The document summarizes research conducted on customer satisfaction with the department store Nilgiris. It finds that while customers appreciate Nilgiris' product quality, many are dissatisfied with the lack of parking and unhelpful staff. Statistical analysis shows that offering discounts, offers, and private labels can increase sales revenue, as can providing better parking. The document recommends that Nilgiris focus on offers, continue private labels, improve parking, and train staff to better assist customers in order to regain their competitive position.

1. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Customers usually like shopping at a departmental store that has quality
products, good parking space, good infrastructure, helpful customers, hygienic
and products neatly placed. Customers do like shopping at Nilgiris mainly
because of good quality products, fine infrastructure and hygienic. Most
customers don’t like shopping at Nilgiris because of its unhelpful staff and no
ample space for parking. The parking space is only available in few outlets that
are in Chennai. Hence most customers find it very difficult to park and hence find
it very inconvenient to shop at Nilgiris. The second aspect is that the staffs are
unhelpful and are sometimes rude to the customers. They are usually unaware of
most products that are available in the shop. They are not willing to help
customers in case of any difficulty in finding any products.
The sales revenues of Nilgiris have seen a sharp fall of 15% over the past
five years. They have lost out on their competitors as they have not been able to
meet their customer requirements and hence the sales revenues have decreased.
This project is to suggest ways by which Nilgiris can improve their sales
revenues and determine whether the sales revenue of the departmental store
increases or decreases considerably by introducing various parameters like price
discounts, ample parking space, offers, private labels etc. This will be calculated
by using the non parametric test two sample sign tests.
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2. INTRODUCTION
Nilgiris was started as dairy products in ooty in the year 1905.Then they
started the first super market in the year 1936 in Bangalore (BRIGADE ROAD). In
south India they have 40 outlets. In Tamilnadu they have 20 outlets; In Chennai
they have 7 outlets, in 2011 they are planning to open 40-45 outlets through out
Chennai. They have 2000 employees all over India. Sales from the dairy Form is
per year 125 crore. They have 20% of their own products in all the outlets and
80% of the FMCG products.
The chairman of the store is Mr. Raja Chellaiyan.
Managing Director- Mr.N.C NeelaGopal.
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3. PROBLEM STATEMENT
Nilgiris over the past years have lost to their competitors. This is obvious
from the sales revenues of Nilgiris. The sales revenue has dropped by about 15%
for the past five years.
DATA COLLECTION
PRIMARY DATA
I have carried out a primary research in which I requested 110 people who
filled out questionnaires. The observations are further depicted in the form of
graphs below.
OBSERVATIONS:
From the study that was conducted by me, I came to know the following about
Nilgiris:
Familiarity of the store:
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4. Frequency of visit
Location of outlet usually shopped at:
Variety of products:
Preferable mode of payment
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5. Reasons why people like/ prefer shopping at Nilgiris
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6. Reasons why people don’t like shopping at Nilgiris
Satisfaction of customers
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7. Rating of Nilgiris
In the questionnaire I also added a few questions on whether the
customers would shop more at Nilgiris on a basis of five parameters. They are:
1. Price discounts
2. Offers
3. Private labels
4. Better parking space
5. Home delivery
STATISTICAL TESTING
To check whether these outcomes will increase the sales revenues or not I
used the ‘Two sample sign test’ statistical tool.
Price discounts in the products in six branches in Chennai
Branch Before After
Besant Nagar 8 7 +
T. Nagar 23 25 -
Vadapalani 10 8 +
Mylapore 29 24 +
Anna Nagar 18 25 -
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8. K.K Nagar 12 14 -
Step 1: If 1st value > 2nd value – ‘+’
Step 2: Count the no. of ‘+’ = 3
Count the no. of ‘-‘= 3
No. of observations = 6
Step 3: n*p= 6*1/2= 3
Since 3<5 apply small sampling
Step 4: Hypothesis Testing
I. Null Hypothesis H0 “ There is no significant difference in the sales
revenue when there is a price discount”
II. Alternate Hypothesis H1 “ Not as stated as above”
III. Test Statistics :
No. of ‘+’ Signs (x) P(x)= nCx px q n-x
P= ½ q= ½ n= 6
3 6
C3 (1/2)3(1/2)6-3 0.3125
4 6
C4(1/2)4(1/2)6-4 0.2343
5 6
C5(1/2)5(1/2)6-5 0.09375
6 6
C6(1/2)6(1/2)6-6 0.01562
Z= 0.65617
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9. IV. Level of significance @ 5% One tail test the table value of z is 0.64
V. Decision : Since the calculated value of z (0.65) is greater than the table
value of z (0.64) accept H0
VI. Conclusion : there is no significant difference in the sales revenue when
there is a price discount
The statistical tool ‘Two sample sign test’ was used to check whether the
rest of the parameters affected the sales revenues of Nilgiris. The following were
the results:
Parameter Result
1. Price discount No change
2. Offers Change
3. Private labels Change but with a little difference
4. Better parking space Change
5. Home delivery No change
RECOMMENDATIONS:
Hence I would like to recommend Nilgiris that in order to improve their sales
they can:
• Give more offers to their customers
• Nilgiris has already got their private labels so they should continue
with their private labels as this increases their sales by a small
fraction but still increases
• Most people complain that most of their branches have no proper
parking space and hence it becomes very uncomfortable for them to
shop. Hence in order to improve their sales Nilgiris should provide
their customers with an ample parking space.
• From the study we conducted we also came across that the staff in
Nilgiris are not very helpful and they are unaware of most of the
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10. products that are available in the store. Hence Nilgiris should train
their employees well so that they are able to help customers better.
CONCLUSION:
Hence by using these strategies Nilgiris will once again win over heir
competitors and become the market leader. Hope these recommendations do
help Nilgiris in a big way. Hopefully customers become loyal to them instead of
only being one time buyers. Nilgiris can also then start up CRM initiatives so that
they are able to keep their loyal customers satisfied with their services.
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