Office and Online Ticket Booking and Purchasing - Research Proposal Example

Office and Online 1 Office and Online Ticket Booking and Purchasing: Their Business Competitiveness and Customers’ Satisfaction Introduction In any business organization, customer's needs and feedback play a vital role towards progress and improvement. With open communication and understanding about perceptions and satisfaction of customers, companies are able to take relevant actions to meet the needs of their clients such as quality services. Once the company has identified the strengths and weaknesses of their business, they may already begin with interventions that can make the business stand in comparison with other competitors. Therefore, assessment of customer satisfaction measurement leads to promote a higher focus on customer outcomes, motivate human resources towards better job performance and stimulate improvements of work practices in the company. Although current recession continues to be evident, economists project that as soon as the economy recovers local and international travel businesses would again progress. The US government (U.S. Department of Commerce, 2008) calculates that their number of international visitors will rebound by year 2010 and beyond. Thus, this is certainly a good news in tourism business; particularly those with high number of travelers as customers like hotels, restaurants, car rental companies, tourist attractions and online merchants. This study investigates he business competitiveness and customer satisfaction in “Airline Ticketing business”, which is group in two varied settings: The Online booking and purchasing versus Office ticket booking and purchasing (Traditional booking and purchasing). Travel agencies would most likely benefit the study, since results can be one of their ultimate basis of Office and Online 2 making a choice as to how to improve their business. Objectives of the Study In the totality, this research aims to assess by comparing the competitiveness and customer satisfaction in both Airline ticket online booking and purchasing, as well as Airline ticket Office ticket booking and purchasing - popularly called as the traditional booking and purchasing. In particular, it is directed to achieve the following specific objectives: 1. Determine the marketing strategies adopted by Airline ticket online booking and purchasing and office airline ticket booking and purchasing businesses? 2. Assess the level of competitiveness in Airline ticket online booking and purchasing and office airline ticket booking and purchasing businesses in terms of: a. Number of successful airline ticket bookings b. Number of successful airline ticket purchases c. Companies' Net Income d. Current total number of customers 3. Find out the level of customer satisfaction in Airline ticket online booking and purchasing and office airline ticket booking and purchasing businesses to the companies' based on: a. Customer Services a.1. Customer-Customer Service Representative Interaction a.2. Customer assistance b. General facilities & accessibility c. Costs Office and Online 3 4. Test the significant difference in the competitiveness and customer satisfaction of Airline ticket online booking and purchasing and office airline ticket booking and purchasing businesses. 5. Establish the significant relationship between the level of competitiveness of Airline ticket booking and purchasing and the level of their customers' satisfaction. Problem Statement The study intends to assess by comparing the competitiveness and customer satisfaction in both Airline ticket online booking and purchasing, as well as Airline ticket Office ticket booking and purchasing - popularly called as the traditional booking and purchasing. The entire course is further directed to answer the specific questions below: 1. What marketing strategies are adopted by Airline ticket online booking and purchasing and office airline ticket booking and purchasing businesses? 2. How competitive are Airline ticket online booking and purchasing and office airline ticket booking and purchasing businesses in terms of: a. Number of successful airline ticket bookings b. Number of successful airline ticket purchases c. Companies' Net Income d. Current total number of customers 3. How satisfied are the customers of Airline ticket online booking and purchasing and office airline ticket booking and purchasing businesses to the companies': a. Customer Services a.1. Customer-Customer Service Representative Interaction a.2. Customer assistance Office and Online 4 a.3. General facilities & accessibility a.4. Costs 6. Is there significant difference in the competitiveness and customer satisfaction of Airline ticket online booking and purchasing and office airline ticket booking and purchasing businesses? 7. Does level of competitiveness in Airline ticket online booking and purchasing and office airline ticket booking and purchasing businesses strongly relates with the level of their customers' satisfaction? Hypotheses: Ha1: There is a significant difference in the level of competitiveness and the level of customer satisfaction in Airline ticket online booking and purchasing and office airline ticket booking and purchasing businesses. Ho2: The level of competitiveness in Airline ticket online booking and purchasing and office airline ticket booking and purchasing businesses are not related with the level of customers' satisfaction. METHODOLOGY Design of the Study For this study, Quasi-experimental design will be employed in order measure the competitiveness level of the selected companies and also the satisfaction level of their costumers. According to Anderson (2008) this design do not involve random assignment of participants to treatment as well as of control groups. This type of study will compare outcomes for one group of individuals at three branches of the company before and after the group’s Office and Online 5 engagement to a program orientation (involves pre-test and post-test). Quasi-experimental studies can justify the cause and effects unlike true experiments. Participants Participants from traveling agencies who cater airline ticket booking and purchasing services, in-charge in the customer service or front desk in their office or online transaction will be selected to participate in the study. Their age must within 25-35 years; same length of service and must be working in the selected company considered in this study. The subjects will be group accordingly: First group is the control group and they are the thirty (30) representatives or workers who render services for at least 8 hours a day (5 days/week) in their respective offices. The second group consists of another thirty (30) workers who basically engage in online booking and purchasing transactions of an airline company, generally, they are affiliated to the company but are not required to carry out booking and purchasing services at the office setting. Sampling Techniques As previously stated, the selection of participants would not be in random manner. Obviously, not everyone can be the subject of the study since the investigation requires participants whose functions are directly involve in airline booking and purchasing transactions, meaning,it should ultimately be based on the company's profile. It will be advantageous if the company selected for this study is large enough to have quite huge number of employees or affiliates working with them. To avoid the biases, chosen participants must ideally match to the set of criteria. Office and Online 6 Research Instruments Survey questionnaires will be utilized in data collection. This the most common marketing research instruments. This type of tool can normally assess the level of customer satisfaction together with a particular product, customer service or experience; determine the present condition or status or situation of specific product or service; also compare and rank providers; and can help establish standards in customer service. Surveys allow companies to quickly acquire vital information with minimum expense and effort. Directness and time element are primary advantages of this method. In fact, seventy percent (70%) found people who administer surveys to generate positive impacts on society (Council of American Survey Research Organizations, 1999). However, one major disadvantage of this instrument and method is that the responses may possibly be influenced by the measurement or the exposure to biases (StatPac Inc., 2008) Validity and Reliability Measures To ensure accuracy and consistency of data results, the formulated survey questionnaires must carefully be validated by the experts and be revised. There must also be a pilot testing which needs to be done prior to the actual administration of survey forms. An orientation of the entire research procedures as well as the specific roles and functions of the participants must be conducted and be prioritized as well. In addition, three (3) to five (5) replications must also be done for the entire procedures with proper documentation of data. Note that it is important to fully recognize that conducting a comparison group study is can be both demanding and costly. It can also be exposed to errors and other extraneous variables. Thus, proponents needs to anticipate it at hand, and should be able to manage or control it. Office and Online 7 REFERENCES Anderson, K.M. (2008) Quasi-experimental evaluations:Part 6 in a series on practical evaluation methods. Child Trends, 04; p 1-4. Council of American Survey Research Organizations (CASRO), “The CASRO Poll About Polls, Summary and Charts,” http://www.casro.org/pdfs/SummaryCharts%20-%20Polls %20About%20Polls1.pdf. Center for the Study of Social Policy (2007) Customer satisfaction: improving quality and access to services and supports in vulnerable neighborhoods what the research tells us. A Publication Manual. 1575 Eye Street N.W. Suite 500 Washington D.C. 20005. StatPac, Inc. (2008)Survey and questionnaire design. Retrieved July 20, 2009 from http://www.statpac.com/surveys/index.htm. U.S. Department of Commerce, “Outlook for International Travel to the U.S.,” October 2008. Read More