Surrey County Council is considering the refurbishment and re-opening of the Spectrum leisure centre in Guildford. They wish to improve the facilities and services they offer with the customer in focus.
Spectrum leisure centre will be improved in various places based on customer and public opinion. The needs of potential and existing customers are at the foremost of the refurbishment project. The basis of this report is that Surrey County Council need primary and secondary research to be conducted on various aspects of the project.Customer and public opinion of the centre is needed to judge what areas are in most need of improvement. The work will be carried out by local builders and building contractors. Research will be needed to find appropriate ones for this project.
The aim of this report is to ensure the Spectrum Leisure Centre is number one in its market and ensures that it is ahead of its competition and ready for the future. This report will consist of procedures, findings and conclusions. TERMS OF REFERENCE This report is for the attention of Surrey County Council.The report is about the planned refurbishment of the Spectrum leisure centre situated in Guildford. The report will be presented to the Spectrum Committee on 18th January 2007.
Surrey County Council requires research about the customers of the Spectrum leisure centre before commencing refurbishment. The report will cover issues such as what facilities need to be offered, the prices to charge, the hours to open and the likely demand. To achieve this, the report will consist of primary and secondary research of visitors and users of the Spectrum leisure centre.A plan will be devised as to what type of research is most appropriate for this report.
The research gathered will then be analysed and examined using a variety of techniques. Using these techniques, the validity of the research will be examined and be used to inform the business of appropriate decisions to be made. Improvements to be carried out will be concluded from the research gathered. In addition a list of suitable builders and contracts will be drafted and shown to the committee. A proposal of what should be carried out and by who will be finalised and concluded at the end of this report.PROCEDURE To complete this report, a number of tasks had to be achieved.
A plan had to be prepared for the collection of primary and secondary data. This involved identifying each technique of primary data collection and assessing which form would be appropriate for this project. The reviewing and assessing of the sources of secondary data available was also conducted and concluded. Collecting primary sources of data I decided to survey a range of people using a questionnaire face to face. I chose this method as questionnaires are easy to produce and can be conducted relatively easily and cheaply.
The questionnaire has a mixture of structured and unstructured questions. This enabled a gain of both qualitative and quantitative data. Other options of primary data collection were the use of telephone and personal interviewing, and postal surveys and questionnaires. I dismissed these due to expense and inefficiency. Survey methodology is assessing the reasoning behind the research and the goals wanting to be achieved by conducting it. The aim of the survey is to gather opinion on the Spectrum centre from existing and potential users.
The purpose is to gain insight into the customers wants and needs from the centre in years to come and identify any flaws in the Spectrum today. For this I will be conducting the survey to twenty five individuals. This will consist of six 12-18 aged people, six 19-25 aged people, six 26-45 aged people and five 45+ people both male and female in equal numbers. This sample frame will be representative of the users of the Spectrum centre.
Although it may be considered to be quite a small representation, this can have its advantages.Working with less people means a concentration on the opinions and thoughts can be maximised and discussed, and this can be taken down by the surveyor. This qualitative data will give Surrey County Council more than their own ideas to work with for the Spectrum leisure centre. Working with a small group also takes less time.
Secondary data would be carried out using websites available. Sources on internet websites are usually reliable and up to date. Secondary data can sometimes be biased if researched internally and can sometimes not be relevant to the question posed.This will have to be assessed to its validity to the report. Other forms of secondary research are government statistics, specialist publications and third-party data.
I have chosen not to use these as they have little relevance to customer opinion or availability of builders in the area. A questionnaire needed to be designed for the survey to take place. The key to a good questionnaire is to keep the questions simple, short and of interest to the participant, but most importantly to meet the aims of the methodology and provide the information needed. For this survey I have decided on twelve key questions.The reason for this is to keep the questionnaire short and simple for the participate. The questionnaire will consist of mainly closed questions but will include a few open questions.
Closed questions are easier to analyse, easy to answer and provide good quantitative data. An open question allows the participant to answer a question freely which will enable good qualitative data. This mixture will give a good selection of data to interpret and analyse. The closed questions will simply require a tick next to the appropriate answer. This makes it extremely quick to answer and easy to analyse.
