10/4/2012

MKTG 400

Harding University Bookstore Customer Satisfaction Project

Presented by: Paula Morales, Shelby Babcock, Anthony Guglielmi, Chelsea Hoang |

Table of Contents
Executive Summary ............................................................................................................................................................ 2 Introduction and Background........................................................................................................................................... 3 Research Methodology....................................................................................................................................................... 5 Results and Analysis ........................................................................................................................................................... 7 Customers are continually coming in and out of the store...................................................................................... 7 Are service hours convenient? ..................................................................................................................................... 7 How satisfied are customers with the quality of the merchandise sold? ............................................................... 8 Do customers feel like they got a good value for the cost?..................................................................................... 8 Are textbook prices satisfactory? ................................................................................................................................. 9 How satisfied are you with the variety of school/office supplies offered?........................................................... 9 Regarding prices of sportswear, how satisfied are you? ......................................................................................... 10 How satisfied are you with the general merchandise offered? .............................................................................. 10 How satisfied are you with the general layout of the store? .................................................................................. 11 How satisfied are you with the knowledge and performance of customer assistance? .................................... 11 How satisfied are you with your overall experience at the Harding Bookstore? ............................................... 12 How many times have you accessed the Harding University Bookstores website? ......................................... 12 What kind of promotional method would you most benefit from? .................................................................... 13 What are some general comments you may have about the bookstore?............................................................. 14 Recommendations and conclusions ............................................................................................................................... 15 References .......................................................................................................................................................................... 17

Executive Summary
The Harding University Bookstore is an integrated part of the University campus and depends on customer satisfaction for its success. With this in mind, we decided to conduct a market research on customer satisfaction, working closely with its manager to narrow our focus on certain areas such as merchandise quality and pricing, store hours convenience, and changes customers wish to see. We used surveys to as our information gathering method. 173 surveys were given out randomly in the Student Center, and the response rate has been positive (98% or above in every question.) After data compiling and analysis, we have come to many conclusions on customer satisfaction, some of which are: 0-3 visits within the last year is the most common frequency. The variety of apparels and merchandises offered and customer service are considered somewhat satisfied. Prices of textbooks and merchandises arise as biggest sources of dissatisfaction. This is also made clear in the comment section. Emails and chapel announcements are the best ways to reach customers.
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 68.2% would like to see more sales and promotions at the bookstore. Based on the information we received, we would advise the bookstore to reevaluate the pricing of merchandises especially textbooks, focus on emails and chapel announcements as promotional methods to increase store traffic, and extend store hours to a more convenient period to increase revenues and store traffic.

Introduction and Background

When looking for what we wanted to do our project on, we knew we wanted to do research over something that could really be influential to Hardings campus. Walking around this place for three or four years, you are always hearing something about the bookstore. Good or bad, people never shy away from having something to say about the HUB. We decided we wanted to find out what customers truly thought about the bookstore instead of just hearing them complain one day about the textbook prices, but talk the next day about the really cute shirt they just bought from the bookstore. These are some of the general facts about the Bookstore. The Harding Bookstore is located in Searcy, AR, a city with a population of almost 23,500. The Bookstore is part of Harding University, a private institution with a student body of 7,155. The business is known for good service, it is open Monday through Friday from 8:15am to 4:30pm and on Saturday from 10am to 2pm, it offers a variety of materials from Books, sportswear, souvenirs, textbooks, Christian merchandise and school and office supplies. All the prices are subject to change without notice and management offers a budget plan for larger purchases. We worked with the Harding Bookstore and its new manager, David Hall. After meeting with Mr. Hall, we decided our research would best be done by looking at an overall
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customer satisfaction survey. We wanted to know if the Harding University Bookstore customers are satisfied with the experience they receive when shopping there, including hours, merchandise variety, customer service, and other such factors that contribute to happy customers. Since Mr. Hall was just beginning his new post as the bookstores manager, he was eager to work with us and receive feedback from what customers actually thought of the store. Some of the other things Mr. Hall was interested in finding out from his customers include what means of advertisement is best suited for the bookstore. In todays society, advertising is a completely different ballgame. Mr. Hall was interested in using these surveys to find out if the best means of advertisement for him is a social media such as Twitter or Facebook, or if flyers and word of mouth are still the best ways for him to bring in the business.

Research Methodology
Our methodology consisted of a primary research using intercept surveys to find information about our subjects, we surveyed 173 people throughout Hardings campus to get a feel for what kind of opinion the bookstore gets throughout campus. We intercepted Harding students and faculty members in the student center to get their opinion of the bookstore. The sample size is 173 respondents from a population of 7,155 students who attend Harding University. We followed a quantitative research design, with a non-probability sampling technique due to time and cost constraints. It is important to note that intercept interviews use a convenience or non-random sample. Therefore, results may not fully reflect the characteristics of the entire campus population but they still provide rich qualitative information which can help our client to intervene to improve the satisfaction level of customers. The students were approached and asked if they were willing to answer a few questions anonymously for the sake of improving the service of the Harding Bookstore. To the ones that agreed we made sure they completed the questionnaire and stayed around if they had any questions about the questions or instructions. The design of the customer satisfaction questionnaire included multiple choice questions, open ended questions, raking questions and rating questions. There were a total of 20 questions with the purpose of collecting data from specific aspects such as demographics, satisfaction with merchandise, customer assistance, hours of service, and promotions.

The open-ended questions allowed our respondents to elaborate on the aspects they were more concerned about. The answers to these questions will allow the Harding Bookstore to pinpoint specific problem areas for improvement. In addition, open-ended questions will allow our client to discover issues about which the company had no idea. Once we determined the survey design, we pre-tested it with 5 people to make sure the questions were correctly formulated and relevant to the research, also that the instructions and questions were understandable, and the length was not too long. As marketers we believe that customer satisfaction surveys are essential for continuous improvement of product, services, as well as store competitiveness and survival. This research study helps the Harding Bookstore to verify they are well positioned amongst its clients, and that clients are completely, not merely, satisfied.

Results and Analysis

Customers are continually coming in and out of the store.
On this issue, we found this to not actually be the case. 57.8% of respondents say within the last year, they have only been in the store 0-3 times. As a manager of a store, you would definitely want to see this response at more of 4-6 times or even 7-10 times. When asked the reason why they didnt shop at the bookstore, or shopped at it so little, respondents said it was because of issues such as inconvenient hours and the fact that they can find better prices at places such as Amazon.com for books and Wal-Mart for school/office supplies.
Q1

Are service hours convenient?

When it comes to what customers think of the bookstores hours, they were not completely dissatisfied, but at the same time, they were none too impressed. 31.1% of respondents said they are neutral on the issue, but in the opened ended questions, several people listed that specifically it was hard for them to shop at the store because it opened too late and closed too early.

Q2

How satisfied are customers with the quality of the merchandise sold?
Q3

41.6% of the customers said they were somewhat satisfied with the quality of the merchandise sold. Following that answer with 37.6% of respondents saying they were extremely satisfied. So overall, customers are fairly satisfied, but there is room for improvement.

Do customers feel like they got a good value for the cost?
This definitely stuck out as an issue that the store needs to focus in on. 39.3% of the respondents said that they were somewhat dissatisfied with the value of what they got for their money. From the aspect of customer service, this is not good to hear from your customers. Customers should be feeling like they are getting a good bang for their

Q4

buck. The bookstore needs to evaluate their pricing and see if some of their goods can be better priced in order to better satisfy their customers.
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Are textbook prices satisfactory?

Again, this is a place where the bookstore has great room for improvement. Of the 173 respondents surveyed, 42.8% were somewhat dissatisfied. It is clear not just by this 42.8%, but also from comments left in the open-ended questions that textbook prices are very unsatisfactory. It is no secret that textbook prices are very unsatisfactory to college students, but the

Q5

bookstore seems to have extremely high prices, making them not very competitive to such places as Amazon.com and Textbook Brokers.

How satisfied are you with the variety of school/office supplies offered?
39.3% of customers said they were somewhat satisfied with the variety of school and office supplies available in the bookstore. However, the feeling of neither satisfied nor dissatisfied was very close behind with about 30% of respondents answering this way.

Q6

Regarding prices of sportswear, how satisfied are you?

Surveyed customers remain neutral on this topic. 37% of customers where neither satisfied nor dissatisfied with the pricing of sportswear. Although it is good to know customers are not dissatisfied, with pricing of sportswear, leaving customers with that lukewarm feeling is not something that managers should be looking to do.

Q7

How satisfied are you with the general merchandise offered?

Q8

The leading response when it comes to how satisfied customers are with the general merchandise is somewhat satisfied with 39.9% of surveyed customers checking off this box. But a close second to this was yet again a very neutral neither satisfied nor dissatisfied. It was suggested in some of the surveys that the bookstore should think about investing in more school/office supplies to sell to customers.
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How satisfied are you with the general layout of the store?
Overall, the majority of customers are satisfied with the general layout of the store. 46.8% of the customers answered that they were somewhat satisfied with the layout, and 30.6% of the customers said they were extremely satisfied. It seems that the way the bookstore is laid out in sections based on womens clothing, mens clothing, school supplies, Biblical material, and other such sections is very pleasing to customers. It makes it easy for them to find exactly what they are looking for.

Q9

How satisfied are you with the knowledge and performance of customer assistance?
Q10

39.9% of respondents answered that they were somewhat satisfied in this area. This is not really what you want to see when surveying your customers, because even though the majority of people are somewhat satisfied, a manger would hope to see an overwhelming majority of

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people extremely satisfied. Steps should be taken to give employees a better knowledge of what they are selling and just a great attitude about selling to the customers.

How satisfied are you with your overall experience at the Harding Bookstore? Q11
Very similar to question 10, this is a subject that you are going to hope the overwhelming majority of customers are extremely satisfied with. Yet again, 39.3% of surveyed customers seem to be only somewhat satisfied with their overall experience. This is not where a manager is looking for the majority of responses to lie. The bookstore should take steps in order to bump the majority of customers to being extremely satisfied.

How many times have you accessed the Harding University Bookstores website?
Q12

When looking at the overall survey, this question stuck out as something that the bookstore definitely needs to step up and work on. 41% of respondents answered that they have actually never accessed the Harding University Bookstore. But even worse than that is the fact that 22.5% of respondents answered that they didnt even know the bookstore had a website. In todays world, one that is

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overwhelmed by technology, this is not good news for the bookstore. It would be worth the time and energy for the bookstore to work on making their website an easier site to visit and use.

What kind of promotional method would you most benefit from?

Q13

We gave the surveyed respondents six different options to see what method of promotion they would most benefit from. Email came in as the most popular response with 27% of responses. A close second, however, was chapel announcements with 26% of responses.

What kinds of advertising information would you most like to see on bookstore promotions?
Q14

The overwhelming majority of customers surveyed, 68.2% to be exact, answered that would most like to see sales advertised so they know when they are able to come in a get good deals. However, it is also worth mentioning that 6.8% of surveyed customers would like to see a mix of sales, special hours, and new merchandise promoted by the bookstore.

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What are some general comments you may have about the bookstore?

Q15

Respondents answered this question in several different ways, but overall three topics kept coming up that the bookstore could work on. One of these is better store hours. People who wrote on this issue said the bookstore opens to late and closes too early in order to conveniently shop. Another issue that reappeared several times was the bookstore needs to have better buybacks on textbooks. Based off of their comments, customers seem very frustrated with the high prices of textbooks, and the fact they get nothing close to that when they sell them back. A third subject that was very popular is better prices in general. This seems vague, but all in all it seems as if the bookstore just needs to step back and reevaluate their prices and make sure they are fair.

Demographics of Respondents
Overall, by far, the surveyed customers are undergraduate, upperclassmen students at Harding University. An even amount of students, 32.4% to be exact, are majoring in the sciences or business. 20. 8% of respondents are fall into the Arts and Humanities majors. Of the 173 respondents, 46.2% are male, leaving 53.8% being female. The average age of respondents was 21.

Q 17, 18, 19, 20

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Recommendations and conclusions

We concluded this research by putting together recommendations that focus towards the improvement of customer service at the Harding University Bookstore. The information retained through the surveys did have certain limitations and obstacles that were presented. Many of the individuals who were surveyed were found to be above twenty years old and classified as a junior or senior by hours completed in the classroom. Also, a few surveys were returned null responses which contributed to the few limitations that were faced during the research process. After all the statistical data was analyzed, recommendations for how the bookstore could improve their overall customer satisfaction were established. The data showed that many customers were not satisfied with the bookstores hours of operation. Currently, the bookstore is open Monday-Friday 8:15- 4:30 and 10-2 on Saturday. With the amount of activities and sporting events occurring on campus during fall and spring semesters, the bookstore could afford to remain open later hours especially on weekends. Most students are in class during the day and by the time they finish up, the bookstore is closed. Pushing the closing time back to 6 oclock during the week and 4 on Saturdays would benefit both customer and bookstore. With the Christian community present at Harding, opening the bookstore after church services on Sunday could also be a factor to look into. With most services ending around noon on Sundays in Searcy, students could shop after getting back to campus from church. The data gathered concluded that a high percentage of customers that have bought merchandise at the bookstore were satisfied with the quality but not with the prices they had to pay. Lowered prices are a recommendation that can improve the amount of traffic that filters in and out of the bookstore. The bookstore does have a good selection of products available but
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with such high prices, these products sit on the shelves. If the bookstore is able to lower final purchase cost it can not only increase the amount of products sold, but can also increase revenue for the bookstore as well. Products do not just sell themselves; advertising and marketing are keys to any successful business. Many surveys showed that when it comes to announcements about sales or new products, Chapel announcements and Emails were favored for means of informing customers. Twitter and Facebook were also among the favorites for informing students and staff about any special events going on at the bookstore. Large quantities of data were collected during this process and these two recommendations are just a few things that can increase the customer satisfaction among students shopping experiences in the bookstore.

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References
1. Harding.edu a. "Harding University - It's Great to Be at Harding." Harding University. Web. 05 Apr. 2012. <http://www.harding.edu>. 2. Catalog Harding University Bookstore 2012

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