Knowledge Gap between the Vendors and Customers: A Comprehensive Study on the Fast Food Outlets of Basundhara City Food Court and their Customers

Abstract

In most of the business, there is always a possibility of the existence of knowledge gap between the business owners and their customers. Like any other business, the growing fast food industry in Bangladesh might be facing this problem. If the fast food vendors do not have proper idea about the expectations of the customers, they are less likely to satisfy them by providing what they need. Therefore, this research aims to identify if there any knowledge gap exists between the Basundahra City food court vendors’ perception the about customer deciding and satisfying factors and the actual factors considered by the customers and their actual effects in the industry. Necessary data will be collected using questionnaires and secondary data will be used as well for analyses which will include hypothesis testing and correlation.

Introduction & Background

The fast food industry started in early 90’s in Bangladesh. Worldwide, the customer base of fast food stores is the usually almost its total population but in Bangladesh, the younger generation and the growing middle class have been the main customers of this new tremd. After starting the first fast food shops at Bailey Road, the industry has spreaded exponentially over the city opening thousands of stores. The fast food industry has around Tk. 8.0 million of sales only in the capital city everyday, which puts the gross revenue of these fast food vendors Tk. 3.0 billion annually. The size of the industry has become Tk. 10 billion and it is still growing. [1] [2]

The fast food shops are mostly popular within the university students indicated by a study where 98.5% of them chose fast food over regular meal and approximately 22% mentioned that they consumed fast food 4 days per week where 21.3 % reported to have fast food for everyday of the week.[3] According to Ahmed, Hossain, Malek & Begum, 2008, the upper society has accepted the fast food as an aristocrat trend. Moreover, most office, work places and seminars have started the trend of consuming fast food. [4]

Most of the fast food outlets are situated in the shopping malls. Our study mainly focuses on the food court of the biggest shopping mall of the country. Basundhara City is a 19 storey high building complex covering an area of 191200 square ft comprising an 8 storey podium containing retail spaces, mega stores, theme park, cinemas and food court and a 19 storey corporate office of Basundhara Group over 2 storey health club and Swimming Pool. The biggest shopping mall of South Asia had more than 25,000 visitors initially which has now increased into more than 70,000 visitors per day. There are 2325 shops including more than 105 food shops in the food court which occupies the entire 8th floor. The food court has both local and branded fast food outlets like Midnight Sun, Dhakaiya, BFC, Domino’s, and Khana Khajana etc [5] [6].

Basundhara City food court however is considered as one of the biggest hub of fast food shops in the fast food industry because of the availability of 105 stores within a single floor sharing a Cineplex and a kids corner. The court opens at 0930 hours and closes at 2200 hours [7]. Approximately 90% of the shoppers go to the food court every time they visit the mall and 65% of them have a meal. Customer crowd in the food court depends on days and times, Thursday and Friday are considered the peak days and the rush hours are considered from 1400 to 2000 hours. The major portion of customers is students and employees from offices nearby. The price of the meal varies with the food stores and items- local or foreign, starting from 50/- to 2000/- plus. The sitting arrangement includes family tables (4/6/8 seats) and couple tables (2 seats).

Even though the fast food industry has been growing in this country, no previous research has been conducted about the customer satisfaction regarding fast food outlets. The customers’ preference about this new trend has not been identified and related to what the market is providing. Because of that, this research has been proposed to identify the factors deciding customers’ preference and satisfaction, their weight and magnitude and how the fast food vendors perceive these factors in order to design the products they bring to the fast food market.

Problem Statement

The major objective of a fast food shop is to attract new customers through providing the service and quality foods as well as attaining the current customer base to secure the profitability. The fast food outlets in Dhaka city, specially the outlets in Basundhara City food court has all the aspects needed to be a good fast food hub.

It is hard to determine if the customers who get a meal or snack in the food court are properly satisfied or not. And also the factors the customers take into consideration for their satisfaction. Much research has been carried out in this regard and many factors have been identified which are later discussed in the literature review. However, as the factors determining customer satisfaction vary across demography and other related issues and since the weight and the magnitude of each of these factors have not yet been identified for this particular market, this has gained the attention of this research. Moreover, how the fast food vendors perceive the satisfying factors of the customers is equally important as this can result in continuous improvement and growth.

So this research will try to figure out the possible existence of knowledge gap between the vendors of the food courts’ perception and factors and their weight in customer satisfaction.

Research Objective

The primary objective of this study is to explore the possible existence of knowledge gap between the fast food retailers and food buyers of Basundhara City shopping mall. The specific objectives can be-

1. To determine the factors resulting in the satisfaction of the customers from the fast food shops in BCSC food court and the magnitude of the factors in the customers’ minds in reaching their satisfaction level.

2. To determine the perception and the weight of the customers’ satisfying factors by the vendors of the fast food shops in BCSC food court.

3. To find out if there is any knowledge gap exists between the expectations of customers and perceptions of these expectations by the vendors.

4. To suggest improvements of the food court based on the findings about the satisfying factors, their weight and the knowledge gap.

Research Questions

The purpose of the research study is to get both the customers and vendors benefitted. To reach the objectives, there are some questions needed to make the objectives contextual. The probable questions might arise while conducting the research are:

1. What are the most important factors which the customers of BCSC food court expect from the food shops? And how do these factors weight in the customers’ satisfaction level?

2. What are the factors the vendors perceive that the customer wants most form them? And how do these factors are weighted by the fast food vendors?

3. Is there any gap between the expectations and perceptions? If there is, how it can be minimized?

Above mentioned questions will be inspected throughout the entire research work.

Literature Review

An expectation is the subjective probability that a behavior will be followed by a particular outcome. Customer expectations are defined as the value of service or goods what they perceive while buying it. According to Olson and Dover, 1979, an expectation about a service encounter would be an individual's subjective probability of a relation between the object of the belief (the service encounter) and some other object, value, concept or attribute (e.g. the encounter's occurrence, timeliness, importance, or other specific characteristics) [8]

In marketing sectors, the term “customer satisfaction” is widely used which indicates a measure of differences of the value gained from service or goods and the expected value by the customer. Churchil and Surprenant, 1982, defined customer satisfaction as the comparison of the total cost of acquiring a good or service and the reward and utility he/she gets from the use of that good or service considering all the consequences. [9]

In the US restaurant industry, customer satisfaction was influenced most by responsiveness of the frontline employees, followed by price and food quality (in that order) where Physical design and appearance of the restaurant did not have a significant effect. [10]

In 2012, A. Tabassum, T. Rahman explored several facts while finding the study of attitude toward 4 appreciated branded fast food stores: Pizza Hut, KFC, Helvetia, and Western Grill in Bangladesh. The study showed that the Helvetia was in the bottom of the attitude scale and Pizza Hut placed top. Environment, price, service lead time and quality of food were the four factors which were the scale of measurement of the belief toward these outlets and it is found that Pizza Hut crowned the quality & environment, where KFC grabbed the reasonable price and least order-service time gap. [11]

Results of a study conducted by N Islam & GM Ullah, 2010, suggest that the consumers mostly appreciate the brand reputation while picking a fast food stop. The other factors which were prioritized later were convenient locations, the variance within the tastes of different outlets and the quality given according to the cost of the food. These factors were suggested to be improvised to maintain a proper customer relation [12]

According to the research findings of Farhana, Nadia, and Shohana Islam, 2011, different perceptions are backed by different attributes of the customers .The more the income level is, the more customers perceives the better quality and value which is applicable for the overall customer service. It also states that if the price is satisfactory then people tend to keep the loyalty to their desired fast food stop and thereby the location does not have any implication in the loyalty. [1]

In the process of selection to visit an expensive outlet like the ones within the giant malls, a research study by WS Tinne, 2012, discloses that promotional activities, the management of restaurant, the timing of visit , food cost , the brand image toward others and deluxe interior factors plays the major role.

Based on the reviews of various researches, it can be said that various factors like price, brand reputation, customer service, location, environment, etc contributes to the decision making and satisfaction level of a customer and the composition and the weight of these factors have varied in different researches.

Methodology

Research Philosophy

In this research, interpretivism will be the key philosophy since the decisive and satisfying factors and their weight are clearly dependent on human behavior and as a result only scientific methods will not aid to the purpose of this study.

Research Approach

The deductive approach will be used in this study as this approach sees an issue widely and then shifts toward the specific objectives. As example: this proposal says that if there is any knowledge gap existing, then it can be lessened.

Research Strategy

Before conduction the research it is tough to state the suitable strategy. Since the research is entirely based on finding the possibility of existence of an issue between two entities, there would be a combined research strategy including interview, survey and secondary data collection through questionnaires and action research.

Data Collection Method

This research will require both primary and secondary data of the food court vendors and customers as well. Further literature reviewing will be conducted in order to find out credible sources of secondary data. Questionnaires will be designed to acquire both quantitative and qualitative data of the customers and the vendors. Multiple random sampling will be done in Basundhara City to gather the required data.

Data Analysis

Descriptive statistics of the questionnaires will identify the probable factors by both, the customers and the vendors. Initially assuming now that the data will be of non-parametric statistics, Spearman’s rank correlation matrix is primarily suggested to identify possible statistical dependence between the weighted factors of the customers and the vendors. On the other hand, if Kolmogorov-Smirnov test, Q-Q plot, histogram and chi-square test suggest normality in the data, Pearson product-moment correlation will be computed. Furthermore, paired sample t-test will be computed to decide whether the difference between the perception of the vendor and the customer is significant.

Tentative Work Plan

The estimated time needed to accomplish this research project is 60 days. The tentative schedule is produced in the Gantt chart below.

Activities\Days |1-5 |6-10 |11-15 |16-20 |21-25 |26-30 |31-35 |36-40 |41-45 |46-50 |51-55 |55-60 | |Planning & Preparatory Work | | | | | | | | | | | | | |Literature Review & Secondary Data Collection | | | | | | | | | | | | | |Questionnaire Preparation & Finalize | | | | | | | | | | | | | |Field Interview & Questionnaire Testing | | | | | | | | | | | | | |Organization Visit & Primary Data Collection | | | | | | | | | | | | | |Data Editing, Coding & Entry | | | | | | | | | | | | | |Data Processing | | | | | | | | | | | | | |Data Analysis | | | | | | | | | | | | | |Preparation of Draft Report for Key Results | | | | | | | | | | | | | |Finalize & Submission of Report | | | | | | | | | | | | | |Figure 1: Gantt Chart of the schedule of the research project

Ethical Issues

This research will collect the internal information from the fast food vendors as their perception of the customers’ decision making and satisfying factors will be needed to be identified, which may result in revealing some of their business strategies. The vendors will be made aware and assured that this information will be used only for this research purpose and the raw data will not be shared with any entity other than for academic purposes.

Limitations and Future Research

This research will be conducted only on one particular food court located in Basundhara City. Since the fast food industry is spreading throughout the country and the range of the customers is also vertically expanding, further researches can be conducted with increased geographical, demographic and socio-economic scopes.

References

1. Farhana, Nadia, and Shohana Islam. "Exploring consumer behavior in the context of fast food industry in Dhaka City." J Soc Sci 1.1 (2011): 107-124.

2. Bipasha, Munmun Shabnam, and Shatabdi Goon. "Fast food preferences and food habits among students of private universities in Bangladesh." South East Asia Journal of Public Health 3.1 (2014): 61-64

3. Bhuiyan, MM. "Dhakaites devour fast foods worth Tk 8.0m a day." Financial Express [Dhaka] 25 Nov 2010, n. pag. Print.

4. Ahmed, Jafor, et al. "Assessment of bacteriological quality of fast foods and soft drinks in relation to safety and hygiene." Bangladesh Journal of Microbiology 25.1 (2008): 73-75.

5. Buerk, Roland. "Shoppers flock to Dhaka Mega-Mall." BBC[Dhaka] 02 NOV 2004, n. pag. Web. 3 Mar. 2014. .

6. "About Bashundhara City." Bashundhara City. Bashundhara Group. Web. 4 Mar 2014. .

7. "Bashundhara City Complex." Online Dhaka Guide. N.p.. Web. 4 Mar 2014. .

8. Olson, J., Dover, P. (1979), "Disconfirmation of consumer expectations through product trial", Journal of Applied Psychology, Vol. 64 pp.179-89.

9. Churchill,G.and Surprenant,C.(1982) ,"An investigation Into the Determinants of Customer Satisfaction", Journal of Marketing Research, XIX, (November),pp.491-504

10. Andaleeb, Syed Saad, and Carolyn Conway. "Customer satisfaction in the restaurant industry: an examination of the transaction-specific model." Journal of Services Marketing 20.1 (2006): 3-11.

11. Tabassum, Ayesha, and Tasnuva Rahman. "Differences in consumer attitude towards selective fast food restaurants in Bangladesh: An implication of multiattribute attitude model." World Rev Bus Res 2.3 (2012): 12-27.

12. Islam, Nazrul, and G. M. Ullah. "Factors affecting consumers’ preferences on fast food items in Bangladesh." Journal of Applied Business Research (JABR)26.4 (2010).