Customer Satisfaction in Arena Court Motel Research Project 2022

Running head: RESEARCH PROJECT
Customer Satisfaction in Arena Court Motel
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author’s Note:

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Acknowledgement
Thank you to all of those who have helped listened and encouraged me throughout this study. I
am indebted to my supervisor ......................... whose guidance, advice and patience have
been immeasurable. My sincere thanks to all members of the............... [Mention your
university/college name], both staff and students, whose continuous support have made this
thesis possible.
I would like to thank all of the participants in the study: students, teachers and Local Education
Authorities, for the time and help given throughout. Without their participation, this research
would not have been possible. In this context, I am also thankful to them, whose research work
helped me to execute this paper well.
Finally, I thank my family, without whom this thesis would not have been started or completed!
Your encouragement and support have never faltered; thank you.

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Abstract
Customer satisfaction is the problem identified for Arena Court Motel in Hamilton, New
Zealand. The need of customer satisfaction is irreplaceable irrespective of the business sector
because customers are the ones that define the success for the business entities. The main issues
found for Arena Court Motel are no online discounts, insufficient staffs and rude staffs thereby,
resulting in customer dissatisfaction. The models used for understanding customer satisfaction
are Kano model of customer satisfaction, Teboul model of customer satisfaction, SERVQUAL
model and Expectancy Disconfirmation paradigm.
Both interview and survey research strategies have been used for investigating the ongoing
research. Open-ended questions for interview and close-ended questions for survey and interview
have been circulated among the customers and the employees in the room of the customers when
they check-in. From the above information, results and analysis, it can be concluded that Arena
Court Motel is encountering severe customer satisfaction issues that is affecting the overall
preference and popularity among the target customers. Customer satisfaction issues in the motel
are resulting in loss of business that is in turn threatening the survival of the motel in Hamilton.

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Table of Contents
1. Introduction..............................................................................................................................5
1.1 Identification of the problem.................................................................................................5
2. Best practice review.................................................................................................................7
2.1 Customer satisfaction.............................................................................................................7
2.2 Factors affecting customer satisfaction.................................................................................8
2.3 Models of customer satisfaction............................................................................................8
2.3.1 Kano model of customer satisfaction.............................................................................8
2.3.2 Teboul model of customer satisfaction...........................................................................9
2.3.3 SERVQUAL model......................................................................................................10
2.3.4 The Expectancy Disconfirmation paradigm.................................................................10
2.4 Issue of customer satisfaction..............................................................................................11
2.5 Impact of customer satisfaction on business.......................................................................11
3. Method and ethics..................................................................................................................12
4. Results....................................................................................................................................14
4.1 Survey analysis....................................................................................................................14
4.2 Interview transcript analysis................................................................................................18
5. Analysis.................................................................................................................................18
6. Conclusions and recommendations.......................................................................................20

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7. Implementation plan..............................................................................................................22
8. Discussion of implementation plan.......................................................................................24
References......................................................................................................................................26
Appendices....................................................................................................................................29
Appendix 1.................................................................................................................................29
Interviews question (Open –ended question)........................................................................31
Appendix 2.................................................................................................................................32
Survey questionnaires (Close Type questions)....................................................................33
Appendix 3.................................................................................................................................36
Interview transcripts..............................................................................................................36

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1. Introduction
Customer satisfaction is a widely researched topic in the past by the researchers because
the role it plays for businesses is inevitable. The need of customer satisfaction is irreplaceable
irrespective of the business sector because customers are the ones that define the success for the
business entities. As mentioned by Agnihotri et al. (2016), having a dissatisfied customer base is
threatening for business organizations because without the customers the organizations cannot
survive the market and lose to the existing competitors.
1.1 Identification of the problem
Customer satisfaction is the problem identified for Arena Court Motel in Hamilton, New
Zealand. The different issues at the motel are listed below:
The motel does not provide online discounts
 Low perceived value
 Untrustworthiness on the customers
 Defer price conversation
Insufficient staffs
 Lack of permanent employment
 Challenging workplace
 Lack of organizational benefit
 Job insecurity
Rude staffs
 Inappropriate training

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 Work pressure
 Negative workplace
Dissatisfied customers
 Dirty blankets
 Missing towels
 Staffs rudeness
 Inappropriate service time
Hence, the problems identified needs to be mitigated for
The potential solutions for the identified problems are listed below:
Problem: The motel does not provide online discounts
Solution: Arena Court Motel can overcome this problem by offering discounted rates during the
peak seasons. This will attract the customers during the peak season, as the customers will feel
benefitted as they have to pay less compared to other motels in the area.
Problem: Insufficient staffs
Solution: This problem can be overcome by recruiting adequate number of staffs along with
developing a suitable workplace so that the staffs feel at home and enjoy while offering service
to the customers. Moreover, additional benefits such as incentives for working extra hours and
conveyance options can also be provided for maintaining decent number of staffs in the motel.
Problem: Rude staffs
Solution: Arena Court Motel can overcome this problem by subjecting the employees to training
at regular interval. This will allow the staffs to learn how to handle pressure as well as

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communicating with the customers in such a way that their need is understood efficiently and
services can be arranged accordingly.
Problem: Dissatisfied customers
Solution: Arena Court Motel can overcome this problem by ensuring the basics in their motel
are not at fault so that when the customers enter the room for the first time their basic needs are
not compromised. Before the customers check-in, the staffs of the motel can visit the room once
for checking whether everything is alright or not and if not those things can be placed
appropriately (Orel & Kara, 2014).
2. Best practice review
2.1 Customer satisfaction
When it comes to business, customer satisfaction is a significant aspect to consider. A
business cannot be successful if customer satisfaction does not exist. As mentioned by Izogo and
Ogba (2015), customer satisfaction is defined as the total number of customers a business
organization has whose experience with the organization exceeds beyond expectation. However,
as argued by Kim, Vogt and Knutson (2015), the concept of customer satisfaction indicates the
number of customers those are satisfied with the products or services provided by the business
organizations. Having customers those are satisfied is crucial for the business organizations
because it provides an upper hand from the existing competitors in the market.
2.2 Factors affecting customer satisfaction
Customer satisfaction is affected by wide range of factors those have been of previous
research interests in the past. As employees are the ones serving the customers, their behavior