Customer Service as Business Strategy for Unorganized Retailers: A Case Study of Ajmer
Purpose: The paper seeks to understand the importance of customer service as strategy for the unorganized retailers in Ajmer to compete with the organized retailers. Design/methodology/approach: A questionnaire was designed for the purpose of data collection and was sent to 30 unorganized retailers and 30 customers in Ajmer in order to analyze the role and importance of customer service as competitive advantage for unorganized retailers. Multivariate statistical technique was used to analyze the data collected. Findings: Customers expectations of the service of the unorganized retailers is positively related to the location, trustworthy salespeople, cleanliness etc but with respect to customer service the organized retail stores have a competitive edge. So the unorganized retailers should strategically use customer service as a tool for competing with the organized retailers. Research limitations/implications: The unorganized retail stores have major disadvantages on all customer perceptions except location. Given the nature of sample a larger sample is needed to determine the factors influencing the customer service to be taken into consideration for the purpose of creating a competitive edge over the organized retailers.
