Prior to beginning work on this discussion forum, read the article Improving Home Improvement: Home Depot & Lowe’s Lead in Volume But Trail in Customer Satisfaction (Links to an external site.), the How We Play Ball! PowerPoint, and the weekly lecture.

In your discussion post, reflect on the following:

• Part 1:
  • What factors influence customer value, satisfaction, and loyalty?
  • What are some methods for measuring customer satisfaction and engagement?
  • What is the importance of commitments to building customer relationships?
• Part 2:
  • What current trends are impacting Home Depot, Lowe’s, Menards, and other retailers listed in the article? Are they impacting their industry and sales favorably?
  • What strategies and actions are currently being done by one of the retailers in the article to capitalize on the current trends?
  • How do they segment their customers?
  • What are they doing to influence customer value, satisfaction, and loyalty? Will these strategies and actions be effective and improve customer service, satisfaction, and loyalty in the short and long run?
  • How are they building customer relationships?
  • Who are their customer contact employees? Why are they critical to building customer satisfaction, engagement, and loyalty?

  Reference: Evans, J. R., & Lindsay, W. M. (2020). Managing for quality and performance excellence (11th ed.). Cengage Learning.