Unit 4 Research Project Assignment

Programme	Diploma in Travel and Tourism
Unit Number and Title	Unit 4 Research Project
QFC Level	Level 5
Unit Code	K/601/0941

Introduction:

Ryanair Ltd. is the low cost Irish airlines. Headquarter of the airline is located at Dublin, Ireland. The primary operations of the airline have been conducted at Dublin and London Stansted Airports. This airline is one of the largest and the busiest airline of Europe as far as the number of passengers carried is concerned. The airline owns around 350 Boeing 737-800 aircrafts. The company serves around 32 countries of Europe, Africa and Middle East.

Customer satisfaction is the gap between the customer’s expectation and the actual customer service. It can be measured by comparing the expectations of the customers with the services or the quality and quantity of the services provided to the customers in reality. It can be identified by measuring the deviation of the customer’s experience after attaining the service from the customer perception or assumption about the service. (Essayonrequest.com, 2016)
Satisfaction is basically the feeling of pleasure. Customer satisfaction is one of the biggest factors that need to be considered to identify the company’s position in the market. In case of airline, it is the major factor or element because airline industry is the service-based industry and the basic function of the industry is to satisfy their customers with their services.
According to SERVQUAL scale, customer satisfaction can be dependent on the following factors:

• Assurance: Assurance is the credibility or the courtesy of the staff. Assurance is the factor that determines how the staff treats its employees and at what level the customers can trust the staff for getting quality services.
• Responsiveness: It is the ability and the willingness of the staff to serve the customers. The willingness of the staff can easily be detected by the way they treat the customers.
• Reliability: Reliability is the term that defines the ability to perform the promised task.
• Tangible: Tangibility means the thing that can be touched. In this case, tangibility refers to the physical equipments and the material associated with the service that helps in communicating with the customers. (Aviation consumer issues, 2007)
• Empathy: Empathy is the factor that argues about the quality of the communication between the staff and the customers.

Research objectives:
General objective:

• To determine the level of customer satisfaction of Ryanair.

Specific objectives:

• To identify customers satisfaction regarding quality, quantity and price of the services.
• To identify the customer satisfaction regarding hospitality, cleanliness and customer service by the airline.

Factors required in research process:  To assess the customer satisfaction, it is important to judge the satisfaction level at every service that has been provided by the airline. There are several key concepts that have been included in the research process to conduct the overall research project on customer satisfaction:

• Service quality: Quality of the service involves all the facilities the company is providing to the customers. This element of project research observes the extent of the quality of the all the services provided by the company. For example, the communication skills of the staff, the quality of the food provided in flights, communication channels etc. (Baisya and Sarkar, 2004)
• Customer’s value: Customer value can be judged by the willingness of the staff to serve the customers. It determines the value of the customers for the company.
• Customer loyalty: Customers can be loyal to a brand only when they get quality service from the same. In this case, customer loyalty can be measured by analyzing the frequency of bookings by the same customers as well as the number of new customers added to the list of the company every year. (Bourne, 2016)

This report has been prepared to assess the customer satisfaction of the customers of Ryanair. This is to be assessed to judge the performance of the company in the industry. The customer satisfaction in the airline industry can be analyzed by assessing some of the factors that affect the experience of the customers in flight as well as on the airports. All the service related to airline travelling should be asses in terms of assessing the overall satisfaction of the customers. The first factor that needs to be considered is the booking of the flights. The convenience of bookings and the availability of the options for the bookings are the factors that can be observed or examined as this is the first step of the travelling for the customers. (DR.K.VANITHA, 2012) The second factor that needs to be considered is the staff treatment towards the customers or the passenger. The way staff treats the customers shows the willingness of the staff to serve the customers. Third factor is the quality of the food available at the flights. It determines the satisfaction of the customer regarding the food available. The food available can satisfy the customer if the price of the food matches its quality.

Literature review:

• International Journal of Management and Strategy

AUTHOR: Dr.Makarand Upadhyaya, Associate Professor (Marketing), College of Business Management, Jazan University, Saudi Arabia.

In this research paper, the author discusses about the problems and the complaints of the customers. It also focuses on resolution of those problems as well. He argues that there are two types of problems or complaints. One is controlled and another one is uncontrolled. Controlled complaint is those that can be resolved by the staff such as fare issues, flight services issues, timing issues etc. On the other hand, uncontrolled complaints are related to weather issues that are not in the hands of the passenger as well as the airline staff. (Ford, McNair and Perry, 2009)

• International Review of Business Research Papers

Author:  Dipa Mitra.

In her study, she argues about the relationship between the service provider and the customers. She argues that the airline industry is a very competitive industry and thus they have to make efforts not just to provide the services to the customers but to satisfy them with the services they are offered with. It is essential for the airline service providers to study about the customer’s preferences and choices before designing the services for the customers.

Customer satisfaction: It is one of the main objectives of the companies to attain customer’s satisfaction or to satisfy their customers at the fullest. The study of customer satisfaction is done to know about the purchasing behavior of the people as well as the future purchase of the services and products of the company as well as the profit and the service value in the market. (Gu?ngo?r, 2007)
Customer satisfaction has been linked with the perception of the customer about the services. Many of the customers assume the quality of the services before experiencing them. This is because of the image of the brand it portrays in front of the customers through marketing strategies. The extent to which the customer perception matches the customer’s actual experience determines the level of the customer satisfaction. There are many theories that can be used to explain the customer satisfaction such as, Expectation-Disconfirmation, Equity theory and Comparison-level theory.
Service quality: Service quality can be defined as the superiority of the service provided by the Ryanair airlines to the customers. The customer’s judgment over the quality and superiority of the services determines the brand loyalty. (Hill, Self and Roche, 2002) Quality of the service is the very important factor that helps the organisation to succeed and increase its customer base in the market.
A review on service marketing literature suggests that there are two types of service quality. One is Nomadic and other is American. Nomadic is about the customers perception of the service quality and the actual experience. It determines that customers have functional as well as technical perception. Technical perception involves what customers get after the delivery of the service and functional perception is about the communication between the staff and the customers. American approach suggests that the service quality depends on reliability, responsiveness, empathy, assurance and tangibles. This is known as the SERVQUAL theory.
Price: Price can be defined as the amount what customers have to pay in exchange with the services they experience form the Ryanair or any other airline company. It is the determinant of the quality of the service and the quantity of the services offered as well. In a service industry like airline, companies have to charge the prices according to the competitor’s prices as in this industry if there is no difference between the services offered than the customers looks for the cheapest price. (Customer Service Excellence Ireland, 2016)
Hypothesis: Hypothesis can be defines as the statement that has been creates or mentioned at the starting point of the investigation to support the same. This is the assumption that has been made by limited information available about the topic and the further investigation is done in order to find out the accurate result.
In this case the hypothesis that has been made is that the customers are satisfied with the services provided by the Ryanair airlines.
Research methodology: It is the systematic approach to determine the methods, models and the techniques used to investigate about the particular topic or subject. (Johnson and Gustafsson, 2000)
Research design: It can be defines as the strategy used to conduct the overall research in a logical way. In this report the research design that has been used to conduct the research is descriptive and cross-sectional in nature. This type of study is used to describe the overall subject in detail with the relationship of other relevant factors and their impact on the main topic.
Research population: It is defined as the group of individuals that has been targeted to conduct the research. This group is considered to investigate about the research topic. The population in this case is the students of UKCBC. Number of students in UKCBC is around 4000 (assumed data)
Sample: The population is divided into different segments and one relevant group is selected to conduct the research. That segment is known as the sample. Number of sample is 400
Sampling technique: There are many sampling techniques:

• Systematic sampling: It is the technique in which the population is divided into different sample group in a particular order or scheme.
• Random sampling: In this case, the sample is selected randomly without any biasness or characteristics.
• Stratified sampling: In this method the sample group involves the individual that can represents the overall population.

In this case, random sampling is used as the method to select the sample group.
Data collection: Study instruments are the instruments that have been used to identify the research answers. Questionnaire is the instrument that has been used in this case. Questionnaire has been distributed to 40 students in which 20 are of tourism course and other 20 are from the business course. the sample from different courses have been taken in order to identify the satisfaction level of the students with different sector or the effect on sector on the satisfaction level of the students or the customers of Ryanair. (Ryanair.com, 2016)

Data analysis: The data has been analyzed by assessing or evaluating the answers of the questions asked in the questionnaire. According to the analysis of questionnaire following results can be fetched:

1. It has been observed that out of 40, around 80% of the people has travelled with the flight once and never attempted to do so again.
2. Around 70% of the students answered that they have selected the airline to travel only for business strategy purposes. (suhartanto, 2016)
3. 60% of the sample students said that only the cheap prices of the flights fascinate them to travel from Ryanair. Some of them have also mentioned that they only book the flight tickets when they do not get any other flight or have any budget issue.
4. Most of the people that is, around 65% book the tickets online.
5. As far as the rating is considered, the most frequent rating given to the services are as follows:

• All of the respondents have answered that as far as the price is considered, they are providing the prices according to their mission statement. However they are not providing the services as accurate they should.
• 60% of the respondents answered that they are not satisfied with the services.
• 80% of the respondents said that they will never recommend it to anyone.

According to the answers and the data extracted, following results can be portrayed about the performance of the airlines and the satisfaction of the customers.

Items	Result rating out of 5
Responsiveness	3
Reliability	2.6
Tangible	3.5
Assurance	3
Price	4
Customer satisfaction	3.6

Customer satisfaction: According to the analysis of the answers and the rating from the above table, it has been analyzed the customers are not fully satisfies with the services of Ryanair. 3.6 rating to the overall customer satisfaction section determines the experience of the customers that is not up to the make that has been perceived by them.
Service quality: Most of the respondents given the answers that they are not satisfied with the food quality on the flight. They are also not getting the comfort during the flight as they have perceived. The interaction between the staff and the customers is also not very good and that also forms the base for satisfying the customers. (Taneja, 2010)
Pricing: Some of the students said they are satisfied with the price. The mission statement of Ryanair suggests that they provide services at very low prices and they offer the same. Most of the respondents said they travel to the flights only because of the low cost at the time of budget constraints.
Evaluation: Evaluation of the research report is done in order to determine the accuracy of the results that have been extracted out of the research. (Thomas, 2015) It helps the company to improve the areas they are lacking in. in the above case, the research has been done very appropriately. As the title of the research is considered, it has been evaluated the title of the research is very appreciate with the overall investigation. There is no deviation with the title and the investigation.
Hypothesis: The hypothesis formed is that customers are satisfied with the services provided by Ryanair. This is a false hypothesis statement as the results of the data analyzed suggest that most of the people or the customers are not satisfied with the services provided by Ryanair.
Literature review: The literature review of the report gives the proper idea of the literatures and the journal that describes about the customers satisfaction in airline industry. It provides the overall framework and the subject description on which the research have been done. It defines the factors that have been considered in the research project such as customer’s satisfaction, service quality and pricing. All the above factors are defined in the literature review because these are the elements that are mainly focuses in the report to determine the level of customer satisfaction of customers of Ryan air. (Wynbrandt, 2013)
Research methodology: The research design used for conducting the research is very appropriate. This is because the subject of the report needs a descriptive approach for its study. Cross sectional approach allow the researcher study the relationship between the factor and the main element of the report. In the above research, the main element of the topic was customer satisfaction and the cross sectional approach is used to study the impact of service quality and price on the overall customer’s satisfaction of the customers of Ryanair. The sample is selected by random sampling method so that there is no biasness in the answers. 40 students have been selected as the sample for the investigation to increase the probability of accuracy in the answers. Questionnaire is the technique used for collection of the data. This is because questionnaire allows the researcher to get the answers from the respondents in descriptive as well objective way. The question sued are open ended as well as closed ended so that students can convey they thoughts in detailed manner with the help of subjective questions. Objective type questions or the close ended questions are used to take the non diplomatic answers from the students about the experience. (Essayonrequest.com, 2016
Limitation of the study: Limitations are the obstacles that have been experienced during the research process. These obstacles may affect the accuracy of the results. I the above case the main obstacle was the time interval given to the students to fill the questionnaire. As students are not that much free so some of them have filled the questionnaire in rush that may affect the real situation or the reliability of the answers given by them.
Conclusion: It has been concluded from the research skills that the two main elements that have their impact on the customer satisfaction are the service quality and the pricing. These can be analyzed to determine the overall satisfaction of the customers.It has been identified that 60% of the overall sample population are not satisfied with the services from Ryanair. The overall analysis fir customer satisfaction is done in order to extract the data for the experience of the customers in terms of services and in terms of price. (Aviation consumer issues, 2007)
The outcome of the results show that according to the analysis of the answers and the rating from the above table, it has been analyzed the customers are not fully satisfies with the services of Ryanair. 3.6 rating to the overall customer satisfaction section determines the experience of the customers that is not up to the mark that has been perceived by them. Most of the respondents given the answers that they are not satisfied with the food quality on the flight. They are also not getting the comfort during the flight as they have perceived. The interaction between the staff and the customers is also not very good and that also forms the base for satisfying the customers.
Some of the students said they are satisfied with the price. The mission statement of Ryanair suggests that they provide services at very low prices and they offer the same. Most of the respondents said they travel to the flights only because of the low cost at the time of budget constraints. (Bourne, 2016)
Recommendations: According to the results of the research investigation, some of the recommendations have been given to Ryanair management so that they make the improvements in the areas that are the reasons for suppressing the business of Ryanair:

• Quality of the food should be improved so that people can have better experience with the food. This also helps the customers to have tasty food at longer journey trips.
• Quantity can be increased so that customers have more variety.
• Online bookings should be made easy so that the customers who are approaching the flight offline do the bookings online.
• The services mentioned in the mission statement of the company should be provide appropriately as in provision of the stated facilities affect the brand image of the company.

Customer satisfaction in ryanair: Ryanair is the low cost airline service provider. Headquarter of the airline is located at Dublin, Ireland. The primary operations of the airline have been conducted at Dublin and London Stansted Airports. This airline is one of the largest and the busiest airline of Europe as far as the number of passengers carried is concerned. The airline owns around 350 Boeing 737-800 aircrafts. The company serves around 32 countries of Europe, Africa and Middle East.
Customer satisfaction can be defined as the overall experience of the person that is not much deviated from his perception. It is one of the main objectives of the companies to attain customer’s satisfaction or to satisfy their customers at the fullest. The study of customer satisfaction is done to know about the purchasing behavior of the people as well as the future purchase of the services and products of the company as well as the profit and the service value in the market.
The investigation suggests that most of the customers are not satisfied with the services of Ryanair. This statement is quoted after researching for the subject by analyzing the answers from the students of UKCBC who have travelled from this flight.

The above graph suggests that most of the people travel from this flight just because of the low price of the tickets. The services provided by the company do not fascinate the customers to travel from this flight.

Conclusion:

It has been identified that 60% of the overall sample population are not satisfied with the services from Ryanair. The overall analysis for customer satisfaction is done in order to extract the data for the experience of the customers in terms of services and in terms of price.

Recommendations:

• Improve quality and quantity of food.
• Improve booking services
• Provided the mentioned services properly
• Train the staff regarding communication