilmore (1998) this has many businesses countering by clearly devising new desirable experiences for consumers. This will require staff training to keep up to date with all the modern changes that affect people’s shopping experiences. Customer experience is indispensable to promotional planning as experiences are frequently perceived to be appreciated more than merchandise price or quality. (Kerin et al., 1992).

Effects on Training Needs

The key determination of the training and development plan is not only to please the consumers but to maintain a successful turnover. Tesco’s merchandise of grocery and wide-ranging products in stores have diversified to include banking, insurance services, electrical goods, telephone equipment and airtime and as a result customers get to have all their buying needs in one place. This in turn requires Tesco to expand their training needs so as to cover all these diverse customer expectations and merchandise as employees will need to develop expertise in these different services and products.

According to Flippo (2001) employee performance in organisations results in an additional motivated work force that has the energy for higher productivity, value, ability, loyalty and motivation. He also agrees with Mondy (2007) and Armstrong (2005) both of who were of the belief that it results in a more positive attitude and benefits than other administrative actions. The training and development program is built on the knowledge to deliver exceptional services to the customers and achieve all the important duties interior and exterior of the store in a specialised method even with all the changes that transpire due to new customer expectations.

Conclusion

Tesco is dedicated in training and developing its employees with many career opportunities that enhance their employees with new skills as well as helping young people get fresh start in their careers and as a result 80% of employees of Tesco are motivated by their commitment (Tescoplc.com, 2019).