A Poll to Meet the Restaurant Comers' Perspective - Research Paper Example

Questionnaire Design and Data Survey Questionnaire Section A – Demographic Information 1. Gender Male Female 2. Age Group < 18 18-25 26-35 36-45 >45 3. Marital Status Single Married Divorced or other Separated Would Rather not say 4. How often do you dine at Joe’s Wraps and Subs Twice a week Once a week Once a month On special occasions 5. Average amount you spend at Joe’s Wraps and Subs < $5 $5 - $10 $11 - $ 15 $15 > II. Section B – Product Feedback Please tick the appropriate boxes depending upon how strongly you rank the statements. 6. Food   Needs Improvements Average Good Excellent a) Food Portion and Size of Servings         b) Top of Form \Flavour of Food         c) Presentation of Food         d) Value for Money         e) Choice of food and variety in Menu         f) Freshness of Food         7. Service   Needs Improvements Average Good Excellent a) Friendly         b) Top of Form \Professional         c) Menu Explanation         d) Promptness         e) Service Time         f) Bill Settlement         8. Venue / Location   Needs Improvements Average Good Excellent a) Cleanliness         b) Top of Form \Atmosphere         c) Music         d) Staff Representation         e) Overall Cleanliness         f) Interiors and overall ambiance         9. Recent Joe’s Subs and Wraps advertisement you recall Billboards Yellow Pages Newspaper Advertisements Internet Advertisement Discount Coupons or Offers 10. Other Comments ________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________ Personal Information** Name: ___________________________ Date of Birth: ___________________________ Contact Phone Number: ___________________________ If Married: Spouse’s Name: ___________________________ Spouse’s Date of Birth: ___________________________ Contact Phone Number: ___________________________ Yes, I would like to receive information about special offers and discounts ** Note: All personal information is for verification purposes only. We do not sell your personal information to any third parties Research Report The main objective of the research and the questionnaire is to gain the perspective of the customers and to get the views of how Joe’s can be improved to meet up to the customer expectations. The questionnaire has been designed keeping in mind all the different aspects of the restaurant and the needs of the customers. The focus has been on gaining as much information from the customers to understand their views and their ideas to help Joe’s become more customer friendly. Before actually receiving the results for the study, it is essential to discuss the reliability and validity issues of the survey. The reliability and validity issues will be discussed in the next section following which the scaling method has also been addressed. Finally the sampling plans will be discussed and the criteria relating it will be discussed. Before moving into the main discussion, it is essential to note the entire process of the research. Figure: The Entire Process Scaling Method: Scaling is an essential part of the whole research process. It is generally a part of social research studies. Scaling refers to the act of measuring or ordering responses with respect to traits as well as attributes. A majority of the questions in the survey focus on measuring the attitudes of the customers towards the product and also the knowledge that the customers have about the products they use. The pre qualification questions for the research are more of choosing a yes or no for the answer. The core questions however have a variety of questions. This ranges from providing the customers with a few choices, to choose from which match the statement appropriately and also yes and no answers (Aaker, et.al., 2005). A few of the question have also followed the Likert Scale. This however is not the exact five point scale, but are based on similar terms. The Likert scale is one of the several non comparative scaling techniques. Likert scale is generally used when the respondents are required to indicate a degree of agreement or disagreement with each of a series of statements about the stimulus objects. The method has been used to find out the responses of the customers for their views of the characteristics of the product, the brands and the attributes that awe them the most. The research makes use of a four point Likert scale, ranging from the terms as listed below. The values represented by the four points are listed below. Value Description 1 Needs Improvements 2 Average 3 Good 4 Excellent Sampling Plan: Population Determination: To receive a valid result and to achieve a reliable result it is important to gain the right population size required for the study. Considering the population of the entire country, i.e. 21,431,800 (World Bank, 2010). Keeping a confidence interval of 10 and a confidence level of 95%, the total number of responses required totals to 96. The sample size will ensure more focused and give an accurate reflection of the target that is needed for the study. (Source: http://www.surveysystem.com/sscalc.htm) Sampling Techniques: Researching a topic involves a number of steps, of which one of the most important is the right choice of target population. Choosing a certain group of people from the population of interest and generalizing a study based on them is referred to as ‘sampling’. Sampling is defined as, ‘the act, process, or technique of selecting a suitable sample; specifically: the act, process, or technique of selecting a representative part of a population for the purpose of determining parameters or characteristics of the whole population’ (Merriam - Webster, 2010). There are two main types of sampling methods, i.e. probability sampling and non probability sampling. Probability sampling method is based completely on random selection. The main focus in these types of sampling methods is to get the most random selection of people (Cochran, 1977). The process requires including a method where there is an equal probability of people being chosen. The basic aim is to get a selection as random as possible. The recommended sampling technique that can be used in this research is a probability based technique. The simple random sampling method is one of the most basic methods and is the simplest form of random sampling (Aaker, et.al, 2005). Here in this form of sampling, the main objective is to select the total number of cases from the sampling frame in a manner that the combinations that are made all have an equal chance of being selected. The system that is normally used for this form of sampling is a table of random numbers. These can be computer generated random numbers or even mechanically selected. In simple terms all the elements are ‘put in a hat’ and the sample is selected from this until the number of sample required has been reached (Leming, 2010). One of the best is to use the computer to generate random numbers and to draw out the hundred names based on the random generated customers (Churchill, 2006). Simple random sampling is one of the fairest and most reasonable ways of choosing a sample. Sampling Frame: The sampling frame for the research will be the entire population of Australia. Although there are a number of people who may not fit the population definition, the people living around the areas of the restaurant will be chosen for the survey. For reasons of finances and the time constraints, there will be a number of cities in Australia that will be omitted even if there are a few individuals who fit into the sampling frame. Research Reliability and Validity: The concept of validity of qualitative research has been defined as, ‘.. a contingent construct, inescapably grounded in the processes and intentions of particular research methodologies and projects’ (Winter, 2000, p.1). Maxwell (1992) argues that validity is a goal rather than a product. This goal encounters some threats which are made by evidence, not methods. In order to exclude these threats, validity, as an important component of the research, must consist of a certain strategies. These strategies require the researcher to identify the specific threat in question and to develop ways to attempt to rule out that particular threat. The validity threats and the way they can be dealt with is a key issue in a qualitative research proposal. In dealing with validity threats Maxwell (1992) argues that qualitative researchers usually consider these threats as particular events or processes, rather than as generic variables. Maxwell (1992) discusses two broad types of threats to validity. These two types, according to him, are researcher bias and reactivity. The researcher bias is how certain values of the researcher influence the conduct and conclusion of the study. While the reactivity is to understand this influence and use it productively. Various researchers have over time develop their own concepts for validity and most of them adopt that the most appropriate terms for validity include, quality, rigor and trustworthiness. Maxwell (1992) argues that methods and procedures do not assure validity to the research in general, but they are critical to the process of excluding validity threats which lead to increasing creditability of the conclusions. To ensure the research is reliable and viable, the questions have been set out into different sections, i.e. food, service, venue and location. This helps to gain an overall view of the customer views about the company (Malhotra, et. al, 2006). The idea of collecting the customer information i.e. contact details and the names is to help ensure that the responses are valid and true and have been genuinely filled out by genuine customer and not by people within the company to twitch the results of the company (Kotler & Keller, 2006). Bibliography Aaker, D, Kumar, V & Day, G 2005, Marketing research, the Pacific Rim edition, John Wiley & Sons, Milton, QLD Churchill, GA and Brown, TJ 2006, Basic Marketing Research, Cengage Learning Creative Research Systems, 2010, ‘Sample Size Calculator’, Accessed on 30th April 2010, Retrieved from http://www.surveysystem.com/sscalc.htm Kotler, P & Keller, K 2006, Marketing management, Prentice Hall, Upper Saddle River, NJ Leming, M. R. (2010). Research and Sampling Design: Techniques for Evaluating Hypothesis. Retrieved April 23, 2010, from http://www.stolaf.edu/people/leming/soc371res/research.html Malhotra, N, Hall, J, Shaw, M & Oppenheim, P 2006, Marketing research: an applied orientation, 3rd edn, Pearson Education Australia, New South Wales Maxwell, J. A., 1992, ‘Understanding and validity in qualitative research’. Harvard Educational Review, 62(3), 279-300. Winter, G., 2000, ‘A comparative discussion of the notion of validity in qualitative and quantitative research’, The Qualitative Report, 4(3&4), Retrieved February 25, 1998, from http://www.nova.edu/ssss/QR/QR4-3/winter.html World Bank, 2010, ‘Population, Total’, Accessed on 1st May 2010, Retrieved from http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SP.POP.TOTL?cid=GPD_1 Read More