Business Research Methods: Pilot Test Report, Victoria University

This report details a pilot test conducted to assess factors influencing customer selection of boutique restaurants in Australia and evaluate the efficiency of a questionnaire designed for this purpose. The study involved distributing questionnaires in shopping malls and gathering feedback on the questionnaire's design from respondents. The findings indicate an increasing trend in boutique restaurant visits, with a majority of respondents being employed individuals aged 22-47, often dining with friends and family. The study also revealed that most customers are satisfied with the customer service, food quality, and overall experience, with a willingness to recommend these restaurants. However, the pilot test identified several design flaws in the questionnaire, including the inclusion of sensitive questions and the complexity and length of the questionnaire. Suggestions for improvement include reducing the number of questions, simplifying the structure, and removing unnecessary questions. A revised questionnaire is provided in the appendix, along with the author's self-reflection on the importance of pilot testing for refining research instruments.

Business Research Methods
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Contents
Purpose of the pilot test..............................................................................................................3
Steps procedures in conducting the pilot test.............................................................................3
Justification different aspects of the pilot test............................................................................3
Results findings of the pilot test.................................................................................................4
Results with respect to the responses provided by the public-...................................................4
Suggestion for improvement......................................................................................................5
Revised questionnaire................................................................................................................6
References..................................................................................................................................7
Appendix....................................................................................................................................8
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Purpose of the pilot test
The primary purpose of this pilot test to identify what are the factors that are contributing to
the selection of boutique restaurants by general public in Australia. In addition to that this
pilot test is also undertaken to identify the efficiency of questionnaire. This pilot test will also
help in identifying the difficulties that are being faced by respondents of the questionnaire
and amendments will be made by taking feedback with respect to the design of questionnaire
from respondents.
Steps procedures in conducting the pilot test
The following steps will be taken in order to identify the results with respect to questions
developed in the pilot test.
 First of all, questionnaires will be printed on a physical form in order to get a response
from the public.
 There is various method that can be used for collecting data such as online survey or
personal interviews. In this scenario all the question is will be brought to the respondents
personally as feedback on design of the questionnaire is also required to be obtained.
 The selection of location will be the next step in this scenario. In this scenario
questionnaire will be distributed in shopping malls (Brace, 2018).
 Time will be provided to each respondent for responding to the questions in
questionnaire.
 At last, feedback will be taken with respect to the design of questionnaire.
Justification different aspects of the pilot test
 In the given scenario location of the shopping mall is selected as shopping malls are
visited by variety of people and it will help in providing diversity to the sample
population.
 Due to limitations of time and month of the questionnaire data is collected only from 10
respondents.
 In the given scenario personal interview has been chosen for collecting data through
questionnaire. This method is specifically chosen for the purpose as the researcher wants
to identify the efficiency of design of questionnaire in addition to collection of data.
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Results findings of the pilot test
Results with respect to the responses provided by the public-
 It can be said that the overall trend of boutique restaurants has been increasing as 10 out
of 13 people have visited these restaurants in last 6 months.
 The majority of the people that are visiting these restaurants are employed persons that
are earning between 50000 to 80000, therefore there is a relationship between visiting
beauty restaurants and income generation capabilities.
 People between the age group of 22 to 47 are visiting these restaurants more frequently as
compared to other age groups (McQuarrie, 2015).
 The majority of the respondents preferred to go out with friends and families to eat at
these boutique restaurants.
 The majority of the respondents are satisfied with the type of customer services provided
by these restaurants.
 Quality of food is also preferred by the majority of the respondents. These restaurants are
providing authentic and local taste to customers (Easterby-Smith, Thorpe and Jackson,
2015).
 The majority of the customers are satisfied with the overall experience in these boutique
restaurants and they are willing to refer to search restaurants to their friends and family
members.
Result with respect to the design of the questionnaire-
There were various difficulties faced by respondents while answering the questions provided
in the questionnaire. One of the primary factors of conducting this pilot test was to analyse
these design flaws in order to ensure that design is improved before conducting the final
research. This type of design analysis and improvement will help in providing more accurate
results with respect to the objective of the research under consideration (Barnham, 2015). The
following are the design flowers that are required to be worked upon in the final design.
 First of all, it is not essential to collect the name of all the boutique restaurants that are
visited by the respondent along with its location. This type of information can be very
confidential and they might not be willing to share it.
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 It is very common in the process of designing to include the introductory part at the initial
phase of the questionnaire. In the case of the given questionnaire introductory part has
been provided at the last of the questionnaire.
 It can also be said that the questionnaire under consideration was very complicated. One
of the most essential part to that is required to be considered during the designing of
question it is that it should be simple (McNabb, 2015). Respondents are taking their time
out of the day and providing answers to the questions without anything in return. If there
are a lot of complexities in the questionnaires then respondents might not provide the
answers honestly.
 The complexity of the questions also affects the ability of respondent to understand the
primary objective behind a particular question.
 The total number of questions in this questionnaire is also very high. Generally it is
considered that the questions should be more accurate and to the point. The total number
of questions with this type of subject matter should not have exceeded 10.
Suggestion for improvement
Following are some of the suggestions that will help in designing the questionnaire in a more
effective manner-
 First of all the number of questions should be reduced to 10.
 The reduction is also required in number of subparts for each of the questions as in the
pilot test there are 15 to 30 sub-parts of different questions.
 Introductory questions should be included at the top of the questionnaire.
 The question in relation to location and name of the boutique restaurant should be
eliminated (Sharp, Peters and Howard, 2017).
 The question that asks nationality of the respondent should also be eliminated.
Revised questionnaire
The revised question has been attached in appendix 2 which is expected to improve the
efficiency of data collection process. Self-reflection that is identified with the help of this
report is that it is important to conduct pilot testing of a particular research proposal and
questionnaire in order to identify deficiency so that they can be mitigated from the final data
collection process.
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References
Barnham, C., 2015. Quantitative and qualitative research: Perceptual foundations.
International Journal of Market Research, 57(6), pp.837-854.
Brace, I., 2018. Questionnaire design: How to plan, structure and write survey material for
effective market research. Kogan Page Publishers.
Easterby-Smith, M., Thorpe, R. and Jackson, P.R., 2015. Management and business research.
Sage.
McNabb, D.E., 2015. Research methods in public administration and nonprofit management.
Routledge.
McQuarrie, E.F., 2015. The market research toolbox: a concise guide for beginners. Sage
Publications.
Sharp, J.A., Peters, J. and Howard, K., 2017. The management of a student research project.
Routledge.
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Appendix
Appendix 1- Responses collected from the pilot testing
Questions
/ Options 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Total
1 10 3 - - - - - 13
2 Note 1 0
3 10 0 - - - - - 10
4 4 3 2 1 0 10
5 0 1 7 2 0 - - 10
6 Note 2 0
7 Note 3 0
8 Note 4 0
9 Note 5 0
10 Note 6 0
11 Note 7 0
12 6 4 0 - - - - 10
13 1 2 4 3 0 - - 10
14 1 2 3 3 1 - - 10
15 1 3 0 2 1 3 10
16 0 2 5 1 2 - - 10
17 Note 8 0
Note 1 Name Location
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1 Adelphi Hotel Flinders Ln, Melbourne
2
Treasury on Collins Apartment
Hotel
Collins Street, Queen St,
Melbourne
3 Ovolo Laneways Little Bourke St, Melbourne
4 The Blackman St Kilda Rd, Melbourne
5 Urban Central City Rd, Melbourne
6 QT Melbourne Russell St, Melbourne
7 Adelphi Hotel Flinders Ln, Melbourne
8
Treasury on Collins Apartment
Hotel
Collins Street, Queen St,
Melbourne
9 Ovolo Laneways Little Bourke St, Melbourne
10 QT Melbourne Russell St, Melbourne
Note 2 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Total
1 0 0 0 2 3 5 0 10
2 0 0 2 2 4 2 0 10
3 0 0 1 3 4 2 0 10
4 2 0 0 0 4 3 1 10
5 1 0 2 4 1 1 1 10
6 0 1 1 2 2 3 1 10
7 1 0 1 3 1 2 2 10
8 0 0 0 2 5 2 1 10
9

9 1 1 0 0 4 3 1 10
10 0 0 1 3 2 3 1 10
11 0 0 2 2 3 1 2 10
12 0 0 1 4 1 3 1 10
13 0 0 0 2 5 1 2 10
14 0 0 0 0 4 4 2 10
15 0 0 1 2 3 3 1 10
16 2 2 1 2 3 0 0 10
17 1 1 0 2 2 3 1 10
18 0 0 0 2 5 2 1 10
19 0 0 1 4 1 3 1 10
20 0 0 1 2 3 3 1 10
21 2 0 0 0 4 3 1 10
22 0 0 0 2 5 2 1 10
23 2 0 0 0 4 3 1 10
24 0 0 1 2 3 3 1 10
25 1 0 1 3 1 2 2 10
26 0 0 1 2 3 3 1 10
Note 3 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Total
1 1 1 2 5 1 0 0 10
2 0 0 3 2 1 3 1 10
3 1 0 0 2 5 2 0 10
10

4 2 1 0 0 3 4 0 10
5 1 1 1 4 1 2 0 10
6 2 2 0 0 3 3 0 10
7 1 1 0 0 2 3 3 10
8 0 0 2 3 2 2 1 10
9 1 0 0 2 4 2 1 10
10 1 1 0 0 2 3 3 10
11 0 0 3 2 5 0 0 10
12 2 1 0 0 3 4 0 10
Note 4 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Total
1 0 0 1 4 1 3 1 10
2 1 0 0 2 5 2 0 10
3 2 0 0 0 4 3 1 10
4 1 1 0 0 2 3 3 10
5 0 0 1 4 1 3 1 10
6 2 1 0 0 3 4 0 10
7 2 0 0 0 4 3 1 10
8 0 0 1 4 1 3 1 10
9 0 1 1 2 3 2 1 10
10 2 0 0 0 4 3 1 10
11 0 0 1 4 1 3 1 10
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12 0 2 1 1 3 2 1 10
13 1 0 0 2 4 3 0 10
14 1 1 0 0 3 4 1 10
15 0 0 1 4 1 3 1 10
16 0 0 2 2 4 1 1 10
17 2 0 0 0 4 3 1 10
Note 5 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Total
1 2 2 0 0 2 2 2 10
2 0 0 0 2 5 1 2 10
3 1 2 0 0 2 3 2 10
4 1 1 0 3 1 2 2 10
5 1 0 0 0 4 2 3 10
6 1 0 0 3 4 2 0 10
7 0 0 1 2 5 1 1 10
8 2 1 0 1 2 2 2 10
9 1 1 0 3 1 2 2 10
10 0 0 2 2 4 1 1 10
11 2 2 0 0 2 2 2 10
12 0 0 2 2 4 1 1 10
Note 6 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Total
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