A Case Study Of Jennys Restaurant Marketing Essay

A Case Study Of Jennys Restaurant Marketing Essay Jeenys Restaurant is a national chain cafe restaurant with a dedicated customer base, which is known for its best service, good quality food and family dining flair. But in the past year, the company has seen a manifest decline in its sales. The decline in sales is increasing as every fiscal quarter passes by. The reason behind decline in sales is totally unknown to the company. The restaurant has not changed layout or menu options within the past several years. The hypothesized root cause of the problem is poor customer satisfaction. This research will help to analysis the main root cause of sales decline. The objective of this research is to find out whether or not customer satisfaction and experience is the issue, and if so how customer satisfaction can be enhanced. Research Objectives As impact of global recession is still affecting large number of household in United Kingdom with their buying behaviour, it is important to find out if customer satisfaction with particular restaurant is the main cause or there are other factors. This research is going to use primary data by developing questionnaire to the restaurant customers, which helps to find out actual problem and weakness of current situation of the restaurant. The purpose of the literature review is to analyse past experience relating to customer satisfaction elements of the food and dining industry while emphasising on the sales increment. As I am working as a Manager in this restaurant, this research with help of primary data will analyse the customers attitude towards its service and experience, which will help to find out main reason behind downward sales line. The main objectives of this proposal is as follows: To analyze Customer satisfaction and its relative importance (debate) and evidence about key factors influencing peoples choice of fast food restaurant. To identify the best suitable model to measure customer satisfaction for my primary research. To review exiting complains and comments submitted by customers over the past 6 months in order to find out the area of subject where most of the customer did raised the issue. To arrange the questionnaire to the existing customers in order to explore their attitude towards Jennys Restaurant, why they like to dine at Jennys Restaurant, their experiences of and attitude towards current management process and their views on possible changes that the company could make for better satisfaction. To make recommendation to the management at Jennys Restaurant about cost-effective and management strategy that could be implemented in order to increase customer satisfaction. Literature Review Realisation of customer satisfaction in order to get success in the business is essential elements. is How the customers get the satisfaction and how we can measure the different between service provided and customer expectation ? Researcher is going to look different theories, journals and articles to establish an analytical concept about customer satisfaction elements. According to Kotler (2000) a persons feelings of pleasure or disappointment resulting from comparing a products perceived performance in relation to his or her expectations. Also Hoyer and MacInnis (2001) said that satisfaction can be associated with fellings of acceptance, happiness, relief, excitement and delight. It is very important to understand the expectations of the consumers to make them satisfied. According to Hokanson (1995), these factors include friendly employee, courteous employee, accurancy of billing, billing timeliness, competitive pricing, service quality, good value, billing clarity and quick service. Additionaly, (Labarbera and Mazursky,1983) state that By fulfilling the customers needs and wants will helps to achieve customer satisfaction. So that it should be notice by researcher that the customer satisfaction can be occurred by understanding their expectation. After having idea about customer satisfaction, researcher want to know how it can be implement in fast food sectors. According to Farrel (2007) The quick service restaurant responds to the universal desire for inexpensive and reliable fare that is feshly prepared, portable and ready on demand. It explains that the quick service, freshly prepared and economic factors motivate the customers to shop in fast food restaurants. Also according to (Schroder and McEachern, 2005) Brand value, nutritional value, ethical value and food quality determine the customer satisfaction towards fast food restaurant. There are other factors,according to (Jang and Maltila, 2005) Monetary gratification and intangible benefits such as quality and convenience also received high rating in customer satisfaction. Researcher should give attention to the intangible things such as service quality, serving time, internal environment of the company along with the development of core product in order to get maximum customer satisfaction. According to (Katz and Martin 1985) If the firms can improve customers perceptions of the time they spend waiting to be served, then customers will experience less frustration and may feel more satisfied with the service encounter. Also (Ho and Zheng 2004) clarify that A firm might choose a delivery time commitment to influence its customer expectation. However, there are debates and discussion about the influencing factors which are affecting to less shop in fast food industries. According to (Goyal, Singh 2007), The young generation in India likely to go to Fast food restaurant for fun and changes. But they like house food much better than food served at fast food outlets because they have the highest value for taste and quality followed by hygiene. Adding with that (Bose, 2011) stated The most evident advantage of Fast food is that it save time and money for a busy life people, but fast food is unhealthy than home cooked meals, as they contain higher amount of salts, fats and calories . Most of the people today are usually aware that fast food is not the healthiest food to eat. People eat fast food because it is convieneient, cheap and taste good. Fast food is not just less healthy food, but sometime it can be dangerous for your health as well. Stacel (2009). So it is clear that despite of good service provided by the company, th ere is other factors such as health consiousness which affect the customer satisfaction level. Along with that there is hygienic factor which also affect the customer revisit in the particular restaurant. A survey shows, one in three people is worried about the level of food hygiene when buying fast foods. Cleanliness of staff and premises top the list of concerns, followed by the way food is cooked and handled. (Consumer question fast food hygiene, 2003). As a result it can affect the customer to discontinue or decrease there buying behaviour in fast food sectors. According to Hoyer and MacInnis (2001) dissatisfied customers can decide to: discontinue purchasing the goods or service, complain to the company or to a third party and perhaps return the item or engage in negative word of mouth communication. The above study based on previous research explains the reasons for choosing and avoiding the fast food sectors and the importance of customer satisfaction which can be fit or not in the problem statement of the Jennys restaurant. To get the more evidence and support, researcher is going to develop questionnaire survey by using SERVQUAL tools. According to (Stevens, Knutson and Patton, 1995) SERVQUAL method helps to produce a sequence of questionnaire appliance for measuring hospitality service quality in DINESERV. John and Tyas (1996) have also use the tool SERVQUAL for measuring the satisfaction of consumer in restaurant. According to (Lee and Hing 1999) SERVQUAL is an instrument which helps to measure and compare the service quality of the fine dinning sectors which is easy and inexpensive to occur. It showing that the researcher will get help to accumulate the findings and reasons of gap between customer expectation and experience they have had in their last visit. This tools also helps to find out the correlation between service quality, customer satisfaction and purchase intentions. According to (Cronin, Jr and Taylor 1992) There is correlation between service quality, customer satisfaction, and purchase intentions. Service quality is an antecedent of customer satisfaction and consumer satisfaction has a significant effect on purchase intension. Although the popularity of the SERVQUAL tools to measure the service quality level, there are some debate over the use of SERVQUAL instrument. Detractors argue that the difference score leads to unreliable measure and that the dimensionality and validity is erratic. Jiang etl, (2002). However, SERVQUAL measuring method is adopting by thousands of business to know the actual demand and expectation of current customers. Because it helps to explain many factors such as tangible, reliability, responsiveness, competence, courtesy, credibility, security, access, communication and understanding the customers. Parasuraman et. al. (1990). Besides of some disadvantages, SERVQUAL is good tools to understand the customer satisfaction elements. Fedoroff (2011). Methodology Method Approaches (Bryman and Bell 2007) Quantitative research is that research strategy which gives and relates to the quantification in the collection and analysis the data. This method is relates to the deductive approach in testing the theory and research. It takes the positivism epistemological orientation and natural scientific model. It focuses on the objectivism of the social reality Researcher intends to implement all quantitative research methods in a way to trace the best results out of the research. The entire research approach and methodology will be ethical and best at its level. Research will be conducted by keeping in mind the Research Question. The research will be performed using questionnaires. Justification Explanation Conducting survey/interview Analysing data 1. Justification: The advantage of choosing quantitative research method questionnaire Low cost in time and money: As my questionnaire is designed to take just 5 minutes and can be done by making photo copy of 35-40 questionnaire, will help to make it economic and time saving. Respondents can complete the questionnaire when it suits them: As I am going to conduct the survey by requesting them to complete the questionnaire with the time avaibility of the customers. Respondents anonymity: There is no personal identifying information is going to ask to protect the anonymity. Lack of interviewer bias: The disadvantage of choosing quantitative research method questionnaire The need for brevity and relatively simple questions: The most of the part of my questionnaire is going to be closed question rather than open question. Questionnaire development is often poor:. Poor design and concept of questionnaire will not help to find out the actual problem and track to the solution. Lack of control over order and context of answering questions: not to specific Question wording can have a major effect on answers. : one question ask twice with different format to check exact answers. 2. Explanation Preparing for the survey interviews. As I am the manager of the Jennys restaurant I have access to secondary data such as sales figures for the past two years and complain and comments made by the customers in the restaurant and can organise a survey by collecting primary data from a questionnaire given to the existing customers. I am going to choose random sample survey with help of SERVQUAL Questionaire and dineserv method to collect primary data from a questionnaire taking 35-40 customers from Monday to Saturday 9:00am to 9:00 pm. My sample size is going to be small. Requested participants of this study will ask if they are over 18 and willing to complete survey upon exiting the restaurant. Willing participants will be ask to read the informed consent before completing the SERVQUAL Questionnaire survey instrument. Developing the questionnaire. To collect the primary data from the customer, my questionnaire key themes will be to analysis their current experience, expectation and attitude towards the existing setup and behaviour of the organisation. In above literature review, I was trying to analyse and understand customer behaviour and expectation towards food and dinning service, which help me to link and study the existing customer of the Jennys Resturants behaviour and also help me to think analytically about whether customer satisfaction is only the key point in the success of business development or there are other important factors. 3. Conducting Survey/interview The questionnaire survey is going to held on the Jennys Restaurant premises from Monday to Saturday between 9:00am to 9:00 pm. The survey will be conducted by requesting existing customer with detail pre information about the reason of the survey while their visit in the restaurant to fill up the answers of the given questionnaire which will take 5 minutes . The maximise the response rate of questionnaire survey; I am going to use following techniques. Brief Questionnaire: The questionnaire is going to use not more than 20 words to make it less time taking for the respondents. Make the return time not to short and not to long: The questionnaire can be fill during their visit in the restaurant or can take with them by requesting them to return it within 2 weeks time in given address. Easy to read (clear language, good print): The questionnaire is going to use simple language which can be understandable and use of quality printing. Easy to answer: The questionnaire is going to use tick box to place their attitude towards the restaurant. Be clear about what the respondent should do to answer the question: The questionnaire is going to use likert scale format, which is going to clear to click their answer just one for one question in the top of the page. Easy to respond (return envelop): The questionnaire which has been taken by the customer to fill it in their home will be provided a free post return envelop with them. Do not offend the respondents: The questionnaire is not going to include any subjects which will offend the respondents. Trustworthy: The questionnaire will start from explaining about the purpose of research by not taking personal information of respondents and is just for the academic use by showing college identity card to them. Analysing data Statement of service provided (Independent Variable) Very Dissatisfied (Dependent Variable) 1 Dissatisfied (Dependent Variable) 2 Neither Satisfied nor Dissatisfied (Dependent Variable) 3 Satisfied (Dependent Variable) 4 Very Satisfied (Dependent Variable) 5 Food Quality Service Food Hygiene Price of product Survey: Survey allows the collection of large amount of data from a sizeable population in a highly economical way (Saunders et al, 2008).It was done by explaining questionnaires and handing out and collected during session The research is going to find out the correlation between two variables. One is dependent which is customer satisfaction and another one is independent which is service provided by the company. The changes in the independent variable are going to affect the dependent variable. There are some other moderate variables which influence the relationship between independent and dependent variables. Such as Age, Gender, Marital status etc. As the above questionnaire sample can be broken down to subgroups such as age, gender, marital status to analyse differences. And data can also analysed by looking at average scores for each category (eg. Food quality, service, food hygiene and cleaniness and product price) as categorized in questionnaire to see if there are noticeable difference in their averages. The formula to calculate average score is Average score= Sum of Valued dependent variable which has been ticked divided by No.of dependent variable allocated For example by taking above Table Average score= Food quality (3) + Service (3) + Food Hygine (4) + Price of product (5) divided by 5 =3 It can be broken down into subgroups for food quality, service, food hygiene and price of product to noticeable difference in their averages Checking the forms Spreadsheet Graph/table: Graph are going to allocate to explain and analyse the data. As taken example of above sample, the graph is going to be like. Analytical qs Statistics Ethical issue The questionnaire will start with explaining the purpose of the research which is only for the academic requirement by showing the college Identification card. And also questionnaire will start with explaining the subject matter of the questionnaire up-front. The questionnaire is not going to take any sensitive data, like personal details, history and background to protect there anonymity. The researcher does not use force and hard request to get response from the customers and the research confidentiality should be maintained in term of collecting the data. Timescales and Resources S.No. Phase/Milestone Start Date End Date Notes 1 Literature Review 2 Development of research instrument- final survey/interview Question Schedule 3 Data Collection-completion of survey 4 Data analysis- results of primary data analysis written up 5. Report Writing- finalisation of dissertation. Conclusion Appendix A Quantitative Survey (Questionnaire) Customer Satisfaction Survey: Academic Survey to fulfilment of Master Degree Program(Cavendish College and University of Wales) This survey is being carried out to find out the customer attitude towards the Jennys Restaurant. Please answer the questions freely. You cannot be identified from the information you provide, and all the information provided will be treated in the strictest confidence. The questionnaire should take you about five minutes to complete. Please answer the questions in the space provided. Try to complete the questions at a time when you are unlikely to be disturbed. Also, do not spend too much time on any one question. Your first thoughts are usually your best! Please tick one box for every question. When you have finished the questionnaire please return in to me in the enclosed freepost envelope. 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Question Very Dissatisfied Dissatisfied Neither Satisfied nor Dissatisfied Satisfied Very Satisfied Food Quality The food is served hot and fresh The menu has a good variety of item The quality of food is excellent The food is tasty and flavourful The food portion is enough The food provide balance nutrition Restaurant Service My food order was correct and complete Employees are patient when taking my order I was served promptly The menu board was easy to read Employee speak clearly Employee are friendly and courteous The service is excellent Value of price paid Quality of food Food hygiene and cleanliness The handling of food is good Restaurant Premises are clean Toilets are clean Product Price Food is good value for the price paid Prices are competitive If have any comments with the service of our restaurant please share with us. Thank you for taking the time to help us. If you have any queries or would like further information about this project, please call me on 07828857702. Thank you for your help. Activities Appendix B Gant Chart of Time ScaleMay 2011 June 2011 July 2011 August 2011 1st Week 2nd Week 3rd Week 4th Week 1st Week 2nd Week 3rd Week 4th Week 1st Week 2nd Week 3rd Week 4th Week 1st Week 2nd Week 3rd Week 4th Week Collection of literature review Critically review of the literature Meeting supervisor Review of project aims and objectives Questionnaire Process Interview the customer Accounting calculation of the breakeven point Meeting supervisor Analysis the accounting data Analysis and interpret qualitative data Analysis and interpret quantitative data Meeting supervisor Final report writing, Amendments, Binding of the project Referencing John. N., and Tyas (1996). Use of service quality gap theory to differentiate between foodservice outlets. Service Industries Journal, 16(3), 321-346. Stevens, P., Knutson, B., and Patton, M. (1995). DINESERVE. A tool for measuring service quality in Restaurants. 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