CASE STUDY

Quality Challenges at the Aisyah Mega Bookstores

Aisyah Mega Bookstores is located at the Trondheim State University (TSU) in the 3^rd largest city in Norway. Aisyah Mega Bookstores or AMB is an incorporated university entity or University Business Unit that operates two bookstores, one on the main campus and one-off campus at a nearby at Byasen shopping mall about 25-km away. The on-campus store sells school supplies, textbooks, and school-licensed apparel and gifts and it has a large ICT department. The off-campus store sells textbooks, school supplies, and licensed apparel and gifts and it has a large trade book department. The on-campus store has very limited parking, but it is within easy walking distance of the downtown area, all dormitories, and the football stadium and basketball arena. The off-campus store has plenty of parking, but it is not within walking distance of campus, although it is on the town bus line. Both stores compete with several other independent and national chain college bookstores in the town plus several school supply stores, apparel stores, computer stores, and trade bookstores. The town and university have been growing steadily over the past decade, and the football team has been highly ranked and gone to a bowl for eight straight seasons. The AMB have a long-standing policy of selling textbooks with a very small mark-up (just above cost), which causes competing stores to follow suit. How-ever, because textbooks are so expensive anyway most students believe the AMB gouge them on text-book prices. To offset the lack of profit on textbooks, the AMB sell all other products at a relatively high price. All "profits" from the stores are used to fund student-related projects such as new athletic fields and Student Computer Center and other students' related enhancements.

AMB has a Board of Directors made up of faculty, administrators, and students. The executive director, Dr. Mariam Adams, reports to the Board of Directors and oversees the operation of the bookstores (plus all on-campus vending and athletic event vending). Her office is in the on-campus store. Both bookstores have a store manager and an assistant store manager. There is one textbook manager for both stores, a trade book manager, a single school supplies and apparel manager, and a computer department manager, as well as a few staff people, including a computer director and staff, a marketing director, a finance staff, a personnel director, a warehouse manager, and secretaries. Almost all the floor employees including cash register operators, salesclerks, stock people, delivery truck drivers, and warehouse workers, are part-time TSU students. Hiring TSU students has been a long-standing university policy to provide students with employment and entrepreneurial opportunities. Therefore, AMB have a high rate of turnover among the student employees, as would be expected.

Several incidents have occurred at the off-campus store that have caused the TSU Services Board of Directors concern. In one incident a student employee was arrested for drug possession. In another incident a faculty customer and student employee got into a shouting match when the employee could not locate a well-known book on the bookstore computer system and the faculty member got frustrated over the time it was taking. In still another incident an alumnus who had visited the store after a football game sent a letter to the University President indicating that a student employee had been rude to him when he asked a question about the return policy for an apparel item, he had purchased on the AMB's Web site. When the student did not know the return policy, he told the customer in a condescending manner to come back later. The last incident was an offhand remark made by a local town resident to a Board member at a party about the difficulty she had completing a purchase at the Byasen Shopping Mall bookstore because the registers were unmanned, although she could see several employees talking together in the store.

Although sales and profits at the AMB have been satisfactory and steady over the past few years, the Board of Directors is extremely sensitive to criticism about anything that might have the potential to embarrass the university. The Board of Directors suggested to Dr. Mariam Adams that she might consider some type of assessment of the service at the bookstores to see if there was a problem. Dr. Mariam Adams initially attempted to make random, surprise visits to the bookstores to see if she could detect any problems; however, there seemed to be a jungle telegraph system that alerted her employees whenever she entered a store, so she abandoned that idea. Next, she decided to try two other things. First, she conducted a customer survey during a two-week period in the middle of the semester at both stores. As customers left the store, she had employees ask them to respond to a brief questionnaire. Second, she hired several graduate students to pose as customers and make purchases and ask specific questions of salesclerks, and report on their experiences. Selected results from the customer survey questionnaires are presented on the table 1.1.

Table 1.1: Quality Survey Results Survey Questions on Quality Perspective at AMB, Trondheim State Campus AMB University Student Non-Student Yes No Yes No 1 Were employees courteous and friendly? 572 93 286 147 2 Were employees knowledgeable and helpful? 522 143 231 212 Was the overall service good? 569 96 278 165 4 Did you have to wait long for service? 74 591 200 243 5 Did you have to wait long to check out? 81 584 203 240 6 Was the item you wanted available 602 63 371 72 Was the cost of your purchase(s) reasonable? 385 280 398 45 8 Have you visited the store's Web site? 335 330 52 391 Survey Questions on Quality Perspective at AMB, Trondheim State Off-Campus AMB University Student Non-Student Yes No Yes No Were employees courteous and friendly? 341 114 172 156 2 Were employees knowledgeable and helpful? 350 105 135 193 3 Was the overall service good? 322 133 180 148 4 Did you have to wait long for service? 51 404 150 178 5 Did you have to wait long to check out? 72 383 147 181 6 Was the item you wanted available 407 48 296 32 Was the cost of your purchase (s) reasonable? 275 180 301 27 8 Have you visited the store's Web site? 262 193 17 311