Read the case and complete the activity as instructed. Over the course of the past year, the corporate office of Farm Supply has identified a significant decrease in the total number of monthly transactions in several of its stores. Specifically, transaction counts have decreased by approximately 12,000 per month when compared to last year's data. Further review of the point of sale data determined that the average dollar amount per transaction has been estimated at $31.00. Consequently, the decrease in revenue due to the reduced transaction count is approximately $372,000 pe month or slightly less than $4.5 million per year. At the same time, the piece count per transaction has increased slightly. The incidence of non-purchasing store visitors is estimated at 50% which represented a significant increase over previous levels. To study the problem, the Farm Supply management team conducted a basic review of secondary information to determine if possible causes of the decrease in transactions could be explained by population decrease in the affected market areas or a decrease in the chain's traditional customer base of "small farms." The basic review of online demographic data provided by the U.S. Department of Census and the related agricultural data obtained from the U.S. Department of Agriculture indicated that neither of these factors could satisfactorily explain the decreases in transactions. Store management was asked to initiate a "secret shopper" program to fukther understand the situation faced by the retailer. Results of these simple interviews revealed that 1) merchandise stockouts may have forced customers to redirect their shopping for some items and that 2) customer service issues related to employee apathy, lack of product knowledge, or some combination thereof may be driving customers to other retail outlets. Armed with this information, management defined the following research objectives: • Determine customers' perception of in-store customer service? Determine the percentage of customers that leave a store prematurely due to unfound items. Management used a store intercept method where customers completed a paper and pencil survey while they shopped to collect primary data. The survey allowed Farm Supply customers to share their opinions relating to broad based satisfaction issues. Each section of the proposed survey instrument measured different marketing information that was of use to Farm. Supply, but particular attention was given to employee product knowledge and their ability to answer customer questions. Surveys were collected at the enc of customers' shopping experience. Corporate management also created a consumer panel consisting of a sample of each store's customers. Over time, the panel was used as a tracking device for overall satisfaction and a "sounding board" for new ideas introduced by either store or corporate management. The study yielded over 2300 responses system wide. Cross tabulations based on select respondent characteristics indicated a rather high level of dissatisfaction with sales associate product knowledge in several