Coffee Shops and Mobile Apps

Researcher Role The researcher role in this qualitative study was to oversee the data collection process and analysis of the study. The data collection and analysis process consists of gathering and measuring themes of interest in a fashion that answer questions and evaluate outcomes. Participants The population of this study was employees and customers of coffee shops.The participants for this convenience sampled, interview study consisted of employees and customers of local coffee shops located in the Saint Paul, MN. Participants were contacted in person and asked to participate in the study. Overall 15 customers and employees were solicited. Participants were told a brief overview of the purpose of the study and presented a consent form. The consent form contained information relating to the purpose of the study and information ensuring the participant that their identity and confidentiality would not be compromised.Data Collection Technique Before collecting data, the researcher completed the required ethical training by reviewing and understanding the ethical principles and guidelines for the protection of human subjects of research. Informed Consent A walk up approach method was used to solicit prospective participants for this study. It was stressed that participation was voluntary and confidential. A letter in Appendix A was prepared for interested parties. If prospective participants did not show an interest in the interview, they could Just decline to participate and no further involvement was needed.Instruments The two data collection instruments, one for employees and one for customers, were composed six structured open-ended questions in Appendix B. The questions were designed to capture participant feelings about mobile app technology and its adaptability to coffee shops. Data Collection Data was collected through an in person structured open-ended interview. The researchers were able to interview the participant during the end of the work day by walking up to the prospective participant and asking if they had a couple of minutes to answer a couple of questions.The researcher would then ask the participant six questions and record the participant response. The interview would end with the researcher thanking the participant for their time. Data Analysis Data Analysis Technique The raw data was separated into the two instruments and analyzed by group first. Through the first pass of each questionnaire, the researcher highlighted and noted interesting thoughts from each of the individuals and then determined which comments stuck out more frequently and noticed comments that were unique but very valid points, both for and against the mobile app idea.By doing this, the researcher was able to develop themes and then make an assessment as to if the customer or employee saw potential with the app and if there was going to be a level of demand high enough to support the amount of investment and increase in resources within the coffe e shops. Data Analysis – Customers The researcher was able to get 8 customers varying in age and gender to take the 10 to 15 minutes with me to answer the 6 question questionnaire. As expected, the researcher got many similar answers to the questions however; the researcher did collect some very interesting comments that were unique.It was found that of all the customers have heard of this mobile app technology and of those, 75% said that they would use the technology if it were available. The main theme for participants who said yes was because they thought it would be a great way to save time and avoid re typically compulsive and would not want to use a telephone to order in their vehicle. The customers who answered yes agreed that they would use it for all of the items on the menu, especially the food items because those tend to take a little longer.When asked about potential complications all said they could see things going wrong particularly regarding the quality and te mperature of the pre-ordered items. A few were concerned about the actual mobile app technology staying current and functional. Another idea was to add a feature to the app to act as a reward punch card. Data Analysis – Employees The employees, on the other hand, had a bit of a different view on the functionality of having a mobile app ordering process.All seven of the employees interviewed shared the knowledge of the technology, but only 14% thought that it would work and the others thought that it only could work or it would be rather challenging to implement successfully. The employees shared the same concerns as the customer about quality and temperature however, this was more of their focus because they have certain standards they have to meet based on their business model. It was also made apparent that the majority of coffee shops business model involves face-to-face contact for suggestive selling and for customers to come in and stay a while.Many of the employees thou ght that there would have to be a dedicated member working in a distinctly different area of the store with more resources, for example more screens, a new POS system, more counter space and more employees. Some of the thoughts were that mobile app users and regular order in customers should not be forced to be in the same line. This could cause client satisfaction to be decreased. That being said the employees did have many positive things to say about the mobile app.Many thought that there would be more organization behind the counter and it could increase sales and revenue and it could reach a completely new realm of clients. Some thought that this would work great for locations with a drive thru window. Many said that this would be a great opportunity for larger orders for example when people need coffee for more than 5 people at once. The larger coffee canteens take a while to make and get ready for customer pickup especially during busy times. Lastly, to go with that it was sa id by many that they could see this working much better if there were a limited menu for the app.Limitations/Delimitation's Limitations in this exploratory research were that when trying to interview employees, there were a couple of times we were rushed or interrupted because of customers. In addition, we were limited to only the population that was in the coffee shop at that time therefore not allowing for a large demographic diversity. Population and Sampling The target population of this study consisted of customers of a coffee shop in the United States. The expected size of the sample was over 25 participants where we didn't know anything about if they even drank coffee or visited coffee shops.Also we had no idea if they were handy with mobile APS. Data Collection E-mail or a message board requests via Backbone and Linked were used for this study. This method made sure that participants knew this was voluntary and confidential. A letter on the first page of the survey was prepa red for interested parties to learn more about the study. If potential participants did not want to partake in the survey, they could disregard the request and no further contribution as needed. Instrument The data collection instrument (Appendix C) was composed mostly of quantitative closed-ended questions.