Exclusive interview, the first and only one with UK and Group CEOs of Tesco

The Complaining Cow and Tesco history

Frequent readers of this blog and followers on social media will know that I have quite a history with Tesco, in complaining, taking them to court, meeting Dave Lewis etc etc! Anyway when I met him in September 2014 he bought 100 of my books, made me get arm ache signing them all (he really should buy another 100 as it’s now been updated!) and invited me back to chat with his executive team in November 2014, when I said I should interview him.

The Tesco bosses interview background

It’s now nearly two years on and we got there. I know, how these organisations can work so slowly beats me. I had loads of questions, loads. The list grew and grew the longer they took to get their act together. Then we had a date and ol’ Dave decides the new Tesco UK CEO (Matt Davies) should also come. Maybe it was moral support?!  Apparently these two don’t do many interviews and this one was the first one they did together.

Then the powers that be said no-one would watch a film with 40 questions in it! Fair enough, so we got it shortlisted down to 10, filmed for the best part of half an hour and then it got edited.

You should know of course that there were really rather brilliant questions and challenges which were edited out 😉 In all seriousness though, it should be pointed out that Tesco did have full editorial control.

The Tesco interview

Can you see the chair I was sitting on and those nice biscuits on the table? I told the team that there was no way I was eating that chocolate biscuit until after the interview because I had cream trousers on. I don’t think people believed that I would be as daft as I was implying. By the time I had finished the biscuit there was chocolate on my trousers and underneath me on the chair. (I wonder if it still there? I did apologise). This skill of getting chocolate under oneself whilst eating was inherited from my Dad. So was the grey hair and funny bones but sadly not the brains! Anyway, I digress…

What do I think? Well to be fair, I like both Dave and Matt  who are both very personable and with a sense of humour, which is a heck of a lot more than a lot of CEOs out there, I will say that! Dave is a lot better than his predecessor too but again, let’s be fair, Clarke was pushed. I think they are pretty genuine and I think they have the respect of their staff and really are working towards improving service (yes I know it couldn’t have got much worse!) The proof is there in the figures that sales are increasing.

Opinion on Dave Lewis and Matt Davies interview answers

How Dave sees Tesco connecting

This was interesting. I’ll be watching how they develop that, which is no easy task!

Tesco Pricing

Tesco is getting better in this area and, yes, we all love a bargain but I still don’t want to be working out whether 2 blocks of this cheese is better value than 1 block of that same cheese and needing a calculator to work out price per gram?!

Tesco Service

Time will tell -- what was cut actually was a question from my Mum. She wanted to know why staff couldn’t just open a bag of oranges and let her buy a single one when there were no single ones available. Matt spoke about moving towards enabling customers to feel that they could be empowered to make those choices. Now that is an interesting concept and a tricky one to navigate, so we shall see.

Perceptions of Tesco quality

Again, quite interesting -- Tesco will be doing an updated post on how to become a tester soon.

The fake farms? 

The farms? Huh! Dave and I have batted emails back and forth about the fake farms issue and I still don’t agree or accept what he says. Shall I agree to disagree? Of course not. You can read more in the article Fake farms – a bad country smell that won’t go away, including background information from social media, NFU, ASA and Trading Standards

Right. Those Tesco adverts?

I’m pulling faces at Dave because he knows what I think of them. Tesco takes flak in the battle of the Christmas adverts and I don’t think they are getting any better. He didn’t answer the question about stereotyping (he must realise?! As someone who works in children’s services I don’t like the way the adverts portray Mum as knowing what she is doing and Dad doesn’t know about offers etc. and the message this is sending to children) And in any case why do you need to be paying expensive actors for these awful ads anyway?   Also – cut from the piece – I suggested that Dave might like to get some creative ideas from customers – we could tell him what we would like to see in an ad? He did say he thought it was a good idea… You could email him and tell him your ideas if you like.

As for the Tesco clothing?

Well I can tell you that sitting in front of them the evidence regarding shirts was right there! When we can buy wellies in May we will know they listened.

All in all? Had a good day, personable people to chat with (and the team involved with filming were fab, has to be said), lots to talk about and I’m quite sure quite a lot to complain about in the future! Remember Dave DID tell me to keep complaining and well, seems like a nice chap, so happy to oblige.

If you need help with complaining to Tesco or any other company GET THE BOOK! How To Complain: The ESSENTIAL Consumer Guide to Getting REFUNDS, Redress and RESULTS!

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