Describe about the Research Proposal on Opportunities for Technology for KFC.
Customer Relationship Management is an essential factor for the success of any restaurant chain business (Raab 2008). The proposal has been developed to conduct a research on Customer Relationship Management in KFC. The research aims to present technological opportunities that can be used to improve the performance of the front line employees in the company. The study will present several CRM theories and review the previous literature to develop the research questions and hypothesis. Furthermore, the proposal presents the proposed methodology and analysis that will be used in conducting the research. Hence, the objective of the study is to understand the importance of implementing technology development in improving the efficiency of the front line workers in a food chain business.
Introduction to Customer Relationship Management
In the marketing literature, Customer Relationship Management (CRM) is one of the vital instruments to create a strong relationship with the target customers. The concept of CRM has been tactically applied concentrating on customer retention strategy. Through the identification of different integrated strategies, organisations have adopted modern technologies to build strong bonding with the customers for improved sales and services (Taylor and Barber 2016). Effective CRM practices have been intended to obtain customer loyalty in a competitive marketplace. For a food retail chain business such as KFC, the front-line staffs have to play major roles to satisfy the customers at the highest standard. By identifying the factors of customer’s retention, effective measures have to be put to CRM for a better outcome (Stock and Bednarek 2014).
In marketing, Customer Relationship Management is one of the contributory factors to build up strong and healthy customer interaction. Modern technologies and latest communication methods have tremendously helped the organisations to create an effective communication channel with the customers (Wang and Feng 2012). For instance, improved IT based solution can be applied within the CRM to understand many issues and challenges on customer satisfaction. The front-line staffs of a business organisation can learn so much about the behaviour of the client based on the system (Kishor and Nagamani 2015). By developing database and customer management network, the CRM can establish suitable customer relationship to retain the loyal customers for the much longer time. Thus, the sales and profit margin of the firm can be boosted at a certain level (Malthouse et al. 2013). By identifying the actual requirement and needs from the services, modern technologies can help out the front-line subordinates to determine the best approach to improve the services (Khodakarami and Chan 2014). In this way, better service approaches leave a great impression on the target customers converting them to the loyal customers. Also, effective technological efficiency can promote transparency in customer communication network developing better relationship standards.
Frontline subordinates have to deal with the customers in direct order. Hence, the role of the frontline staffs has become critical in CRM. Ruth’s demand resource model has featured how the customer-oriented behaviours of the frontline employees can make an impact on customer satisfaction (Fournier 2013). If the frontline subordinates have shown customer-oriented attitude, it will enhance the satisfaction level of the customers. The service efficiency of frontline employees can be improved using modern communication technology so that the rate of the incoming customers will be improved (Fagerstrøm et al.2015). As significant customer satisfaction can lead to the growth of the business, qualified frontline employees will meet the demand of the customers in a sophisticated way (Brennan et al. 2014).
The latest development in technology and management operations of CRM has provided significant services to the customers. In spite of modern technological applications, customers are not entirely satisfied with the services. Hence, the organisations have losing customers on a regular interval. Therefore, more research must be done to identify the reasons behind the disloyalty of the customers (Bitran et al. 2008). Along with that, the companies must figure out why the staffs have failed to meet the satisfaction level of the customers. The study will focus on the feedback of the client to understand the factors leading to customer dissatisfaction. Herein, the role of technology must be identified to solve the issues regarding CRM.
It is important to identify the research questions to conduct proceed further with the analysis. The research questions that can be used in conducting the study on CRM in KFC are presented herein below:
Hypothesis is used to judge a statement that is further used to conduct the analysis in the research study. The hypothesis statements are presented herein below:
Research Design
Research design presents the blueprint of the study that explains the methodology used in the study. To study the customer relationship management used by KFC to operate its front line staffs, there is a need to interact with employee and the customers of the company. The interaction will help to collect primary data that will be used in the study. The study will be conducted using qualitative approach because there is no need of statistical analysis to prove the use of technology in CRM improvement (Ketchen and Bergh 2014). The questionnaires used to collect data from the employees and customers are presented in appendix 1.
Data collection is an essential task of a research study. In this research, both primary and secondary data collection methods will be used to enhance the database for the analysis. The primary data collection method will be used to collect data from direct employees and customers of KFC to observe the current situation of CRM in the company. The primary data will be collected using questionnaires that are presented above. Furthermore, the secondary data collection method will be used to observe the prior theories and studies presented by various authors to improve the quality of the research (Welman, Kruger, Mitchell and Huysamen 2005). The secondary data will be used to conduct the literature review and present the research questions, hypothesis and methodology of the current research. Hence, the use of both types of data collection method is justified in the study.
Considering the entire population increases the burden of data collection. Hence, there is a need of sampling out a small population that can be easily used to collect the information for the study. It has been planned to collect primary data from around 50 customers and 10 employees of KFC. A random sampling technique will be used to choose the target population for collecting the primary data (Newman and Benz 2008). On the other hand, prospective sampling technique will be used to collect secondary data from the prior literature.
The research will be conducted using qualitative analysis approach. The collected data will be converted into variables to conduct the qualitative analysis and present the research results in a descriptive manner. The findings of the study will be presented in a thematic manner to answer the research questions given above. It can be seen that with development of technology, different organisations has started implementing technological opportunities in training their employees and improving their quality of services. Hence, the qualitative study will help KFC to understand the current status in the market and develop proper strategies in enhancing the performance of the frontline staffs (Morsing and Beckmann 2006).
Conclusion
In order to conclude the research proposal, first of all, a brief review of the literature must be presented so that a detailed description of the role of the frontline employees can be identified in CRM. Moreover, modern IT solutions must be included within the CRM functions so that frontline employees can identify the best approaches and communication methods to deal with the customers. In this way, customer-oriented attitude can be helpful in gaining the loyalty of the target audience. Along with that, better and healthy customer interaction will also reduce customer grievances to a major extent.
References
Bitran, G.R., Ferrer, J.C. and Rocha e Oliveira, P., 2008. OM Forum-Managing Customer Experiences: Perspectives on the Temporal Aspects of Service Encounters. Manufacturing & Service Operations Management,10(1), pp.61-83.
Brennan, J.J., Siebert, W.H., Cerrone, M.C. and Williams, J.R., Buzztable, Inc., 2014. System for customer relationship management using wireless communication. U.S. Patent 8,897,810.
Fagerstrøm, A., Aksnes, D. and Arntzen, E., 2015. An Experimental Study of Intertemporal Choices: The Case of Customer Relationship Management.Managerial and Decision Economics.
Fournier, S., 2013. Secrets of customer relationship management: it’s all about how you make them feel. Journal of Services Marketing.
Ketchen, D. and Bergh, D., 2014. Research methodology in strategy and management. Amsterdam: Elsevier.
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.
Kishor, N.R. and Nagamani, K., 2015. Customer relationship management in Indian Banking Sector. ACADEMICIA: An International Multidisciplinary Research Journal, 5(7), pp.74-82.
Malthouse, E.C., Haenlein, M., Skiera, B., Wege, E. and Zhang, M., 2013. Managing customer relationships in the social media era: introducing the social CRM house. Journal of Interactive Marketing, 27(4), pp.270-280.
Morsing, M. and Beckmann, S., 2006. Strategic CSR communication. Copenhagen: DJF Publishing.
Newman, I. and Benz, C., 2008. Qualitative-quantitative research methodology. Carbondale, Ill.: Southern Illinois University Press.
Raab, G., 2008. Customer relationship management. Aldershot, Hampshire, England: Gower.
Stock, R.M. and Bednarek, M., 2014. As they sow, so shall they reap: customers’ influence on customer satisfaction at the customer interface.Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 42(4), pp.400-414.
Taylor, C. and Barber, N.A., 2016. How will my wine purchase decision be viewed by others?. Journal of Wine Research, pp.1-24.
Wang, Y. and Feng, H., 2012. Customer relationship management capabilities: Measurement, antecedents and consequences. Management Decision, 50(1), pp.115-129.
Welman, C., Kruger, F., Mitchell, B. and Huysamen, G., 2005. Research methodology. Cape Town: Oxford University Press
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