Reviewing Results of Mystery Shopper Observation Research for Three Companies - Case Study Example

Report Reviewing Name: Course: Course code: Tutor: Date: Table of Contents Report Reviewing 1 Table of Contents 2 1 Introduction 3 2. Background 3 3. Presentation of options 4 4. Requirements 6 5. Comparison 8 6. Conclusion 16 7. Recommendations 16 References 17 1 Introduction Fast food eateries comprise of business operating in the food sector that serves fast foods with reduced prices as compared to the other normal restaurants. Some of the leading fast food companies in US were started in early 20th century and are still operational up to date. For the last century, this growth has created stiff competition amongst the fast food restaurants and chain stores thus making them offer best services so as to be regarded as the best service providers in the fast food industry. This report tries to compare the three leading fast food companies that are globally known. They are Subway, Burger King and Wendy's which are internationally recognized with their high level of competition where the three companies have their high customer base, which are rapidly increasing. Hence, a study has been done so as to show the utilization and the purpose of primary research and to distinguish among the three food chains and make conclusion with which company offers a wide range of food, best services, wide range of food, quality of service and the best value for money. After study is explained, it will indicate that Subway and Burger King are both ranked the leading in the entire performance followed by Wendy's (Behar, 1998). 2. Background Burger king is an international fast food restaurant with its headquarters in Miami-Dade County, Florida. The company started its operation in 1953 as Insta-Burger King in Florida. It was named Burger King after its financial difficulties in 1954. The company would change hands for the next fifty years with the last owners being three partners i.e. Bain Capital, TPG Capital and Golman Sach Capital Partners. The company currently have over 13, 000 outlets in 79 countries most of which are found in US (Dougherty, 2007). Wendy’s is an international American fast food company found in 1969 in Columbus but its headquarters is currently in Dublin, Ohio. It is one of the largest fast food chains in USA with over 1200 locations. Most of its restaurants are franchised, all of them found in North America. Subway is an American based fast food Company that majorly deals with submarine sandwiches and is run and operated by Doctor’s Associates. It is has over 40, 000 restaurants and is located in 110 countries (Jackson, 2005). 3. Presentation of options 3.1 Subway Subway’s performance Subway’s has 4 marks in all the sections with the exception of food pricing and others which got 3 marks while cleanliness is the least with 2 marks. 3.2 Burger king’s Performance Performance of Wendy’s Performance Wendy scored 4 marks in food pricing, food quality, speed of service, cleanliness and scored 3 in all other sections. 3.3 Burger King Performance of Burger King The company scored 3 marks in such sections as quality of service, speed of service, food quality and scored 2 in all other sections 4. Requirements Primary research is a process where a person collects original data to meet the current objectives. There are various ways of undertaking primary research, e.g. conducting an interview, observation or experiencing the real situation. One generates original data directly. The researcher is responsible for doing all the process of the study, starting from designing of the questionnaire to data analysis and interpretation. Secondary research entails analyzing data already collected by other researchers. This type of research involves gathering of data from books, government statistics, history records or other international institutions. The main aim of using primary observation is that it provides researchers with an opportunity to use qualitative, quantitative or mixed research questions. In addition, it allows one to record directly the behavior in his or her surroundings. This can be easy to access since one does not need to communicate with other people. The questions drafted in the questionnaire can be related to the objectives of the study since the researcher since the researcher was the one who drafted the questionnaire himself. Thus, this type of research allows a closer link between the customers and the organization as well as that the data are well gathered from the concerned areas. This research method guarantees accuracy and up to date data. When it comes to the advantages of primary research, organizations can put their efforts on finding information or data depending on their requirement which allows them to get accurate and useful information. In addition, since the study is carried out by the researcher himself, he can ensure that the data is updated and self-owned to allow secrecy (Cramer, 2003). On the other hand, one of the advantages of undertaking primary research is that it is very costly since once has to be accountable for everything including the designing of questionnaires and transport costs. This type of research is also time-consuming since the researcher is required to generate his own data (Jackson, 2005). A researcher is also required to travel to the field to make observations and mark important notes. Moreover, it requires a large number of personnel to undertake the entire process of primary research. There are three types of research, quantitative, qualitative and mixed research methodologies. The research schedule starts with the understanding of the topic and its requirements, followed data research, analysis, evaluation, giving feedback and presentation. Another form of qualitative research is Mystery shopping which uses the researcher’s own feelings, values, attitudes and motivations. The results of this study clearly show the success and failures of an organization. Since mystery shoppers acted as real customers, this allows them to experience customer satisfaction directly and present detailed and analyzed report. For this reason, the mystery and showing research method is reliable and valid therefore undertaking the study using this method is very important. A mystery shopper is a real consumer and can experience same journey like the other consumers, thus this truly shows a real situation as targeted by an organization. 5. Comparison 5.1 Overview of the three organizations 5.1.1 Speed of services As per the above information, it can be clearly seen that the speed of services amongst the three organizations is between neutral and satisfied which is regarded as satisfactory 5.1.2 The quality of products From the statistics shown in the figure above, the quality of products between the three companies ranges from 3-4 which is satisfied 5.1.3 The quality of service As it can be seen in the statistics above, the quality of service is fairly good since the marks is roughly neutral 5.1.4 Cleanliness As far as cleanliness is concerned, the three organizations scored poorly since most of their marks ranged between 2 and 3 5.1.5 Others (Nearby restaurants and the number of toilets) This category is not much satisfactory since the three organizations are scoring between 2 and 3 marks 5.2 Relationship between quality and prices in the three organizations The scatter diagram above shows the food capital of the organizations against their food prices. It has a product-moment correlation (r) of o.87 which an indication of positive correlation. Since there is a positive correlation between food pricing and food quality, customers are guaranteed good value for their money which is a desire of everybody. 5.3 Performance of the three organizations The performance of three organizations No. of 4Marks No. of 3Marks No. of 2Marks Total marks Subways 5 3 1 31 Wendy’s 4 5 0 31 Burger King 0 4 5 22 The chart showing the number of marks scored by each organization The table above compares three organizations in terms of quality of services, speed of services, food section, food quality, food pricing, healthy food option, cleanliness and other services like surrounding restaurants and the number of toilets. Statistics show that Subways and Wendy’s are ranked equality with 31 marks each followed by Burger king which only got 22 marks. In every category, Subways was ranked the first in terms of quality of service, of speed of service, food quality, food selection quality of service, and healthy food options. Wendy’s is the leading in terms of the cleanliness of restaurant and the food pricing and ranked in the middle in all other categories. Burger King is the last in terms of all section with the exception the quality of service which is rated the same as Wendy’s. 6. Conclusion The primary research was carried out in the form of mystery shopper research method. Furthermore, tables scatter diagram, bar charts and box-plot diagram were used to present the differences between organizations so as to make it it easier for readers to understand where the variances occur with strong statistics listed. This showed how one eatery is better than another. After the comparisons of all the sections of the three restaurants, it can be seen that Subways and Wendy’s are the leading followed by Burger King in terms of their entire performances in several areas. 7. Recommendations After careful consideration of figures, it can be clearly seen that there are certain categories specifically for each organization to be improved. Subways have to improve their cleanliness of their restaurant by hiring more staff. The Wendy’s on the other hand should try to improve the general performance which allows them to be more competitive. For the case of Burger King, the most of its categories only got 2 marks meaning that they must improve their entire performance so as to maintain their current loyalty customers. The organization must do market research and hold regular meeting to assist in improving the organizational performance (Gilpin, 2006). References Behar, R., 1998. Why Subway Is 'The Biggest Problem In Franchising. New York Times, 2, pp.12-45. Calhoun, E.F., 2004. How to Use Action Research in the Self-Renewing School. NY: Cengage. Cramer, D., 2003. Fundamental Statistics for Social Research. Cangage. Dougherty, P.H., 2007. Wendy's Spot. The New York Times., pp.12-29. Gilpin, K., 2006. Chief Stuns Burger King In Shift to Denny's Parent". The New York Times., 2, pp.23-28. Jackson, S., 2005. Research Methods and Statistics: A Critical Thinking Approach. NY: Sage. Read More