Table of Contents

1. Introduction .................................................................................................. 2
2. Problem Identification .................................................................................. 3
2.2 Complaints ...................................................................................3
2.2.1 Complaint analysis ....................................................................... 3

3. Solutions ...................................................................................................... 5
3.1 Conduct a customer satisfaction survey ...................................... 5
3.2 Internal Survey by the graduate students .................................... 6
4. Analysing the Survey Results ...................................................................... 7
5. Discussion ..................................................................................................10
5.1 Challenges that might exist to hinder changes at the books store
and quality improvement. ...........................................................10
5.1.1 Internal Issues ............................................................................10

5.1.2 External Issues ...........................................................................10

5.2 Benefit that would result from quality improvement at the

bookstores ................................................................................. 10
5.3 Proposed action plans to improve the quality at the bookstores.
...................................................................................................11
6 Conclusions ............................................................................................... 14
7. Appendices ................................................................................................ 15
Student Number: U1446003 Module Code: MKM109

CASE STUDY: QUALITY PROBLEMS AT THE TECH SERVICES BOOKSTORES

1. Introduction

The concern of service quality is always inter-related with customer

perception and customers are very valuable to any industries. Quality
can be defined as the features and characteristics of a product or
service that bears on its ability to satisfy stated or implied needs of a
customer. Enchanting customers with the best quality of service can
make them faithful and loyal to our product or services.

Thus, we will focus on case study on Tech Services bookstore. It’s an

incorporated university bookstores that operates one on campus
bookstore and one off campus bookstore at nearby mall. The on
campus store mainly sells school textbooks, school licensed apparel,
school supplies and gifts. And the other store located at the mall sells
school supplies, text books and licensed apparel, gifts and it has larger
trade book department.

The on campus store is within walking distance of university campus

and the off-campus store is not within the walking distance from the
campus.

The bookstores sell texts books at low mark-ups to accommodate the

student customers but all other merchandises in slightly higher margin.
In past few years the sales and profits for booth stores have
satisfactory though the bookstore management have been having
number of service quality related issue at the store that concerns the
Board of Directors of Tech bookstores.

2
Student Number: U1446003 Module Code: MKM109

CASE STUDY: QUALITY PROBLEMS AT THE TECH SERVICES BOOKSTORES

2. Problem Identification

Good quality customer service is one of the most important attributes of

a retail store (Bishop Gagliano and Hathcote, 1994, pp. 61) and there
have been number of complaints received at the Tech bookstores in
regards to service quality in recent days. Understanding the fact that
satisfying customers is a core business challenge (Maddern et al.,
2007, pp.998), the Board of Directors of Tech Services bookstores
have requested Mr. Watson, the Executive Director who looks after the
overall operations of the stores to perform an assessment in terms of
service quality at the Tech bookstores.

2.2 Complaints

As stated in the case study, the customer complaints that received

by Tech services bookstores are identified as follows:

 A student employee was arrested for drug possession.

 There was a shouting match between customer and student
employee due to student employee do not know where to locate
the book
 Argument broke between a student employee and the customer
on the return policy of an online purchasing.
 Difficulty of purchase due to unmanned register at the store
 Employee spending more unproductive time by talking together
in the store.

2.2.1 Complaint analysis

Understanding customer complaints is an opportunity to not only

resolve the problems for that particular customers but perhaps also
for a much larger groups of customers in a long run.

3
Student Number: U1446003 Module Code: MKM109

CASE STUDY: QUALITY PROBLEMS AT THE TECH SERVICES BOOKSTORES

Therefore, based on the simple analogy on all received complaints

from Tech services bookstores; the complaints can be categorised
into these main areas of concerns as below:

i. Time and timeliness

 Reduction in terms waiting time to search and purchase
books
 Quick response of service personnel to customer
requests

ii. Completeness
 Keeping up an acceptable level of stocks to meet client
prerequisites

iii. Courtesy
 Treat the customers/clients in a approachable and
friendly manner
 Politeness towards customer
 Pleasant approach to customers queries and
complaints

iv. Consistency
 Equally treat all clients/customers consistently at all
times.

v. Accessibility and Convenience

 Maintain knowledgeable employees by providing
sufficient trainings
 Maintain a proper layout that makes convenience in
store for easy reference

4
Student Number: U1446003 Module Code: MKM109

CASE STUDY: QUALITY PROBLEMS AT THE TECH SERVICES BOOKSTORES

vi. Accuracy
 Deliver what customer requires accurately
 Ensure the accuracy of billing information
 Ensure the correct information available in the website
at any time and information is communicated well

vii. Responsiveness
 Responding to customer needs adequately and
satisfactorily

3. Solutions

In order to identify the problems, Mr Watson initially made random

surprise visits to the bookstores to see if he could detect any problems.
However, the news on Mr Watson’s inspection spread among the
student employees prior to his visits and whenever he entered the
stores he realise that his employees are aware of his inspection.
Therefore, he abandoned the idea and tried other methods to identify
the root cause of problem.

The concept of service quality must be approached from the

customers’ perspective (Edvardsson, 1998. Pp142). Therefore, to
address the problems and find solutions Mr Watson, the Executive
Director of Tech bookstores implemented two measures, as follows:

3.1 Conduct a customer satisfaction survey

Customer satisfaction survey is the most efficient and economical

way to measure customer satisfaction. The concept is to give us
anonymous and definite insight into our customers’ thought and
perceptions of our products or services or overall perception of the
company as customer direct involvement can be most effective to
amplify the rapport and satisfaction (Kayeser Fatima and Abdur
Razzaque, 2013, pp. 465). Here are the some of the advantages

5
Student Number: U1446003 Module Code: MKM109

CASE STUDY: QUALITY PROBLEMS AT THE TECH SERVICES BOOKSTORES

why Mr Watson chooses to conduct a customer satisfaction

survey:

i. Up-to-date feedback: Mr Watson able to gather current

customer feedback on various aspects of the bookstores
operations.
ii. Easy to conduct and low cost: the survey can be created
quickly and administered easily.
iii. Show that ‘we care’: generally customers like to be asked for
their feedback. It gives customer the perception that your
organisation values them.

3.2 Internal Survey by the graduate students

The quality of the interaction and service among the inside

customers who consist of individual employees and workgroups
are equally critical as much as external customers as they are the
staffs hired to serve the outside customers.

Therefore, Mr Watson hired several graduate students to pose as

customer and make purchases while ask specific questions from
the floor employees (sales clerk particularly) and report back their
experiences.

This method enables Tech Bookstores to know the internal issues

and how knowledgeable they are. Internal customer perceptions
of service quality are easier to identified (Soteriou and Stavrinides,
1997, Pp.781) and it’s effective as well.

6
Student Number: U1446003 Module Code: MKM109

CASE STUDY: QUALITY PROBLEMS AT THE TECH SERVICES BOOKSTORES

4. Analysing the Survey Results

A commitment to service quality depends on the staffs that deliver the
services; the flexibility of service provided and the knowledge of the
staffs of about customers concerns. Customer demands for better
service that can meet their needs.

The customer satisfaction survey result table and the analysis are
provided in pareto chart form in Appendix 1.

The studies on the customer satisfaction conducted among the

customers of Tech Services bookstores conducted suggest that the
followings are the major challenges and problems that bookstore are
facing.

a) Lack of customer focus

Decent customer service keeps customers coming back. It is important
that a business have effective customer service policy in place and
good personnel. Keeping customers happy, and getting them to tell
others about the great service they received, will propel a business
forward, whereas a bad customer service policy will damage the
reputation of the company in several ways. Ultimately, bad customer
service can cause the closure of a business if the no controls are being
implemented.

b) Unmindful recruitment process

Due to company policy to hire student a common drawback in this
concept is lack of commitment. Student part-time employees usually
have less commitment because they spend less time and find it easier
to leave which has led to the secondary problem which is high turnover
in employment.

7
Student Number: U1446003 Module Code: MKM109

CASE STUDY: QUALITY PROBLEMS AT THE TECH SERVICES BOOKSTORES

The second major issue in hiring student employees are lack of

knowledge. Part-time workers especially those that work seasonally,
usually have less knowledge and familiarity of the store. This can
largely affect employee performance on both task and service. And
training the student employees take longer and sometime not effective
due to high turnover of employees in short period of time.

c) Less induction and training program

Employees contribute substantially to success of an organization
especially when they are well trained to perform their jobs according to
industry standard. Some organization considers in-debt training an
unnecessary expense and expects the new employees to learn on the
job from the seniors. This type of training is inadequate and potentially
creates problem especially in service quality. Tech book stores solely
rely on students employees and due to high turnover most of the store
employees are inadequately trained to handle the customers. This has
become one of the major issues at Tech bookstore.

d) Lack of courtesy among the employees

Another set-back of hiring student employees are often these groups
of employees often lack of courtesy, friendliness and helpfulness.
These aspects are very crucial in retail shop. Due to high level of
student recruitment in floor level employment Tech Bookstore facing
certain amount of challenges in this aspect.

e) Lack of management commitment

Leadership is the main driver of the business and management
commitment in the overall quality management is vital for any
business. However at Tech Book store’s case study, they have
displayed the slight inadequacies in the involvement of top
management in their daily activities in the stores or anyone in student
employee level to monitor the floor staff.

8
Student Number: U1446003 Module Code: MKM109

CASE STUDY: QUALITY PROBLEMS AT THE TECH SERVICES BOOKSTORES

f) Lack of knowledge
Lack of knowledge is also can be consider one of the main quality
problem faced by the bookstore. There was a case involved student
employee didn’t know about the return book policy and there is one
more case where employees could not locate a well-known book on
the bookstore computer system. Part-time workers especially those
that work seasonally, usually have less knowledge and familiarity of
the store. This can largely affect employee performance on both task
and service.

g) Inappropriate arrangements of books

Lack of knowledge and high turnover among the floor employees at
the store resulted inappropriate arrangement of books and other
items at the store.in a long run, the arrangement has become
unrecognizable and create issues among employees to locate the
right books or merchandise when customer request for it. In any
bookstores, the arrangement of books systematically is vital to the
business.

9
Student Number: U1446003 Module Code: MKM109

CASE STUDY: QUALITY PROBLEMS AT THE TECH SERVICES BOOKSTORES

5. Discussions

Here are the numbers of main discussion points derived from the Tech
Bookstore case study.

5.1 Challenges that might exist to hinder changes at the books

store and quality improvement.

Effective execution of changes in quality administration requires an

assessment of the organisational culture (Maull, Brown and Cliffe,
2001, Pp. 303)

5.1.1 Internal Issues

 Lack of control over part time student employees
 Negative attitude towards system upgrades
 Employee redundancy and grievances due to technology
usage

5.1.2 External Issues

 Pressure on maintaining low prices
 Have long standing policy of selling textbooks with a
very small mark-ups
 Lack of funds since high margin of profit is channelled to
fund student related projects)

5.2 Benefit that would result from quality improvement at the

bookstores

The overall result from quality improvement at the Tech

bookstores can be divided into three main sections as below:

10
Student Number: U1446003 Module Code: MKM109

CASE STUDY: QUALITY PROBLEMS AT THE TECH SERVICES BOOKSTORES

i) To the book store

 The store can anticipate higher number of repeat and
business and referrals from a satisfied customer base
 To enhanced the reputation of the university bookstores
in the business and its market share.
 Improves the morale and stimulates creativity of student
employees

ii) To the employees

 To improved awareness amongst locations of book stores
 To improve the overall morale of student employees
 Some changes allows opportunity to participate in
decision making

iii) To the customer

 Higher quality service and overall satisfaction of good
service
 Increased reliability of the end product among to
customers
 Increase the customer own satisfaction and experience

5.3 Proposed action plans to improve the quality at the

bookstores.

a) Conduct training programs aimed at student employees

 All employees including part-time student employees must
attend the induction programme explaining the main
objective of the customer service and equip them with
right skills to tackle customers efficiently.

11
Student Number: U1446003 Module Code: MKM109

CASE STUDY: QUALITY PROBLEMS AT THE TECH SERVICES BOOKSTORES

b) Incentive schemes to staff on attracting customers

 The defining element of service sector is mainly lies in its
delivery system and the employers are depending on the
skills and capabilities of those they employ (Nankervis et
al., 2005, pp.299). The employee incentive scheme is one
of the effective concepts to retain and motivate the
performing staff. The benefit of concept affects both
employees and customers; .employees works harder or
efficiently in order to achieve the ultimate target and
customers gets good service quality.

c) Maintain a suggestion box

 It is generally agreed that Suggestion Box gives
customers a voice to articulate what they would like to see
done differently. By placing a suggestion box in the Tech
Services bookstores, customer would be able to provide
their opinions and suggestions. In turn, patrons of
bookstores are more likely to make continued use of
suggestion box if they feel that the bookstore will act on
the comments. As for the Tech Services bookstore, the
suggestion box could be overlooked as it provides both
rich source of qualitative data and longstanding method to
determine how well the bookstores are doing.

d) Develop a proper return policy & communicate it clearly

 Store return policy is part of marketing tactic therefore
Tech Services bookstore must clearly communicate their
return policy to all including employees and customers.
All front-line employees must aware of the return policy
so that they could communicate the policy accurately to
all customers. The policy also must be displayed either at
each entrance to the store, at each cash register and

12
Student Number: U1446003 Module Code: MKM109

CASE STUDY: QUALITY PROBLEMS AT THE TECH SERVICES BOOKSTORES

sales counter, on tags attached to each item, or on the

company's order forms, if any. A return policy also to be
printed on the receipt for online purchase as well.

e) Implement a camera system to detect and control

employee misbehaviours
 Technology has brought considerable benefit (FYFE, 2007,
pp. 515) and closed circuit television (CCTV) is one of
them that most of businesses could not live without. The
benefit of installing this technology has brought to retail
industry - as it provides higher level of confidence and
security at retails shops such as Tech bookstore. In
addition to provide safer environment for employees and
business owners, CCTV can greatly improve business
efficiencies from both employees and customers’
perspectives. CCTV monitoring largely prevent staff
inefficiencies and misconduct as well.

f) Appoint a leader, responsible for quality issues from

employees in the bookstore on daily basis (on each shift)
 Managing of the staff is a most critical issue in service
industry (Grönroos, 1988, pp.12) therefore, within the
student employee team, it is important to find someone
who has the skills and passion to effectively organise and
motivate the rest of the staff members and appoint him or
her as a leader. Hiring a leader to oversee the student
employee team will help to delegate management
responsibilities and motivates the student employees to
take leadership roles. And delegating more and more
tasks will lead to a greater sense of empowerment
amongst them and gives them motivation to produce high-
quality work.

13
Student Number: U1446003 Module Code: MKM109

CASE STUDY: QUALITY PROBLEMS AT THE TECH SERVICES BOOKSTORES

6 Conclusions

The customers that satisfied will continuously patronage the outlets and
ultimately this will results in positive financial benefits to the organisation
(Ranaweera and Neely, 2003, pp. 230). And Tech Services Bookstores
have taken initiative to improve their service quality in order to maintain
their reputation as one of the sought after bookstores among the
students. the management of Tech Services bookstores should use the
information gathered via their survey to improve the services rendered to
their customers and satisfy the needs of the customers. If the initiatives
taken to identified the root cause of the service issues being properly
mitigated with strong controls, Tech Services bookstores should be able
to maintain a high service quality level and subsequently increase the
business profit. Since most of the profit are being channelled to fund the
student activities, the more the profit the bookstore generates the more
students are being benefitted.

- Word Count: 2545

14
Student Number: U1446003 Module Code: MKM109

CASE STUDY: QUALITY PROBLEMS AT THE TECH SERVICES BOOKSTORES

7. Appendices
Appendix 1- Pareto Chart analysis

Chart 1- On campus student issues

Chart 1a - On campus non-student issues

15
Student Number: U1446003 Module Code: MKM109

CASE STUDY: QUALITY PROBLEMS AT THE TECH SERVICES BOOKSTORES

Chart 2 - Off campus student issues

Chart 2a - Off campus non-student issues

16
Student Number: U1446003 Module Code: MKM109

CASE STUDY: QUALITY PROBLEMS AT THE TECH SERVICES BOOKSTORES

References

Bishop Gagliano, K. and Hathcote, J. (1994). ‘Customer Expectations and

Perceptions of Service Quality in Retail Apparel Specialty Stores’. Journal
of Services Marketing, 8(1), pp.60-69.

Edvardsson, B. (1998). ‘Service quality improvement’. Managing Service

Quality: An International Journal, 8(2), pp.142-149.
FYFE, N. (2007). Coleman, R. (2004) ‘Reclaiming the Streets: Surveillance,
social control and the city’. Cullompton: Willan Publishing. pp. 278, £30.00,
hbk. Journal of Social Policy, 36(03), p.515.

Grönroos, C. (1988). ‘New Competition in the Service Economy: The Five

Rules of Service’. International Journal of Operations & Productions
Management, 8(3), pp.9-19.
Kayeser Fatima, J. and Abdur Razzaque, M. (2013). ‘Roles of customer
involvement in rapport and satisfaction’. Asia Pacific Journal of Marketing
& Log, 25(3), pp.452-471.
Maddern, H., Maull, R., Smart, A. and Baker, P. (2007). ‘Customer
satisfaction and service quality in UK financial services’. International
Journal of Operations & Production Management, 27(9), pp.999-1019.
Maull, R., Brown, P. and Cliffe, R. (2001). ‘Organisational culture and quality
improvement’. International Journal of Operations & Production
Management, 21(3), pp.302-326.
Nankervis, A., Miyamoto, Y., Taylor, R. and Milton-Smith, J. (2005). Managing
Services. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Ranaweera, C. and Neely, A. (2003). ‘Some moderating effects on the service

quality‐customer retention link’. International Journal of Operations &
Production Management, 23(2), pp.230-248.
Soteriou, A. and Stavrinides, Y. (1997). ‘An internal customer service quality
data envelopment analysis model for bank branches’. International Journal
of Operations & Production Management, 17(8), pp.780-789.

17