GMAT Club Series #5 : Customers

Question

5. Our customers oftentimes complain of having to spend too much time in lines in our groceries stores. They believe that we rob them of their active time and demand changes. Therefore, ......
Choose one of the following statements for the best solution to the problem above:

a. we should install bigger screens behind the cashiers' desks in order to show stock market data, a soap opera and a sports channel at the same time, as we know from our research that most of our customers are businesspeople, housewives or sports lovers.
b. we need to increase the prices on all our products a little bit during the time when we have longest lines in order to shift the people who do not want to pay more to the hours when our stores are not as busy.
c. we need to lower the prices of our products one cent per package in order to enable our customers save money during the hot hours.
d. the best solution would be to introduce a system of checkin and checkout in lines and for each minute spent in line grant our customers ten cents for future purchases.
e. we need to conduct a research of how many minutes customers of other groceries stores spend in lines in order to persuade our customers that they are better off shopping in our groceries stores than in our competitors, in case our lines move faster.

paddyboy · Answer

D.

a) active time - may not mean necessarily watching tv.
b) that could simply mean shifting the time when the lines are longest.
c) price is not the point in contention
d) by introducing a monetary penalty on the store for delays, the service can be improved.
e) the customers are complaining about time spent in this store, not the others - it could be that they don't shop at the other stores, yet are complaining about the times here. Also, what if the queuing times turn out to be longer than average?

ps_dahiya · Answer

Thats a tough one.

May be between D and E. I think its D. If customer think they are getting robbed of then we can give them some money back in lieu of time lost.

MA · Answer

hmm....

D??????? giving 10 cents for each minuet ($6 per hour)? 

these questions seem the toughest ones....

sgrover · Answer

Another one for (D).
only one that looks promising..

jaynayak · Answer

Will go with D.
The choice is between D and E. But E gives a solution depending on a favorable condition ( this store is better than other stores)

D does give a innovative solution

buzzgaurav · Answer

D for me as well.
Real close call between D and E.
D gives a new solution that would please the customers whereas E would not necessarily make the customer happy.

kedarthumma · Answer

I Go with E.

D gives an innovative approach but the customers may take undue advantage of system.

E gives other way of looking at the problem.

If you have two lines one is short and other is long. How will you make the shorter one longer than the other. 
extend the shorter one or rub the longer one to a length less than the shorter one.

amansingla4 · Answer

I think it is E..
OA please

Praetorian · Answer

The answer here is D.

TestWriter · Answer

The correct answer is D. 
a. Active time does not necessarily mean watching TV.
b. The question is about pleasing our customers during the hours that are convenient to them, not to us. Increasing prices might lead to the loss of customers.
c. Lower prices could mean even longer lines. On the other hand, will the amount of money saved compensate for time wasted in lines?
d. This is an innovative solution. On one hand, it will provide our customers with some benefits for their loss. On the other hand, though, this system can potentially lead to faster processing on the cashier desks as the store will lose money each minute.

shoonya · Answer

well, i don't agree with D. Just because the store is shelling out money to the customers, the cashiers won't speed things up. if they do without any other changes, that means they are not working efficiently and there is a chance of improvement at the checkout counters without giving away free money to the customers.

I wish Walmart employs such system

GMATT73 · Answer

(D) just seems completely impractical. Such a system would be expensive to employ and nerve racking to maintain. But, I guess it`s the lesser of the evils.

GMAT Club Series #5 : Customers

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