Primark's Customer Retention: A Case Study Analysis and Proposal

This document is a case study proposal focusing on customer retention strategies and customer relationship management (CRM) within Primark, a clothing retail company. The proposal begins with an introduction outlining the organization's overview, problem statement, aims, objectives, and research questions. It explores the factors influencing customer relationship management, the impact of customer retention on company performance, and the link between CRM and customer retention. The proposal includes a literature review, analyzing various factors that affect customer relationship management, such as marketing strategies, employee behavior, product quality, service delivery time, and pricing. It also discusses the importance of customer retention and its impact on company performance, including policies, customer satisfaction, and the role of feedback. The proposal then outlines the proposed plan of analysis, research methodology, type of investigation (descriptive), research approaches (inductive), and data collection methods (primary and secondary). The methodology includes sampling methods and the use of qualitative data to assess customer satisfaction and understand Primark's strategies. The proposal concludes with a project plan and timescale, including a Gantt chart, and addresses foreseen problems.

Case Study proposal

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................2
Overview of organisation............................................................................................................2
Problem statement ......................................................................................................................2
Aim:.................................................................................................................................................3
Objectives:.......................................................................................................................................3
Research Questions:.........................................................................................................................3
Literature review.........................................................................................................................3
Proposed plan of analysis............................................................................................................6
Research methodology................................................................................................................6
Type of investigation:.................................................................................................................6
Project plan and timescale:..........................................................................................................8
Gantt chart...................................................................................................................................8
Foreseen Problem:.......................................................................................................................9
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................10
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INTRODUCTION
Customer relationship is the effective relationship between employees and common
people which purchase products from the company. It is defined as strategies, technologies and
practises which the company use to examining the interaction of them with aim of enhancing
their relationships with consumers. Customer retention can be defined as the capacity of the
company to continue to maintain its users for remaining for longer period. It starts when the user
purchase the product and continues this activity for its whole life. Present research focuses on
analysing the methods which helps the company to retain the customer for longer time and
maintain effective relations with them.
Overview of organisation
Primark is clothing company in Dublin which has employed 68,000 people. It has
focused on maintaining customer relationship which helps in increasing their performance. In
retail sector, it is very necessary to maintain the effective relations with the user so that they can
prefer Primark brands and purchase in large number. The key component for winning the
satisfaction level of customers is by providing the best facilities at low prices. This factor will
increase the factor will help the company to increase the loyalty of customers towards their
products.
Further, the organisation is adopting various strategies like customer relation
management to take their competitive advantage. Customers are mainly concerned with the
quality, service and price of products. They shift their interest towards the company which
provides them the best products at lower rate. So, Primark is using various strategies which are
customer centric. It is making marketing function which are customer based rather than product
based.
Problem statement
Organisations which fails in managing the customer relationships and suffers serious
competitive disadvantage. They lose trust of their consumers which directly affect their sales.
The organisation which fails to maintain their relationships with customers are unable to provide
good customer service and effective and innovative products on time. The main goal of
conducting this research is to search the factors which affects company performance and their
relationship with user to improve customer retention.
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Aim:
To determine the effect of customer relationship management on customer retention in Primark.
Objectives:
 To analyse the factors that affect customer relation management of Primark.
 To evaluate the importance of customer retention and its impact on company's
performance.
 To identify link between customer relationship management and customer retention in
Primark.
 To recommend different ways in which Primark can retain its customer for longer period
with the help of effective CRM strategies.
Research Questions:
 Which are the factors which affect customer relation management?
 What is the impact of customer retention on company's performance?
 What is relationship between customer relationship management and customer retention
in Primark?
 How Primark can retain its customers for longer period?
Literature review
To analyse the factors that affect customer relation management of Primark.
According to Khodakarami and Chan, (2014), there are various factors which has
affected customer relation management of the company. The marketing strategies affect
customer relationship very much as they are influenced more from the attractive ways of sales
manager of the company. Their effective methods like offering more discounts, vouchers,
coupons, lottery tickets will attract them towards company products. This will help the firm to
raise the confidence and trust of the customers. Another factor that affect customer relation is
behaviour of the employees and their strategies to influence the customers very well. Further,
quality of products also affect customers perception in purchasing the goods of the company.
They are very much concern to get best quality of product after investing on it because they wish
that the product will perform better in all criteria.
As per the view of Shapiro, Dupree and Keys, Ifbyphone (2014), service delivery time
and price of the product plays an important role in maintaining the relationship with them. The
people always want they get their products as soon as possible. The organisation develops
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various plans to increase their performance and productivity. They provide training and coaching
to their employees to deal effectively with their customers. Furthermore, Carmen and Marius,
(2016), criticised above motion and said that interaction with customers will help in increasing
the relationship with the customers. The customer's will purchase the products of those
companies which are take reviews and feedbacks of the customers regularly and solve their
problems on that moment. The organisation which provide information about their offers and
products regularly will visit their stores more and purchase the products. Further, the company
can increase its sale by regularly taking feedbacks and reviews of their customers to solve their
problems and maintain their relationship with them. This will help the company to increase their
productivity and sales in the market. This will help
To evaluate the importance of customer retention and its impact on company's
performance.
According to Khedkar, (2015), customers retention policies helps the company expand
referral sales opportunities, establish and promote constructive relationship with buyers, increase
brand image and examine future needs of customers. It helps organisation to raise their profits
and reduce risks. The main benefit of this strategy is that it helps in making brands which are
unique and different from the crowd of other companies. Primark has maintained effective
customer retention to achieve customer satisfaction and increase its sale. It has launched various
policies to hold their customers for longer time. They have introduced schemes in which
customers will get cash prizes if they purchase their products continuously for more than one
year. These type of offers have increased customer confidence and encourages them to purchase
the brands of the company.
Tsouand Hsu, (2017), criticised that buyers purchasing decision and their budget will
affect company's sale. They have to focus more on consumers problems and comments for their
products which so that they can understand their opinion and style. This will help company to
make their goods according to their choice and demands. Further, customers will attract more
with new and different items which provide excellent features and services to reduce their efforts
and they will continue to buy more goods and services of Primark. This will directly affect
company's performance as their sale is dependent on customers purchase power.
Nyadzayo and Khajehzadeh, (2016), suggested that customer retention is the important
aspect for the company who works more on increasing relationship with the customers. The
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company cannot increase its sale, market value and revenue without satisfying their buyers. The
organisation can hold its customers for longer time by implementing new policies and offers on
their sale. They can launch e-card facilities which help them to increase their relations with the
people by giving them proper services. The author has also cited that the customer perception
and attitude towards the product is very necessary to maintained so that they can feel motivated
and purchase their products in more quantity. The buyer will always purchase the product if the
company will make products according to their demands and needs. They are always interested
in getting better goods from the company at lower prices so that can take benefit of it and enjoy
their life.
As per the view of Zhang, van Doorn and Leeflang, (2014), consumers will stay for
longer time if they will contact regularly and their problems are solved frequently. Their
feedback and response are very necessary to determine to know their perception, views and
problems. This will help the organisation to increase its productivity and performance. In order
to maintain effective relationship with the customers, the company has to fulfil all the needs and
demands regularly. To identify link between customer relationship management and
customer retention in Primark.
According to Tseng and Wu, 2014, customer relation management is very essential for
the organisation to maintain their effective growth in the market. The need of CRM in
organisation is to understand expectations and needs of customers, building relations and manage
them. Better management of customers and employees will increase overall productivity and
position of company in better ways. Customer relationship management and customer retention
are interrelated with each other as their satisfaction with company's product will help them to
purchase the products and remain their members for longer time. In order to increase the number
of consumer, firm has to take regular review, feedbacks from them which will help them to
determine new trends, demands, style and preference of customers. Further, regular
communication and interaction with them. This will increase their satisfaction level and
encourage them to remain customers of Primark and purchase their products only. Further,
differentiated and wide variety of goods of the firm will attract the customers and encourage
them to visit their place repeatedly. Effective customer retention policy will retain buyers and
promotes sales of other products.
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From the understanding of Tarasi, Bolton, Gustafsson and Walker, 2013, there are four
proactive components of customer retention which every organisation has to keep in mind. First
element focuses on behaviour and priorities of consumers, second component integrate retention
in firm and buyers service policies. Another element focuses on employees engagement and tell
them to maintain effective relationship with their clients. Last component works on improving
customers services by meeting their needs on time. All these components of customer retention
will help in increasing customer satisfaction. Value creation is main element of buyer satisfaction
as it helps in maintains the feelings and emotions of them. Value is based on three essential
principles: Purchaser will select only that product which provide them best offers. They are
interested in purchasing only those products which met their requirements. Therefore, the
relationship between customers satisfaction and retention is very sensitive which breaks when
company will not be able to fulfil their demands.
Proposed plan of analysis
Research methodology
Research methodology helps in searching results which helps in finding the results in
systematic manner. The current report will be based on qualitative aspect and data will be
accessed from varied types of data collection method. Methods will be applied as per the topic of
the study and on the basis of which different tools and techniques will be applied.
Type of investigation:
This research is based on descriptive nature. The main objective of using this descriptive
nature is praise deeper insights of customer satisfaction. This study observes and determine the
factors which affect other aspects also. Descriptive nature will help in discovering the methods
which help in maintaining effective relationships with the customers and maintain cutomer
retention. This type of investigation will help in determining the importance of cyustomer
satisfaction management in more comprehend ways.
Research approaches:
There are two type research approaches such as inductive and deductive. In inductive
approach, research content is analysed from specific to general and concerned with the
development of new ideas from the research. Deductive approach is mainly aimed to test theory
by developing new patterns and creating various hypothesis. In this research, inductive approach
will be used to understand the problem which is raised in this file.
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Data collection method:
In this research qualitative method will be used to get relevant data There are two
methods in which data is collected that is primary and secondary. In this research both the
methods are used. Primary data is collected from the regular customers of the company which
has helped in determining their satisfaction level (Zakaria, 2014). Semi-structured methods are
used to interview the customers. These interviews are conducted via email and face to face
interactions. E-mail methods have given flexible time period to respond to their candidates. The
questions in this interview are related to relationships of customer. Further, secondary data is
collected from various magazines, books and online websites to know the competitors of the
company as well as marketing trends.
Sampling methods:
This method is used to collect relevant information from selected sample. In this
research, simple random sampling is used. Random sampling is the type of probability sampling
which has helped in analysing effective customer relationship with Primark. To find out the
effective result. In this regard, the method of random sampling will be chosen as they will be
selected on random basis (Tripathi, 2014). For better findings and effective outcomes of the
study a sample size of 50 customers will be useful. Small size of the population will help in
attaining the aims and objectives in effective manner. The sample size is enough to determine the
satisfaction level of the customers.
Data analysis plan:
In this research, data is collected from primary and secondary data collection methods.
Qualitative data analysis method is used in this report to examine the data collected from primary
and secondary approaches (Siu, Zhang and Yau, 2013). Further, to analyse this data thematic
approaches is well used. Through this technique, data is analysed in the form of graphs, patterns,
charts etc.
Ethical issues:
Ethical protection will be given to customers in order to consider ethical issues. Further,
the contestants must be communicated the purpose and aim of conducting this research so that
they can provide relevant information without any problem. They must be assured that their
identity and personal information cannot be disclosed. However, the detail information about
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purpose and reason behind the study will be explained to them. Without their consent not a
single information will be included in the research.
Research limitations:
Due to lack of time, researchers are not able to gather data in effective manner. Proper
literature content on the topic has created problem in explaining effective plans. The people have
inquired lot before giving data and information to the source. Furthermore, primary and
secondary data collection method require extra time and cost.
Project plan and timescale:
Gantt chart
Activity/Week 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16
Aims and objective
development
Identifying the background
Research proposal
literature review organised
Analysis of proposed plan
Primary and secondary data
collection
Interpretation and analysis of
collected data
Foreseen problem
Submission to tutor
Changes make on basis of
feedback
Final Submission
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In this research, aims and objectives formulation has taken three weeks. Content for
literature review is gathered in two weeks. Research methodology is conducted within two
weeks. Primary and secondary data is collected in next two weeks. In total 9 weeks are used to
complete work till research methodology. Interpretation and analysis of data, foreseen problems
have taken two weeks separately. Changes on the basis of tutor feedback are done in other two
weeks. Submission to tutor and final submission has taken one week.
Foreseen Problem:
The major problem in this research is that company has faced problem in understanding
the views of different customers. This has increased problems to analyse their interest and make
products according to their demands. Further, the organisation has seen that consumers are not
satisfied with their delivery service as though it is providing its quality products. Furthermore,
customer retention for the company is challenging as buyers interest is shifted to new products of
the market which are more fashionable.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Carmen, R. and Marius, S., 2016. Customer Loyalty Using Customer Relationship
Management. Management Strategies Journal. 31(1). pp.285-288.
Kangu, M. and et.al., 2017. TECHNOLOGY INFRASTRUCTURE: A CUSTOMER
RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT DIMENSION IN MAINTAINING CUSTOMER
LOYALTY. International Journal of Economics, Commerce and Management. (5).
Khodakarami, F. and Chan, Y.E., 2014. Exploring the role of customer relationship management
(CRM) systems in customer knowledge creation. Information & Management. 51(1).
pp.27-42.
Navimipour, N.J. and Soltani, Z., 2016. The impact of cost, technology acceptance and
employees' satisfaction on the effectiveness of the electronic customer relationship
management systems. Computers in Human Behavior. 55. pp.1052-1066.
Nyadzayo, M.W. and Khajehzadeh, S., 2016. The antecedents of customer loyalty: A moderated
mediation model of customer relationship management quality and brand
image. Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services. 30. pp.262-270.
Shapiro, I.M., Dupree, T.E. and Keys, K.D., Ifbyphone, Inc., 2014. Systems, method, and
computer program product for cross-channel customer relationship management
support with dynamically inserted voice call numbers. U.S. Patent Application
14/228,789.
Siu, N.Y.M., Zhang, T.J.F. and Yau, C.Y.J., 2013. The roles of justice and customer satisfaction
in customer retention: A lesson from service recovery. Journal of business
ethics. 114(4). pp.675-686.
Tarasi, C.O., Bolton, R.N., Gustafsson, A. and Walker, B.A., 2013. Relationship characteristics
and cash flow variability: implications for satisfaction, loyalty, and customer portfolio
management. Journal of Service Research. 16(2). pp.121-137.
Tripathi, M.N., 2014. Customer Satisfaction and Engagement-Customer Retention strategies for
brand manager. Vilakshan: The XIMB Journal of Management. 11(1).
Tseng, S.M. and Wu, P.H., 2014. The impact of customer knowledge and customer relationship
management on service quality. International journal of quality and service
sciences. 6(1). pp.77-96.
Tsou, H.T. and Hsu, H.Y., 2017. Self-Service Technology Investment, Electronic Customer
Relationship Management Practices, and Service Innovation Capability. In Marketing at
the Confluence between Entertainment and Analytics (pp. 477-481). Springer, Cham.
Zakaria, I. And et.al., 2014. The relationship between loyalty program, customer satisfaction and
customer loyalty in retail industry: A case study. Procedia-Social and Behavioral
Sciences. 129. pp.23-30.
Zhang, S.S., van Doorn, J. and Leeflang, P.S., 2014. Does the importance of value, brand and
relationship equity for customer loyalty differ between Eastern and Western
cultures?. International Business Review. 23(1). pp.284-292.
Online
Khedkar, E. B., 2015. Effect of customer relationship management on customer satisfaction and
loyalty. [Pdf]. Available through:
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%20CUSTOMER%20SATISFACTION%20AND%20LOYALTY/EFFECT%20OF
%20CUSTOMER%20RELATIONSHIP%20MANAGEMENT%20ON
%20CUSTOMER%20SATISFACTION%20AND%20LOYALTY. [pdf]>. [Accessed
on 21st September 2017].
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