The Guidelines of Applying Appreciative Inquiry to Increasing Customer Satisfaction: A case study of Pongsakornborikan Gas Stations, Na Mon District, Kalasin Province

Abstract

This independent study was an integrated study, aiming at finding customers' positive experience of gas station service, and finding ways to improve customer satisfaction, with the sample group of 25 customers and 5 employees by using appreciative inquiry process to find out the common factors and leading factors, using questionnaires as a tool for collecting information and combining with SOAR analysis and introducing a large amount of data, determining the service development project of Pongsakorn gas station. The results showed that the common factors were: customers were mostly old customers, with superior geographical location, close to community resources, fast service and friendly personnel. The outstanding factors were: politeness of employees, good internal atmosphere, clean pump room, good relationship between pumps and community people, various oils, low price and good quality. Five short-term projects were implemented in the later stage, including: (1) maintenance of old customer base; (2) Customer greeting awareness project; (3) The oil pump project was worth visiting; (4) The toilet cleaning project was available; (5) The water pump project was a dual community and a long-term project was a sufficient toilet project without the need for queuing, the average level of customer satisfaction was 3.71 from the original 3.34. Improving customer satisfaction directly affected customer repeat services and promoted a good image of gas stations. This has led to the creation of structured services, thereby increasing the existing customer base and opportunities to attract new customers.