Ikea Edmonton Research Project

The current research proposal focuses on the study related to identification and determining the importance, from both educational and business perspectives, of requisite competencies and skills required to satisfy the customers. The identification of gaps in the customer service provided by the Ikea Edmonton is an important factor to study in the current research.

The present research will also explore the need for designing a new refund policy for the unsatisfied customers. This will attract the customers and will also help to satisfy the customers. It is considered that that the answers to the research questions will provide a complete understanding to the learners within business or educational arena with qualitative data regarding the various issues encountered while dealing with the customers (Machado and Diggines, 2012).

With the aim of attaining objectives and the aim of the research, it is very essential to carry out a comprehensive literature review for the purpose of deriving an idea about the causes of customer dissatisfaction in Ikea stores. It has been hypothesized that dissatisfied customers can create an adverse effect on the business (Sherwyn, Eigen and Klausner, 2000). In Ikea stores, there has been a decrease in satisfaction provided by the customers. For this reason, a wide research will be conducted in this area. The literature review will help to cover the ways for providing better customer services.

The absence of improper customer service is bound to create an impact on the business. If there is a decrease in the demand of the services provided by the customers, then it will harm the profitability of the organization. The business organization will lose their market value and position. They will not be able to able to gain competitive advantages in the market. The problem is required to be solved immediately and increase the level of the customer satisfaction. Training the staffs, offering discounts and introducing refund policy can work as a benefit. All these measures will help the management to solve their problems.

Methodology

The problems of Ikea Edmonton stores are associated with the customers. So, it is important to find out the root cause for this dissatisfaction. This can be done by gathering primary and secondary data. The data which is gathered for the first time is called primary data. In this research project, a survey will be conducted in order to gather the primary data. The survey will be done by preparing a questionnaire and the customers will be face-to-faced interviewed. This will help to the management of Ikea Edmonton stores know about the grievances of the customers. Along with primary data, secondary data will also be gathered which help to make the primary data more precise and accurate (Samuels, Biddle and Emmett, 2009). The secondary data will be gathered from internet, websites and books. However, in this project, primary research is a major way of data collection.

Rationale

Ikea is a quite famous store at Edmonton. A large number of customers visit this store every year. The Ikea store staff caters both families and business people alike. They provide welcoming and comfortable environment for the customers. However, recently the management of the Ikea store has found out that the sales of this stores are decreasing and the customers are becoming unsatisfied. This is creating a negative impact on the profit of the organization. It is essential for the management of Ikea Edmonton to find out the root cause for unsatisfied customers. To understand this problem, it is important to conduct a research and acquire all the data which are essential for reaching an effective conclusion so that the management is able to solve the problems associated with the customer dissatisfaction (Brinkman and Kirschner, 2006).

Critical Review

Dissatisfaction among the customers has turned out be major issues for Ikea Edmonton. Several steps have been undertaken in order to prevent this problems. Increasing number of customer dissatisfaction has created an adverse effect on the business of this organization. There are several ways in which the problems of customer dissatisfaction can be solved. In Ikea stores the incidence of customer dissatisfaction is increasing day by day. As a result, there has been a decline in the demand of the services and products provided by this store. Several customers were also dissatisfied with the lack of transport facilities, as they need transportation facilities for the furniture which they have purchased from the store.

The theoretical orientation of this work is theory of knowledge because the research is concerned with the causes as well as the impact of the customer services and the ways to provide better customer services. So, it provides stress on providing knowledge to management of Ikea Edmonton regarding the services of customer satisfaction. Improper training of the staffs and their carelessness can be major reason behind this dissatisfaction among the customers. So, the management should focus on the ways to provide a better customer satisfaction to the customers (Halbur and Halbur, 2006).

In 2002, Patton, M. and Patton, M. in their book of “Qualitative research and evaluation methods” stated the ways through which qualitative research can be evaluated. This book is used in the evaluation of data to present the outcome of research. Data is evaluated with the help of experts. As in the book they stated that qualitative research involves the data which is more qualitative or subjective. The data collected in the research is qualitative in nature, hence the analysis is also done on the basis of qualitative precepts.

Research Methodology

The major aim of this research is to find out all the important information which is required to solve the current business problem of Ikea Edmonton. In this current research, the secondary data will not be gathered. The entire research will be based on the primary research. The primary research will help to gather the primary data which is very crucial in order to reach an important conclusion.

Types of data- The primary data will be gathered with qualitative research. Qualitative research has the ability to supplement and optimally re-orientate the current understanding of customer dissatisfaction.

Method of data collection- In the current research, the qualitative research procedure will be followed is interview. In order to conduct the interview, a questionnaire is required to be prepared. A camera can be used in the research so that the identities are gathered and can be utilized for further requirements. The research will be conducted in Ikea Edmonton.

Sampling and Respondent profile

The subject of this research will be the customers who regularly visit Ikea Edmonton. So the sampling method will be stratified method in which only the customers of the store will be interviewed. In the interview, 10 people will be interviewed. So, the sample size will be 10 (Thompson, 1992).

Methods of Data Analysis

The research is conducted using quantitative method and so the gathered data will also be analysed with the help of quantitative methods. The hypothesis of the study will be scrutinized with the help of statistical techniques which will include graphs as well as general descriptive techniques.

Conclusion

It is concluded that, in case of Ikea Edmonton, the company has to face a lot of problems due to lack of training. It has been found that the customers are not at all satisfied with the amenities of the store such as many customers have reported that they had to face issues like improper handling of the staff to the customers, unable to give answers of customer`s queries etc.

Recommendation

The customers also face transportation problem, as the store o not provide transportation facility to the customers to deliver the purchased furniture or other house ware item to customer`s home, so it is very important for the company to train the service providers so that they are able to provide suitable services to them. They must be attentive and hear to every grievance that is faced by the customers in the store.

Proper transport facilities must also be created so that people does not face any problem regarding the transport. It has been observed that the company offers its customers with something else but at the time of billing before the departure they are provided with a lump sum amount of money. So this also creates dissatisfaction among the customers and the management is highly required to focus into the issues that are faced by them and thereby take suitable steps to eradicate the problems.

By providing training to the employees, they will perform in a better way and they will deliver services which will provide satisfaction to the customers. On the other hand, by providing proper transport facilities will again facilitate customers as they would not face any problem regarding the transport. In addition to this product`s quality shall also be maintained. By following these recommendation, Ikea Edmonton will be able to satisfy its customers and can create better activities of business.

Limitations of the study

This research was done on customers and the numbers of customer taken as sample were less that provides few data to analyse which is limitation for the study.

Scope for future research

The findings of the research will help to contribute in providing idea to the learners and the business organization in providing effective customer services to their unsatisfied customers and attract customers. This research project will help the management to solve their current business problems. The research project possesses two sections which are enumerated as the current objectives. The first section of the research provides idea about the customer service in the store. At the same it will also provide ideas to find out several structures so that the management of Ikea Edmonton is able to find out ways to solve this problem.