ENGT 5214 Research: Customer Satisfaction and Business Growth

This research report delves into customer satisfaction and its impact on business growth. It explores the primary requirements of a business, the importance of customers, and the factors driving customer satisfaction. The literature survey analyzes various perspectives on customer satisfaction, highlighting its role in building customer loyalty and sustainable growth. The methodology employs a mixed-method approach, combining qualitative data from interviews with business managers and quantitative data from customer surveys. Ethical considerations, such as plagiarism and confidentiality, are addressed, along with potential research risks and mitigation strategies. The report emphasizes the importance of a customer-centric approach for long-term business success.

Running Head: ENGT 5214
ENGT 5214: Research Methods
Name of the Student
Name of the University

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Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................2
Aim and Objectives.........................................................................................................................2
Literature Survey.............................................................................................................................3
Methodology....................................................................................................................................6
Ethical Issues...................................................................................................................................7
Research Risks and Risk Management............................................................................................8
Work Plan........................................................................................................................................9
References......................................................................................................................................19

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Introduction
Customer satisfaction is an essential aspect in any business – be it small scale retail store
to large scale industrial goods market. In order to grow, any business organization needs to
increase the customer satisfaction such that the customer comes back to purchase products from
the organization. For small scale organizations like local retail stores, the aim is to satisfy
customers’ needs by fulfilling the demands of the customer. However, there cannot be changes in
price as most of the products sold have fixed retail price. In these cases, customer satisfaction
can also be enhanced by prompt services, customer friendly approach and availability of all types
of products that are expected from such retail stores. On the other hand, for large scale business
dealings, customer satisfaction is mainly dependant on lowest price highest quality scenario as
well as professional approach from the seller. In these cases, the business deals are mainly
undertaken in form of contracts or orders and hence, providing the best products / services at
lowest possible price is the key to earning customer satisfaction.
Aim and Objectives
The main aim of this research is to explore the topic of customer satisfaction and how it
affects the business of an organization.
The objectives of the research are as follows.
 To explore the primary requirements and objectives of any business
 To explore the importance of the customers in business
 To identify the main factors behind the growth of customer satisfaction
 To explore the importance of customer satisfaction in any business

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Literature Survey
According to Agnihotri et al. (2016), customer satisfaction is defined as the mental state
of the customer when he is able to perform a business deal in which he receives his desired
product / service at a price that is very reasonable to him and also of his desired quality. In order
words, customer satisfaction is a measure of how a customer’s expectation is exceeded by the
business organization he is dealing with.
As per the works of the authors Hill and Brierley (2017), customer satisfaction benefits a
business organization through several ways. The first benefit is that the customer will gradually
become loyal to the business organization and enhance the fixed customer base of the
organization. The second benefit is that the satisfied customer will also refer friends and family
to deal with that business organization, thus enhancing the net business of the organization.
Finally, customer satisfaction helps the organization to learn from the mistakes and implement
necessary changes that will further fulfill the requirements of more customers.
Authors Saeidi et al. (2015) said that customer satisfaction should always be the topmost
priority of any business organization that is willing to grow and develop a very loyal customer
base. The authors have emphasized that many business organizations make the mistake of
keeping customer satisfaction very low on the priority list and keep financials and growth on the
top. These organizations fail to understand that without customer satisfaction, there can only be
temporary development but no permanent growth. As per the authors, customer satisfaction is
the key to sustainable growth and development of the company financially and strategically. The
authors also said that the customer satisfaction can be achieved by fulfilling or even exceeding
the demands of the customer within the reasonable prices.

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According to Hill and Alexander (2017), the factor of customer satisfaction depends on
various factors that may not always be within the control of the business organization. Some of
the main factors affecting customer satisfaction are listed by the authors as follows.
i. Trend – Trend is defined as short term popularity for a particular product that is
mainly noticed in the fields of fashion. For instance, there may be a particular
style of garment like shirt that has become extremely popular among people as
per the trend for that time (for several months). In this period, the trendy
customers will expect to find that particular style of garment in the garment store
and the customer satisfaction will rise automatically if they successfully find it
within their budget. If, on the other hand, a particular garment store provides the
garments made of best quality material and cheap cost but that particular style
does not belong to the trend, the customers are less likely to purchase them and
the customer satisfaction will decrease. Thus it is recommended for the business
organizations to follow the trend and sell the products accordingly.
ii. Cost – Cost is one of the major decisive factor behind customer satisfaction.
While purchasing a particular product, the customer already has some average
idea of the cost for that product. The customer will be satisfied if he is able to
purchase the product within this estimated budget and will be dissatisfied if not
so. Thus the business organizations are recommended to keep the prices as low as
possible such that the customers are able to find their products within their
budget. When there are several competing companies selling the same product,
there are several price fluctuations and the customers will purchase the product
with the most reasonable price and quality.

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iii. Variety – Customer satisfaction is also significantly affected by the variety of the
products offered by a particular business organization. It is the general convention
that the business organizations selling more varieties of products than the one
selling lesser varieties. This is mainly because most of the customers want to be
able to choose from more varieties rather than limited stocks.
On the other hand, Lun et al. (2016) have expressed a different idea regarding the
importance of customer satisfaction on the business of a company. The authors said that although
customer satisfaction is important, finance of the company is much more important and should
be of the top priority. The authors have cited that there are many business organizations who
compete with other companies and reduce the prices of the products but after sometime, the
companies face severe financial problems due to lack of sufficient profit margin. The authors
also stated that there will not be any problem if the customer base is dynamic instead of a
specific loyal customer base as the market is always growing and dynamic customer base system
will not affect the businesses of the companies in any way. On the other hand, if the company
only focuses on customer satisfaction instead of the financials, there may be severe problems in
the future and can also cause bankruptcy.
Authors Murali, Pugazhendhi and Muralidharan (2016) discussed about the role of IT on
achieving customer satisfaction by a business organization. The authors have published that the
business organizations using extensive IT network is more likely to gain customer satisfaction as
all the business related operations are managed in a systematic way. This includes inventory
control, customer order processing, updating of financial records and others. The authors have
also emphasized on the role of CRM (Customer Relationship Management) system on the
growth of customer satisfaction. As per the authors, a successful CRM system enables the

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company to reach its customers and resolve all the complaints and issues raised by the
customers. It is seen that with more prompt response by the company, the customer satisfaction
generally increases.
Authors Pizam, Shapoval and Ellis (2016) mainly explored the customer satisfaction in
cases of B2B (business to business) scenarios in which the business deals are mainly done
between two business organizations on basis of contracts. Since in this case, the seller and the
customer both are business organizations and hence, satisfaction is mutual i.e. requirements of
both the parties need to be fulfilled in order for the deal to go through. In these cases, the
customer satisfaction generally depends on the terms of the contract and the quality of products
or services provided to them. For example, if the contract involves the supply of a mass amount
of material, the contract should include reasonable prices for the materials and also the provided
materials are of sufficiently good quality. Hence, it is very important to achieve mutual
agreement before proceeding with this type of business.
Methodology
Analyzing the nature of this research, it can be seen that there are needs for both
qualitative and quantitative data. Qualitative data is required to analyze the business organization
managers’ approach and understanding towards customer satisfaction. Quantitative data is
required to analyze the customers’ points of views regarding their satisfaction in business.
Hence, the proposed methodology for this research is mixed method analysis in which interview
process will be conducted on some business managers for qualitative data and questionnaire
survey will be conducted on some customers for quantitative data.

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Ethical Issues
During the course of the research, there may arise some ethical issues that are to be
avoided at any cost. Some of the possible ethical issues are discussed as follows.
Plagiarism – One of the most common ethical issues that arise during a research process
is plagiarism. Plagiarism is defined as usage and publication of someone’s work without
permission and acknowledgement. Plagiarism is extremely common in research field as many
researchers use other authors’ work but do not acknowledge them and submit the work as their
own. As far as this particular research is concerned, literature review is an important part in
which, works of other researchers will be used and analyzed. However, during publication of this
paper, the concepts and information take from the literature must be cited appropriately to
acknowledge the researchers whose works contain the information.
Confidential Information – During conducting a research, it is often required to use and
analyze confidential information like internal affairs of a company, personal information of
people and others. This type of information is generally provided to the researcher by the related
body only for purpose of research. However, many researchers publish these data and
information in their works without prior consent of the relevant body or organization. This is not
at all recommended as it is generally conveyed that the research must sign a contract with the
person or organization regarding whether the confidential information will be published through
the research or not.
Professional Behaviour – This research involves interactions with a lot of people
especially during the data collection phase when qualitative and quantitative data will be
collected from interviews and questionnaire survey respectively. It is important to understand

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that the interview and survey participants are using their valuable time to help in the research and
hence, they should always be treated professionally. Furthermore, it must be assured that the
interview and survey will only have the specific questions that will be important for the research
and not any personal or any other questions that could annoy the participants.
Privacy of Identity – During the data collection process, some participants will want to
ensure their identities are to be kept secret. In this case, it will be important to keep the
information discussed and the identities of the participants should not be disclosed at any point
of time.
Research Risks and Risk Management
In addition to the ethical issues discussed above, there are certain risks that may occur
during the course of the research. Some of the major risks are discussed as follows along with
proposed mitigation plan.
Psychological Risk – During the qualitative data collection process, an interview session
will be conducted with several managers who are currently associated with the industry under
research. During the interview, some unnecessary and unwanted questions may bring about
severe discomfort, depression, anxiety, guilt and other harmful impacts on the psychology of the
interviewee. As a result, not only the interview has to be stopped but the participant may not ever
interact with the interviewer for any information. In order to avoid this situation, the interviewer
has to be careful about the choice of words and questions and he must ensure there are no
personal questions that are irrelevant to the research.

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Social Risk – This risk arises due to the differences in opinion between the people
involved in the research – generally between the research team members. This can arise due to
various reasons like personal conflicts, ego problems, differences in opinions, loss of respect and
many others. This is a very serious risk as this can result in failure of the entire research and the
team will be broken down. Hence, it must be ensured that the project team does not have
personal problems among the members and all of them are ready to work as a unit irrespective of
ideological differences during the research.
Legal Risks – In any significant scaled research, legal risk is one of the major risks. Legal
risks occur when the researchers do not follow suitable research guidelines and commit various
illegal work while trying to find information related to the research. As discussed previously,
plagiarism can also bring about legal issues if the rightful owner of the information decides to
sue the research team regarding unethical and unauthorized use of the information.
Work Plan
The work plan is developed and show in the following table (including duration,
resources and cost).
WBS Task Name Duration Start Finish
Resource
Names
Cost
0 Work Plan for
Research on
Customer
Satisfaction in
96 days Mon 3/4/19 Mon
7/15/19
$29,400.00

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Business
1
Research
Planning and
Proposal
14 days Mon 3/4/19 Thu 3/21/19 $2,760.00
1.1
Receive
Instructions
Regarding
Research
2 days Mon 3/4/19 Tue 3/5/19
Research Team
Member 1
$240.00
1.2
Select a
Suitable Research
Topic
1 day Wed 3/6/19 Wed 3/6/19
Research Team
Member 1
$120.00
1.3
Check
Feasibility of the
Research Topic
2 days Thu 3/7/19 Fri 3/8/19
Research Team
Member 1
$240.00
1.4
Check
Whether
Resources are
Available for the
Research Topic
1 day
Mon
3/11/19
Mon
3/11/19
Research Team
Member 1
$120.00
1.5 Determine
Whether Time
1 day Tue 3/12/19 Tue 3/12/19 Research Team $120.00

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Limit is Sufficient
for the Research
Member 1
1.6
Form Research
Team
1 day
Wed
3/13/19
Wed
3/13/19
Research Team
Member 1
$120.00
1.7
Prepare
Research Proposal
5 days Thu 3/14/19
Wed
3/20/19
Research Team
Member 1,
Research Team
Member 2,
Research Team
Member 3
$1,800.00
1.8
Submit the
Proposal
1 day Thu 3/21/19 Thu 3/21/19 $0.00
1.9
Get the
Proposal
Approved
0 days Thu 3/21/19 Thu 3/21/19 $0.00
2
Research
Initiation
14 days Fri 3/22/19
Wed
4/10/19
$5,040.00
2.1 Create
Research Plan
4 days Fri 3/22/19 Wed
3/27/19
Research Team
Member 1,
Research Team
Member 2,
$1,440.00

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Research Team
Member 3
2.2
Divide Tasks
between Research
Team Members
1 day Thu 3/28/19 Thu 3/28/19
Research Team
Member 1,
Research Team
Member 2,
Research Team
Member 3
$360.00
2.3
Determine
Appropriate
Research
Methodology
2 days Fri 3/29/19 Mon 4/1/19
Research Team
Member 1,
Research Team
Member 2,
Research Team
Member 3
$720.00
2.4
Agree Upon
Mixed Method
Analysis
1 day Tue 4/2/19 Tue 4/2/19
Research Team
Member 1,
Research Team
Member 2,
Research Team
Member 3
$360.00
2.5 Get Access to
Online Library for
1 day Wed 4/3/19 Wed 4/3/19 Research Team
Member 1,
$360.00

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Literature Sources
Research Team
Member 2,
Research Team
Member 3
2.6
Receive
Funding from
University for the
Research
2 days Thu 4/4/19 Fri 4/5/19
Research Team
Member 1,
Research Team
Member 2,
Research Team
Member 3
$720.00
2.7
Procure
Necessary
Resources for
Research
2 days Mon 4/8/19 Tue 4/9/19
Research Team
Member 1,
Research Team
Member 2,
Research Team
Member 3
$720.00
2.8 Develop
Research Schedule
1 day Wed
4/10/19
Wed
4/10/19
Research Team
Member 1,
Research Team
Member 2,
Research Team
$360.00

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Member 3
2.9
Initiate
Research
0 days
Wed
4/10/19
Wed
4/10/19
Research Team
Member 1,
Research Team
Member 2,
Research Team
Member 3
$0.00
3
Research
Execution
47 days
Thu
4/11/19
Fri 6/14/19 $14,040.00
3.1
Conduct
Detailed Literature
Review
10 days Thu 4/11/19
Wed
4/24/19
Research Team
Member 1,
Conveyance
and Other
Costs[1],
Research
Related
Costs[1]
$4,200.00
3.2
Document All
Information from
Literature
4 days Thu 4/25/19 Tue 4/30/19
Research Team
Member 1
$480.00
3.3 Analyze the 4 days Wed 5/1/19 Mon 5/6/19 Research Team $480.00

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Literature Member 1
3.4
Prepare
Research
Framework
2 days Tue 5/7/19 Wed 5/8/19
Research Team
Member 1
$240.00
3.5
Contact
Managers for
Interview
2 days Thu 5/9/19 Fri 5/10/19
Research Team
Member 2
$240.00
3.6
Conduct
Interview for
Qualitative Data
5 days
Mon
5/13/19
Fri 5/17/19
Research Team
Member 2
$600.00
3.7
Document All
Qualitative Data
Received
2 days
Mon
5/20/19
Tue 5/21/19
Research Team
Member 2
$240.00
3.8
Prepare
Questionnaire
2 days Thu 5/9/19 Fri 5/10/19
Research Team
Member 3
$240.00
3.9
Conduct
Questionnaire
Survey for
Quantitative Data
5 days
Mon
5/13/19
Fri 5/17/19
Research Team
Member 3
$600.00
3.10 Document All 2 days Mon Tue 5/21/19 Research Team $240.00

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Quantitative Data
Received
5/20/19 Member 3
3.11
Analyze
Qualitative and
Quantitative Data
10 days
Wed
5/22/19
Tue 6/4/19
Research Team
Member 1,
Research Team
Member 2,
Research Team
Member 3
$3,600.00
3.12
Reach
Conclusion on the
Research Topic
4 days Wed 6/5/19
Mon
6/10/19
Research Team
Member 1,
Research Team
Member 2,
Research Team
Member 3
$1,440.00
3.13
Document the
Finds and
Discussions of the
Research Results
4 days Tue 6/11/19 Fri 6/14/19
Research Team
Member 1,
Research Team
Member 2,
Research Team
Member 3
$1,440.00
3.14 Complete the
Research
0 days Fri 6/14/19 Fri 6/14/19 Research Team
Member 1,
$0.00

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Research Team
Member 2,
Research Team
Member 3
4
Research
Closing and Sign
Off
21 days
Mon
6/17/19
Mon
7/15/19
$7,560.00
4.1
Prepare Final
Research Report
15 days
Mon
6/17/19
Fri 7/5/19
Research Team
Member 1,
Research Team
Member 2,
Research Team
Member 3
$5,400.00
4.2
Submit the
Report for Grading
1 day Mon 7/8/19 Mon 7/8/19
Research Team
Member 1,
Research Team
Member 2,
Research Team
Member 3
$360.00
4.3 Received
Grades
5 days Tue 7/9/19 Mon
7/15/19
Research Team
Member 1,
Research Team
$1,800.00

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Member 2,
Research Team
Member 3
4.4
Sign Off and
Closing
0 days
Mon
7/15/19
Mon
7/15/19
Research Team
Member 1,
Research Team
Member 2,
Research Team
Member 3
$0.00

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References
Agnihotri, R., Dingus, R., Hu, M.Y. and Krush, M.T., 2016. Social media: Influencing customer
satisfaction in B2B sales. Industrial Marketing Management, 53, pp.172-180.
Askariazad, M.H. and Babakhani, N., 2015. An application of European Customer Satisfaction
Index (ECSI) in business to business (B2B) context. Journal of business & industrial
marketing, 30(1), pp.17-31.
Hammer, M., 2015. What is business process management?. In Handbook on business process
management 1 (pp. 3-16). Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg.
Hill, N. and Alexander, J., 2017. The handbook of customer satisfaction and loyalty
measurement. Routledge.
Hill, N. and Brierley, J., 2017. How to measure customer satisfaction. Routledge.
Hwang, S. and Suh, E.K., 2018. An Empirical Study on Nonlinear Relationship between Product
Modularity and Customer Satisfaction. Journal of Industrial Distribution & Business Vol, 9(2),
pp.47-55.
Lun, Y.V., Shang, K.C., Lai, K.H. and Cheng, T.C.E., 2016. Examining the influence of
organizational capability in innovative business operations and the mediation of profitability on
customer satisfaction: An application in intermodal transport operators in Taiwan. International
Journal of Production Economics, 171, pp.179-188.

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Murali, S., Pugazhendhi, S. and Muralidharan, C., 2016. Modelling and investigating the
relationship of after sales service quality with customer satisfaction, retention and loyalty–a case
study of home appliances business. Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, 30, pp.67-83.
Pizam, A., Shapoval, V. and Ellis, T., 2016. Customer satisfaction and its measurement in
hospitality enterprises: a revisit and update. International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality
Management, 28(1), pp.2-35.
Saeidi, S.P., Sofian, S., Saeidi, P., Saeidi, S.P. and Saaeidi, S.A., 2015. How does corporate
social responsibility contribute to firm financial performance? The mediating role of competitive
advantage, reputation, and customer satisfaction. Journal of business research, 68(2), pp.341-
350.