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Introduction Performing business research requires a number of elements, an Issue to address by the research, a purpose statement for the research, determining a research design, and a sample design. The next step would be collection of data, analysis of the data, and reconstructing the theory. Members of Team A met to conduct a research about the Toyota recall on eight million of their known cars because of a quality assurance. Members of team A will determine the research design, research questions, and sample design. The first Toyota vehicle was born in 1867 by Sakichi Toyoda, who continued improving it until the AA Sedan was completed in 1936. After that in 1937 Toyota Motor Co. Ltd. Was established kept moving forward until 1950 when it faced a financial crisis, and Toyota Motor Sales Co. Ltd. Was established. In 1982 Toyota Motor Co. and Toyota Motor Sales Co. merged forming Toyota Motor Corporation. The company joined ventures with General Motors in 1984, and production began in the U.S.A. Business Research Plan Objectives of the research plan: * Identify the reason the defect in the vehicles was not detected. * To regain 100% customer satisfaction, that would be measured through the survey. * To regain loyalty and trust of the customers, by identifying their expectations through our research. * To achieve and surpass the industry average Toyota Motor Corporation was at before the recall. To achieve these goals team A will carry out a research plan on Toyota Motor Corporation, addressing the quality assurance crisis that required the recall of eight million of its cars. This plan will consist of: * The research questions that target the issue researched. * Identification of a sample and population from Toyota Motor Corporation that consists of its new, existing, and previous customers. * A description of the ways to choose and access the customers. * Determine a process to collect the data. * Determine a format for the survey, and a route to distribute and collect the results. Survey Question * Did Toyota handle your problem in a timely manner' * Where you satisfy with the repairs done to car' * Did Toyota provide high quality customer service' * Do you trust Toyota to handle routine maintenance services' * Did Toyota provide a loaner car while your car was being work on' * Did Toyota answer all your questions' * Where they friendly and courteous' * Did you receive a follow up call after your visit' * Would you recommend this dealership to friends and family' * Would consider buying a Toyota car in the near future' * Where you offer or inform about additional products and services' Population and Samples Identification Looking at Toyota’s issue of manufacturing defective vehicles to the public and not providing quick and adequate customer service has been the major problem. In conducting the research the sample designed will measure a small portion of Toyotas customers, and will result in making a generalization about the entire problem. To examine and evaluate the current state of Toyota, a sample design will comprise of a six week survey of new, existing, pervious customers. The sample group will include all ages and be chosen at random of all Toyota model owners. The six week survey will measure the customer satisfaction when dealing with recall issues, providing overall quality customer service to new customers and overall company satisfaction. The first three weeks of the survey will consist of pervious customers. The remaining three weeks will consist of new and existing customers. The surveys will be sent out to different Toyota dealerships customers, in order observed if the same issues are taking place throughout all dealerships. A chart with all the data collected with is created with the make/model, age, recall outcome, and satisfaction. Selection Process Toyota customers will be chosen through the stratified sampling method, and then the mean of the whole population will be calculated from the means of all the groups. The customers will be accessed through the dealerships they purchased their vehicles from. Surveys will be distributed to the dealerships that will in turn give these surveys to the customers. Data Collection Process Data collection process can be summarized in five simple steps: 1. Identifying the goals for the data collection. In the case of our research about the Toyota defective issues, the goal of collecting the data is observing what the new, existing, and previous customers think of the defect recall, and how the company handled it. And what Toyota customers are expecting from the company in the future. 2. Development of operational procedures. This step provides insight on what our data collection is measuring, and about sample identification. 3. Validation of the measurement system. In our survey there is no measurement system or calibration. The survey should be distributed to all the Toyota dealerships that were randomly selected by the stratified sampling method. 4. Carryout the data collection. This step is the most important; members of team A will distribute the survey to the identified sample of customers. Taking in consideration the information collected in the first three steps. 5. Insure the data collection is following the set guidelines. Any needed adjustments will take place during the six week period of the survey. To ensure that the data collection is on the right track. Following these five simple steps will help team A through the data collection process and help decrease error as much as possible. Survey Format The survey will provide Toyota with information that will help lead them to produce better quality vehicles and customer service. The format of the survey will in the form of a questionnaire. A questionnaire is a cheap and fast way to collect data with little effort. The questionnaire will be scaled, with answer choices that range from 1-10. The number one will represent below average and ten above average. The answers will each have two lines under the number scale in the case the respondents would like to leave a head written responds to the question. Wording for the survey will be straight forward leaving the responder little guest work when responding, (e.g. Rate your overall experience with Toyota.). The sample population will be picked at random so wording is important. The survey must account for the responders not being able to read some words if not all. The survey must take responders no longer then ten minutes to complete. Survey Distribution and Collection Process The surveys target population will be picked at random by using the data bases from randomly selected Toyota dealerships. The dealerships will distribute these questionnaires to past and present owners of Toyota made vehicles. The distribution and collection will be done via internet. Responders will receive an e-mail generated by the company that will contain a hyper-link to the questionnaire. Where they can complete it and click finish and the questionnaire will automatically return to Toyota for review. Conclusion The goal every company aspires is continuous success, in the real world mistakes happen. For any company to regain its success, and loyalty of its customer’s business research should be conducted. This business research must have strong basis that compose of a research design, and sample design that most suit the type of company and business research. The business research should have a defined purpose statement, and it should spot the cause of the failure that occurred to help prevent the reoccurrence of the same mistake. The motto of Toyota now is “Moving Forward” to regain success and customer loyalty. Reference History of Toyota, (2013). Retrieved from: http://www.toyotaglobal.com/company/history_of_toyota/ LSS Academy, 2013. 5 Steps To Data Collection. Retrieved from: http://lssacademy.com/2007/05/31/5-steps-to-data-collection/