Factors Influencing Customer Satisfaction and Loyalty in Casino Industry - Research Proposal Example

Title Student’s Name Course Professor Date 1. Title: Factors influencing Customer Satisfaction and Loyalty in Casino Industry 2. Introduction to Research Topic & Main Research Question In the past decades, Casino industry has seen a rapid growth worldwide. Most states in East Asia and U.S have had legalized casinos and the recent changes in law in United States to legalize all sorts o casino operations have increased their acceptance (Hsu, 2014). There is an improved customer discretionary spending following the decline of the impacts of 2008 economic crisis that resulted from the U.S subprime mortgage (Elwell, 2013). In turn, increased completion among casinos will require managers to develop mechanisms to retain their customers and attract potential customers to their premises. As Nicolaides (2014) observes, casino managers can use all kind of strategies to retain and attract customers. Some of the most accessible and effective methods includes promotions, renovation of gaming premises, developing loyalty programs and improved service quality. A number of previous studies have focused on various factors that promote customer satisfaction and loyalty among them being; service quality, physical environment, customized services and many more (Strauss, 2013; Bhate & Hannam, 2014). However, specific literatures that address gaming activities reveal in-depth motivational factors that influence the casino customers. These contributing factors are critical even though they are not assessed by previous studies. The three factors include the economic, social and special treatment motivation. The purpose of this research is to critically look at major factors that can affect customer satisfaction and influence loyalty in casinos. The results are expected to offer a clear understanding of key factors that affect satisfaction in casinos. The results will close the existing gaps in literature; failure to address the specific factors that will be used in casino industry to retain and attract customers following increased operations of legalized business. Noting that gaming establishments are on increase in number, there will be competition between them. Increased competition makes it vital for the survival of gaming establishment’s and the way each establishment will gain advantage over its competitors in attracting customers. There are a number of questions that will help to underpin the research topic. The first three looks at the major factors highlighted to influence satisfaction and loyalty: 1) Can social benefits 2) Can economic benefits and 3) can special treatment benefits affect customer satisfaction and loyalty in casino industry? The next three questions will look at whether the relationship between economic, social and special treatment benefits used alongside service quality can influence customer satisfaction in casino industry? Lastly, the research will attempt to identify whether customer satisfaction influence loyalty in casinos. The study has hypothesized the three factors as having the major effect on customer satisfaction in casinos. These factors differ when applied in casino industry as compared to other hospitality operations. Economic and social benefits underlie the internal factors while special treatment benefits underlie the external factors. 3. Literature Review and Research Questions As MMMMM observes, customers differs significantly in attitudes, perceptions and behaviors. It is important to for gaming establishments to gain information of all these areas. According to Bhate & Hannam (2014, gamblers in casino amenities spend substantially more money in gambling compared to non-users of the amenities. A customer will most likely judge a casino by comparing it with another establishment they have recently patronized. 3. Literature Review According to Prentice (2013), sustaining customer is hard and more so in gambling establishments. The way the management of a facility consistently handles the purpose of services over a long period highly determine the extent to which they will retain their customers. Consistency is services are an exceptionally powerful tool especially at this time when casinos are proliferating and gamblers choice as well as empowerment has increased (Hsu, 2014). To have the right consistency require top leadership attention where the premise can use various channels to trigger more interactions and meet discreet needs, allow customers to create clusters of interactions and build on cumulative experiences. Most studies related to casino and gambling have focused on socio-psychological factors that promote gambling. However, the way a casino design emotional appeals and ensure consistency matters to a greater extent. Positive customer-experience emotions promote a feeling of trust and are a major driver of satisfaction as well as loyalty in most of surveyed industries. Gamblers will feel attracted to casinos they feel close to and those they can trust. Brownell (2014) study focused on communication consistency where casinos promotional games and combination of services are communicated while ensuring that the management delivers those promises. For a casino to be competitive, it requires proactivity to shape communication or deliver key messages that shows the themes strongly supported by the premise. For instance, consistent customers can access low-cost games and services. In turn, when that is maintained, the casino will make an impression that it is better suited than its competitors. The customer must interpret the cost-reduction actions as ways to reinforce their satisfaction (Shi, Prentice & He, 2014). According to Ali & Omar (2014), gamblers concentrate majorly on gaming and the manner in which a casino fixes the common negative experiences matters a lot. A single negative experience in a fundamental area of the organization can have a greater relative impact compared to a positive one. Casinos should focus on reducing negative customer experiences mostly in its promotional games, lotteries and table games. Gamblers often come into contact with casinos in the area of gaming and one major way to reduce negatives in to train frontline representatives to address specific customer issues to engineer deeper customer trust. Importance of Customer satisfaction Though there are many studies that focus on importance of customer experience, there are no specific studies that focus on customer satisfaction in gambling establishments. However, the utmost purpose of customer satisfaction is to meet or surpass the expectations of the customers. It is the bottom line used by the premise to develop metric to manage and improve the business. First, customer satisfaction precedes customer revisit intentions and loyalty. If the gamblers rate a casino on a higher scale, it is probable that in future they will revisit and even become advocates bringing other gamblers to the establishment. Customer rating reveal whether a customer will revisit, become an advocate or shed warning and necessary steps to follow up to determine the reason their satisfaction is low (Brownell, 2014). According to Prentice (2013), gambling premises are now legalized operations in many states and to competitively advance, casinos must emphasize on their point of differentiation. Casinos are competing for customers and without customer satisfaction; it is hard for gamblers to differentiate between services between casinos. Casinos with amazing customer experiences forge environments will work out a better customer satisfaction. Nicolaides (2014) study pointed on service quality which reduces customer churn. Manager should use every opportunity to increase the overall quality of services in casinos. Emphasis should not only focus on meeting satisfaction but exceeding them. When it is done repeatedly or for a period of six months, the measure of customer satisfaction is high and at that point, a casino promotes loyalty. Treatment benefits The way a casino increases lifetime value determine to a greater extent the resulting loyalty of the gamblers. According to Ali & Omar (2014), totally satisfied customers constitute over two times the total revenue compared to somewhat satisfied customers. Satisfaction plays a key role in revenue generation for a business. The success of a casino comes from understanding the role of customer lifetime value. Lifetime customer should be the main beneficiary of value and in casino, management should develop membership where a group of gamblers will keep coming back as they identify the services as suited as per their understood needs. These customers also have an influence or are involved in other proposals of improving services. Social Benefits Bhate & Hannam (2014) observes that, tailoring social benefits require involvement of customers to derive both the objective and subjective needs. There are number of strategies that can ensure customer retention in a casino. Managers can use blogs and posters to educate customer or catch their attention on social dimensions of their services. For instance, by developing membership groups, a casino can show what benefit each membership tier can expect from the premise. The management should get email addresses to communicate or send special promotions to customers and increase visits at different times in the premise. Customer satisfaction surveys are important approach that can help customers express their needs and raise their grievances for the casino to work on them. At times, the casino should offer personalized experiences to delight customers. Gaps in Literature The research has addressed customer satisfaction and loyalty in a great way. However, there is a need to note specific services that suit casino establishments which differs to a greater extent with other hospitality premises. 4. Methodology The study will be conducted through a qualitative method. According to Schwarze (2014), qualitative methods attempts to gather personal opinions, wide-range viewpoints and information from a population under research. Similarly, the topic under research makes the qualitative methods more applicable. In turn, it will allow the researcher to identify and involve customers in casino establishments to get gather their viewpoints about the core factors that influence their satisfaction and possible loyalty. Creswell (2013) argues that, data collected in natural setting is the very vital to understanding an issue that affect common phenomena. In this study, qualitative data will reflect statements and attitudes collected from the casino setting and including various customers who regularly visit such establishments. The study focuses on prevailing social issues and will help to greatly understand the thoughts, feelings and perceptions of the customers. The study questions will be elaborate to comprehensively cover wide-range factors to provide participants information and analyze the factors to note the most effective ones in casino industry. The participants will respond to questions based on different factors and give their stand-point and personal feeling. Study Rationale There are different factors that influence customers’ satisfaction and being loyal to a specific establishment. Therefore, we can recognize that, some establishments deliver competitive and strategic advantage over significant others. Popularity of a casino can be influenced by various factors but it hard to simply know that factors that influence such individuals or groups. However, multiple dimensions like transitory, long-term and short-term of visiting behavior can lead to differences in profits from one casino to the next (Ali & Omar, 2014). This research seeks to bridge the gap in knowledge by specifically addressing visiting behaviors o customers in casinos. A research is desirable to provide relevant facts and gamblers reasons for satisfaction, revising and loyalty. The main aim of the study will be to provide understanding of the factors leading to visiting trends and the dynamics leading to retaining visiting trends. The data that will be collected will provide required information demonstrating an array of internal and external actors and facilitate understanding of factors and customers experience at casinos. Research Design The research has build on extensive literature review to facilitate and understand common factors that influences customer satisfaction and loyalty. Main factors derived from literature review offers a platform for developing questions and create a foundation for embarking on specific approach for the research. Literature review served a major goal of enabling researcher to arrange the necessary factor in each questions and ensure that research catches the best issues pertinent with customer satisfaction and loyalty at casinos. Past and current knowledge about the factors that influence customers’ satisfaction and loyalty was critical as this study can build on it. According to Creswell (2013), by exploring and analyzing vast secondary data, a researcher develops specific study objectives that lead to a critical structuring of questions to be used in observation and ultimately, the analysis of collected data. The questionnaires used covers elements that contribute to customers’ decisions, interactions with casino establishments, and enduring relationships with inference groups as well as casino personnel. The research questions will promote the effectiveness in getting wide-range information to confirm or disapprove the hypothesis. Questionnaire will be used as major research instrument as series of questions will help gather information from various respondents. According to Williams (2014), questionnaire is a useful data collection tool that helps in exploration of a problem with various factors being accounted for in each question. The answers selected by the respondents helps to confirm the research outcomes. Questionnaire’s questions and answers are also short in nature increasing the effectiveness and the speed of covering great depth of an issue (Sudman & Bradburn 2012). Advantages of Questionnaires Use of questionnaires in data collection is cheaper in comparison with methods like survey or interviews. Questionnaires take less time and resources as they are administered to multiple respondents at the same time making the overall time taken to be minimal (Williams, 2014). Standardized answers also make it simple to compile data and allow many respondents to give maximum attention to the research. This is a major aspect that reduces possible failure or increased withdrawal of respondents. Questionnaires allow higher perceived anonymity required by most respondents as data is analyzed as whole without implicating answers to specific respondents. Disadvantages of Questionnaires Questionnaires limit the respondents to answers as per the questions and answers given. In turn, the research may fail to capture insights from some demographic groups as answers provided may not be applicable to their case. Wording and structuring questions needs brevity that might affect question construction and the understanding by respondents as different responds have different verbal ability (Williams, 2014). Population and sample The research seeks to use random cluster sampling. The group to be studied is relatively homogenous and cluster sampling will help locate potential respondents manifesting core factors like revisiting. A total of 100 participants will be reached to offer the required study objectives. A large sample is considered for accurate representation of wider population views. The customers chosen must have interacted with casino establishment for some time. That way, the data collected will measure exact factor influencing satisfaction and loyalty. Such respondents will allow the researcher to measure long-term and short-term factors in customer satisfaction and loyalty. Data collection The setting to find customers will not vary as they can be found in similar settings. The questionnaire items will undergo a pilot test with about ten respondents to ensure that they are accurately understood and they measure what they ought to. However, the researcher will request the authorities in the casinos to get permission to carry out the research. Selected customers will be informed of the topic and emphasize on the need to answer to the best personal views to avoid group influence. The data will be collected from various casinos to reflect diverse characteristic of gamblers. Participants will be given equal attention which will allow comparing responses from the research population. Respondents will require little guidance since the questions are close-ended with multiple choices to tick or mark (Sudman & Bradburn 2012). 5. Theoretical approach to Data Analysis Researchers choose to use various theoretical approaches for data analysis. The nature of this study will require the use of phenomenological approach in data analysis. According to Chan, Fung & Chien (2013), phenomenological approach is a method of inquiry that emphasizes that reality consists of events and objects perceived or understood by human consciousness. The approach helps understand the way people views themselves and their world in which they interact with. Any shared phenomena allow a researcher to examine perspectives from lengthy experiences of participants, cumulative experience rating to single event. The study wants to assess the conditions in gambling establishments and the experiences of the gambler through the narration from these customers. It will help to look at the effects of various factors as perceived by customers, and how they lead to long-term experience leading to satisfaction and loyalty. Phenomenological approach will facilitate the process of interpreting people’s experience and look at overarching perspectives o the participants. The analysis of participants’ opinions will purely depend on participants’ observations and responses about the phenomena (Priest 2001). The analysis will be consistent with respondents’ viewpoints. The nature of this topic means that, assumptions from various respondents will specifically apply in limited geographical location as gamblers motivation may differ significantly in different countries. Majorly, the research will look at different characteristics of customers like age, economic and education status and visiting patterns. Opinions will be analyzed as they occur and or as per the respondents’ viewpoints. 6. Ethical Considerations (200-300 words) According to Kass, et al. (2013), research is guided by ethical and at times legal principles that regulate the interaction of the researcher and the respondents. In turn, a researcher taken the responsibilities of abiding to the underlying principles to protect the participants and ensure the highest ethical considerations. Autonomy is a major principle in research and focuses on participants’ preferences. The researcher will begin by requesting the gamblers to participate through phone calls or by the word of the mouth where necessary. Respondent will be informed of the purpose of the study and be allowed to withdraw at any time if they feel they will not continue. The researcher will ensure confidentiality as respondents will not be required to fill in their names. Additionally, there is no method used to identify who filled which form. The research will maintain confidentiality from the onset to the termination of data collection and analysis. The researcher will share the results with participants and will give directions on how they can access the findings if they are willing. The researcher will also give the respondents an opportunity to indicate any other opinions that are not reflected in the answers. That way, they will give specific information that reflects their feelings. The researcher will ensure justice by allowing the casinos who have given an opportunity to carry out the research in their premise to get the findings. In turn, they can use the findings to improve their services or maintain some of the preferred areas by respondents. References Ali, F., & Omar, R. (2014). Determinants of Customer Experience and Resulting Satisfaction and Revisit Intentions: PLS-SEM Approach towards Malaysian Resort Hotels. Bhate, S., & Hannam, K. (2014). Experiential Gambling: Interactions Between Consumer Experiences, Emotional Engagement, and Behavioural Settings.Volume 8 Number 1 Summer 2014, 5. Brownell, J. (2014). Managing Context to Improve Cruise Line Service Relationships. Chan, Z. C., Fung, Y. L., & Chien, W. T. (2013). Bracketing in phenomenology: Only undertaken in the data collection and analysis process. The Qualitative Report, 18(30), 1-9. Creswell, J. W. (2013). Research design: Qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods approaches. Sage publications. Elwell, C. K. (2013). Economic recovery: Sustaining US economic growth in a Post-crisis economy. Hsu, C. H. (2014). Legalized casino gaming in the United States: The economic and social impact. Routledge. Kass, N. E., et al. (2013). The Research‐Treatment Distinction: A Problematic Approach for Determining Which Activities Should Have Ethical Oversight. Hastings Center Report, 43(s1), S4-S15. Nicolaides, A. (2014, September). Providing service quality in exclusive restaurants: a survey of diners in three restaurants at a gauteng casino complex. In 7th Annual Conference of the EuroMed Academy of Business. Prentice, C. (2013). Attitudinal and Behavioral Loyalty Amongst Casino Players in Macau. Services Marketing Quarterly, 34(4), 309-321. Schwarze, M. L. (2014). Qualitative Research Methods. In Success in Academic Surgery: Health Services Research (pp. 217-227). Springer London. Shi, Y., Prentice, C., & He, W. (2014). Linking service quality, customer satisfaction and loyalty in casinos, does membership matter?. International Journal of Hospitality Management, 40, 81-91. Strauss, J. R. (2013). From the Last Frontier to the new Cosmopolitan: A history of casino public relations in Las Vegas. Public Relations Review, 39(2), 124-130. Williams, A. (2014). How to… Write and analyse a questionnaire. Read More