Analysis and recommendations for improvement of Customer Relationship Management
Research Proposal

IBMS IP5 3C Sponsor organization - Spodos spol s.r.o.

9/19/2013
Lecturer: Drs. F.M. Bazen
Anna-Mariya Bitunska 11006161 Daniel Chrkavý Neliya Hristova 11037237

Table of Contents

Background of the company 3 Research Questions 4 Central research question: 4 Desk research questions: 4 Field research questions: 5 Research Objectives 5 Research Design 6 Research Statements 6 Research Approach 6 The Research Purpose 6 Desk Research 7 Quantitative secondary data 7 Qualitative secondary data 7 Theoretical Framework 8 Field research 9 Sampling frame 9 Sampling method 9 Sample size 10 Empirical framework 10 Time table 11

Background of the company

Spodos spol s.r.o. is a privately owned Retail Company established in 1991 and based in city of Topolcany in the western part of Slovakia.
Its business is primarily focused on providing: * Restaurants * Bars * Large occasions(festivals, parties) * And Individuals
They have great variety of beer (any packaging, from kegs and bottles to cans all in large quantities), spirits, snacks and restaurant supplies (sugar, tea, coffee, honey etc.). The company is specializing in local beer brands such as Topvar and well known Czech brands such as Staropramen and Pilsner Urquell.
Any restaurant or a bar can place an order by phone or come physically to the store where after the order is prepared, it is shipped by 4 trucks free of charge. The delivery is made the same day, sometimes even hourly. This service is only available in the weekdays. The store is open also on Saturday morning (8-12h) but only for individuals.
Size: 1300m2 + of storage place
Number of products: 1000+ (at least 80+ types of beer)
Spodos is a member of ZPN (Drinks retailing companies’ organizations). It’s an organization of warehouses in the cities all around Slovakia to negotiate better prices from manufacturers and multinational suppliers to get a fair advantage over big supermarket chains such as Tesco or Kaufland. Every member has the same prices of products.

Spodos has a rich history of providing great variety of products to local community by a network of bars and restaurants for the cheapest prices possible, and therefore we are hoping we can maintain and even strengthen our position by improving our service even better, more efficient and most importantly cheaper than the competition.

Research Questions

Central research question:

“What are the factors having impact on the establishment of a long-term relationship between the company and its customers?

Desk research questions:

* What is the overall market for retail companies in Slovakia? * What is the total market share of the retail companies in Slovakia? * What is the target market of Spodos Company? * What is the regional structure of the Slovakian market?
Firstly, we are going to analyze and look at the overall market in Slovakia which concerns the retail companies. We will understand how the market operates and what are its main features and issues to be considered. * Who are the company’s main competitors? * What is the market share of the competition? * What are the strengths and weaknesses of the competition? * What are the differential points of the competitors?
Secondly, full analysis will be made of the competitors; in particular what are their strengths and strategies. We will look into details how they connect with their customers and how they are trying to turn new customers into loyal ones.

Field research questions:

* What is the Spodos structure? * What are the processes within the company? * What is the generated yearly revenue for the last 3 years? * How the sales are distributed throughout the year? * Who are the company’s main suppliers? * What is the structure of the logistic system? * How much are the distribution costs? * What other services the company provides? ( customized services)
Answering the field research questions we will look deeply in the company itself, its structure, processes and existing services in order to find the weaknesses which causes the inability and inefficiency to create a long-term relationship with the customers.

Research Objectives

* Our main research objective is to find out what the main reasons are for the poor customer relationship management. The outcome will be better CMR and more loyal customers. * To find the specifics of the retail companies market in Slovakia and compare it with Spodos organizational culture and values. * Analysis and understanding of the target market and the customers’ needs and wants. * Give recommendations for improvements in the CMR. * Gaining more market share through attracting more customers and building long-term relationships with them.

Research Design

Research Statements

The reason why we chose to work on Spodos is mainly because of the ease of access to insight information since it’s our colleague’s family business. As the company bases its operation in Slovakia, we also expect to learn more from the international exposure, especially, in term of cultural and industrial differences.
This research is aimed to identify the existing issues of Spodos regarding its services through customers’ feedback. We expect to be able to analyze the existing problems and develop potential solutions to solve those issues in order to improve the overall customers’ satisfaction through technology and innovations while adopting customer relationship management as the key framework.
This research is mainly based on the information of the company services and customer feedback which is provided by Spodos. However, we may request additional information in some specific areas that can potentially be improved.
Research Approach

We decided to use the qualitative approach (observational research) using data collection techniques.
At the very first step, we develop some hypothesis and assumption of possible dissatisfaction of services and create a list of questionnaires. The list is to be answered by customer though various means such as anonymous form, interview or else that appropriates.
The Research Purpose

* Exploration
Since we would like to hear from customers about what they think the problems are so we can study the causes in order find appropriate solution using customer relationship management theory.
Desk Research

For the purpose of gathering the necessary information we are going to use the following sources: * Information on the internet * Existing market research results * Existing data from Spodos stock lists and customer database * information from digital school library (databases, e-journals)
Quantitative secondary data

In order to be able to understand Spodos’s customers we have collect some quantitative secondary data on the bases on which we can draw conclusions. We will use different sources of data as online databases to find the market shares as well as information about the target market. The reason why we are going to use the quantitative data is because it provides specific, reliable and generalizable information. The quantitative data we are going to gather is: * Surveys on customer return frequency * Sales figures * Industry product sales numbers * Financial trends.

Qualitative secondary data

The quantitative secondary data to be collected will be in the form of surveys. These surveys would be distributed to all out customers in order to be able to gather non-quantitative data. Bases on the information from the survey we will be able to get a deeper insight into the consumers’ opinion and expectations. Some of the topics that will be covered in the qualitative secondary data include: * Questionnaires distributed to customers about their satisfaction with the business; * Reviews of competitors to understand their products and customer service practices.
Interpreting this data is essential in order to understand the customers’ interests, habits, needs, wants with the purpose of improving customer services and customer relationship management.
In order to do our research in the most efficient way we will conduct both internet and literature research. The literature research includes the use of The Hague University digital library, in particular the databases: Business Source Elite, Company.info and MarketLine Advantage.

Theoretical Framework

Area – Customer Relationship Management
Field – Customer Relationship Management Strategies
Topic - Analysis and recommendations for improvement of Customer Relationship Management
All the sources to be used include: * Primary data * Secondary data * Tertiary sources of secondary data
The referencing of the Report would be in MLA Style.

Field research

Sampling frame

Our group will investigate the main issues that concerns customer satisfaction and loyalty. Recently Spodos suffered from severe downturn and in order to prevent the company from losses we will analyses the current situation and give recommendations for improvement in the CRM. Our sampling frame is list frame, which include the past customers of the company and potential ones.
The sampling frame includes only those in Slovakia, who satisfy all the following conditions:

* Business looking for logistic firm who can deliver carrying all kinds of beer, alcohol beverages, snacks for pubs with free delivery. * Individuals- for events and parties. Sampling method We decided to use probability and non-probability sampling. Our group chooses to use quota sampling, where we will collect representative data from the customers chosen out of a specific subgroup. First step is to split the population into subgroups, then to compute a quota for each group based on relevant and available data. We will conduct a survey due to the fact that the company is in the Slovakia and we do not have direct contact with the customers. We will send the link of the questionnaire through our network to our entire customer base. After we receive the data we will analyze it and write recommendation to Spodos, so they will know what to improve.
Furthermore, the other method that we will use to ensure that enough relevant data is collected is snowball sampling. It is a specific form of purposive sample. The form of probability sampling which we are going to treat is stratified random sampling which means that we can divide the population into groups based on significant attribute. Our idea is to split the population (recent customers of Spodos) into characteristics of significance for the research. For instance the population can be divided by social class, gender, income, education, religion, etc.
Sample size

The larger our sample size is the more accurate our findings will be. We must take into account the population size, the confidence level and standard of deviation.
Necessary Sample Size = (Z-score)² – StdDev*(1-StdDev) / (margin of error)²

Empirical framework

Get to know your customers well enough to satisfy the needs that they cannot even realize it. Then again explore your clients to meet their needs for changes in quality. If Spodos follow this formula, they will be able to start a revolution, increase their business and bring future loyal customers. Their main target group consists of bars, restaurants, private customers, who order x amount of beers, snacks for parties, event etc. So after we collect the data from the observations and questionnaires, we will be able to reflect our discoveries in empirical findings.

Our empirical framework will consist of:

* Environment of the field research * Case study -empirical invеstigatiоn * Surveys-quantative data * Observations

Time table

Time Table | Week | Activity | Correspondent | ## | Research Proposal | | | > collaboration request | Team / Spodos | ## | Data Received from Spodos | Team / Spodos | | | | ## | Group discussion | Team | | > Request for additional information on focused area | Team / Spodos | | | | ## | Problem justification | Team | | | | ## | Data Collection Design | Team | | > Questionnaires design | Team | | > Observation method | Team | | | | ## | Data Collection Process | Team / Spodos | | > Data collection from customers | Customer | | | | ## | Data Analysis | | | > Collected data received from Spodos | Team / Spodos | | > Data analysis | Team | | | | ## | Research result | Team | | | | ## | Research conclusion and presentation | Team | | | |