Customer Survey Burnley and Bury August 1988

The objective of the refurbishment programme is to improve the shopping environment in order to encourage additional shoppers into the stores and increase their likelihood of buying.The shops at Bury and Burnley were extensively refurbished this year. Salford University Business Services Ltd were asked to carry out before and after surveys of customer attitudes towards shop design at both shops. The surveys, carried out in April and August, were designed to detect changes in customer attitudes. The response to the refurbishment was generally favourable. In the April survey, it was found that those shoppers who were likely to buy from NORWEB in the future were favourably influenced by the characteristics of the stores. Those characteristics were the subject of the refurbishment programme, and the attitudes towards them improved significantly in August compared to April. The improvement was of greater significance in Burnley than in Bury: the Burnley shop had not scored as well in April, but after refurbishment the level of measured attitudes at the two stores was similar. This implies that refurbishment is particularly valuable in shops where perceptions initially are poor. However, the responses to the patronage questions showed little change in August over April, although such changes as occurred were favourable. At first sight this was surprising. A high attitude score was positively correlated with patronage in April; so if attitude scores increase, as they did, one might expect intentions of future patronage to rise. They did not.The reason may be that potential customers readily perceive improvements in store design but lake their lime before they tear up old loyalties and desert their former favourite shops In order to come to NORWEB. Sufficient time may not have elapsed between the surveys for this effect to show up. It may be some time before changes in perception translate significantly into willingness to make purchases at NORWEB. But some indications of improvement should show through reasonably early, We strongly recommend therefore that future sales a the refurbished stores are monitored very closely indeed. Turning now to other aspects of the survey, we found that the only negative change in consumer perceptions was with respect of the selection of domestic appliances. This may be an undesirable consequence of a shop redesign that has given the appearance of a more spacious store. The social class of respondents in the survey moved In an unfavourable direction but this was most probably caused by seasonal factors. The target customer groups for NORWEB. namely the younger ABCl's were particularly impressed by the refurbishment. But again, for this 10 translate into a higher probability of future purchase may take some time. Finally to summarise the main results, in ,11 questions on shop design there Is an improvement in attitude as measured by the average score out of ten given by the respondents, an improvement which is statistically significant in most cases. For the various aspects of shop design, those interviewed in the April survey gave average scores in the genera] range 5 to 7 out of 10, will, Burnley mostly lagging Bury by one point. In the August survey, these average scores generally rise to between 7 and 8 out of 10, with there now being little difference between the attitudes towards [he two shops. As we have said, attitudes to both shops have risen and are now comparable. Thus at both shops, statistically significant improvements in consumer attitudes have been observed following refurbishment. At Bury the major positive changes in customer attitudes were: • the store's eye catching appeal • the attractiveness of its interior displays • the effectiveness of lighting • the quality of fittings • customer ability to find products • the shop staff uniform • the pleasantness of the shopping environment. At Burnley, the major changes in customer attitudes were: • the store's eye catching appeal • the attractiveness of its interior displays • the effectiveness of lighting • the quality of fillings • customer ability to find products • the shop staff uniform • the pleasantness of the shopping environment • the attractiveness of the window displays • product information available • access to advice • shopper's likelihood of patronising the store in the future.