RESEARCH METHODS

RESEARCH METHODS



Customer Satisfaction Research

1. QUANTITATIVE OR QUALITATIVE

The arrangement and creation of a research methodology plays a very vital role in conducting a research, for a research to be efficient it is important that proper research methodology is applied. A well structured research methodology is also needed to study Customer Satisfaction. The person conducting the research can only gather the data and interpret it efficiently if he has designed a dependable research methodology before the beginning of research. For this very reason the researcher has to think of the importance of a proper research methodology to carry out a research and deduce valid results. There is a huge cache of modes and approaches available to be selected by the person conducting the research while designing a methodology for a specific research. The researcher needs to evaluate and illustrate these modes so that he can select the most proper and applicable modes and techniques in relation to objectives of the research and anticipated nature of the data gathering and evaluation. The evaluation of different modes and systems must be done before the commencement of the research to avoid any problems related to the collection of data and its interpretation during the research. This enables the researcher to conduct the research more efficiently and in addition to that it also saves the time required to gather the data and evaluate it. (Alan 2006, 65)

This project related to Customer Satisfaction requires us to use both a quantitative and qualitative approach, therefore a mixed method strategy will be used. The most popular research approaches used to make informed scientific decisions include qualitative and quantitative methods. Differences between quantitative and qualitative research lie in their approach to recognition of the problems in research and the literature reviews. The two approaches have different strategies in specifying the purpose, data collection, data analysis, reporting, and evaluating research. In identifying a research problem, Creswell (2006) claimed that it is descriptive and explanatory for quantitative but exploratory for qualitative research. (Carolyn 2008, 175)

Quantitative research uses scientific methods to investigate phenomena and address issues and problems. These methods utilize an objective manner that enhances the reliability of the information and reduces biases. Qualitative research answers questions and discovers fresh information in a natural setting. This approach attempts to understand all aspects of people's behaviors, attitudes, and experiences. To address the research questions, the qualitative approach depends on four main data collections strategies: participation, observation, interviews, and analysis.

Qualitative research explores a given phenomenon in order to provide further understanding and enhanced knowledge. Qualitative research questions are generally broad and the numbers of subjects in the study can be small. In qualitative methods, the researcher depends on the observations or experiences of the participants. Creswell (2006) stated that numeric data and analysis through statistics formed the basis for quantitative research. Questions were more apt to be specific and involve large numbers of participants. Statistics allowed the researcher to recognize trends and ultimately find ways to explain the relationships of the ...