Investigating Barriers in Customer Retention Process: A Case Study of Barker and Stonehouse

This study aims to investigate the barriers that occur in the customer retention process of Barker and Stonehouse. The study will examine the importance of customer retention, investigate the barriers that occur, develop strategies to manage customer retention, and recommend best practices.

Written proposal

TABLE OF CONTENT
TOPIC: TO INVESTIGATE BARRIER THAT OCCUR IN CUSTOMER RETENTION
PROCESS........................................................................................................................................3
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
Background:.................................................................................................................................3
Aims:............................................................................................................................................3
Objectives:...................................................................................................................................3
Research question:.......................................................................................................................3
Rationale and scope:....................................................................................................................4
LITERATURE REVIEW................................................................................................................4
Theme 1: examining importance of customer retention in the business:.....................................4
Theme 2: Investigating barrier that occur in customer retention process:...................................5
Theme 1: Developing strategies to manage customer retention in a business organization:.......6
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY.....................................................................................................6
Research type ..............................................................................................................................6
Research approach.......................................................................................................................6
Research design ..........................................................................................................................7
Research philosophy....................................................................................................................7
Data collection.............................................................................................................................7
Sampling......................................................................................................................................7
Data analysis................................................................................................................................8
Reliability and validity ................................................................................................................8
Research limitations.....................................................................................................................8
Ethical consideration....................................................................................................................8
Timeline:......................................................................................................................................9
Gantt chart:.................................................................................................................................10
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................1

TOPIC: TO INVESTIGATE BARRIER THAT OCCUR IN CUSTOMER
RETENTION PROCESS
INTRODUCTION
Customer retention is one of the most important thing for every business organization allowing
firm to focus on customer and ways to retain them. It is very clear that every business want their
potential customer to be converted into permanent customer, this process require strategies and
continuous improvement in product and service (Maladi, Nirwanto and Firdiansjah, 2019).
However, customer retention process is not an easy task because this consists or include certain
barrier in process of retaining customer and their buying behaviour for specific type of product.
Customer retention process fall under critical way which means certain barrier will arrive when
business want to retain their customer.
Background:
Customer retention is dream for every business organization, Barker and Stonehouse is one of
the best furniture company of the UK focusing on customer retention. Customer retention is
major issue for this company because there are some barriers which is impacting each stage of
retention process. Barker and Stonehouse is facing issue of losing customer, research will be
conducted to find out different type of barrier that arrive in the customer retention process which
may cover quality of product and service provided by the company to their customer in the
process.
Aims:
The aim of this study is “To investigate barrier that occur in customer retention process” a case
study of Barker and Stonehouse.
Objectives:
 To examine importance of customer retention in business.
 To investigate barrier that occur in customer retention process.
 To develop strategies to manage customer retention in the business organization.
 To recommend best practice allowing business to be effective in managing customer
retention.
Research question:
1. Why customer retention is important in the business organization?
2. What are barrier that occur in the customer retention process?

3. What are strategies that allow business to manage customer retention and reduce
customer turnover?
4. What are the best practice adopted by the organization to manage customer turnover and
maintaining customer retention?
Rationale and scope:
The reason behind conducting this study is to understand importance of customer retention in the
business organization and to examine role of customer retention in making company successful
in the market (Mahmoud, Hinson and Adika, 2018). Apart from this personal interest in
understanding those barriers which occur in the customer retention is another reason for
conducting this study. There are certain barriers that impact customer retention process including
internal business environment and even factors from external environment.
LITERATURE REVIEW
Theme 1: examining importance of customer retention in the business:
According to Larsson and Broström (2019), Customer retention is one of the most important
thing for every business organization, this allows business to enjoy continuous success and
unstoppable growth. It is very important for business to have those strategies which boost
customer retention in the process, many successful organization develop strategies allowing
customer to understand the product and service and allowing firm to act accordingly. Customer
retention is process of brining customer back to purchase the product, however, this is not related
to those products which are purchase at once only. Customer retention is important because this
allows firm to manage their sales and boost profitability ratio, firm who know the importance try
to invest more in star products that have higher share and higher growth. Customer retention is
important for return on investment, business who invest more in product know that return on
investment does matter which simply means customer retention.
Product need to meet all required standard to win customer in the market, innovation in
product will attract customer but retaining them is challenging task which required business to
have effective strategy. There are certain importance of customer retention, these are; repeat
purchase, customer who stay with company or who show loyalty perform repeat purchase
allowing company to enjoy surplus profit. It is very clear that repeat order of product and service
means business is performing well in regaining customer and retaining their interest in the
company.

Repeat purchase is one of the best indicator of customer retention which simply show
performance of product and marketing efforts of the company. Another importance lies in
reducing marketing cost, it is very clear that marketing efforts of company are reduced with the
help of customer retention because if same customer is ready to purchase the product then
company do not have to set new strategies and marketing efforts because company already have
repeated customer allowing firm to enjoy continuous growth with less involvement in marketing
process.
Theme 2: Investigating barrier that occur in customer retention process:
According to author, customer retention is one of the most important goal of every business
organization providing them success in the market, the process of customer retention is not easy
because this contains those barriers and challenges that might impact company and its
performance. Customer retention is challenging task because bringing back same customer to
purchase same product is not easy, company need to think beyond the level to get right idea to
regain customer with existing product. However, barrier will arrive in retention process, these
may include; lack of product quality and specification; product need to meet all requirement of
customer. Product should measure all require standard to maintain its position in the market,
customer retention is only possible when business have those products which meet exact demand
of customer.
Barrier will arrive when customer creates a bad image of product and will try to avoid
these products next time, customer retention is impacted in first ever impression. That is why is
important for company to have powerful image of product and service they provide in the
market, product itself become a barrier in customer retention process. Apart from these, lack of
employee skills; sometimes employee become an major issue for customer retention process in
the company because of customer do not get professional service then they will not repeat their
purchase of service. It is very clear that in every service based organization, customer demand
employee to be professional while managing client requirement. For example; in consultancy
business, employee's professionalism does matter which allow them to address client need.
However, if employee fail to meet the required professionalism then customer retention will not
be possible which means company will loss valuable customer as well.
Apart from this, lack of customer knowledge; this is another element or barrier that
impact customer retention process, due to lack of customer understanding sometimes business

fail to understand that what exactly their customer want impacting their retention process,
customer retention is challenging task when there is no clarity in understanding how customer
think and act for a particular product.
Theme 1: Developing strategies to manage customer retention in a business organization:
According to Ascarza and et.al., (2018), it has been determined that one of the leading strategies
in order to retain customers within a business organization is to conduct surveys among the
customers of an organization on a regular basis. This helps the organization in identifying the
current needs, wants, taste and preferences of the customers and allows an organization to
provide the customers with the products that their customers desire. When an organization takes
care of the needs and wants of the customers associated with the business organization, it
influences the customers in retaining themselves with the company and showcase their loyalty
towards the brand. In order to retain the existing customers with the brand and also attract new
customers, it is essential for the organization to determine the needs of the customers and cater to
their needs.
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
Research type
There are majorly two types of research, namely, qualitative and quantitative research.
The qualitative research refers to a research in which the data collected is not in the form of
numeric numbers. On the other hand, quantitative research refers to a research which is based on
the data that is in the form of numeric numbers. However, for the purpose of assessing the
barriers that takes place within the customer retention process, the qualitative data will be
considered. It will help the research scholar in effectively analysing the data and forming
relevant observations on the basis of the same.
Research approach
The research approaches can be bifurcated into two parts, they are inductive approach
and deductive approach. The inductive approach is used to analyse the data that is qualitative in
nature and the deductive approach is used in order to make observations with respect to the
quantitative data. Since, the present study is based on the qualitative data, the inductive approach
of research will be used (Nayak, and Singh, 2021). This approach will be helpful to the research
scholar in effectively analysing and drawing conclusions on the basis of qualitative data.

Research design
There are three types of research designs, i.e., exploratory, case study and descriptive
research design. The present research will be descriptive in nature and will aim to determine the
barriers faced by the Barker and Stonehouse faces within their customer retention process.
Research philosophy
There are mainly two types of research philosophy which are actively used by the
research scholars for the purpose of conducting a research. They are interpretivism research
philosophy and positivism research philosophy. However, in order to investigate the barrier
which an organization faces with their customer retention process, the qualitative data will be
gathered. Therefore, the interpretivism research philosophy will be chosen as this helps the
research scholar in interpreting the qualitative data effectively, and manipulating the data for the
purpose of making useful observations. Also. this philosophy is helpful in order to interpret the
data gathered from a small sample size.
Data collection
For the purpose of conducting the research, both primary and secondary sources of data
will be considered. For the purpose of gathering primary data, a sample size of 15 employees
from the Barker and Stonehouse will be taken into consideration (Rinjit, 2020). For the purpose
of collecting the data, a survey will be conducted among a sample of 15 employees from the
company using a questionnaire. The responses received will help the researcher in analysing the
responses and making relevant observations on the basis of the same. The researcher will also
make use of secondary sources of data which includes websites, books, journals, and other such
existing sources of information.
Sampling
Sampling can be described as a process within the process of research in which a small
group of people are selected from a large population whose responses will be representing the
views of the whole population. Similarly, for the purpose of conducting the study, a sample size
of 15 employees from the Barker and Stonehouse company will be selected. The responses
received on the basis of the survey that will be conducted will help the research scholar in
studying and interpreting the data successfully.

Data analysis
There are mainly two techniques which are employed by the research scholar for the
purpose analysing the data gathered. They are thematic perception test technique and SPSS.
Since, the present study will be based on the data that is qualitative in nature, the thematic
perception test technique will be employed for the purpose of analysing the data (Newman, and
Gough, 2020). The thematic perception test technique will help the researcher in forming themes
on the basis of the data collected and use the same in order to make important observations and
finds the major barriers that hampers the customer retention process within the Barker and
Stonehouse.
Reliability and validity
In order to ensure reliability and validity, only those articles, books, journals will be
considered that are related to the subject of the study. Also, only those articles which are
published within or after the year 2018 will be considered for the purpose of making
observations and analysing the data. The data that will be taken from the secondary sources will
be gathered from the copyright protected sources only. Also, the research scholar will try to
assess the relevance of the data using keywords and the data collected using the survey will be
raw and up to date without any kind of alterations. This will help the research scholar in ensuring
the reliability and the validity of the data with respect to the research.
Research limitations
Limited timeframe, restricted amount of money and unavailability of sources have been
determined as the major limitations of the study (Pandey, and Pandey, 2021). Since, time was
limited for the purpose of conducting the study, the quantitative tool, for instance, SPSS has not
been selected. The limited access to resources including websites and data has also been found as
a leading limitation as it restricts the research scholar in gathering the important information with
respect to the study. also However, for avoiding the SPSS tool, the thematic perception test
technique will be considered for the purpose of analysing the data. The thematic perception test
technique is helpful in effectively forming themes for the purpose of analysing the data.
Ethical consideration
For the purpose of conducting the study, all the ethical aspects of conducting the research
will be considered. The research scholar will provide the respondents with a consent form in
order to ensure their participation willingly. Also, the research scholar will take due permission

from the management of the organization before conducting a survey among their employees.
The employees that will be taking part in the survey will be open to opportunity of the
withdrawal. This means they will be provided with a right to withdraw their participation from
the survey if they have any issue or do not find it appropriate to participate within the same. The
data that will be gathered from conducting the survey will remain confidential and only revealed
when its truly essential and that too with the due permission of the employees as well as the
management of the company (Snyder, 2019). Also, the research scholar will duly inform the
employees and the organization before taking their names within the survey about the subject of
the study and why it is being conducted. This will help the workforce in deciding freely whether
they want to participate within the survey or not. The names and identity of the respondents will
remain confidential. A reference list will also be attached at the end of the research in order to
make sure that the data has correct and accurate and has not been copied.
Timeline:
Task Name Duration Start Finish
Topic selection process 1 day Thu 3/31/22 Thu 3/31/22
Crafting aims and
objectives 5 days Fri 4/1/22 Thu 4/7/22
LITERATURE REVIEW 10 days Fri 4/8/22 Thu 4/21/22
RESEARCH
METHODOLOGY 10 days Fri 4/22/22 Thu 5/5/22
Collecting and analysing
data 15 days Fri 5/6/22 Thu 5/26/22
Submission process 1 day Fri 5/27/22 Fri 5/27/22

Gantt chart:

REFERENCES
Books and journals
Ascarza and et.al., 2018. In pursuit of enhanced customer retention management: Review, key
issues, and future directions. Customer Needs and Solutions, 5(1), pp.65-81.
Bairagi, V. and Munot, M.V. eds., 2019. Research methodology: A practical and scientific
approach. CRC Press.
Hamilton, R.W., Rust, R.T. and Dev, C.S., 2017. Which features increase customer
retention. MIT Sloan Management Review, 58(2), pp.79-84.
Larsson, A. and Broström, E., 2019. Ensuring customer retention: insurers’ perception of
customer loyalty. Marketing Intelligence & Planning.
Mahmoud, M.A., Hinson, R.E. and Adika, M.K., 2018. The effect of trust, commitment, and
conflict handling on customer retention: the mediating role of customer
satisfaction. Journal of Relationship Marketing, 17(4), pp.257-276.
Maladi, M., Nirwanto, N. and Firdiansjah, A., 2019. The impact of service quality, company
image and switching barrier on customer retention: Mediating role of customer
satisfaction. International Journal of Applied Business and International Management
(IJABIM), 4(2), pp.57-64.
Nayak, J.K. and Singh, P., 2021. Fundamentals of research methodology problems and
prospects. SSDN Publishers & Distributors.
Newman, M. and Gough, D., 2020. Systematic reviews in educational research: Methodology,
perspectives and application. Systematic reviews in educational research, pp.3-22.
Pandey, P. and Pandey, M.M., 2021. Research methodology tools and techniques. Bridge Center.
Rinjit, K., 2020. Research methodology.
Snyder, H., 2019. Literature review as a research methodology: An overview and
guidelines. Journal of business research. 104. pp.333-339.
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