Customer Relationship Management Strategies Embedded in Grocery Shopping: An Observational Study of Grocery Store Customers of Dutse, Nigeria

Abstract

There was a general problem of retaining customers and attracting new ones by start-up grocery stores. There is not enough information for managers and owner's groceries stores to develop customer relationship management strategies to retain and attract customers. The participant observations which includes an interview with major actors in the management and transactions of the grocery store provides me with a concise view of the features, actors, activities, and interactions in the store. Using the twelve stages developed by Spradley (1980) of conducting and reporting participants observation, three broad shopping stages which were divided into 28 different sub-units were revealed. Within the three broad shopping stages, management of grocery stores embedded various customer management strategies that made shopping a pleasant experience for their customers. Ten dominant themes emerge as information that can be used by owners and managers of grocery stores to develop customer relationship management strategies that will retain customers and attract new ones. Retaining customers by grocery store will provide word of mouth ads which will attract new customers to the stores.