In today’s competitive environment only the best survives. To survive and grow, the retailers need to strategize their operations to ensure customer delight, repeat purchases and increase in profitability. The key to achieve this objective is to give exemplary shopping experience and convert the customer from browser to a spender and to a big spender. It is an integrated approach wherein all the components of retail mix work in unison and deliver the ultimate experience to the customers. Customer Expectation Management (CEM) is a program to enable large and complex organizations to deliver a financially optimal customer experience, resulting in increased customer loyalty and hence superior growth and financial performance (Enzminger, 2005). This study focuses on the role of various factors (availability of various products, quality of the products, stores atmospherics, pricing, working hours, behavior of employees, etc.) to deliver superior customer experience and isolates the factors which the customers consider as important while shopping in a retail chain grocery store.

Organized retail shopping is characterized by an environment where the retail shopper can indulge in self-service. It is therefore very essential for various retail formats to track the satisfaction levels of the consumers. From the retailer’s perspective, the aim is to minimize the reasons for complaints and dissatisfaction and the cost of a service recovery plan (McCollough et al., 2000), whilst establishing a track of direct feedback from customers about their reactions to those key elements. Satisfaction is a consumer’s postpurchase evaluation of the overall service experience. It is an affective reaction (Menon and Dubé as referred in Binta et al., 2001) in which the consumer’s needs, desires and expectations during the course of the service experience have been met or exceeded (Lovelock et al., 2001 as referred in Binta et al., 2001). Customer satisfaction now represents a central strategic focus for customer-oriented firms across diverse industries (Szymanski and Henard, 2001; as referred in Binta et al., 2001). In recent years, researchers have focused their attention on measuring levels of customer satisfaction (Tse and Wilton, 1988; Myers, Peterson and Wilson; Tom and Lucey, 1995; Hackl, Scharitzer and Zuba, 2000 as referred in Binta et al., 2001). There has also been an attempt to better understand the dynamics of the relationship that exists between satisfaction and service quality, and the impact on customer purchase intentions (Bolton and Drew, Cronin and Taylor, 1992; and Taylor and Baker, 1994 as referred in Binta et al., 2001).

The convenience stores format of the retail industry is highly competitive and volumedriven with high pressure on the margins, particularly in the Indian environment where there is a wide and strong presence of neighborhood kirana stores which, with their low overheads, high level of personalized service and one-to-one relationship with the households, throw a tough challenge to the convenience stores format in the organized sector. In the light of this reality, the focus of the convenience stores in the organized sector should be on managing consumers’ expectations effectively leading to repeat purchases and converting them into life-time customers. Various factors like ambience, friendliness of staff, merchandize variety, prices, quality of the merchandize, easy accessibility, and efficient and faster checkout assume critical significance. With food, grocery and general merchandize slated to reach the level of 102,546 cr by 2015, which represents 42% of the Indian retail market pie (Tata Strategic Management Group), the convenience stores format retail chains need to gear up by differentiating themselves in managing the customer expectations effectively.

Marketing Management Journal, Guest Delight, Hotel Industry, Customer Delight, Customer Loyalty, Customer Satisfaction, Reliable Reservation System, Convenient Payment Method, Hotel Management, Disconfirmation Theory, Data Collection.