Sample Research Proposal on Promoting Client Relation

Introduction             Every organisation may it be profit or non-profit, public or private sectors are subject to factors that affects their performance in terms of providing services to their target market.   The notion of providing quality services or products is one of the most used strategies by public and private organisation. The goal of this strategy is to satisfy their customers and build good relationship with them. However, because of the emergence of the new global economy, it brings new economics, new market structures, new marketing strategy, and new industry structures which changed the profile of customers (Palmer, 1996).   Organisations need to keep this development in mind to maintain its productive relationship with its customers.  In addition, these organisations should provide innovative solutions and services for managing customer relationships that optimize operating performance and accelerate financial results.  Hence, the main goal of this research paper is to determine the factors that will enable the company promote good relations with their customers. In addition, this will also attempt to identify the possible hindrances for having good relationship with the customers. In this study, the background, context and theme of the study are presented; the objectives of the study and the research statements are formulated. Here, vital concepts, questions and assumptions are stated. Finally, overview of the methodology to be used and the significance of the research are discussed. Further, this paper briefly reviews related literature.   Objective of the Study The research aims to determine the factors that will enable the company to promote good relations with the customers. Further, this study will also review related literatures to have some insights about these elements for having good relations with their target market.  The study also aims to provide insightful details regarding this issue to help different industries become competitive in the marketplace.   Research Questions             Many organisations and industries are trying to achieve its organisational goal by focusing on their target market. Most business is using different ways to have a good relation with their customers or clients. Hence, this study intends to determine the factors that will enable an organisation to promote good relations with their customer. Specifically, the research will attempt to answer the following queries. 1.      What are the factors that will help the company promote good relations with their customers. 2.      What are the possible hindrances that may affect the promotion of good relations with the customers? 3.      What marketing strategy can be implemented for assuring good customer relations?   Hypothesis             In this particular research, the researcher will focus on the following hypothesis:             "Providing quality Products and Service ensure good customer relations.'             "Meeting the needs of the customers ensure good customer relations."             "Using effective Customer Relationship Management helps in having good customer relations."   Literature Review             Superior customer service is a critical differentiator in an increasingly competitively marketplace. Companies that give customers what they want it will increase customer satisfaction and ultimately gain greater market share, generating more revenue and enjoying higher profitability (Ragins & Greco, 2003). Customer Relationship Marketing is a practice that encompasses all marketing activities directed toward establishing, developing, and maintaining successful customer relationships. The focus of relationship marketing is on developing long-term relationships and improving corporate performance through customer loyalty and customer retention (Peppers & Rogers, 1997). With the advent of the internet the dynamics of business have changed forever. Traditional business influences differentiators such as location; convenience and switching cost have become much less relevant. For businesses and organisations around the world, from banks and mortgage companies to manufacturers, universities and service companies- the playing field has been quickly and radically levelled. In the new business environment, one of the only ways left to differentiate your organisation from the competition is the quality of you customer service. Superior customer service gives customers real reasons for doing businesses with you. That's why industry analyst agree that inter based customer service is one of the biggest and most crucial opportunities available on the web today (Tan, Yen & Fang, 2002) Relationship Marketing can be seen as a means of gaining competitive advantage (Ragins & Greco, 2003) especially through the acquisition of intangible assets, such as knowledge, commitment and trust. Therefore, from a relationship marketing standpoint, particular importance is placed on achieving the goals of generating and increasing intangible resources (Knights & Morgan, 1991). Communications, transaction activities, information research are all parts of traditional marketing, but can marketers improve or streamline these traditional marketing processes? If we look toward and apply some of the ubiquitous electronic communications facilities, such as e-mail, online discussion groups and the World Wide Web readily at hand, and investigate some of the more esoteric electronic marketing resources, these processes can be improved or streamlined (Cohen & Moore, 2002). With these tools you can better research your products or services industry, better research environmental trends, better target your markets, maintain better knowledge of and communications with your current and prospective customers , and receive almost instantaneous feedback on new products or services.   Customer Relationship Management Customer relationship management has emerged as a strategy used to learn more about customers' needs and behaviors in order to develop stronger relationships with them.  It works on the fundamental tenet that the customers are at the heart business success. In general, the firm needs to value its customers based on the total value of their relationship with the company, the potential value of their relationship, the profitability of their relationship, the insights they can provide the company, and the influence that they wield over other customers.  Through these, the firm can have an effective customer relationship management without using any technological database or software (Butler 2000).             In brief, Customer relationship management  is a business strategy that attempts to ensure every customer interaction that is appropriate and consistent regardless of the communication channel and that CRM is a core business strategy for managing and optimizing customer interactions across the public or private's institutions' traditional and electronic interfaces. CRM can be used to gain clearer insight and more intimate understanding of customers' behaviors and in helping to build an effective competitive advantage and its relationship to the e-business process (Khirallah 2000) and that committed customers can be viewed as company assets who are likely to be a source of favourable referrals and are more resistant to competitors' offers (Khirallah 2000).   Overview of Methodology The study intends to determine the possible ways for promoting good relations with the customers. For this study, primary research and secondary research will be utilized. Primary research is conducted using questionnaire surveys that are sent to selected respondents. Here, the questionnaires will be used to collect quantitative data and the interviews will be used to provide qualitative insights into the data collected. As stated above, this research will partially base its findings through quantitative research methods because this permits a flexible and iterative approach. During data gathering the choice and design of methods are constantly modified, based on ongoing analysis. This study will also employ qualitative research method because it will try to find and build theories that will explain the relationship of one variable with another variable through qualitative elements in research. Through this method, qualitative elements that do not have standard measures such as behavior, attitudes, opinions, and beliefs within the business domain will be analyzed.   Respondents of the Study             In this research paper, it is important to distinguish and determines the respondents of the study.  The researcher plans to take a sample population of 30 managers from different companies. These respondents will be given informed consent to avoid problems.   Research Plan For this research design, the researcher will gather data, collate published studies from different local and foreign universities and articles from social science journals; and make a content analysis of the collected documentary and verbal material related to customer relations. Afterwards, the researcher will summarise all the information, make a conclusion based on the hypotheses posited and provided insightful recommendations on how to promote good customer relations.  Due to travel distance and time limitation, the researcher does not think it feasible to get quantitative data through survey and qualitative data through face-to-face interviews with these respondents. The questionnaire-survey will collect data on the respondents' demographic profile first to check that the sample is appropriately stratified and representative and second to provide further information about the sample for analysis purposes. To determine which strategies can promote good customer relations, the researcher will prepare a questionnaire and a set of guide questions for the interview that will be asked to the intended respondents. The data collection instrument will be a structured questionnaire that will be designed and based on Likert scale. A Likert Scale is a rating scale that requires the subject to indicate his or her degree of agreement or disagreement with a statement. Furthermore, another set of questionnaires will be prepared for the interview of experts in Information technology in different IT-based businesses. Ideally, the respondents will grade each statement in the survey-questionnaire using a Likert scale (Barnett, 1991), with a five-response scale wherein respondents will be given five response choices. The equivalent weights for the answers will be: Range                                    Interpretation 4.50 – 5.00                            Strongly Agree 3.50 – 4.00                            Agree 2.50 – 3.49                            Uncertain 1.50 – 2.49                            Disagree        0.00 – 1.49                            Strongly Disagree   The researcher opted to use the questionnaire as a tool since it is easy to construct having the rules and principles of construction are easy to follow. Moreover, copies of the questionnaire could reach a considerable number of respondents either by mail or by personal distribution. Generally, responses to a questionnaire are objectified and standardised and these make tabulation easy. But more importantly, the respondents' replies are of their own free will because there is no interviewer to influence them. This is one way to avoid biases, particularly the interviewers' bias. The researcher will also use graph and charts for data presentation.   Conclusions             With this research study, it can be concluded that in order for an organisation to have a good customer relations, they must be able to consider the needs of the customer and to satisfy them.  Customer relationship systems help organizations improve the profitability of their interactions with current and potential customers while at the same time making those interactions safer and friendlier through individualization and personalization. The marketing purpose and or goals of the concept of customer relations are to enhance customer service, improve customer satisfaction and ensure customer retention.             For this research, the plausible outcomes include the identification of the factors that may promote good customer relations for a company. In addition, with this research, it is expected that the researcher will also determine the possible hindrances that may obstruct the promotion of good customer relations.