McDonalds ustomer Satisfaction Strategies - Research Paper Example

McDonald’s satisfaction strategies and initiatives and their impact on the market related variables Introduction McDonald’s invariably brings to bear a diversity of experience and culture on the restaurant’s customer base. McDonalds’s worldwide operations are characterized by ever increasing uncertainty and competition. Against this backdrop it’s essential to consider the extent to which the product and service quality has an impact on customers at its restaurants. As much as fast food restaurants are highly influenced by competitor behavior as an exogenous variable, the staff also affects the consumers’ perception and behavior as an endogenous variable. This paradigm of behavior is essentially associated with the ever rising fast food restaurant competition in townships across the globe and above all customer satisfaction strategies and initiatives have shaped McDonald’s global operations. Thus the consumer buying behavior is influenced by various in a way that indisputably acts like the harbinger of all organizational outcomes (Fornell, & Johnson, 1996). These outcomes are predominantly uppermost throughout this analysis so that even in the absence of metrics that enable the researcher to measure them (outcomes), the analytical depth of the research effort would remain intact and sound. The theoretical and conceptual framework of this research effort would be basically determined by the relevance of the existing theoretical postulates and the conceptual frameworks of analysis and reference. Thus there will be an in-depth examination of the available literature on the subject to identify the correlations between among a set of more significant endogenous and exogenous variables involved in customer satisfaction and loyalty at McDonald’s. Brand loyalty among consumers at fast food restaurants cannot be determined with reference to two dimensions such as behavioral and attitudinal. The behavioral dimension refers to repeat purchases and attitudinal perspective refers to customers’ intention to repurchase and recommend the product to others. These are good indicators of a loyal customer. Thus corporate image of McDonald’s is determined by its ability to penetrate and hold niche market segments for longer duration of time. As a result the corporate image of the company receives a boost. McDonald’s has been expereining a rise in its corporate image among consumers over the past few years (Gustafsson, 2005). Corporate image depends on the company’s advertising, public relationship, word-of-mouth communication and actual experience related strategies and initiatives. McDonald’s has been consumer focused and is well known for its concern for customer satisfaction and service quality. Thus there is a considerable amount of positive impact on its marketing campaigns. Repeat purchases are made by customers under extreme circumstances in the fast food industry because potential customers are attracted by price discounts and unique benefits. As much as the price of the product matters product benefits also matters. Enhanced product specifications and performance act as a compulsion on potential repeat purchasers who weigh both price and quality on one hand and product innovation on the other (DiJulius, 2003). McDonald’s has succeeded here. 1.1. Hypothesis or thesis statement The thesis statement of this paper rests on the testing of the primacy and the immediacy of a core group of theoretical and conceptual perspectives appertaining to the impact of product and service quality dimensions on the customer satisfaction at McDonald’s against the backdrop of the former’s cultural diversity and the latter’s constant exposure to competition related issues along with the defined or undefined organizational outcomes (Hayes, 2008). Both a priori and a posteriori elements of customer satisfaction are inherently included in the analysis to capture the convergence/divergence framework of reference within McDonald’s employee relations and work culture. 1.2. Research problems or questions What’s the nature and extent of the impact of customer satisfaction on the primarily and immediately relevant aspects such as organizational goals, culture, structure, leadership style, employee relations, employee retention strategies, HRM practices, motivation of staff, corporate governance principles in general including sustainability related issues and so on at McDonald’s fast food restaurants? How does customer satisfaction acquire, if any, such a significant dimension in the strategic operational environment of the organization at McDonald’s to the total or near total exclusion of other variables such as strategic competitor and market orientation policies and their strategic relevance to organizational outcomes and/or goals? What customer satisfaction initiatives and policies have been adopted at these fast food restaurants of McDonald’s and their direct and indirect impact on the corporate strategy as determined by McDonald’s HRM practices, employee motivation strategies, communication strategy, employee relations, employee retention strategies and organizational aims or/and goals . 1.3. Research aims/goals To establish correlations and regressions, if any, among and between the above mentioned variables such as the organizational outcomes and strategy as determined by customer satisfaction at McDonald’s: empowerment of employees through education and strong positive communication, retention strategies, organizational leadership role, structure, culture and so on (Hennig-Thurau, & Hansen, 2000). To identify and emphasize the existence, if any, of such customer satisfaction related initiatives and policies at MacDonald’s, thus focusing attention on an otherwise often neglected aspect of McDonald’s customer satisfaction related compulsions (Samuelsen, 1997). To delineate the existing correlations between customer satisfaction policies and organizational objectives of McDonald’s against the backdrop of an ever growing complexity and diversity in theoretical and conceptual spheres of the modern business environment. To arrive at particular as against broader conclusions on the strategic importance of customer satisfaction in the McDonald’s own operational environment within the defined limits of the restaurants. 2. Research methodology The research methodology of this study would involve primary data gathering and secondary data analysis along with a singularly directed focus of attention on both the qualitative and quantitative analysis. In fact there would be greater emphasis on interpretative analysis of existing data. The study then would involve a questionnaire administered on the following detailed lines to a selected sample of population at Salisbury’s and a survey. 2.1. Primary research 2.1.1. Interviewing Data collection is one of the central challenges in any research project. It is the process through which the opinion of people are collected and categorised. There are many methods of collecting data such as interviews; questionnaires; documents and observations provide invaluable information that is used for policy decisions, marketing strategies, and academic studies etc. Interviewing is a data collection method in which the researcher asks for information verbally from the respondents. It is the way to access people’s perceptions, definitions, meaning, situation and construction of reality, where it involves discussing or questioning issues with people to collect data unlikely to be accessible using techniques such as questionnaires or observation. Interviews are suitable when in-depth information is desired and this type of information is required in order to fulfil the purpose of this research. Therefore the interviewing research method will be followed in this paper. 2.1.2. Preparation of questionnaire This is the most important part in the planning of a sample survey, because a poorly designed questionnaire may ruin an otherwise well conducted survey. At this stage it is always advantageous to think in advance what variables and tabulations would be required for later analysis. It is advisable that a dummy tabulation plan should have been prepared in advance, if possible. This would ensure the inclusion of the information, which would be needed for the questionnaire. While preparing the questionnaire the following points were kept in mind in order to overcome the related problems. (i) As few questions as possible were included. (ii) Individual questions were framed in a simple and straight language. (iii) Questions followed a logical sequence. (iv) Highly personal questions were avoided, and if necessary for some enquiry they should be kept at the end of the questionnaire. 2.1.3. Administration of Questionnaire Once the questionnaire is prepared it may be administered by three different methods. (i) Direct personal interviews. (ii) Email inquiry (iii) Telephonic conversation. In this case study the method of e-mail inquiry was used. This method was applicable because most of the respondents were educated and co-operative and they realised the significance and importance of such a sample survey. The problem of non-response due to carelessness on the part of respondents is expected to be very large, though in the current survey such negligence was minimal. 2.2. Survey Statistical surveys are often carried out to collect quantitative information about items in a population sample. While political and government related surveys of people and establishments are too common in health, social sciences and marketing, they are carried out with a particular purpose on mind, i.e. to investigate some facts or information. Many surveys are usually intended to administer questions to respondents. When a researcher administers the questions it becomes a structured interview. When the respondent himself administers the questions the survey is called a self-administered survey or a questionnaire. There are three types of interview: structured, semi-structured and unstructured interviews. This dissertation utilises semi-structured type of interviews due to the fact that it helps the relatively structured interview guide, which includes ratings as well as relatively open questions. This type of interview is the most appropriate choice to gain the data necessary since it allows the researcher to lead informal conversation based on predetermined topics. Generally speaking, an interview is social interaction between two people, with one person gathering information from the other. The interaction is what differentiates the direct methodology from indirect methodology. Structured interviews enable the interviewer to ask each respondent the same questions in the same way. A tightly controlled structured schedule of questions and format is used, very much like a questionnaire. The questions contained in the questionnaire were planned in advance. The interviewer has some discretion how these might be elaborated/explained but the aim is to standardize data as far as possible and to eliminate biases due to different wordings. The questions in a structured interview may be phrased in such a way that a limited option response is elicited. The possible answers are defined in advance so that the respondent is limited to one of the pre-coded responses and thus data analysis becomes relatively easier. Interviews must be well prepared and must have clear objectives for each interview. Interviews can be conducted after the team has established the topical areas to be covered in the interviews and after the lead investigator has reviewed with the board the objectives of the interviews and strategies for obtaining useful information. In many research situations permission requests should be received before the interview takes place. The interviewer should consider the length of the interview to cover his aims, normally between 15 minutes to an hour. Provide contact information of the interviewer and it must be determined whom to interview, in what order, what interviewing techniques to employ and what method of record to use. The following aspects should be considered when defining a strategy for the interview. The questions should make sense and be meaningful to the interviewee. The questions should be related to the interviewee experiences based on what is already known about them. The interviewer must take care to be sensitive to the needs of the interviewee. The interviewer should be aware of the flow of the interview interaction by attempting to move seamlessly between topics and questions. The interviewer needs to focus on issues and topics that are relevant to the research problem and questions. Interview questions have been compiled from the existing literature and detailed in relation to the research topic, aim and objectives, and focused on the main areas described above. The researcher noted all the replies to interviews and then transcribed the data of each interview. Although this was a time consuming process, the richness of interviews’ contents warranted such an effort. Customer satisfaction strategies of McDonald’s right now are pitched on the rivals’ strategies (Adams, 2007). For instance brand marketing strategies of KFC, Burger King and Pizza Hut aren’t much different from that of McDonald’s current strategies. Therefore what’s needed right now is a strategically varied approach to motivating the average potential customer of the brand/product to throw in with the lot. The customers who were surveyed were of the opinion that McDonald’s have continuous product quality improvement strategy. The suppliers were either supplying on the basis of a certain quantity during a certain period or McDonald’s convinced suppliers to focus on quality. However reputed brand and image has made a good impact on many consumers. Brand loyalty is determined by customers’ repeat purchase and recommends to gets its unique service. As a customer satisfaction survey reviews McDonald’s is in a favorable position due to its better customer relations (Gitomer, 1998). 3.2. Secondary data Secondary data would be collected through an extensive research effort conducted both online and in libraries. The researcher would extensively use the books written on the topic and also study research journals, reports, graphs, articles, newspaper articles and so on. References would be taken from most of the research material available in the field. This study depends mainly on the secondary material, because theoretical analysis is much well facilitated by it than primary material which is basically limited to responses in the questionnaire and the survey. The available literature would be analyzed with specific focus on the relationship between product and service quality at McDonald’s and its impact on the customer satisfaction and loyalty (Fulks, 2009). This researcher would make a singular effort to show the most important aspectual overview of the research in the Literature Review. Also there is considerable reflection on the state and relevance of current research. Future research possibilities in the field are discussed in depth to show how theoretical underpinnings evolve with time and space with specific reference to fast food restaurants and modern customer satisfaction practices adopted by fast food restaurants. There is little or no critical literature to support the methodology of metrically determining the extent to which customer satisfaction has been influenced by product and service quality dimensions at McDonald’s in particular. This particular handicap has affected the researcher to a greater extent (Gilbert, 2004). However the research methodology segment of this paper places emphasis on the qualitative aspect of it rather than the quantitative aspect. As such the available empirical evidence has been greatly utilized by the researcher to delineate the current line of arguments as expounded in this paper. Limitations A number of minor and major limitations associated with this research project were encountered by this researcher in the process. In the first instance a substantial lack of existing literature on the subject has been a major handicap. Secondly the limited sample population for both the questionnaire and the survey didn’t permit the researcher to draw broader conclusions on the implications of the research program. For instance the implication for the McDonald’s own strategic initiatives and a lack of their positive impact on the potential customers has not been fully investigated because the time factor wasn’t taken into consideration in sifting the results of the questionnaire and the survey. Anticipated findings The researcher, as already has been stated, is particularly impressed by the existence of an obvious link between better management practices at McDonald’s and customer satisfaction. Next, there is probably an even stronger positive correlation between customer satisfaction with housekeeping, food and beverage and price at McDonald’s in particular and that of the incremental spending habits of consumers (Thornton, 2005). In fact this paper would focus attention on the new organizational outcomes related perspectives in McDonald’s through a convergence contingency model of corporate image and the customer satisfaction. Recommendations There must be a well articulated customer satisfaction practices at McDonald’s. The organizational culture at McDonald’s needs to be refocused on the organizational outcomes related to customer satisfaction along with employee motivation. The current customer satisfaction practice of food improvement teams, food quality standards, recruiting, trained and motivate crew members and mangers on the general expectations of performance related pay and increasing productivity has to come to an end. Instead, the top management at McDonald’s must initiate productivity enhancing behaviors among employees through delegation of more responsibility to supervisors. Questionnaire 1. How often have you been visiting this restaurant? □ Once a week □ Once a month □ Rarely □ Occasionally 2. Are you aware of any customer satisfaction practices and initiatives at this restaurant? If yes please specify. □ Yes □ No ……………………………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………………………… 4. What would you motivate to visit this restaurant? □ Monetary benefits □ Non-monetary benefits 5. How would you rate the success of monetary benefits when visit this restaurant, if any, on a scale of 1 to 10? □ between 1 to 3(the lowest) □ between 4 to 6 □ between 7 to 8 □ between 9-10(the highest) 6. How would you rate the success of non-monetary benefits, when visit this restaurant, if any, on a scale of 1 to 10? □ between 1 to 3(the lowest) □ between 4 to 6 □ between 7 to 8 □ between 9-10(the highest) 7. What significant factors motivate to make a repeat purchase at this restaurant? □ Low price □ fast & friendly service □ Product quality & freshness □ enjoyable experience □ Convenience □ clean & attractive atmosphere □ any other (please specify)……………… 8. What are the customer rewarding mechanisms adopted at McDonald’s? □ Loyalty cards/ point redeems □ Free issues □ Discounts □ any other (please specify)……………………. 9. How do you assess the impact of brand awareness and image on your satisfaction on a range of 10 points? □ 1to 4 □ 5 to 7 □ 8 to 10 10. Do you think that the management at this restaurant has been more concerned about customer service and their satisfaction? If yes, please specify. □ Yes □ No ……………………………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………………………… 11. In comparison to other restaurants what are the advantageous are available at McDonald’s? □ Low price □ Better quality □ Convenience □ I’m not sure 12. In comparison to other stores is there any disadvantageous at Curry’s? If yes, please specify. □ Yes □ No ……………………………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………………………… Survey Q. 1. What’s your perception of customer satisfaction polices and initiatives at MacDonald’s? Q.2. Do you think that customers’ attitude towards products and service quality has an impact on customer satisfaction related outcomes at these restaurants? Q.3. Do you think that whole staff at this restaurant is adequately prepared to meet customers’ contingency demands most of the time? Q.4. Have you ever complained against inefficiency of the service to the management at this restaurant? Q.5. Do you think that McDonalds’ has initiated meaningful customer satisfaction improvement policies to overcome this problem? REFERENCES 1. Adams, CW 2007, Adams Six Sigma ‘Customer Satisfaction and Customer Loyalty are the best predictors of customer retention’, Retrieved from www.adamssixsigma.com . 2. DiJulius, JR 2003, Secret Service: Hidden Systems That Deliver Unforgettable Customer Service, Amacom, New York. 3. Fornell, C & Johnson, MD 1996, ‘The American customer satisfaction index: nature, purpose, and findings’, Journal of Marketing, Vol. 60, pp.7-18. 4. Fulks, B 2009, ‘The McDonalds Customer Satisfaction Survey is a Scam and a Hoax Brett Callow’, Retrieved from www.brighthub.com . 5. Gilbert, GR 2004, ‘Measuring customer satisfaction in the fast food industry: a cross-national approach’, Journal of Service marketing, vol.18, no.5, pp. 371-383. 6. Gitomer, J 1998, Customer Satisfaction is Worthless, Customer Loyalty is Priceless: How to Make Them Love You, Keep You Coming Back, and Tell Everyone They Know, Bard Press, Austin. 7. Gustafsson, A 2005, ‘The effects of customer satisfaction, relationship commitment dimensions, and triggers on customer retention’, Journal of Marketing, Vol. 69, pp.210-8. 8. Hayes, BE 2008, Measuring Customer Satisfaction and Loyalty, Survey Design, Use, and Statistical Analysis Methods, 3rd edn , ASQ Quality Press ,WI. 9. Hennig-Thurau, T & Hansen, U 2000, Relationship Marketing: Gaining Competitive Advantage Through Customer Satisfaction and Customer Retention, Springer, New York. 10. Olorunniwo, Festus & Hsu, Mk 2006, ‘A typology analysis of service quality, customer satisfaction and behavioral intentions in mass services’, journal Managing Service Quality, vol.16, no.2, pp.106-123. 11. Samuelsen, BM 1997, Customer loyalty: causes and effects, Buskerud College, Kongsberg. 12. Thornton, SA 2005, ‘A novel and accurate guide to customer satisfaction’, journal of Measurement and Metrics, vol.6, no.1, pp.53-56. Read More