BM7024 - Qualitative Data Analysis: Kingston Department Store Loyalty

This case study examines customer loyalty at Kingston Department Store (KDS), which is facing challenges in increasing customer turnover and footfall despite recent refurbishment. The research aims to identify factors motivating customers to shop at KDS and strategies to enhance their loyalty. The study employs qualitative data analysis, including semi-structured interviews with customers across different age and gender demographics, to understand their shopping habits and preferences. The findings reveal insights into factors such as polite staff, parking facilities, and the store's perceived classiness that attract customers. However, the study also highlights criticisms regarding clothing fashion and the availability of rival stores offering furniture at lower prices. The research concludes by discussing potential strategies to improve customer loyalty and increase store patronage, offering valuable insights for KDS to refine its inventory and services. Desklib provides access to this and many other solved assignments for students.

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Customer loyalty
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Customer loyalty. 1
Abstract
Kingstone Department Store (KDS) is a well-established shopping store. As the aim of
long term strategy to maintain customers the store have been refurbished. It is, however, KDS is
facing low customer turnover as well as football. This has resulted in low output as it would be
expected. Customer’s number is also not tallying to previous years. This clearly suggests that
something needs to be done to deal with low customer number as well as their turnover.
Therefore KDS decide to take a research study to investigate how to make their stores
more preferred to the customers in order to raise their loyalty and encourage them to shop at
KDS on regular bases.
Introduction
In data analysis especially interview data it is sometimes difficult to use descriptive
analysis. This does not mean such data cannot be analyzed. In order to analyze such data in
qualitative analysis qualitative coding and analysis is used. This method is in the form of an
abbreviated set of direction for initial coding and analysis. This type of analysis is based on
grounded theory. It is a data analysis technique that is developed from corpus data. According to
(Borgatti, 2017) if well performed grounded theory results to one dataset that is perfect. This is a
contrast to the grand theory which argues that there cannot be any data at all (no analysis can be
made) without the help of data.
Borgatti adds that this data analyzing techniques takes a case instead of variable
perspective. Although there exist merely no distinction between them. A case-oriented technique
tends to assume complex interaction between variables. This means the method is suspicion to
the model like ANOVA which are additive and their interaction is such complex.

Customer loyalty. 2
Comparative orientation is part and parcel of this analysis. The grounded theory include
carefully sets of instruction whose carefully execution will guarantee perfect outcomes
Basically, the idea behind the grounded theory is to read and read textual databases and
discourses or label the variable. This ability to perceive variable is called theoretical sensitivity.
A number of things affect sensitivity analysis. These include the person reading the textual
databases and the method used to design sensitivity analysis. The data do not necessarily be a
textual database, observation of behavior such as interaction and event in a hotel can be used in
the analysis. In most cases, the information is the diary entries.
Three types of coding are used in the analysis. This includes open coding, axial coding,
and selective coding (Gallicano, 2013). The part of the analysis that is concerned with
identifying, naming and categorizing the events in the textual database is called open coding.
Textual database statements are critically read to answer a basic question” what is this about?”
this label is used to referee to the nouns and verbs present in the conceptual data. (Patel, 2014) It
is important to have a fairly abstract category in addition to a very concrete one. This is because
the abstract one will help in generation of the general theory. The process of naming phenomena
is called coding. Coding code is formal or informal. In most cases, informal coding is used. It is
always important to write a short memo note that describes the code.
The process of relating codes (properties) to each other is called axial coding. This is
done through a combination of inductive and deductive thinking. On the other hand the process
of choosing a core category and relating all other categories to this core one. In this stage a single
storyline which all other things are drawn from. In conclusion, we can see clearly that grounded
theory draws the conclusion from literature.

Customer loyalty. 3
Literature review
Research studies have shown that the cost to get new customers is five times as that of
retaining the existing one. This means business owner’s needs to investigate the shoppers;
interest and goals to refine their inventory and services to keep them coming back. According to
Invalid source specified. sellers need to build offers that; differentiate them from competitors,
generate significant demand by their customers, demonstrate superior values of their good to
build customers loyalty.
Ranade continues to urge that customer loyalty is more than just a behavior. It is,
therefore, wrong to conclude that a customer is loyal to the business by their continue buying
from. This is because there are many reasons as to why a customer may end up buying from one
seller continually. Some of the factors that a customer may end up buying continually from one
seller may include; they may find hard to break the habit, any relationship with one of your
employees or even they may be in process of finding an alternative supplier among many other.
Invalid source specified. Customers loyally are as good as growth in business. Rama
continues to urge a loyal customer will by and is willing to keep more in their pockets. This will
create and maintain a steady cash flow. Loyal customers help in business marketing. They are
willing to refer other customers into your business. Thus saving marketing and advertisement
cost. Loyal customers are more forgiving. Even when serious mistakes happen they tend to
tolerate the mistake. Depending on the fixed cost customer retention helps in boosting bottom-
line profit. Finally, thieving companies with loyal customers are known to outpace their
competitors.
In business growth, it is very crucial to retain a customerInvalid source specified.. He
continues to add that various strategies can be implemented to make customers loyal. These

Customer loyalty. 4
strategies amongst them are: thanking your customers, this seems to be obvious but it works.
Customers like being appreciated especially if they spend money with you. There is a variety of
way to thank customers, for example, saying thank you, come and shop with us again. Asking
the feedback from the customers makes them feel included in the company decision making.
These will not only make them feel appreciated but they will feel their impacting decision
making. You should respond to customer feedback. This will not only help you in getting
valuable feedback but also will get feedback on the area of improvement. The product needs to
quality. This makes the customer be confident in your product and will always come for more.
Simply put the customer in mind during the production of your goods and services.
According to psychological studies is part of the human being to do the same thing over
and over again. There are different types of shoppers as much as behaviors are concerned. One
there is a type of customer who will pick up something and buy this is called Touch-Feely
shopper, another one will take time going through the store. There is also a Guerrilla shopper.
This shopper waits until the last minutes to shop especially on sales time. There are social
shoppers who come in to socialize with a worker but does not really buy.
As stated above it is quite cheap to maintain a customer than to get a new one. It is
through this realization that KDS which to investigate the strategies they can put in place to deal
with low customer turnover and foster their loyalty to the Store. Initially, exploratory research
was conducted among the existing customer to investigate their behavior while shopping and
they're motivated to shop with KDS.

Customer loyalty. 5
Aim and objective of the study
The main aim of the study is to investigate the reason behind customer shopping at KDS
and them strategies that can be implemented to foster their continues shopping. In connection to
this, we aim at investigating the reason behind the customer shopping at KDS. Another objective
of the study aims at getting a particular feature of the store that attracts different customers.
Additionally, we also aimed at getting what customers would recommend being stocked at the
store. Finally, the research aims at investigating what currently present at KDS store customers
do not prefer buying and the reason behind this. We also wanted to investigate where they prefer
buying such a thing they don’t buy at KDS.
Design of the research study
Customers were sampled according to their demographic features. This included a record
of their age and gender. Males and female customers were sampled in three broad age
categories. These include; young ranging from 25-39 year, middle-aged ranging from 40-54
years and older who aged 55 years and above. We aimed at conducting 60 semi-structured
interviews as customers shop.
Proper sampling techniques were involved to avoid biases in the output. Each respondent
(customers) was issued 7 interview question. They were supposed to respond to all of the
questions. In order to have a fair response they were given conducive environment and they were
to answer the questions independently.
Analysis and results
The collected data was organized in a codebook .see open coding. This was to make sure
that various information can be deduced from the customer’s responsibility. The response was

Customer loyalty. 6
coded in the table in order to organize the data as per the aims and the objective of the study.
Different customers responded to different customers differently. Some of the customers
responded could make the interviewer to ask more question depending on the response.
The data was sorted in a table trying to respond to the interview guideline from each
customer. See axial coding. It is clear from the data KDS does not have daily customers. Of the
9 interviewed only 3(33.3%) shop at KDS, 2(22.2%) shop here monthly while 4(44.4%) shop at
KDS yearly or rarely. It is clear that mostly KDS receive customers on occasion bases. This
occasion includes Christmas and at sales time. This means KDS have discounted prices during
this occasion. Of many reasons where people prefer KDS are polite staffs, facilities at KDS
which includes a large parking area and the internet, KDS is considered to be one of the classy
shops in town, therefore, it is conspicuous, a reasonable price at sales time, quality coffee shop
among others.
One (11.11%) customer did not have a reasonable reason as to why she shops at KDS, 6
(66.66%) of the customer's shop here because the staff was polite and nice. Parking facilities
attract (44.44%) of the customer. This means they prefer the shop maybe because they shop
facilities them with parking which other local stores did not offer.
The study did not significantly show that customers spend time at the store. 55.5% of the
interviewed customer shows that they spent a couple of hours in the shop. On the other hand, a
good percentage of 44.44% does not spend any extra time in the store. This might be because
they are always in a hurry or they did not find something to spend time with at the store. a good
number of the customers that do spend time in the store they do not necessary spent their time
here buying. Rather they spend time browsing and touring around their shop.

Customer loyalty. 7
The study shows a variety of KDS product is being bought. Among the most preferred
product from the stores are; households, Bending, curtains, clothes, foods and electronic. The
study has shown a lot of criticism on the clothing fashion. One of the customers urges that the
KDS does not offer good fashion for mature working women, while others would say that the
children clothes areas not good as they would prefer. Among the product they were shown that
would not be bought are; clothing especially children clothes and mature working clothing,
furniture, and electronics. The reason behind no sale on furniture is the availability of rival stores
which sell quality new and second hard one. The study has shown that rival furniture dealing
stores offer them at a relatively low price as compared to KDS. Advancement in technology
especially online shopping has been shown as the major reason as to why customers prefer to
shop through the net. This has significantly impacted on the electronic sales at KDS. Customers
prefer shopping electronics through the internet due to easy accessibility and delivery services.
Among the product that customers recommended introducing is clothing for mature
women who are working, bridal dress, and veil, under wares, leather product, and kitchenware. It
is clear that among the recommend product that is currently offered do not meets the customer's
taste. Therefore is up to the KDS management to restructure their investment to meet the
customer's taste. The current available furniture, leather, and clothes attract few or no customers.
This is the main reason as to why the study has shown that they are not among the preferred
product that customers would buy.
Discussions
The main aim of the study is to investigate the reason behind customer shopping at KDS
and them strategies that can be implemented to foster their continues shopping. As it has been

Customer loyalty. 8
showing currently KDS is experiencing low customer footfall and the result shows no loyal KDS
customers.
It is clear that most people flocks into the store not because they want to buy but some
come in to see the stocks in the store while others come into the browser. This means the internet
facility though it is attracting people into the store it is rendering no profit to the store. It is also
clear that people like to spend time in the store's display. This might suggest that the display is
outdated or it does not meet the standards of the local customers. The store should consider
stoking preferred product since it will attract more customers hence increasing their sales.
The study shows customers prefer online shopping. It is high time that KDS implement
online shopping to attract online customers. The store should also implement delivering an
online shopped product at competitive pricing. Clear customer relationship strategies need to be
implemented. This will enable customers to raise their complains where being responded
accordingly. It is clear that KDS is among the classy stores in town, its staffs are polite and nice
to customers but this does not significantly reflect in the sales made. This means there is more
than this customer that is looking. For example, on sales time the store would receive a good
number of customers, this is also the same case during a festival season like Christmas. This
study has shown that KDS has vast Guerrilla, social shoppers but on their other hand, it has few
Touch-feely shoppers.
In conclusion, customers are not only attracted by the nature of the staff and the shop, but
they also prefer quality and reasonable pricing.

Customer loyalty. 9
Conclusions and recommendation.
It is 5 times costly to get new customers as much as maintain the existing ones. In order
to build and maintain customer loyalty to your business, you need to implement very completive
strategies. It is clear that is a customer continues to shop without does not mean that customers
are loyal. As it has been shown in case of KDS in continuous receives a lot of customers to the
extent of being referred to as markets place, due to overcrowding and noise but this does not
reflect in sales made.
Sellers and suppliers need to differentiate themselves from other competitors. They
should be in a position to demonstrate superior values for their customer’s money. The study has
shown among their product that they don’t prefer buying from KDS, buys them from another
supplier which they consider superior value for their money.
In conclusion, customer loyalty is as good as business growth. It is clear that the
deficiency of loyal customers at KDS have reduced the store’s growth.in order to improve this
growth. They have to implement new marketing strategies as well as reinvest to meets their
customer’s needs. I, therefore, wish to recommend the following in order to foster customers’
loyalty.
i. Create customer relationship management unit
ii. Implement online shopping.
iii. Stock the store with the customer taste
iv. Increase the number of sales time
As stated above customers are willing to pay even more if they see the value for their
money. This will reduce marketing and advertisement cost. As a Kingston Department
Store (KDS) advisor I would recommend the following; to perfume a study to investigate

Customer loyalty. 10
what other stores are doing differently from them, have an incentive to the customers who
spend a certain amount of money with them, KDS need to implements affiliate
marketing. This is where they would use their customers to market to others and in turn
receive some commissions. Finally, KDS can also do market development. This means
venturing into a new market to capture new
Open coding
Let RQ refers to the research question.
Open code for RQ1
OPEN CODE property EXAMPLE OF CUSTOMER
WORDS
Weekly  One day in a week
 Saturday afternoon
 Twice or thrice a
week
 Once a week
 Three or four times in
a week
 Once in a week

Monthly  Not that often
 Once a month
 After a good number
of months
 When I need to buy
something from you

Rarely  twice a year  . I usually come at
Christmas and then

Customer loyalty. 11
again for the sales -
winter, and summer

Open code for RQ2
OPEN CODE property EXAMPLE OF CUSTOMER
WORDS
Rarely  As much or as little
 It depends on what am
doing
 I don’t spend time
here at all

one hour  Only one hour

More hours  On a special occasion
 Browsing

 if I'm trying on
clothes then it may be
longer

Open code for RQ3
OPEN CODE property EXAMPLE OF CUSTOMER
WORDS
Facility  Parking
 Internet
 Changing room
> Quite a few reasons really,
but car parking is really
important to me

Customer loyalty. 12

Can't recall  It is a kind of habit  because I used to
come here with my
mother
Best in town  Quality
 Fair price
 Product range

 We think it's the best
shop in town
Price  To save money  when it's sales time
then I'm here to save
money

Transport  Living nearby

 I live just around the
corner you see

Staff  Polite staff
 For advice

 I always come here
for advice

Open code for RQ4
OPEN CODE property EXAMPLE OF CUSTOMER

Customer loyalty. 13
WORDS
Households  To decorate the house
 Electrical goods
 Furniture

 It's mostly food, and
then on occasion
things like electrical
goods, furniture and
so on.

Food  Cake  , I bought some nice
cake in the Christmas
sale,
Bending and curtain  To decorate the house
Clothes and books>  Present for family

 Apart from clothes
and books presents for
our daughter and son-
in-law
Open code for RQ5
OPEN CODE property EXAMPLE OF CUSTOMER
WORDS
Rival store  Debenhams
 Specialist shops
 Catalogs
 Depends on my mood,
if the weather's nice
I'll have a wander
around the other shops

Customer loyalty. 14
 West End
 Kensington –
 Open market

and I hate waiting for
anything.
 I shop around, usually
in the market
 I do look on the
internet and
catalogues for things
and sometime shop at
specialized stores.
Internet  Electronic

 A good place to look
for things and also
compare their price

Open code for RQ6
OPEN CODE property EXAMPLE OF CUSTOMER
WORDS
Yes  Electrical goods
 Toiletries
 Clothes
 Furniture
 Shoes
 I never buy is a large
electrical appliance.
No  Has wide range of  Not really, your wide

Customer loyalty. 15
stock. range is one of the
reasons I shop here.

Open code for RQ6
OPEN CODE property EXAMPLE OF CUSTOMER
WORDS
Yes  Clothes
 Shoes
 Furniture

 Well, the obvious
things like children's
clothing

no  Plenty of stocks  No, I only look at
clothes and personal
things and you seem
to have plenty of
those
Axial coding
Axial coding from the open code.
Category Sub category description
Shopping at KDS  Weekly
 Monthly
 Those that do shop on
a weekly bases do

Customer loyalty. 16
 Occasionally

come here once, twice
or thrice but not more
than that
 The one shop on a
monthly bases come
here only one day per
month
 For the one on yearly
bases comes at KDS
only during Christmas
and on sales time

Time spent  One hour
 Not all
 A couple of hours
 The one who does not
spend time at KDS at
all only comes here
for a specific reason
 Those spend on hour
always do so while
touring along with the
shop
 Those who spend a lot
of an hour do so while
browsing or at coffees

Customer loyalty. 17
shop

What would not buy  Furniture
 Clothe
 electronic
 KDS clothes are not
preferred due to lack
of specialization
 Specialized furniture
stores are preferred
because they are
cheap and they also
offer second-hand god
 Internet is most
preferred when it
comes to purchasing
electronics

Elsewhere prefer other than
KDS
 Rival store
 Internet
 Rival store especially
specialized one are
preferred due to their
specialization
 Internet is preferred
due to its accessibility
and scalability than
KDS

Customer loyalty. 18
Products recommend  Furniture
 Clothes
 Leatherwork
 Among the
recommended
clothing to be stocked
are children clothes,
clothes for mature
working women
 Cheap and classy
future is recommend
Product bought  Clothes
 Furniture
 Electronic
 Shoe
 coffee
 some prefer KDS due
to the fact that it has
the best coffee shop
 clothes are of a
variety of choices
why shop at KDS  Facility
 Staff
 Convenience
 Quality

 Among those who do
shoppping at KDS due
to facility argues that
KDS has parking for
their cars
 On those prefers KDS
due to staff do so
because KDS staffs

Customer loyalty. 19
are polite and nice to
the customer. They
also offer advice to
customers
 KDS is considered as
one of the high-
quality shops in town.
It is a classy shop
 A good number of
customers prefers
KDS due to the fact
that they come from
the neighbourhood
Selective coding
According to the data conceptual database given it is clear that KDS is experiencing poor
turnover and customer footfall. Hence the aim of the study is to investigate the reason behind
customer shopping at KDS and them strategies that can be implemented to foster their continues
shopping. As shown from open and axial coding the following selective coding can be deduced.
KDS does not have a steady flow of the customers. There are no regular visits to
particular customers at KDS. Although during certain occasion (Christmas and sales time) allot
of customers flocks into the store. This may be due to reduced price or promotions during the

Customer loyalty. 20
festivals. The time a customer’s spends inside the store depends on the customer and what he or
she came to do (Only as much or as little as necessary – there’s not much here I would like for
myself so there's not much point in spending too much time here.). Among the one spends more
time, they do so on weekends but they don’t shop rather they spend time browsing.
The reason as to why customer shop at KDS ranges from convinces to the quality. Most
consider KDS as the best and quality shop in town. Other consider KDS due to the fact that is
from their neighborhood and it has parking bay for their vehicle. Polite KDS staffs equally make
a lot of customers to shop with them. They are freely adviser and talk nice to their clients. The
data shows a long the preferred product from the store clothes though some criticized the
specialization, furniture, electronic and coffee which received no criticism. Although specific
clothes fashion was recommended and cheap furniture.
Finally, KDS nightmares are as a result of stiff competition from rival stores and the
internet. Rival store especially specialized store is considered due to the perception of quality
while the internet is considered convenient.

Customer loyalty. 21
Works Cited
Borgatti, S., 2017. Introduction to. [Online]
Available at: http://www.analytictech.com/mb870/introtogt.htm
[Accessed 3 June 2019].
Gallicano, T., 2013. An example of how to perform open coding, axial coding and selective coding.
[Online]
Available at: https://prpost.wordpress.com/2013/07/22/an-example-of-how-to-perform-open-coding-
axial-coding-and-selective-coding/
[Accessed 4 June 2019].
McGovern, K., 2016. 4 ways to retain customers and keep them coming back. [Online]
Available at: https://www.verticalresponse.com/blog/4-ways-to-retain-customers-and-keep-them-
coming-back/
[Accessed 1 June 2019].
Patel, S., 2014. A Guide to Coding Qualitative Data. [Online]
Available at: http://salmapatel.co.uk/academia/coding-qualitative-research/
[Accessed 4 JUne 2019].
Ramaswami, R., 2017. 8 Reasons to Keep Your Customers Loyal. [Online]
Available at: https://multichannelmerchant.com/blog/eight-reasons-to-keep-your-customers-loyal/
[Accessed 1 June 2019].
Ranade, K., 2012. Customer Loyalty – What is it? How Can You Measure and Manage It?. [Online]
Available at: http://www.loyaltyresearch.com/insights/customer-loyalty-what-is-it-how-can-you-
measure-and-manage-it/
[Accessed 1 June 2019].

Customer loyalty. 22