Business Research Methods Report: Customer Satisfaction in Business

This report delves into the critical role of customer satisfaction in business research, drawing upon multiple academic articles to explore its impact on buying preferences and customer loyalty. The analysis highlights the interdependency between customer satisfaction and business success, emphasizing the need for businesses to prioritize strategies that enhance customer satisfaction to maintain a competitive edge. The report examines common themes across the articles, such as the significance of customer satisfaction in various industries, including service and hospitality. It also discusses the limitations of different research methodologies, including the distinction between primary and secondary data sources, and proposes future research directions. The report provides a comprehensive overview of the topic, emphasizing the importance of customer satisfaction in contemporary business environments.

Running head: BUSINESS RESEARCH METHODS
Business research methods
Name of the Students
Name of the University
Author note

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Brief summary of the theory and progression in the field
According to the works of Khadka and Maharjan (2017), it can be said that the success of
the business organizations immensely depends on the level of customer satisfaction as it has been
seen that customer satisfaction plays a major role in determining the buying preferences of the
individuals. The term customer satisfaction is a term widely used in marketing. It can be said that
customer satisfaction is a measurement tool that determines how well the customers of a business
organization is satisfied with the products and services provided to them. In today’s world as the
competition in the market is getting increased in a rapid manner and the demands and
requirements of the market or the customers is changing rapidly, it would be beneficial if the
managements of the business organizations try to figure out how they can retain the satisfaction
level of their target customers to keep the loyal towards the organization. In this regard, it should
be mentioned that customer satisfaction and their buying preferences is interdependent. As stated
by Khan and Fasih (2014), it can be said that if the loyalty and the satisfaction level of the
customers get increased that would manipulate their buying preferences and they would never
buy products from other business organizations that are operating in the same market. it is a
matter of fact that reputation of the business organization and the satisfaction level of the
customers play a vital role in this context and it is seen that the companies are able to retain the
satisfaction level of the customers, eventually emerge as successful organizations.
Common themes/findings across the four articles
In the four articles, it is seen that customer satisfaction and the buying preferences of the
target customers are significantly interlinked and that determines whether a business
organization will be successful in the long term or not. If the management of a business

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organization successfully retains the satisfaction of their customers, they will be able to eradicate
the challenges they can face related to the drop of sales. As opined by Caruana, Ramasashan and
Krentler (2015), in today’s world, the market competition is higher than ever and thus, it would
be beneficial if the managements of the business organizations are able to retain the customer
base and try to increase the salability of the company by enhancing the satisfaction level of the
clients of the company by adopting various strategies and techniques.
Different themes/findings across the four articles
From studying various articles and journals it can be said that business leaders should
take customer satisfaction as an integral part of their business strategy in order to achieve success
and retain the growth and development of their business organizations. As stated by Khan and
Fasih (2014), in their work, it is seen that especially in the industries like service industry or
hospitality industry, significance of customer satisfaction is immense to keep up the growth of
the business. it is seen that in hospitality business, the effort the employees put in to keep the
customers satisfied is directly proportional to the increasing reputation of the customers. To
justify the above point, it can be said that the satisfied customers play a vital role as they
intentionally or unintentionally at times give good reviews of the organization to their peers and
that becomes good word of mouth publicity for the business organizations. According to
Caruana, Ramasashan and Krentler, (2015), Not only the service industry, should the leaders of
other industries also take the matter of customer satisfaction seriously as they can also be
benefitted from increasing the satisfaction level of their customers.

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Study limitations and how these differ across the various study designs (quantitative,
qualitative).
As stated by Khan and Fasih (2014), it is seen that the researches on this field of
customer satisfaction can show various merits and demerits of sustaining the customer
satisfaction, but it can be said that not all the outcomes of those researches are accurate. It can be
said that when the researchers conducted researches by gathering relevant information only from
the secondary sources the results of the research loses accuracy somehow. This is because
customer satisfaction is something that is personal to the customers of the target customers and
no thesis or secondary source of information can appropriately describe the matters accurately
and for that the findings of the research loses precision. On the other hand, according to Caruana,
Ramasashan and Krentler, (2015), when the researchers gather information from primary sources
by interviewing some potential buyers or by giving survey forms to the respondents the findings
of the research becomes more precise. Thus, it can be said that when researches on the relevant
topic is done by collecting information from secondary sources there might be a wide range of
limitations for the research and on the other hand, when the researcher opts data collection by
collecting information from primary source of information the findings of the research becomes
more accurate.
Future research directions proposed in the articles
According to the work of Blut et al., (2015), it can be said that these articles show that
there are wide range of opportunities to research in the field of customer satisfaction as the time
passing by, the competition in the market is getting fierce and to sustain the profitability of the
business organizations, the leaders should focus on sustaining and enhancing the satisfaction
level of their customers. This is because, it is a matter of fact that the customers are the nucleus

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of any business organizations as their buying preferences and loyalty towards the companies
determines the profitability of those business concerns.

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References
Blut, M., Frennea, C. M., Mittal, V., & Mothersbaugh, D. L. (2015). How procedural, financial
and relational switching costs affect customer satisfaction, repurchase intentions, and
repurchase behavior: A meta-analysis. International Journal of Research in
Marketing, 32(2), 226-229.
Link: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0167811615000105
Caruana, A., Ramasashan, B., & Krentler, K. A. (2015). Corporate Reputation, Customer
Satisfaction, & Customer Loyalty: What is the Relationship?. In Assessing the Different
Roles of Marketing Theory and Practice in the Jaws of Economic Uncertainty (pp. 301-
301). Springer, Cham.
Link: https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-319-11845-1_102
Khadka, K., & Maharjan, S. (2017). Customer Satisfaction and Customer Loyalty: Case Trivsel
Städtjänster (Trivsel siivouspalvelut).
Link: https://www.theseus.fi/handle/10024/139650
Khan, M. M., & Fasih, M. (2014). Impact of Service Quality on Customer Satisfaction and
Customer Loyalty: Evidence from Banking Sector. Pakistan Journal of Commerce &
Social Sciences, 8(2).
link: https://s3.amazonaws.com/academia.edu.documents/44290442/180.pdf?
AWSAccessKeyId=AKIAIWOWYYGZ2Y53UL3A&Expires=1525683112&Signature=

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hX7ZS22xPLo4BLnnkw1GqJ95OS8%3D&response-content-disposition=inline%3B
%20filename%3DImpact_of_Service_Quality_on_Customer_Sa.pdf
Provide reference for each academic article (formatted using the
Harvard Referencing Style)
Conceptual article
(proposed theory)
Khadka, K., and Maharjan, S. (2017). Customer Satisfaction
and Customer Loyalty: Case Trivsel Städtjänster (Trivsel
siivouspalvelut).
Quantitative article Caruana, A., Ramasashan, B., and Krentler, K. A. (2015).
Corporate Reputation, Customer Satisfaction, & Customer
Loyalty: What is the Relationship?. In Assessing the Different
Roles of Marketing Theory and Practice in the Jaws of
Economic Uncertainty (pp. 301-301). Springer, Cham.
Qualitative article Khan, M. M., and Fasih, M. (2014). Impact of Service Quality
on Customer Satisfaction and Customer Loyalty: Evidence
from Banking Sector. Pakistan Journal of Commerce & Social
Sciences, 8(2).
Mixed method article Blut, M., Frennea, C. M., Mittal, V., and Mothersbaugh, D. L.
(2015). How procedural, financial and relational switching
costs affect customer satisfaction, repurchase intentions, and
repurchase behavior: A meta-analysis. International Journal of
Research in Marketing, 32(2), 226-229.