Customers

Our customers judge us primarily on our product range, shopping experience and value proposition. However they also have an expectation that we will do the right thing on their behalf in respect of social and environmental issues.

Customer satisfaction – with both the product and shopping experience – is one of the strongest drivers of our performance. It is fundamental to the success of our business that we know and act on what our customers think about our product offer, our pricing and their entire shopping experience.

Both Argos and Homebase conduct regular research which is dedicated to understanding and responding to customers’ views. This includes mystery shopper visits, exit surveys and customer listening groups. One key customer satisfaction measure for Argos is ‘trustworthiness’ (based on choice, value and convenience) and this year 75% of customers associated Argos with this description (vs 76% last year). For Homebase an online survey across 10 product categories each month measures customer satisfaction and the average score for the year was 77% (vs 74% last year).

Argos has extended its customer research by introducing direct customer feedback opportunities such as ‘tellargos.co.uk’ – a website (the address is printed on all receipts) where customers can provide us with feedback on their shopping experience, and online product reviews. Homebase’s ‘free2’ principles encourage all colleagues to make a real difference to our customers’ shopping experience by doing the simple things well and often, and ensuring that the right people and products are in the right place at the right time.

We offer our customers clear information and products that will help them to make responsible choices. Customers have responded particularly well to products which help them to conserve their resources and therefore save money. This includes insulating their homes, using more energy-efficient electricals, growing their own produce and even repairing their clothes.

We are also working to ensure that the process of shopping from us is a responsible choice in itself by significantly increasing the volume of catalogue paper which is either recycled or certified, increasing the recycled content of our carrier bags and reducing their use.

We have explored the carbon footprint of different shopping channels – comparing home delivery to visiting a store – in both the conventional and Argos format. Our initial findings suggest that there is a significant saving from the home delivery and Argos store channels, suggesting that the Group’s overall model is the low-carbon approach.

The efficiency benefits we have achieved as a result of our CR activities are helping to keep costs as low as possible across the business.

Recent customer research has told us that customers are looking for help from retailers to reduce household waste and dispose of waste responsibly. We are responding to this with our initiatives to reduce product packaging and by offering to take back packaging on deliveries of large kitchen appliances (40% of customers return their packaging in this way). We also offer a ‘take back’ service for old large kitchen appliances.

Our innovative ‘21st Century Living’ project is challenging and supporting 100 homes to live more sustainably by reducing their energy use, water consumption and waste. This project is providing us with valuable insights into customer behaviour and will help us to offer our customers practical solutions to improve their environmental impact.

In our Financial Services business, we remain committed to adhering to our responsible lending policy, and continue our focus on treating our customers fairly, including refining the tools we use to measure this. Our Credit Union Schools project gives us an exciting opportunity to support the development of financial capability amongst young people.