The Level of Customer Satisfaction of Anitas Kitchen Restaurant - Research Proposal Example

Executive summary The purpose of this research study was to understand what aspects of the restaurant drive customer satisfaction and where it can be improved as many new restaurants are being opened with intensified competition hence the need for Anita Kitchen Restaurant to constantly look to evaluate and improve their restaurant’s branding to the customer. A descriptive research design was employed with the study population comprised of Anita’s Kitchen Restaurant customers who dine out in any restaurant once a week, or more, and who live in Birmingham. The data was collected and analyzed using SPSS. The main finding of the study were that the consumer’s lifestyles measures that impact customer’s satisfaction is that; (1) consumers often try new and different things, (2) people come to them more often than they go to them for information about products, (3) friends and neighbors often come to them for advice about products and brands, (4) when they see a new product in stores they often want to buy it and they often try new products before their friends and neighbours do. Regarding customer perceptions of Anita’s Restaurant that impacts satisfaction, the respondents agreed that they generally provides large size portions off its menu, offers fresh food, offers food of excellent taste, have knowledgeable employees, proper food temperature and provide quick service. Thirdly, how the customer relationship/loyalty affects their satisfaction, respondents gave slight satisfaction with the restaurant , indifferent with regards to likely return, slight dissatisfaction to likely recommend and indifferent in respect to frequency of patronage of Anita’s kitchen restaurant. Lastly, the factors those are important to customers with regards to restaurant choice, price and food quality were rated as important choices to choosing restaurant of choice with means. However atmosphere and restaurant services were listed as less important. 1.0 Background of the Study Anita’s kitchen restaurant was first established in Birmingham, UK in 2005. The restaurant serves foods of different ethnic origins, in particular Indian, Thai, Chinese and Italian foods. It is well located on Broad Street, the most popular street for dining, drinking and entertainment. Customer traffic is high but competition is intense. The restaurant concept is based on the provision of a wide array of popular ethnic foods, cooked in an open kitchen so customers can see and smell their food as it is made. Customers can eat as much as they like at a fixed price. The interior emphasizes the food’s exotic heritage by displaying maps, pictures and ingredients from the countries of origin throughout the setting. It aims to offer a fun, festive atmosphere. It is brightly lit and bustling with activity. Fast and friendly service is also part of the restaurant’s appeal. The target customers are mainly young professionals, university students and families looking for an enjoyable meal at affordable prices. Many new restaurants have opened and aware that competition is intensifying Anita is constantly looking to evaluate and improve her restaurant’s offering to the customer. 2.1 Objective of the Study The main objective of this research study is to better understand what aspects of the restaurant drive customer satisfaction and where it can be improved. 2.2 Research questions i. What consumer’s lifestyles measures impact customer’s satisfaction? ii. What factors of customer perceptions of Anita’s Restaurant impacts satisfaction? iii. How does customer relationship/loyalty affect their satisfaction? iv. Which factors are important to customers with regards to restaurant choice? The study is important considering many new restaurants being opened and awareness of intensified competition hence the need for Anita to constantly look to evaluate and improve her restaurant’s offering to the customer. 2.4 Limitation and delimitation of the study The limitation of the study was the short period spanning across fourteen days only, the researcher would have wished to consider a longer period of time to capture a more in-depth data hence more trend analysis. However the data collected could be relied on since majority of respondents were not on their first time visiting Anita’s kitchen restaurant. 3.0 Research Design A research design, according to Kothari (2004), constitutes the blueprint for the collection, measurement and analysis of data. Research design is a systematic inquiry into which the researcher does not have direct control of the independent variable because their manifestation has already occurred. A descriptive survey design was adopted in conducting this study. Descriptive survey design is used to test attitudes and opinions about events, individuals or procedure (Gay, 2003). In his book, (Kothari 2007) notes that descriptive survey design is concerned with describing, recording, analyzing and reporting conditions that exist or existed. Descriptive research is directed at making careful observations and detailed documentation of a phenomenon of interest (Bhattacherjee, 2012). Borg and Gall (1996) recommends descriptive survey design for its ability to produce statistical information about aspects of interest to policy makers and researchers. Furthermore, descriptive studies will be used not only for the purpose of description but also for the determination of relationships between variables at the time of study. This design fits the study of this nature since the research looked at the effect of the independent variable; restaurant offering, target market and customer loyalty on the dependent variables; customer satisfaction. 4.0 Findings reported from analysis of the data The study sought to examine how different aspects of the restaurant drive customer satisfaction and where it can be improved with bias of restaurant offerings, target market and customer loyalty. The target population was made up of Anita’s Kitchen Restaurant customers who dine out in any restaurant once a week or more and who live in Birmingham. This was a convenience sample in which one member of a dining party was issued with questionnaire and collected each day over 14 days leading to a total of 427 questionnaires being collected. 4.1 Gender of Respondents The researcher first sought to establish the gender of the respondents for the study. The Figure 4.1 presents gender of the respondents. Figure 4.1: Gender frequency of the respondents The distribution of the respondents by gender showed that majority of the respondents 59% were male, while the remaining 41% were female. 4.2 Number of Children at Home. Figure 4.2: Number of children at Home. The finding indicated that majority of customers 48.48% had no child at home which is almost half of Anita’s restaurant customers, an indication of restaurant’s appeal to this group. 4.2 Age of Respondents The research also revealed that majority of the customers surveyed are in the age of 35-49 years at 51.3% followed by 50-59 years ages. The minority groups were respondents above 60 years and above. This implied that the restaurant have appeal for middle aged and need to do more if it have to attract elderly customers above 60 years of age. The analysis is as shown in table 4.1 below. Table 4.1: Age Frequency Percent Cumulative Percent Valid 18 – 25 42 9.8 9.8 26 – 34 39 9.1 19.0 35 – 49 219 51.3 70.3 50 – 59 109 25.5 95.8 60 and Over 18 4.2 100.0 Total 427 100.0 4.3 Annual Gross Household Income The research revealed that majority of customers attending the restaurant earn less than €30,000 (48.2%) and minority of 12.2% earning between €30,001 -- €40,000. Table 4.2: Gross Household Income Frequency Percent Cumulative Percent Valid €10,000 -- €20,000 93 21.8 21.8 €20,001 -- €30,000 113 26.5 48.2 €30,001 -- €40,000 52 12.2 60.4 €40,001 -- €50,000 91 21.3 81.7 €50,001 or more 78 18.3 100.0 Total 427 100.0 4.4: Analysis of Consumer Lifestyles. The study first sought to establish consumer’s lifestyles measures that impact customer’s satisfaction. Table 4.3 presents the response from the respondents. Table 4.3: Consumer Lifestyles N Min Max Mean Std. Deviation X1 -- Try New And Different Things 424 3 6 5.26 .910 X2 -- Party Person 425 2 6 3.99 .894 X3 -- People Come to Me 423 3 7 5.49 1.320 X4 -- Avoid Fried Foods 424 1 5 3.12 1.284 X5 -- Likes to Go Out Socially 423 2 5 3.94 .931 X6 -- Friends Come to Me 423 3 7 5.33 1.234 X7 -- Self-Confident 423 1 6 3.97 1.073 X8 -- Eat Balanced, Nutritious Meals 423 1 6 3.61 1.211 X9 -- Buy New Products 424 2 7 5.66 .993 X10 -- Careful About What I Eat 424 1 6 3.44 1.107 X11 -- Try New Brands 426 4 6 5.34 .804 Average 427 4 6 4.4689 .46624 Valid N (listwise) 410 Table 4.3 indicates that the respondents agreed (mean = 5.26) that they often try new and different things, people come to them more often than they go to them for information about products (mean = 5.49), friends and neighbours often come to them for advice about products and brands (mean = 5.33), when they see a new product in stores, they often want to buy it (mean = 5.66) and they often try new products before their friends and neighbours do (mean = 5.34). Respondents were indifference (mean = 3.99) that they like parties with music and lots of talk, they like to go out and socialize with people (mean = 3.94) and eat balanced, nutritious meals (mean = 3.61). However respondents disagreed (mean = 3.12) that they try to avoid fried foods and they are careful about what they eat (mean = 3.44). The standard deviations for try new and different things, party person, likes to go out socially, Buy new products and try new brands were .910, .894, .931, .993 and .804 respectively were not far from zero hence showing that the data were also very close to the mean of respective indicators the lest indicated spread of responses to the mean of respective indicators. NOTE THE FOLLOWING SECTIONS COULD NOT FIT WITHIN THE NO OF PAGES ORDERED 4.5: Analysis of Customer Perceptions of Anita’s Restaurant Table 4.4: Customer Perceptions of Anita’s Restaurant 4.6: Analysis of Customer Relationship/Loyalty Table 4.5: Customer Relationship/Loyalty 4.7: Analysis of Factors Important to Restaurant Choice Table 4.6: Factors Important to Restaurant Choice 4.8: Analysis of behavioral questions related to dining at Anita’s Table 4.7: Distance Driven to the Restaurant Conclusions 5.1 Proposals for future research References Bryman, A. & Bell, E. (2011). Business Research Methods, 3rd Edition, Oxford University Press. Bryman, A. & Cramer, D. (2011). Quantitative Data Analysis with IBM SPSS 17, 18 & 19, London: Routledge. Gay, L.R. (2002). Education Research: Competencies for Analysis and Application. London: Charles, E., Mairill Publishing Co. Kothari, C. R. (2004). Research Methodology: Methods and Techniques . New Delhi: New Age International limited. Appendix: Questionnaire Read More