Rent-a-Car Enterprise: Product Analysis - Research Proposal Example

Car rental Contents Introduction 2 Primary data research method 2 Secondary data research methods 3 Recommendations 5 Conclusion 6 Introduction Customer satisfaction is important and necessary to Rent-a-car Enterprises. As much as it is necessary, it needs to be evaluated in order to establish how satisfied their customers are with their products and services. Evaluating how much this is achieved requires a survey to be conducted. Although their mode of conducting the survey has yielded better response more than anticipated for the means used, there is room for improvement. To improve, the enterprise should or is recommended to adapt other means of collecting or gathering customers’ response about their services. There different means of conducting this surveys including primary data collection and secondary data collection in order to understand their key competitors. Both of this means will discussed in this paper. Primary data research method There several primary data collection methods that the enterprise could adopt. These include; use of employees, online survey and use of customer care centers. Use of employees is one of the quickest and easiest ways of getting response from the customer (Zikmund & Babin, 2006). This method uses key primary data collection methods including questionnaires, interviewing and sampling. Employees who come into contact with the customers get to ask for responses from the customers and get immediate response. The other way involves employees handing over questionnaires to the customers to get a first hand response and recommendations. The employee could also pick out random customers and interview them for responses. This is a more effective means as all customers get to come in contact with an employee and hence high levels of response. The advantages of this means include high level of response as all customers may hand in the response and recommendation. It is also quick since the response is immediate and it is way cheaper than the current means of survey. In involving the staff, customer feedbacks are responded to quickly and it indicates commitments to customer satisfaction Kotler, P. & Armstrong, G. (2007). Its limitations are few. They include; Customer manipulation by employees to fill inaccurate data or the employees filling on behalf of the customer would be the key challenge. The internet has become a major part of people’s lives today. Rent-a-car could take advantage of this and use the internet to conduct customer satisfaction surveys. It can be used just like the traditional suggestion boxes. The enterprise sets up their own website where their products could be accessed by anyone from anywhere. The questionnaires could be posted on the website where customers could fill them to give response or an avenue where comments about their services could be received is created on the site (Fleisher & Bensoussan, 2003). This works like the traditional suggestion boxes which should also be installed in the enterprise offices. This suggestion box gives the customer an avenue to give feedbacks and comments anonymously. The advantages of use the internet just like the suggestion box is that it is quick and cheap for the client hence motivating them to do that often while remaining anonymous (Wiid & Diggines, 2010). It also gives them the chance to remain anonymous and hence chances of better and accurate response. Its limitation includes; it may not be accessible to individual who do not have access to or knowledge of the internet. The enterprise could also set up customer care center. This is relevant to the satisfaction of the customer. This is because it provides the customer with an avenue to air out their concerns or give feed backs in real time as they occur. It is the most efficient way of carrying out survey and collecting primary data that would be relevant in improving customer satisfaction (Fleisher & Bensoussan, 2007). From the responses, customer satisfaction could easily be achieved and accuracy of the information readily established. This means has a lot of advantages which include; real time collection of data or responses, relevant additional information pertaining to response could be establish, degree of accuracy could be measured and concerns can be addressed immediately. Its limitations are few and include; it requires considerable amount of capital to establish and run and it would create additional expense on the customer Kotler, P. & Armstrong, G. (2007). But comparing it advantages to its limitation, it is a viable option that would greatly improve customer satisfaction. This is impartial and will show commitment to customer satisfaction. Secondary data research methods Benchmarking is also relevant to the enterprise. This involves comparing the enterprise with its major competitors (Fleisher & Bensoussan, 2007). Their main competitors are other companies who are offering the same or closely related services. It could also include motor dealers who could lease out their vehicles to businesses on long term basis. Getting to know its competitors gives Car-a-rental valuable advantage that the enterprise cannot ignore. To establish what its competitors are doing, secondary research methods are required. This involves profiling its key competitors, analysis of their products and systematic review (Zikmund & Babin, 2006). In undertaking these processes, the enterprise could establish what kind of competition it is up against. Profiling business key competitors is necessary and important to the enterprise. It gives it the upper hand when it comes to competition. It uses general information about the competitor that is available from the media, magazines, their website and their trends in the market. Profiling could show competitors strategic weaknesses and could point out how they could be easily exploited (Wiid & Diggines, 2010). It also gives the firm an opportunity to anticipate the response by their rivals pertaining to their market strategy and surprise retaliation could be planned in advance (Fleisher & Bensoussan, 2007). It also gives the enterprise strategic agility in exploiting and capitalizing on opportunities. Furthermore, defensive measures could be used more deftly to counter competitor’s threats. Profiling sheds light on business competitors, products, finances, markets, personnel, strategies and background. This is relevant if the enterprise wants to stay ahead of their competitors and maximize on their competitors misfortune (Fleisher & Bensoussan, 2007). Competitor’s products and services analysis is also important. It is an advance profiling as this is based on the product only and not the whole company. It involves an extensive analysis of the business competitor’s products and services in order to establish their strengths and weakness while at the same time comparing it to its own products. This gives the enterprise a competitive advantage over their competitors as they get the opportunity to work on their weakness and improve on their strengths (Zikmund & Babin, 2006). According to Wiid and Diggines (2010) product analysis involves studying their market strategy and campaigns for their key products or services delivery criteria and all information pertaining to their products and services. This information can be accessed from market analysis, from the media, actual sampling of their services and other means. This info could provide high levels of accuracy when doing product analysis and would provide clear picture of what the product is and would be time relevant. Its advantages are similar to those of profiling and would also include improvements required for the enterprise’s products to be identified. It is vital to understand what kind of challenge the business products are likely to get in the market and therefore caution should be taken in selecting the information to be used in analyzing of competitors’ product (Fleisher & Bensoussan, 2007). If done correctly, the organization improves their competitive advantage. Systemic review could also be known as desk research. It involves collations, summary and synthesis of data from research. This is where all useful data is arranged into an order which makes sense and analyzed to establish an objective (Wiid & Diggines, 2010). After collecting data on your competitors using primary means, it is important that this data be sorted out into an orderly manner as it was collected through different means. After sorting out it is analyzed to extract useful and relevant info that would help the enterprise. Afterwards, it is vetted to establish its degree of accuracy and whether it can be used in judging of the competitors. This method is important as without it all data collected from primary sources would be irrelevant and meaningless to the enterprise. This process is carried out by trained personnel and should not be interfered with as a simple mistake would cause a big error in the results. Wrong results will lead to wrong measures been undertaken that could cost the enterprise a lot in terms of finances and other resources like time. It would also eliminate the advantage the company had against its competitors. But if it is carried in the correct and appropriate manner and by the correctly trained personnel, a clear understanding of once competitors could be established depending on the quality of information used. This is a very vital process for the company and cannot be avoided if it is really interested in getting to know their clients. Recommendations There are several ways in which one can implement to increase response rate and the timeliness of feedback from the research process. The first one involves motivating and training the staff. The staff that carries out this research should be properly trained in customer relation and data collecting strategies. This is because if they do not, it would be close to impossible to get responses from the customers or they may collect irrelevant information. Motivation of the same staff by awarding the best performers will give them the drive to collect the feedback in appropriate way and in due time. The other way involves, offering rewards to customers who participate in this exercise. This could be accomplished by initiating a game where lucky customers stand to win a reward if they take part in the exercise and offer valuable information. This will motivate customers to take part in the exercise more improving timeliness and the response rate. Marketing campaigns to motivate customers to take part and offer their response could be undertaken. This could be done through the media or included in current marketing campaigns. This is important as customers get to understand how valuable their response is and hence motivating them to give their opinion as it will be considered. Conclusion Rent-a-car enterprise needs to change their surveying methods. This is because, even though their current method has yielded surprising high response, it is not efficient and its response may be untimely. To improve on their feedback, they need to adopt the few proposed methods mentioned above as it will ensure that they get the responses they desire. In getting to understand their competitors, they are advised to carry out the above recommended methods which include profiling, product analysis and systematic review. Further, to increasing feedback, they could use promotions and marketing campaigns. References Fleisher, C. & Bensoussan, B. (2003). Strategic and Competitive Analysis: Methods and Techniques for Analyzing Business Competition. New York: Prentice Hall. Fleisher, R. & Bensoussan, B. (2007). Business and Competitive Analysis: Effective Application of New and Classic Methods. New York: FT Press. Kotler, P. & Armstrong, G. (2007). Principles of Marketing. (13th Ed). Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Pearson Education, pp. 156-7. Wiid, J. & Diggines, C. (2010). Marketing Research. Sydney: Juta and Company Ltd. Zikmund, W. & Babin, B. (2006). Exploring Marketing Research. New York: Cengage Learning. Read More