Introduction
The business environment today has become highly competitive. Any business willing to sustain itself through tight competition and impressive profitability, in the long run, has to devote its efforts in attracting new customers as well as retaining existing ones (Hallowell, 1996, p. 27).
Latest empirical research has demonstrated that the only way businesses can attain above goals is through long term customer satisfaction (Chen & Hu, 2010, p.535). It is against this reason that the term customer satisfaction attracted more attention in the last two decades. This paradigm shift in attention was due to benefits associated with customer satisfaction.
Additionally, several studies have also supported the hypothesis that customer satisfaction increases price loyalty, positive word of mouth advertisement and boosts customer loyalty. Undoubtedly, customer satisfaction can be directly linked to customer retention and growth of a firm’s share in the market (Hallowell, 1996, p. 30).
It is against this background that it has become critical for businesses to improve quality of their services since it immensely and positively contributes to customer satisfaction.
Service delivery occurs when the service provider and the customer interact. During this interaction, commonly known as service encounter, the customer’s gauge the quality of the service provided and related the experience with the preconceived ideas (Chen & Hu, 2010, p.540). If the quality of the service received exceeds the expected outcomes, the customer is usually satisfied.
However, if the encountered quality of service falls below the expected, dissatisfaction is inevitable (Chen & Hu, 2010, p.546). The type of service encounter that a customer experience is what leads to either service failure or success.
Previous researches in the service industry have identified several characteristics that customers use to gauge the quality of service being offered. To begin with, customers are concerned with the timeliness and convenience of the service. A case-specific study in the restaurant industry showed that customers are concerned with time taken to receive their orders.
Likewise, studies in the service industry like mail delivery shows customers will be dissatisfied if the provider does not dwell on timeliness and convenience (Chen & Hu, 2010, p.537). Secondly, customers are more concerned with personal attention they receive from a company’s employee during service delivery (Chen & Hu, 2010, p.538).
They will also gauge the level of employee competence and professionalism as well as responsiveness incase of a query or a problem. Finally, availability, reliability and dependability of the service are key determinants in customer satisfaction (Chen & Hu, 2010, p.538). Hallowell (1996, p. 42) adds that time factors is the most important aspect that determines customer satisfaction in this fast-paced environment.
According to Hallowell (1996, p. 38), any business willing to survive in the cut-throat competitive business environment should consider improving the above factors. This is because the negative effects of customer dissatisfaction can have disastrous effects on a business.
Chen and Hu (2010, p.542) add that a dissatisfied customer tends to complain mainly to friends and other acquaintances, thus creating a negative corporate image. This negative publicity through the word of mouth will impact on a business negatively since it dissuades other potential customers from that particular service provider.
The strong correlation between customer satisfaction and loyalty is what has led marketers to design slogans that exemplify the same (Chen & Hu, 2010, p.558). As aforementioned, customers want to be appreciated and the above marketing strategy is one way of communicating the same to existing and potential customers.
Literature in marketing classifies customer loyalty under two distinct categories. The first distinction is where customer loyalty is viewed as an attitude (Hallowell, 1996, p. 27-42). The attitude of an individual is what creates emotional feelings that are responsible for detaching or attaching the person to the product or service. That positive attachment is what breeds to customer loyalty (Hallowell, 1996, p. 28).
The second distinction is that which treats customer loyalty as behavioral. Hallowell (1996, p. 28) relates the above classification with a situation where a customer after many purchases from a particular provider becomes royal based on the outcome of a past relationship.
The above literature has exemplified that there is a direct correlation between customer satisfaction and quality of service delivery. The many elements of service delivery impact either negatively or positively on customer satisfaction. Armed with the above information, I will undertake a qualitative research to determine the level of customer satisfaction among X-restaurant customers.
Decision and research problem to be addressed
The vital role of customer satisfaction to the success of a business is what has led most businesses to focus their effort on analyzing customer satisfaction and dissatisfaction levels (Chen & Hu, 2010, p.542). For the last two decades, the business environment has experienced what may be termed as customer service revolution.
This revolution came about when marketers realized customer satisfaction as the core of any business (Chen & Hu, 2010, p.550). Since then, consultants in business have undertaken researches to determine characteristics that an organization should adopt to attract and retain more customers.
As exemplified above, businesses have realized the need to focus on customer satisfaction so as to increase customer loyalty, increase customer base, jump-start their revenues and profits, increase their market share and above all to survive in the competitive world. The focus has shifted from attaining higher profits towards rejuvenating customer experience.
Scholars and other interest groups have tried to define the term customer satisfaction. The definition, however, has been very elusive as customer satisfaction levels vary from one situation to another depending on the type of goods or services (Hallowell, 1996, p. 29). Despite the disparities in opinion, customer satisfaction has been viewed as an emotion element that is partly dependent on the customer’s expectation.
The variability of customer satisfaction levels is what led individual business to conduct customer surveys to determine what their customers want (Chen & Hu, 2010, p.548). According to Chen and Hu (2010, p.548), customer surveys are important as the results can act as a guideline in designing the methods of increasing customer experience levels.
Numerous case studies have been conducted to investigate the correlation between customer satisfaction and service quality. However, researches that are focused on assessing the same in the restaurant industry have been limited. Further, the few that have been conducted focus on restaurants where the customer goes to the place of service delivery.
This study will be unique as it focuses on customer satisfaction levels and service delivery from X-restaurant that provides outside catering services. The study will analyze quality factors such as food quality, X-restaurant staff responsiveness, timeliness, pricing and complaints response, to find out how they influence customer satisfaction.
In addition, depending on the availability of resources, the study will identify the negative attributes that lead to X-restaurant customers’ dissatisfaction. The solution on how the above attributes if any will be provided.
Significance of the study
This study is important since collected data will shed light on the attributes that influence customer satisfaction in outside catering restaurant business. As exemplified, studies that explore a similar topic as the one being studied are very limited; hence, the results of the study will contribute positively to the literature.
The study’s finding will create awareness to the managers of X-restaurant on whether their service is eliciting the desired outcomes. Assuming high levels of customer dissatisfaction are identified, the information on what makes the customer dissatisfied can be used to modify the element of service delivery.
Research objectives
Main objective
- To investigate customer satisfaction level with the services provided by X-restaurant.
Specific objectives
- To establish the link between customer satisfaction and quality service delivery.
- To determine what elements of service delivery leads to customer satisfaction
- To investigate what elements of service delivery makes X-restaurant customers to be dissatisfaction
- To determine the effects customer satisfaction/dissatisfaction on X-restaurants profits
- To find out what elements of service delivery the customers of X-restaurant customer would like to be improved
- To investigate the impact of customer satisfaction/dissatisfaction levels on X-restaurant image
Research hypothesis
The research questions highlighted above will be answered under one broad hypothesis.
Hypothesis 1: Customer satisfaction is dependent on quality and reliability of the service
Many empirical studies have focused on the relationship between customer satisfaction and reliability of the expected service. These studies have concluded that reliability of service affected customer service either negatively or positively. Reliability is gauged on whether the provider delivers the service, both in an accurate and dependable manner (Hallowell, 1996, p. 34).
Customers will gauge service delivery based on their perception of what they consider to be accurate, dependable and consistent (Hallowell, 1996, p. 32). The results will either qualify or disqualify the above hypothesis. The finished research study is expected to include an abstract, introduction, literature review, methodology, findings and discussions as well as conclusion
Methodology
This research study will give emphasis on the analysis of customer satisfaction based on the level of service they receive from X-restaurant. The factors that lead to the satisfaction or dissatisfaction will also be analyzed. To achieve the above goals, data for analysis will be obtained from primary and secondary sources. The primary sources data will be obtained from respondents using primary data collection methods.
For primary data collection, both qualitative and quantitative approaches will be applied. The combination of the above approaches is necessary since each will cover limitations of the other (Hallowell, 1996, p. 38). The qualitative approach to be employed will be in the form of surveys. Customer surveys will be conducted by use of questionnaires.
On, the other hand, secondary data will be obtained from literature materials published in scholarly publications. The published materials will be consulted to obtain the information necessary for designing the data collection materials. To gain more understanding on the factors that affect customer satisfaction, journals and books on customer perception will be reviewed.
Research Plan
The proposed research will be undertaken within a period of one month. This is due to the fact that the study will be limited in scope as it will only explore customer satisfaction with the quality of service they receive from an outside catering restaurant X.
The first week will be dedicated to carrying out research to identify restaurant businesses that offered outside catering services. The goal is to identify more than 10 businesses to enable random sampling. The following week will be dedicated towards distribution of data collection materials to the customers of the identified restaurant.
The data collection materials will be administered to the identified customers to measure their perception of the quality of service they received from the said businesses. After data collection, data analysis will be commenced in the following week. The collected data will be measured against the relevant data from previous researches.
This will assist in results interpretation and discussion of the same. The data analysis and results interpretation task will be combined with final presentation of the findings. It is expected that with the availability of the needed resources in terms of literature, personnel and finances, the research will be completed successfully within the timeline identified.
There are quite a number of limitations and opportunities that are likely to be encountered when conducting this research study on customer satisfaction. The limitations which may be encountered evolve around primary research. For instance, honesty and thoroughness of the answers in the questionnaires will be an area of concern. Some responses given by the participants may not thorough or honest enough.
Another limitation will be in relation to the interviews; it may be cumbersome to obtain the right respondents for the interviews, especially if adequate time and financial resources is not allocated to the study. For the secondary research methodology, some of the challenges that may be inevitable include outdated sources, and the confidentiality of certain reference materials that require authentication before accessing the data.
References
Chen, P. & Hu, H. 2010. “How determinant attributes of service quality influence customer-perceived value: An empirical investigation of the Australian coffee outlet industry”, International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, 22 (4): 535 – 551.
Hallowell, R. 1996. “The relationships of customer satisfaction, customer loyalty, and profitability: an empirical study”, International Journal of Service Industry Management, 7 (4): 27-42.