Functional areas at Tesco
Most businesses will use CAD CAM to design their products, but Tesco doesn’t produce the products that are sold in the stores. They buy the products already made and packed. The operations department also make sure that the quality of the products is all good quality. The operations department at Tesco will employ people with a large variety of specialists. If any part of Tesco’s operations department stopped it will have a knock on effect on all the other departments. This is because if they didn’t make full use of what they have Tesco will have to purchase more products including land. This will reduce the amount of income for Tesco.
The operations department for Tesco could use farmland to produce products. Marketing and sales – the marketing and sales department make sure that the managers understand what the customers want from the business. They can do this by market research, promotion and sales. Before a company can offer a new product they have to make sure that they know what the customers want and make sure that they know what the competitors are offering. They can get this information from carrying out customer questionnaires this is called market research. It will use this information to offer promotion and sales activity designed to reach the people it is aiming to reach.
If Tesco wanted to introduce a new product to the shelves they would need to ask the customers what they think first this is because they need to know if anyone’s going to buy the product and they know what to plan next. They will also need to know what similar products are Tesco’s competitors (Asda, Sainsbury) are offering this will help them gain more profit. By researching the market Tesco will try to reduce the risk of unprofitable investments in a product. This will help Tesco because they will be able to sell more products and make a higher profit.
Before fully introducing a product the company will test market the product. This is when they offer the product to only one region of the country and keep record of the sales figures. If the product is successful then they will introduce the product to all the outlets. If Tesco want to introduce a new product to their stores after all the market research they can use different sales techniques which include: Free samples – this is when Tesco would give away small packages of the product either on the street, in the shops or house to house. The aim is, once the customer has tried the product they will want to buy more of the same product. Free gifts – free gifts are offered to people with club cards.
Customer service – are the services that the business offers to the customer. Customers sometimes ask questions about products that the business sell, and they expect the sales staff to know about the staff. In Tesco a customer might ask about a product that they are considering buying. The aim of customer services is to welcome the customer and to make them feel valued this will create a positive image about the business and they will recommend it to their friends and family. The customer services also help the customer buy the correct product. Tesco has a customer services desk so if the customer needs help they can go and ask them.
Tesco also do home deliver. For the home delivery service do provide good customer services as well they can deliver on time and can help take the products in to the house if the person is un able to take it them self. They also need to provide a friendly service to the customers. So the customers feel welcomed and would want to come back. Tesco should provide Payment methods to suite all customers they should provide a range of different ways to pay this is because different customers may prefer to pay in a different way. For example older people might refer to pay in cash because they might not know how to use a credit card.
