As the only major supermarket serving Dubai’s Greens community, Choithram’s store manager Prakash Ramchandani has built up a loyal customer base from the local area, with the busy store experiencing double-digit growth in the past couple of years.
After winning the inaugural Retail News Middle East ‘store of the month’ award, Ramchandani discusses his formula for running a top-notch outlet and ensuring continued customer loyalty.
How do you feel to have been awarded ‘supermarket of the month’?
Overwhelmed. Over the years, our customers have awarded us many accolades by visiting and revisiting our stores. But it certainly is a matter of pride to be awarded the supermarket of the month by an independent and impartial body such as RNME. The award reinstates our belief in giving top priority to customer service in all our stores.
What aspects of the store do you think helped you win?
All our stores operate on the simple ideas of service, selection and satisfaction. Our staff members are trained in dispensing excellent customer service. Our merchandise section helps in maintaining the right balance and mix of brands and products.
These two factors lead to the third and most important – satisfaction of the consumer. Apart from this our increased focus on the fresh produce range, the range at the fresh bakery and at the fresh meat counter has helped us.
What innovations have you implemented since you have been at the store?
I have carried out category management exercises that have lead to weeding out of slow movers. This resulted in uncluttered products on shelves, which are clearly categorised. By doing this, consumers can easily find what they want. We have also added new and exciting ranges, thus increasing the ‘wow factor’. We had carried out consumer surveys for some categories and these consumer responses were translated into increasing or decreasing of sizes of those categories.
How many staff do you have? What nationalities are they?
We have 49 staff, who are all dedicated to their jobs. All are trained at the Choithram academy at our head office. Five of these are new recruits and are currently under field training at Greens. We have a mix of many nationalities from the GCC and the sub-continent.
How have your staff helped in achieving excellence in customer service?
To be honest, I think they are the real winners of this award. They are the ones to apply the ‘greet, smile and thanks principles’.
While shopping, if the customer needs assistance, the staff are always on hand to help. We make sure the consumer is satisfied regarding his or her shopping. This satisfaction is stretched out of the store too in the form of home deliveries.
How do you motivate your staff and make them feel part of one team?
We regularly monitor consumer feedback through our feedback forms. We discuss the same and look at ways of how to fix problems, if any. During these sessions, I give pep talks to the team and always instil a sense of oneness in them.
It is also important to create and maintain a motivating environment. We have an organisational structure that is flexible enough that permits the staff to stretch themselves to meet the customers’ expectations.
What footfall does your store have? How has business grown over the past year?
Footfall and business in terms of absolute value has been a double-digit growth for the past three to four years and we anticipate the same in the coming years.
What do you like about running the store in the Greens?
First, it’s the consumers. Residents at the Greens are of diverse nationalities and culture. This is enough challenge to look forward to and meet their expectations.
We make sure to keep monitoring the mix of products in the store and add or delete lines accordingly. Also they have different benchmarks that lead to their shopping experience being satisfying.
Next it’s the staff. I consider myself fortunate to have a wonderful team at Greens that assists me in the running of the store on a day-to-day basis.
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