Customer satisfaction survey on flower shops 2021. JCSI (Japanese Customer Satisfaction Index) custom survey
Published:
Customer satisfaction survey on Japanese flower shops 2021.
This “custom” survey employs the JCSI (Japanese Customer Satisfaction Index) framework.
Large-scale, industry-wise, formal customer satisfaction (CS) survey featuring real, physical flower stores is rare, presumably one of the first of its kind worldwide.
Conducted in cooperation with the Japan Productivity Center, Service Productivity and Innovation for Growth (SPRING). Funded entirely by a grant from the Japanese Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (MAFF).
Key findings
- Hibiya Kadan, a specialty flower store, boasts a remarkably high standard of customer satisfaction (CS), scored 80.7 out of 100 points, which is on par with top service companies such as leading luxury city hotels. High quality perception leads to high value perception. Despite its handsome average purchase price, Hibiya Kadan overwhelms mass retailers in the evaluation of cost performance, too. The online purchase rate is estimated to be over 9%, attaining high customer satisfaction comparable to physical shops.
- There may be further market opportunities in the relatively underexplored area between specialty flower stores and mass retailers. Aoyama Flower Market (AFM) provides a successful example of such eclectic model. It achieved an above-average (73.8) score of 75.4. AFM’s key CS indices show bimodal peaks: one consists of fans of first tier CS (approx. 20%, out of 10 classes) who appreciate quality, design and service skills, and another is comprised of the convenience-driven, third to fourth tiers with decent level of satisfaction.
- The CS scores of the 4 mass merchandisers underperformed the average. Text mining analysis indicates that flowers for traditional daily altarage account for more than 30% of total purchase items among the users of mass retailers. Home centre (Cainz) customers tend to weigh cost performance. Seasonal flowers are popular among supermarket users including Aeon. It would be in their best interest for supermarkets to improve quality perception first. Their merchandise and service need more emotional impetus to boost a feeling of satisfaction, as shown by the Delight Index.
- At any given store surveyed, around 20% of customers say that they felt dissatisfied in some way during the last 1 year of purchase experience. While 5.6% of customers express their discontent, 16% remain silent. Clear return procedure may be conducive to ”recovery” or effective complaint handling.
Contents: Customer Satisfaction Indices, Customer Delight & Disappointment Indices, service quality evaluation, dissatisfaction and claim recovery evaluation, reasons for use. Items purchased, purchase frequency, average customer spend.
Survey overview
Objectives:
This survey was planned with the aim of obtaining an objective overview of the service standards of flower retailers from the customer’s perspectives. Such marketing data for benchmarking has been scarce in the Japanese flower industry which is dominated by small and medium-sized entities.
Funding:
This project was entirely funded by a grant from the Japanese Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (MAFF) and carried out by the Japan Flower Vase Life Improvement Council. The Council secretariat is located at MPS Japan, a certification body.
Japanese flower stores surveyed:
Six chain stores were selected.
- Flower specialty stores: Aoyama Flower Market (AFM) and Hibiya Kadan
- Home centre: Cainz
- Supermarkets: Aeon, Yaoko and co-op Mirai
Respondents:
A total of 1611 men and women in their 20s to 70s living in Japan, who have made purchases at least twice during the recent 1 year at one of the 6 companies surveyed.
Date and method:
- Friday 26 February to Wednesday 3 March 2021
- Method: Internet survey
Survey item:
Customer satisfaction indices, customer delight & disappointment indices, service quality evaluation, dissatisfaction and claim recovery evaluation, word-of-mouth response (positive/negative), reasons for use, good points, evaluation of COVID-19 infection prevention measures. Goods purchased, purchase frequency, average customer spend.
Framework and modeling:
This “customised” survey was conducted in cooperation with the Japan Productivity Center SPRING, using the framework of the Japanese Customer Satisfaction Index (JCSI), one of the largest consumer surveys in Japan. Note that this flower shop survey is not an “official” JCSI survey that SPRING carries out annually and that the use of results for corporate publicity is not allowed.
The JCSI framework is compatible with the ACSI (American Customer Satisfaction Index) model. The ACSI was developed at the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business, and has been used by major service companies to enhance their service qualities.
JCSI’s CS indices provide a universal framework that enables benchmarking across a wide range of service industries.
Large-scale, formal customer satisfaction surveys of flower shops, especially of real, brick-and-mortal retailers, is rare, probably one of the first of its kind worldwide.
Customer Satisfaction Index (causal model):
Six factors, each on a scale on which 100 is perfection.
(1) Customer expectations –>
(2) Perceived quality + (3) Perceived value (cost performance, or value for monetary / temporal costs) –>
(4) Customer satisfaction –>
(5) Recommendation intent (Word of Mouth) + (6) Customer loyalty (repeat purchase, increased frequency / width of purchase)
Analysis and reporting: Aoki Kyoko (Gerda Research)
Citation : Aoki, Kyoko (2021). The structure of customer satisfaction: 2021 JCSI custom survey on Flower shops. Japan Flower Vase Life Improvement Council (MPS Japan).
Note: It should be noted that the results of this survey cannot be regarded as representative of the flower retail industry, due to the diverse structure of the sector. This survey does not aim at ranking specific companies. It focuses on highlighting leading chain stores with well-known practices for benchmarking in the hope that this research will contribute to the long-term public interests as well as the flower industry.
Excerpt of the report
1. Purchase data
(1) Frequency of purchase
On average, 31.5% of users buy twice a year, while 45% buy three to four times a year. Over 10% of the supermarket users make purchases more than once a month.
(2) Purchase items
Average 23.6% of the respondents buy flowers or plants for customary religious offerings. At AFM, bouquet is mentioned by 30% of the customers.
More than 8% of purchases at Hibiya Kadan are for gifts.
At supermarkets, flowers for customary religious offerings at home accounts for 30-40%.
Here, free answers about what users bought are coded and text-mined. As such, this does not provide a comprehensive quantitative data of the purchase items.
(3) Average customer spend (ACS) per purchase
The total ACS stands at 2,690 yen (roughly equivalent to 23.6 USD). Hibiya Kadan’s ACS is the highest, at 5,735 yen.
Since the minimum price option in the questionnaire is set as high as 2,000 yen, the actual ACS is estimated to be much lower.
At Hibiya Kadan, customers are spread across a wide range of price points, from less than 2,000 yen to 20,000 yen (175.4 USD), with 3.2% of its customers making a purchase exceeding 20,000 yen.
Table 1 Average customer spend
| USD | |
|---|---|
| Total | $23.6 |
| AFM | $24.9 |
| Hibiya Kadan | $50.3 |
| Cainz | $16.6 |
| Aeon | $15.8 |
| Yaoko | $12.8 |
| Co-op Mirai | $12.0 |
Conversion rate: 1USD=114 yen
Source: Japan Flower Vase Life Improvement Council (2021). The structure of customer satisfaction. 2021 JCSI custom survey on flower shops. MPS Japan.
2. Customer Satisfaction Indices
(1) Hibiya Kadan
Hibiya Kadan boasts a remarkably high standard of customer satisfaction, scored 80.7 out of 100 points. This is the outstanding level on par with top service companies such as leading luxury city hotels.
Despite its handsome average purchase price, Hibiya overwhelms mass retailers in the evaluation of perceived value, in other words, value for money.
(2) Aoyama Flower Market
In the case of Aoyama Flower Market, the CS analysis reveals that it is an eclectic mix model of quality specialty shops (relatively large Top CS tier that accounts for more than 20% of customer base) and convenience-driven mass merchandisers (typically marked by the dominance of medium tiers with decent level of satisfaction). The AFM’s CS index histograms clearly illustrate this mixed customer bases.
While AFM earns comparatively good perceptual quality evaluation across various segments, cost performance score remains slightly lower than average.
Given its relatively high average CS score (75.4), second only to Hibiya Kadan, there may be potentially further market opportunities for hybrid models between specialty and mass markets.
(3) Home centre (Cainz)
At Cainz, cost performance is positively correlated with customer satisfaction, as the SEM (Structural Equation Model) path analysis suggests.
(4) Supermarkets (Aeon, Yaoko and Co-op Mirai)
In supermarkets, flower /plant demand for altarage offerings accounts for 30-40% of sales, but flowers of the season are also appreciated. To improve customer satisfaction, quality perception must be improved first.
Table 2 Average scores of Key indicators of customer satisfaction
| company | Customer expectations | Perceived quality | Perceived value | Customer satisfaction | Recommendation intent | Loyalty |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Total | 71.5 | 71.3 | 71.8 | 73.8 | 68.6 | 68.8 |
| AFM | 75.8 | 75.7 | 71.2 | 75.4 | 72.2 | 70.7 |
| Hibiya Kadan | 80.8 | 78.8 | 77.3 | 80.7 | 76.6 | 76.1 |
| Cainz | 69.2 | 68.6 | 71.1 | 72.2 | 67.6 | 68.7 |
| Aeon | 67.3 | 66.8 | 69.5 | 70.4 | 63.9 | 64.3 |
| Yaoko | 65.7 | 68.3 | 70.3 | 71.4 | 64.1 | 65.7 |
| Co-op Mirai | 65.5 | 65.4 | 70.4 | 70.3 | 63.1 | 63.0 |
Source: Japan Flower Vase Life Improvement Council (2021). The structure of customer satisfaction. 2021 JCSI custom survey on flower shops. MPS Japan.
Figure 1 Key customer satisfaction scores
Source: Japan Flower Vase Life Improvement Council (2021). The structure of customer satisfaction. 2021 JCSI custom survey on flower shops. MPS Japan.
(5) Frequency distribution of CS scores (Histogram)
The graphs below show the distribution of the CS scores, divided into 10 classes by every 10 points. The CS histogram is one of the most important charts in this report. Keep the shape of distribution in mind, then it will be easier to understand the implications of other results.
Among the mass merchandisers, the peak typically lies in the third-to-fourth from the top, medium level of satisfaction on a scale of 10.
In stark contrast, Hibiya Kadan’s CS distribution is notably high at the top 1 and 2 levels (top 2).
AFM’s CS distribution shows two peaks: the top tier (some 20%) and the medium tier. This shape indicates that, in view of customer bases, AFM can be considered as hybrid model of specialty shops like Hibiya Kadan and mass retailers. Such characteristics become more obvious when looking at other indicators.
For mass merchandisers, one realistic strategy could be attempting to transform the structural distribution of customer satisfaction into an Aoyama Flower Market-type one, and then, by backcasting, think out individual measures to reach this goal. The CS top1 tier customers account for only single digits (12% to 17%) among mass merchandisers.
Identifying who they are, increase this proportion to some 20%, a level similar to AFM (21.5%). At the same time, level off the peak that presently concentrates around the medium level satisfaction towards the medium upper or the upper middle, which would incrementally raises the overall satisfaction scores. This probably involves creating new eclectic models suitable for mass merchandisers.
Figure 2 Frequency distribution of CS scores (histogram)
Customer Satisfaction
Recommendation Intent
Customer Loyalty
Source: Japan Flower Vase Life Improvement Council (2021). The structure of customer satisfaction. 2021 JCSI custom survey on flower shops. MPS Japan.
(6) Bricks-and-mortar real shops vs internet retailing / mail order
The number of online and mail-order users are counted according to free answers about purchase points.
Hibiya Kadan has a clear lead in e-commerce by a large margin, with approximately 9% of its customers buying flowers online. The second is AFM, with a modicum of 1% online users.
Hibiya Kadan’s online channel attains a high level of customer satisfaction roughly equivalent to real shops. In terms of recommendation intent, however, Hibiya’s score of online users slightly dips below real shops. Considering that parts of the online purchases are meant for funeral or memorial services, users might have felt a certain degree of hesitation to spread word of mouth.
Overall, probably it would not be a much stretch to say that Hibiya Kadan has been making demonstrable progress in building branding integrity across multiple channels.
Figure 3 Comparison of key CS scores: Real versus online
Hibiya Kadan
Total
Source: Japan Flower Vase Life Improvement Council (2021). The structure of customer satisfaction. 2021 JCSI custom survey on flower shops. MPS Japan.
(7) The structure of customer satisfaction
The structure of the causal relationships between indices was analyzed using structural equation modeling.
The CS causal model postulates 6 factors. It starts from “customer expectation”, and after purchase, users evaluate “perceived quality” and “perceived value”. Then those 3 factors in tandem form “customer satisfaction”, which is conducive to “recommendation intent” and “loyalty”.
The numerical figures (path coefficients, within the range of ±1.0 in principle) in the path diagrams represent the strength of the influence of variables.
At Hibiya Kadan, the path from quality to CS demonstrates a strong coefficient value as high as 0.84. Quality is perceived as superior, which translates into the high cost performance evaluation (perceived value), strengthening the conviction that “this outstanding quality surpasses the costs.”
At Cainz, the direct effect from perceived value to CS (0.63) is comparatively strong. Cost performance-driven CS is the characteristic of Cainz customers.
For Aeon, the direct effect of perceived quality → customer satisfaction (0.41) is relatively high. It is reasonable to think that raising perceived quality (66.8) level will contribute to improving customer satisfaction at Aeon.
Figure 4 The structure of customer satisfaction: Path diagram
Hibiya Kadan
Cainz
Aeon
R(Lavaan package) for SEM (Structural Equation Modeling)
Source: Japan Flower Vase Life Improvement Council (2021). The structure of customer satisfaction. 2021 JCSI custom survey on flower shops. MPS Japan.
3. Emotion markers
(1) Disappointment index
The “emotion indices” are designed to measure the degree of disappointment and delight (10 levels each) during the purchase. Positive emotions, such as happy surprise and excitement, can boost customer satisfaction, while negative emotions, such as disappointment and anger, may quickly reduce satisfaction or possibly ruin the good reputation that has been built up over a long period of time.
The Disappointment Index consists of seven sentiments: disappointed, annoyed, distressed, bored, irritated, uncomfortable, and worried. The higher the score, the deeper the disappointment.
Hibiya Kadan has a low level of disappointment overall. In particular, “disappointed” (2.3) and “boring” (1.9) are kept low. Across the other five companies including AFM, disappointment is somewhat more prominent, with “disappointed” (2.7-3.0) and “boring” (2.2-2.5).
Figure 5 Disappointment index (10 point scale)
Source: Japan Flower Vase Life Improvement Council (2021). The structure of customer satisfaction. 2021 JCSI custom survey on flower shops. MPS Japan.
(2) Delight index
Delight index is made up of 9 emotions: delightful surprise, happy, fun, excited, impressed”, thrilling, relaxing, reassured and peaceful. The higher the score, the better the degree of delight.
There is a marked difference between the two specialist florists and the four mass retailers. The customers of the former, Hibiya Kadan and Aoyama Flower Market, share similar emotional patterns accompanied by the deep positive emotions on multiple levels, for example, “fun” (Hibiya 7.2, AFM 7.1 out of 10 points).
It becomes evident that services at flower specialist retailers enrich emotional life of their customers.
In contrast, mass retailers receive low marks for delight index, only 4-5 points out of 10. There remains a huge room for developing affective components in their services.
As some customers prefer variety and sundries, it may be important to define emotional elements to be enhanced, such as “happy” and “joyful”, and then develop an integrated strategy that is consistent with the company’s core values, design and MD. If successful, it may unlock the previously untapped potential in the mass market.
In terms of delight index, Aoyama Flower Market takes on the pattern similar to specialty flower shop (Hibiya Kadan), while disappointment-wise, it bears resemblance to mass merchandisers. Such dual nature of the company probably reflects its eclectic customer bases shown in the CS histogram patterns aforementioned.
Figure 6 Delight index (10 point scale)
Source: Japan Flower Vase Life Improvement Council (2021). The structure of customer satisfaction. 2021 JCSI custom survey on flower shops. MPS Japan.
4. The level of top flower shops across all service industries
The JCSI framework allows comparisons and benchmarking across various companies from diverse service sectors.
The top flower retailer, Hibiya Kadan’s CS score (80.7 on a 100-point scale) is one of the highest across the entire service industry. The specialist florist chain sweeps the all-around excellence in all 6 indices. It goes toe-to-toe with renowned brands in the service industries such as luxury city hotels, auto dealers, restaurants, and so on.
To achieve excellence, service companies must attain outstanding quality evaluation or excel in delivering cost-effectiveness. Hibiya Kadan has attained both.
Table 3 Key CS scores of top companies: Comparison across service industries
Source: Japan Productivity Center, Service Productivity and Innovation for Growth (SPRING). The JCSI Official Japanese Customer Satisfaction Survey (FY2020). Excerpted from the data and published with permission of SPRING. Flower shop scores are based on custom survey.
5. Service Quality (SQ) evaluation
(1) Service Quality questions
The Service Quality (SQ) assessment is a tool to identify and improve the points that affect customer satisfaction along the service delivery process.
The SQ covers a variety of baseline assessment points that a service business is supposed to pay sufficient attention, such as information provision, functionality of shop, cleanliness, specialist skills of staff, merchandise assortment, customer service and quality control.
The results clearly illustrate that strength in the basics as service company presents the underpinnings of high CS (calculated on a score of 7). Hibiya Kadan tops the list in most of the 34 items. The company particularly excels in the service standards of their front-line personnel.
The most appreciated point for AFM is “ convenient location for public transportation”, which is completely consistent with the results of the free-text answers for the reasons of use.
Cainz has shown its advantage in product-related items such as merchandise assortment featuring PBs and original goods.
Figure 7 Service Quality (SQ) evaluation (generic questions, 7-point scale)
Note: The number of respondents here is 1577. Internet and mail order users were excluded, because the SQ questions here are meant for physical shops of general specialist retailers. The graphs for Yaoko and Coop Mirai are omitted for better visibility. No.21 “defective products and mistakes” is an inverted item, where scores are calculated in reverse order so as to align the measurement direction with the rest of the questions. This means that the higher the score, the fewer defective products, and errors.
Source: Japan Flower Vase Life Improvement Council (2021). The structure of customer satisfaction. 2021 JCSI custom survey on flower shops. MPS Japan.
(2) Merchandising, vase life, and environmental friendliness
Five customised SQ questions intended for flower stores were added. “Easy to buy in small quantities”, assortment of “seasonal flowers”, “freshness”, “sufficient vase life” and availability of “eco-friendly flowers”. Seven points scale (each).
Aeon periodically offers flowers at 100 yen (less than 1 USD) and was in the lead for “the ease of buying in small quantities” with a score of 5.5 (average 5.3).
AFM and Hibiya Kadan both enjoyed a great reputation for having a good selection of seasonal flowers (5.6).
Hibiya Kadan also earned a high grade for freshness of the flowers (5.6).
As for the vase life of flowers, only Hibiya Kadan (5.6) reached a satisfactory level, while others lagging way behind with much margin for improvement.
Table 4 Custom SQ for flower shops (7 point scale)
| Total | AFM | Hibiya | Cainz | Aeon | Yaoko | Co-op Mirai | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| n | 1611 | 307 | 310 | 309 | 319 | 273 | 93 |
| Easy to buy in small quantities | 5.3 | 5.3 | 5.1 | 5.4 | 5.5 | 5.4 | 5.3 |
| Assortment of seasonal flowers and plants | 5.3 | 5.6 | 5.6 | 5.1 | 5.0 | 5.0 | 4.7 |
| Freshness of flowers | 5.2 | 5.3 | 5.6 | 5.0 | 4.8 | 5.1 | 4.9 |
| Satisfactory vase life | 5.0 | 5.1 | 5.6 | 4.9 | 4.6 | 4.9 | 4.6 |
| Availability of eco-friendly flowers and plants | 4.6 | 4.6 | 5.0 | 4.7 | 4.4 | 4.4 | 4.3 |
Source: Japan Flower Vase Life Improvement Council (2021). The structure of customer satisfaction. 2021 JCSI custom survey on flower shops. MPS Japan.
(3) Eco-friendliness
Overall, the evaluation for “eco-friendly flowers and plants” (4.6 on a 7-point scale) remains modest. Flowers explicitly featuring environment-consciousness or complying with environmental standards are hard to come by at Japanese physical flower chain stores.
The analysis of correlation between eco-friendliness and key CS indicators suggests that being considered “ecological” may increase recommendation intention to a certain degree, possibly by way of some unidentified latent factors, rather than via the main CS circuit of quality - value - satisfaction evaluations.
Under current circumstances, it can be assumed that the evaluation is not so much about the actual environmental friendliness of products or service, but rather a vague combination of peripheral factors, such as CSR activities, the fresh in-store ambience that symbolically evokes a feeling of vitality of plants, and the halo effect of the positive corporate image. Further research is needed to examine this assumption.
Figure 8 Correlations between “Eco-friendliness” evaluation and CS indicators (Hibiya Kadan)
*** all coefficients are statistically significant at the 0.01 level
Source: Japan Flower Vase Life Improvement Council (2021). The structure of customer satisfaction. 2021 JCSI custom survey on flower shops. MPS Japan.
6. Dissatisfaction, complaint handling and recovery
(1) Dissatisfied customers
At any given chain store, around 20% of customers say that they felt dissatisfied in some way during the last 1 year of purchase experience.
Only 5.6% of customers express their discontent, whereas 16% of users remain silent.
Efforts must be made to ease their frustrations at the earliest possible stage. Systematic approach for dealing with complaints (for example, vase life guarantee) should be put in place.
Figure 9 Percentage of dissatisfied customers
n = 1611
Source: Japan Flower Vase Life Improvement Council (2021). The structure of customer satisfaction. 2021 JCSI custom survey on flower shops. MPS Japan.
(2) Recovery quality
A speedy and appropriate response to a complaint can quell customer discontent, prevent negative word-of-mouth and user defection. This effect is known as ‘recovery quality’. Successful complaint handling may even enhance customer loyalty.
As well as responding to claims appropriately, clear return procedures count much for recovery of confidence in service.
Vase life guarantee, which is hardly prevalent in Japanese flower shops, is a scheme to ensure effective complaint handling and recovery quality. Redefining it as a measure to raise customer satisfaction and loyalty would lead to the better understanding of its managerial significance.
Table 5 Evaluation of complaint handling (Total)
| Score (7-point scale) | ||
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Providing contact details | 5.0 |
| 2 | Speedy resolution of problem | 5.1 |
| 3 | Proper return, exchange, or refund | 5.2 |
| 4 | Proper returns procedure | 5.4 |
| 5 | Appropriate response | 5.3 |
n=91, respondents who reported a complaint
Source: Japan Flower Vase Life Improvement Council (2021). The structure of customer satisfaction. 2021 JCSI custom survey on flower shops. MPS Japan.
7. The challenge that lies ahead
(1) Happiness of employees: First and foremost priority
Customer satisfaction is at the heart of the process by which a company provides “value” and develops relationships with customers who support it. Successful communication of the value hinges on the engagement of individual employees at the point of contact with customers.
Management studies have shown that ES (Employee Satisfaction) is closely interlinked with customer satisfaction. The work of frontline staff at florists requires not only physical and mental labour, but also capacity for empathy, patience, and creativity – hard work. In pursuit of customer satisfaction, care must be taken, before anything else, neither to overburden nor exploit staff.
James Heskett, a renowned specialist in the field of ES study, enumerated major contributing factors to the wellbeing of employees, namely, fairness of treatment, good working conditions, environment that encourages ingenuity, and sufficient payment.
To satisfy customers, the priority should be to given to raise the level of employee satisfaction by applying such concrete measures.
In other words, employees are internal customers.
(2) “Quality” reconsidered: in view of sustainability
In the context of CS surveys, ”quality” is a “perceived” one filtered through the subjective cognition of each customer. Having said that, taking a larger view, it would be worthwhile to consider the different aspects of “quality”. The table below shows multi-dimensionality of quality.
Unlike other agricultural products, flowers at Japanese real flower stores are often sold without identity about their origin and the process of production. Socio-environmental certifications and GAP are very scarce, which means there is only limited information or evidence available for buyers about responsible conduct for the protection of environment / biodiversity / human rights issues throughout supply chain. The same is true on governance, compliance, and risk management.
The qualities of Japanese flowers in these dimensions are not immune from vulnerabilities A mishandling in such areas may damage the perception of quality and, subsequently, the corporate image.
If the flowers are produced and distributed in a way that may do harm to the environment or the well-being of others, can they still reserve to be called “high quality”? Will we still be able to say so in the next five or ten years’ time? Sustainability-wise, so far, it remains to be seen if there is a significant shift unfolding in Japanese flower industry.
Table 6 Quality dimensions of flowers and plants
| Quality dimension | Description |
|---|---|
| External | Form, colour, size, scent, uniformity, health, absence of defects, pathogen protection |
| Distribution and trade | Delivery time, quantity, stability of supply, rarity, trust, information provision |
| Environmental and social | Protection of the environment, safety of workers and human rights |
| Managerial | Sound management, strategy, integrity |
| Perceived | Quality as perceived by consumers (psychological / cultural / social) |
| Information | Smart use of information / data, digitalisation, communication |
Note: Regarding external, distribution, environmental and social qualities, see below. Tsurushima, Hisao (2003), “Quality and quality control of nursery plants”. Agriculture and Horticulture, 78(10): 1140-1146. Doi, Motoaki (2016). Development and challenges of quality control technology for flower production. In Imanishi, Hideo et al.(eds.) Lights and shadows of Japanese floriculture. Minerva Shobou.
Source: Aoki, Kyoko (2019). World Floriculture Certifications. MPS Japan.(modified)
(3) Towards creating a shared “culture”
The questions that measure customer satisfaction are highly abstract:
“Are customers satisfied with their choices?”
“Have their lives been enriched by using the service?”
Ultimately, what CS survey is trying to find out is whether the company is creating “real value”, and effectively communicating it to customers, to the degree that it creates a shared “culture”.
Customer satisfaction surveys do not provide direct answers to the question of how to create a new value that is currently latent. Instead, they may be able to offer clues to how to build relationships with your fellow customers.
Demographics
Table 7 Demographics of respondents
| Company | Respondents(n) | (%) | Male:Female(%) | Mean age | Greater Tokyo(%) | Married(%) | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Total | 1611 | 100.0% | 39:61 | 52.7 | 62.3% | 75.4 | |
| 1 | AFM | 307 | 19.1% | 39:61 | 44.9 | 81.1% | 65.8 |
| 2 | Hibiya Kadan | 310 | 19.2% | 38:62 | 51.8 | 67.1% | 68.1 |
| 3 | Cainz | 309 | 19.2% | 51:49 | 52.3 | 40.5% | 77.7 |
| 4 | Aeon | 319 | 19.8% | 34:66 | 56.4 | 28.2% | 79.6 |
| 5 | Yaoko | 273 | 16.9% | 32:68 | 56.4 | 87.5% | 82.8 |
| 6 | Co-op Mirai | 93 | 5.8% | 31:69 | 59.4 | 87.5% | 88.2 |
Source: Japan Flower Vase Life Improvement Council (2021). The structure of customer satisfaction. 2021 JCSI custom survey on flower shops. MPS Japan.
Appendix
Table A-1 Overview of the companies surveyed
| Brand | Company Name | Category | No. of stores | Staff size | Revenue (USD, mil.) | Description |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hibiya Kadan | Hibiya Kadan | Flower shop | 190 | 1,399 | 150 | Hibiya Kadan is proactively diversifying its sales channels. This survey has revealed that approximately 9% of purchases were made online. Their in-store / delivery subscription programmes and flower vending machine business are attracting new customer segments |
| Aoyama Flower market | Park Corporation | Flower shop | 117 | 1,204 | 70 | Located in and around major transfer stations of metropolitan cities. Popular for small, ready-made flower bouquets. Relatively young customer base |
| Cainz | CAINZ Corporation | Home centre | 225 | 13,097 | 4,270 | Mainly located in eastern Japan. Large range of PB products |
| Aeon | AEON RETAIL | General Merchandise Store (GMS) | 396 | 77,754 | 17,300 | Global retailer. Nationwide. Located in metropolitan and provincial cities |
| Yaoko | Yaoko | Food supermarket | 181 | 16,055 | 4,480 | Food Supermarket in Greater Kanto Area. Guaranteed vase life sales |
| co-op Mirai | co-op Mirai | co-op supermarket | 134 | 13,813 | 3,440 | Co-operatives in the Greater Tokyo Area |
Note: Company-wide data. Conversion rate: 1USD=114 yen.
Source: Author. Based on company websites and other sources.
Link_to_full_report (in Japanese)
Citation
You are free to cite the results of the survey. Please note that this is not an official JCSI survey and that use of the results for corporate publicity or ads mentioning “JCSI” is not permitted.
When quoting, please indicate the source.
Recommended citation: Aoki, Kyoko (2021). The structure of customer satisfaction: 2021 JCSI Japanese Customer Satisfaction Index custom survey on flower shops. Japan Flower Vase Life Improvement Council.