Regional Differences in the Evaluation of Customer Service in Distribution : A Survey in the Brazilian Grocery Retail Industry

This paper draws on a survey of the expectations and perceptions regarding customer service provided by manufacturers to grocery retailers in five large Brazilian cities located in different geographical regions (South, Southeast and Northeast). Regional differences in expectations and perceptions of service provided in five attributes are considered, measuring the four service dimensions considered to be the most relevant by retailers. In terms of expectations, results show uniformity regarding three attributes and remarkable differences in two others. Several significant differences could be found in terms of the perception of both average and best practice performance in the five areas. Results indicate that there is ground for supplier companies to observe such differences in their efforts to differentiate themselves from competitors through their distribution service offerings according to the market served