AN OPERATIONAL MARKETING PLAN FOR MUNCHIES: IMPROVING CUSTOMER SATISFACTION AND SERVICE QUALITY

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Munchies is a Ghanaian-owned fast-food company, started by Daniel Kwaku Bempah in 2016. The aim of the business was initially to provide Ashesi University students with quality food at wee hours of the night when students are usually hungry, and cannot get food to eat. Since then, the business has evolved into a fully-fledged street-food vendor that provides a variety of sumptuous dishes. A market study, and comprehensive needs assessment revealed that Munchies struggles with efficient and timely order management, and this is evident in the long waiting times that customers face anytime they are buying food. The study also discovered that poor employee retention as well as the employees’ inability to follow stipulated recipes cause inconsistencies in the taste and quality of the food provided. The aim of this project is to improve service quality, thus customer satisfaction by mitigating the abovementioned issues that have been brought to light within the operations of Munchies. Literature consulted divulged that “Quality and customer satisfaction have long been recognised as playing a crucial role for success and survival in today’s competitive market” (Mansor, Hasanordin, Rashid, & Rashid, 2012). Scholars also agree on the paramount role that service quality has on “customer satisfaction, loyalty and repurchase intentions” (Ghotbabadi et al., 2015). This project proposes a collaboration of recommendations to improve Munchies’ quality of service and customer satisfaction ability, synthesised in a marketing plan using the 7 P’s of the Marketing Mix as a framework for implementation and the Hierarchical Service quality framework as a justification for the suggested strategies. The proposed solution makes use of technology to process information efficiently and uses it as a tool to market Munchies, its business operation and market offerings to its customers