Marketing 223-Customer Service: Wal-Mart

PART 1

History of the Wal-Mart

Wal-Mart is the American multinational chain of discount and warehouse stores. It is the largest corporations in the world in terms of revenue. Wal-Mart is involved in grocery and general merchandising retailing. In terms of revenue, it ranks as the second largest retailer in the world. Wal-Mart is the largest employer in the world and serves in fifteen countries through its over 2 million employees and 8500 stores. The first retail store was opened in the year 1962. Wal-Mart adopts different strategies in order to differentiate the company from the closest competitors. The main competitive strategy of Wal-Mart is to make its dominance in every sector where it operates its business. It determines its success and dominance over competitors by measuring the sales. The strategies that Wal-Mart adopts in order to gain the competitive advantage are to sell its goods at low prices, make expansion in the business and outsell its competitors. In order to make it different from its competitors Wal-Mart adopts the strategy to open new stores and increasing the size of its existing stores (William, pp. 256).

Wal-Mart is an American company that is engaged in retail sales, its founders were Sam and James L. Walton, starting with its first store in 1962, in the city of Rogers, Arkansas. Wal-Mart Stores Inc began its internationalization strategy in Mexico in 1991. As Wal-Mart is growing in new markets, has not taken off of its organizational culture. When a customer walks into any Wal-Mart, in one of the nine countries where it operates, you can be sure that you get low prices and enjoy a genuine customer service. Their culture is based on the customer feel at home in any department in any store anywhere (Merrilees, and Dale, pp. 1129). A very important aspect of Wal-Mart is that they want each store, depending on where it is located, reflects the values and culture of the inhabitants of that place.

Wal-Mart always strives to “provide quality products at an everyday low price and with extended customer service”. They have adopted a series of strategies which range from loyalty programs for customers to e-tailing. Some of the major strategies include building divisions, which include: smaller stores built in small communities with a population of less than 5000 people; this strategy allows Wal-Mart to give special attention to customers in smaller markets in rural America. Another division is the Sam's Club which is basically a membership only cash and carry operations, in which only wholesale operations are carried out. Customers have to pay a membership fee to be a part of the club in which they get to buy goods in bulk. Supercenters are another division in Wal-Mart whereby groceries, are combined with general merchandise “giving customers a one-stop shopping experience” this “one-stop” convenience has appealed to a large number of customers thereby making the supercenters to become one of the most important retail concepts on the landscape (Merrilees, and Dale, pp. 1129).

The Service Culture

Wal-Mart's mission is ...