Essay: Customer Satisfaction For Starbucks Instore Experience And Kiwi Flavored Drink.

How satisfied our customer Starbucks instore experience Introduction of local flavour Iconic kiwi Flavour Iconic Kiwi Starbucks drink.

Organizations globally are striving to adopt innovation and other means to achieve customer satisfaction (Grewal, Chandrashekaran, & Citrin, 2010). Customer satisfaction drives sales and profitability which in turn is provides companies with growth. Market research methods are adopted such that customer satisfaction can be attended. Market research methods encompass diversified means and methods for collecting country wise data and then industry factor data. Internal capability analysis of the Company also needs to be conducted to understand, the company’s capability to grow and expand their businesses. The scope of the current analysis deals with Starbucks coffee shop in New Zealand.

Starbucks Corporation is an American coffee company founded in Seattle, Washington with currently worldwide operations. Jerry Balswin, Zev Siegl and Gordon Bowker are the founding members of the coffee store and currently Myron E. Ullman is the Chairman, Mellody hobson is Vice Chairman and Kevin Johnson is President and CEO for the Company. The Company’s worldwide revenue earning is US$22.387 billion as of 2017 with over 238,000 employees. The New Zealand branch of the Company’s business is profitable however is faced by intense competitive pressures which forces it to devise innovative products. In New Zealand, product development department has introduced kiwi flavored drink (Eisingerich, Auh  & Merlo, 2014). Hence the scope of this study encompasses research methods and procedures to understand if the product will be able to provide customer satisfaction through data collection methods. 

New Zealand is a rapidly developing economy characterized by open markets. Globalized firms are easily able to set up their operations in New Zealand given the easy requirements of setting up business in the country (Marinova, Ye & Singh, 2008). The government within the country is also providing impetus to local entrepreneurs to establish business with ease of access to funds and loan facilities. This has led to emergence of a number of indigenous coffee stores in the country.

Due to large number of coffee shop presence and limited population, companies within the country face tremendous competition (Jacobson & Mizik, 2009). Due to industry rivalry amongst coffee stores within the Country, Starbucks, which is global player in coffee and beverage business in order to emerge as a leader in the country continuously innovates products and services.

Recently the Company has introduced kiwi flavored drink. Introduction to its menu is done often in order to gain customer surprise and satisfaction. However in this current menu introduction a survey of customers has to be conducted to so as to understand whether customer is satisfied or not (Kim & Seoung, 2011). The problem definition here includes identifying customer satisfaction rates with the new menu, in order to determine such research objectives and research questions needs to be defined in detail as given below.

Research Objectives

Figure 1: Starbucks Position in the Market Quality/Price

Source: Author

In order to attain aims of the research which is as given below, there are various objectives that needs to be attended to;

Research Aim: Understand Customer Satisfaction from the newly introduced kiwi flavored drink

Below are some of the research objectives;

Research Objective 1: To analyse satisfaction of Starbucks customer related to their in- store experienceResearch Objective 2: To analyse satisfaction from introduced local flavor Iconic Kiwi Starbucks drink

Research Objective 3:To understand overall customer perception related to Starbucks quality and price

Research Questions 

In order to attain to the research aims and objectives, the following research questions needs to be adhered to.

Research Question 1: What is customer satisfaction of Starbucks in their in-store experience?Research Question 2: Are the customers satisfied from newly introduced local flavor Iconic Kiwi Starbucks drink?

Research Question 3:What is the overall customer perception related to Starbucks quality and price?

The proposed study will be conducted using positivism research philosophy with exploratory research design (Brannen, 2017). This study through exploratory research design, will aim at exploring research questions to arrive at final and conclusive solution to arrive at existing problems. The scope of the current research design is not directed at providing conclusive evidences however, it will allow analysing the existing problem in a better manner. In this study Starbucks has comparatively lower position within coffee stores in New Zealand, in spite of its global dominance in coffee business (Tu, Wang & Chang, 2012). Through analysis of customer’s perception related to its newly introduced product, its overall in-store perception and understanding its price and quality perception will allow the Company to extend its products in a better manner.

Qualitative data had been mostly collected for the study from sources secondary in nature. Primary sources had not been resorted to by the scholar due to lack of time and resources to establish the study (Neuman, 2013). Through secondary data collection from journals and several internet sources, the study has been developed and sourced. The Company will be also able to extend its brand perception in an enhanced fashion. This study through exploratory research will provide basis for more conclusive research, which in turn will allow tacking new problems regarding this study. This design will allow developing range of solutions for research problem to be identified (Rothman, Greenland & Lash, 2008). This design was selected due to its capability to adapt and be flexible and providing groundwork for future studies to take shape.                

Research Questions

Data collected from sources secondary in nature to arrive at the certain findings related to the study. The findings for the study had been developed using qualitative analysis from the data collected relating them to research questions (Chua & Banerjee, 2013). Through exploratory design answers to the research questions helped reveal the following secondary findings related to the study.

Collection of several data collected from journals and internet sources revealed that in-store experience of customers was connected to SERVQUAL (Hafeez & Muhammad, 2012). SERVQUAL includes identifying tangibles, reliability, responsiveness, assurance and empathy.      

• Tangibles:Starbucks coffee shops have glass walls which allows see-through. All stores of Starbucks have parking facilities so that customers can easily park their cars. The store layout is neat and kept tidy with wooden furnishing. The walls are painted with coffee colors to give customers an appeal and smell of coffee brews is present in store. The coffee brewers are placed on the service tables of the coffee shops and personnel serves with smiling face and courteous behaviours. Generally locals from the place are employed which allows ease of interactions with customers visiting the coffee store. A well-defined menu is placed on each table with pricing on the right from which customers can make their choices. A brief description of each menu is given below each name. Coffee is served in large mugs with logo of the Starbucks to appeal customers.        
• Reliability:Starbucks regularly caters to the best quality coffee taste to which it promises. The coffee, drinks and other food menu is of high quality and fresh, which provides customer satisfaction.    
• Responsiveness:Employees at the coffee store are responsive as it allows customer with prompt service. However, there is one problem faced by customers at New Zealand stores, which was found upon analysis. There is delay in serving orders one placed especially in new menus devised. The stores at New Zealand have introduced newly flavored drinks at its stores however there is just one chef who prepares the concentrate and is able to mix it appropriately with the coffee. This has created a lot of customer dissatisfaction.         
• Assurance:Knowledge and courtesy of employees at Starbucks is tremendous as they are able to instill trust and confidence amongst customers. The employees communicate in a trustworthy manner and are able to service customers well. They provide a sense of comfort to customers visiting their stores.   
• Empathy:Though it was difficult to analyse empathy of the firm towards its customers, yet detailed analysis regarding its customer feedback revealed a lot. Starbucks is a store which designs menus based on its country location; it also tries to adjust its standard menus to local tastes. This proves that Starbucks is capable of empathizing with its customers so as to provide them maximum possible benefits.  

Service quality analysis at Starbucks stores in New Zealand reveal that due to lack of trained staffs there is often delay in servicing customers. This could be one of the factors which have led to growing dissent and in lack of customer satisfaction rates. Moreover, in cases of regular orders as well, the wait period is considerably less compared to other stores across New Zealand. Such delays often lead to impatient amongst young people, who plans Starbucks for their weekends when they have time at hand. This affects the business of Starbucks substantially by losing out on its revenues.         

Starbucks has a stable influx of customers and regular visitors. Brand loyalty of customer’s towards Starbucks is significantly higher compared to other coffee and beverages company. With Starbucks frequently able to surprise its customers with new product launches, it is able to generate steady customers regularly (Verhoef et al., 2009). In New Zealand also Starbucks has been able to attract sizable proportion of customers to its stores with new product introduction. Through stable advertisement and social media followers it has been successful in generating curiousness amongst its customer demographics which it wants to cater to for this drink. Mostly young people aged 10 years to 25 years, school, college and officer goers would prefer to try on this drink. As this drink is priced at substantially affordable levels it has been able to attract large customer influx. Moreover, there is considerable amount of repeated purchases that is taking place for the drink, which establishes that customer likeliness towards the product.

Starbucks all around the world has been able to position itself as being pioneer of coffee and beverages manufacture. The Company enjoys leadership position within the world when compared to other companies; no other coffee maker has been able to compete globally with Starbucks (Yuan & Wu, 2008). The Company has emerged globally as a leading chain of coffee and Beverage Company with local competitors only. This has led to the Company often charging exorbitant prices for some of its products. The Company seemingly charges such prices for its brand value which is high and can be evaluated with other food and beverages companies from around the world. The Company has tall claims regarding the quality of coffee beans that it uses and the method of coffee brewing that it adopts. The Company is regarding as a pioneer in the coffee brewing business. In New Zealand there exist a most competitors, who copy steps that are adopted by Starbucks to become second best in the industry. However, due to smaller scales of operations they are able to charge lower prices compared to Starbucks. This has led to competitive disadvantage for Starbucks.      

Research Design

However in spite of global leadership and position, customers in New Zealand view products of the Company to be priced highly. Though there is significant dependence on quality of the product yet customers are of the view that the products offered at Starbucks is over-priced often. The price when matched against quality leads to a lower position of the company within the market. This has led to the Company losing its market share in New Zealand. Thus, the Company needs to expand its offerings to enhance its brand position and also competitive position in the market. The company needs to devise steps such that it is able to overcome its current pricing related challenge and emerge as market leader with its core competencies that are present.       

Research method determination is a crucial step towards conducting any type of research (Thomas, Silverman & Nelson, 2015). In this study also an appropriate and adequate research method has to be devised so that the study is able to arrive at its aim and fulfill its stated research objectives. In the current study a qualitative method has been used for data collection as well as its analysis techniques. The proposed qualitative methods for data collection have been conducted from sources secondary in nature. Moreover, an inductive technique for data analysis has been applied. Each data has been collected either from journal sources or from internet sources (Rubin  & Babbie, 2016). These data had been then jotted down and subsequently analysed on basis of the research questions that had been posed for the study. Mostly, method of observation had been followed from subsequent journals and internet sources, wherein year on year data was collected. Changes in customer satisfaction rates had been analysed by understanding and observing data from one year to the other. The changes helped to reveal findings of the study and arrive at suitable conclusion. However such findings are not conclusive in nature and detailed findings using quantitative techniques can reveal much dearth of information (Sekaran & Bougie, 2016). 

Research methods for this study will include searching for various articles and journals from Google Scholar as well as business website of New Zealand. Internet websites will be searched thoroughly for customer satisfaction rates form New Zealand for Starbucks coffee store as well as other coffee stores. Searches will also include rising demand or beverages in New Zealand and consumer demand patter. These all sources will be assembled to understand customer’s perception of satisfaction and quality of beverages in New Zealand. Once these all sources have been identified and assembled then through qualitative design findings will be arrived at to reveal detailed insights regarding the research questions.   

Secondary Findings

Conclusion

Analysis of the above secondary findings of the study reveals various issues faced by Starbucks. The study here analysis the key to customer satisfaction at Starbuck coffee store. With introduction of newly kiwi flavored drink the store expects to generate new customer influx and customer curiousness. The research approach identifies the various elements of customer satisfaction by attempting at the research questions. Through exploratory research design, the concept of customer satisfaction and customer reaction towards the newly floured drink can easily be generated. Secondary collected data analysis reveals several facts regarding customer perception of price, quality and in-store experience of customers, which in turn is used to analyse levels of customer satisfaction. The client organization here, Starbucks will need to identify ways and means to bridge its service gap and pricing strategy such that it is able to increase its market share and also customer satisfaction rates.   

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