Perceived Hold Time And Customer Satisfaction Of Bose Corporation

Aims and Objectives

Bose Corporation is one of the leading high-end speaker and headphone makers based in Framingham, Massachusetts. It designs, develops as well as sells audio equipments throughout the word. It has been estimated by Forbes that Bose received $38 billion revenue in 2016 and employed nearly 2400 people (Dabholkar,  2015).  The company has also conducted research on suspension technologies for cars as well as heavy-trucks and into the subject of cold fusion. It has a reputation for specifically protected of patents, brands as well as trademarks.  

However, the management of the organization has noted that there is a decrease in the rate of customer satisfaction with their customer support system. The major issue has been found tn their telephone support system. Etkin Evangelidis and Aaker (2015) asserted that the primary issue appears to be perceived wait time; how long customers feel that they have been on-hold or in a queue and waiting for the service. It results ineffective service of the company and decrease the number of overall customers. Hence, it is important to research on the perceived hold time so that customers will be satisfied.

Aims and objectives

The research aims to identify the issues taken place while customers perceived hold time at phone calls. In addition, the research will provide solution in order to mitigate the issue.

The objectives of the research are as followed.

• To identify the factors considered as important for customer satisfaction of Bose Corporation
• To find out the issues taken place while perceived hold by the customers
• To critically analyze the challenges and obstacles for improving customer care experience in telephone support
• To recommend solutions for improving customer care experience in the perceived hold time

Research questions

The research questions are as followed.

• What are the important factors for customer satisfaction of Bose Corporation?
• What are the issues taken place while perceived hold by the customers in Bose Corporation?
• What are the challenges found for improving customer care experience in telephone support of Bose Corporation?
• How customer care experience in the perceived hold time can be improved in Bose Corporation?

Hypothesis

HO: Perceived hold time in telephone support system impact on customer satisfaction of Bose Corporation

H1: Perceived hold time in telephone support system does not have any impact on customer satisfaction of Bose Corporation

Importance of customer satisfaction

Kokkinou and Cranage (2013) stated that customer satisfaction is considered as marketing term, which can measure the process of supplying the products or services by an organization encounter as per expectation of a customer. It is important as it provides marketers as well as business owners with a metric, which can be used for managing as well as enhancing the business. In a survey of approximately 200 marketing managers, 71% respondents gave their opinion regarding customer satisfaction metric as a very useful to manage and monitor their business (Sekaran & Bougie, 2016). There are several reasons for which customer satisfaction is consider as one of the most valuable key players for a business organization that can be listed as followed.

• It is one of the leading indicators of customer purchasing intentions as well as loyalty
• It makes a point of differentiation among several companies
• It can minimize customer churn
• It is useful to increase lifetime value of a customer
• It also minimizes negative word of mouth

Factors responsible for customer satisfaction in a business

Research Questions

As customer satisfaction is considered as important for measuring the level of meeting expectation of the customers, it is required to identify the factors that are responsible for customer satisfaction of the business. The factors can be enlisted as followed.

• Holding employees accountable for customer satisfaction is one of the major factors of a business organization (Söderlund & Colliander, 2015). It engages breaking customer satisfaction into specific categories as well as assigning team members for each of the categories.
• Use of live chat or telephone support system is helpful to increase the rate of customer satisfaction through offering superior customer support.
• Treating every customer equally so that individual expectations and requirements can be met.
• Consistent as well as clear expectations involves being clear regarding expectations of the customer about product and making sure that the expectations are effectively communicated continuously across every touch point.

Significance of telephone support system 

Business telephone systems act an important role in every business as it is considered as lifeline of the business communication model (Williams et al. 2015). There are several benefits of having telephone support system in a business organization that can be described as followed.

• The best customer service is helpful to develop trust of the particular organization among customers. At present days, there is a tough competition in manufacturers of audio equipments. Thus, it becomes important to identify demands of the customers and take measures according to that.
• Customer service is considered as important as price of a product or service to the customers.  
• Customer support system helps to develop brand awareness. On the other hand, good customer service minimizes issues of the customer instantly.  As problems may arise for any business, it is required to identify the issues and take measures to mitigate the issues.
• Customer service system appeals to the customers. Thus, it is important for a business organization.

Challenges for improving telephone support system

The telephone support system helps the callers for solving the problems faced by them. However, this telephone support system often becomes the reason for irritation for the callers. There are various challenges faced by this support system. They are as follows:

i) Holding Up of the Phone: The telephone support system often holds up the phone for a longer time, when the user has called for his problem. The callers feel irritated for this reason and they complain about this service.

ii) Infrastructure: The infrastructure is a major challenge for the telephone support system. The infrastructure is not perfect and thus this reduces the quality of the telephone support system.

iii) Call Quality: The quality of the call often is deteriorated and this is a major problem for the telephone support system. The callers are not able to understand what the call attendee is saying.

iv) Non Availability of Global 24/7 Service: Often it is seen that the telephone support system is not available all the time. This means, the time flexibility is not present in all telephone support system (Boyd et al. 2014). The callers are not attended according to their time and this becomes a major problem for the support system. This irritates the callers and they avoid calling again in that support system. Moreover, this mainly occurs when the caller is from international background. There is an immense time gap between the countries and this becomes the main problem for both the telephone support and system and the callers.  These are the main problems or challenges that are common for the telephone support system and these challenges are needed to be avoided for the improvement of the system.

Possible measures to improve telephone support system 

The above mentioned problems or challenges are extremely common for the telephone support system. These are needed to be mitigated on an immediate basis. There are certain possible measures for the improvement of the telephone support system. The probable mitigation ways for the improvement of the telephone support system are as follows:

Hypothesis

i) Involvement of More Staffs: The main challenge is the holding up of phone. The callers have to wait and the telephone support system holds up the phone for a longer period of time before answering or solving the problems of the callers. This mainly occurs due to the less presence of staffs and employees. There should be more staffs involved in the procedure. This is the most basic and simplest way of mitigating this particular problem. When more employees will be involved, automatically the phone calls will be attended on time and the callers will be happier.

ii) More Investment: The telephone support system can be improved if more money is invested in the system. This investment will improve the overall quality of the system and thus the callers will be happier with the telephone support system. This investment in the telephone support system can be a major help for the improvement of the system.

iii) Improvement of Quality of Calls: The quality of the calls should be improved so that their existence of no distortion in the voice of the call attendee and caller. This will help both the call attendee and the caller to understand each other’s words and problems. This is again an important way for mitigation of the problems of telephone support system.

iv) Better Infrastructure: The infrastructure should be improved on an immediate basis so that the overall performance of the telephone support system. This telephone support system with a better infrastructure will be a great help for the callers. These are the possible measures for the improvement of the telephone support system.

Research methodology is known as systematic process, which assists to conduct the research in systematic way. It explains the appropriate structure of the research. In addition, several types of relevant concepts as well as ideas appropriate with the research study are discussed (Holtom & Burch, 2016). Research methodology includes research approach, philosophy and design of the research. However, data collection process and process of sampling is also discussed in the part.

Method outline

Research outline includes descriptive research design, deductive research approach as well as post positivism research philosophy. Primary data will be collected from selected range of customers of Bose Corporation. The accumulated data will be analyzed in quantitative research approach. On the other hand, secondary data will be collected from various books, journals and books that will be presented in the form of literature review.

Background (Literature Review)

Research philosophy  

Research philosophy provides knowledge as well as dimension of the present research. Research philosophy assists in providing the primary facts and concepts in order to conduct the research in proper way (Mackey & Gass, 2015). However, major philosophical aspect of the research can be two types such as ontology, which is referred as the reality and epistemology as the knowledge. In addition, there are different philosophical aspects of philosophy such as axiology as well as phenomenology. The specific philosophy for the research generally goes with epistemology research design. Philosophy of the research includes positivism, realism as well as post positivism research philosophy. Positivism philosophy assesses different types of philosophical aspects of the research with right use of reality as well as associated philosophy.

On contrary, in a research post positivism of the research can be helpful to cross check the specific data of the research. In addition, it deals with several research studies that are previously conducted (Taylor, Bogdan, & DeVault, 2015). Post positivism assists in maintaining clarity of the research study.  In the research, post-positivism will be taken in order to complete the entire research effectively cross checked. The specific research topic is usually based on theoretical as well as practical perspective of reality. On the other hand, post-positivism aspect of the research can be helpful to deal with advanced process of thinking regarding the research.

Research approach

Inductive and deductive are considered as two types of research.  In a research study, deductive approach of a particular research aims to test theories of the research. On the other hand, inductive research approach aims in producing new theories according to the collected data.

The research will chose deductive research approach in order to conduct the research. The study will be solved by taking previous theories as well as models of the research (Flick, 2015). Moreover, deductive research approach helps the researcher to conduct the research with effective use of previous models as well as theories.

Research design

There are three types of research designs such as descriptive, exploratory as well as explanatory research design (Vaioleti, 2016). Research design helps to develop accurate structural purpose, which assists to provide appropriate and definite research purpose. There are several types of research designs for guiding researcher and dealing with the research project with meeting objectives of the research.

Descriptive research design will be used in the present research in long term procedure of the particular research. The research design has a specific link with inductive research approach. Explanatory research design also assists in conducting the research with more exploration and description through putting detailed information of the research topic.

Methodology

Research strategy 

The research will be conducted by taking the survey process. Survey strategy will be used in order to collect primary data while analyzing the collected data for investigation of the research.

Data collection process

In order to conduct a research process, a research requires acquiring several types of data. It is useful as well as most of the research components are vital at the time of conducting of the research.

Sources of data

There are two types of primary and secondary source of data. Primary data will be collected by survey method (Vaioleti, 2016). On the other hand, secondary data will be collected from various books, journals as well as websites. Secondary data will be presented in the form of literature review of the research.

Data analysis technique 

Gast and Ledford (2014) stated that quantitative as well as qualitative data analysis techniques are two type of research. For the research, quantitative data analysis method will be selected and will be presented in the form of Microsoft Excel sheet.

Sampling technique

Sampling technique can be divided into two categories such as probability sampling technique as well as non probability sampling technique. For the research, probability sampling technique will be used for selecting the customers of Bose Corporation.

Sample size

The researcher will chose 65 customers in order to collect data regarding the issues faced while perceived waiting time. Hence, sample size for the research will be 65.

Ethical consideration 

The researcher will take prior consent of the respondents of the research. The survey sheet will be duly signed by the respondents of the researchers like customers of Bose Corporation. In addition, the researcher will maintain ethics during conducting the research.  The data will be protected under the Data Protection Act 1998. Along with these, privacy of the accumulated data from the customers of Bose Corporation will be maintained.

The research analysis plan is developed by proper analysis of the data collected from source. The research is based on the mitigation of perceived waiting time while calling. The research analysis plan will describe the research question and the research topic elaborately in the following study. The research will highlight the technology adaptation by which the waiting time can be diminished significantly. The research will be conducted based on the online. The findings of the online survey will assist in finding the appropriate technology use via which the perceived waiting time can be mitigated. The research will be conducted based on the survey of the customers using both the landline connection and the mobile connection.

The users will fill up the survey form and based on the survey plan the entire research study will focus on. The research study will highlight all the issues that are faced by the consumers. The issues will be analyzed thoroughly in the research study. The research study will be completely based on the issues raised. The research study will highlight the mitigation procedures. The perceived waiting time issues can be resolved by following certain policies and the solutions will be showcased in a proper manner in the research study. The research study is completely based on the analysis of the data collected from the customers using the landline connection and the mobile connection.

Activities	1st week	2nd-4th week	5-6th week	6-8th week	9th week	10th week
Selecting topic	ü
Secondary data collection	ü	ü
Framing layout of research		ü
Literature review		ü	ü	ü
Developing the research Plan			ü	ü
Selecting research technique				ü	ü
Primary data collection					ü	ü
Analysis and Interpretation of accumulated Data					ü	ü
Conclusion						ü
Development of Rough Draft						ü
Submission of Final Work						ü

 Budget

Activities	Proposed budget ($)
Searching for secondary sources	25 $
Accessing secondary sources	250$
Conducting survey	150%
Reviewing primary data	25$
Total	450$

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