Informal Proposal: Student Sample #4

Date: September 26, 2001
To: Nellie Aimes, Owner, Generic Maternity Boutique
From: Sarah Fandango, Claire Seymour, and Clarisse Nixon
Subject: Proposal to design a target customer follow up sheet for Generic Maternity Boutique

Purpose:

This proposal is a recommendation to Generic Maternity Boutique to implement a customer follow up sheet in order to benefit both the company and its customers. Moreover, we propose to select the Profcomm team to research and design the most effective template.

Summary:

We suggest to construct a customer follow up sheet in order to attain superb customer service while simultaneously providing Generic Maternity Boutique with a tool to achieve a productive and efficient business operation. In order to provide Generic Maternity Boutique with the resources to make valuable customer information available, our team will:

Work in collaboration with Nellie Aimes, the owner, to provide a template that will work most efficiently for this particular business
Research outside businesses customer follow up sheets to explore different designs and thus create an effective template
Explore and present how a customer follow up sheet will benefit Generic Maternity Boutique

Introduction and Background:

Currently, entrepreneurs and small business are part of a competitive market. The competition that e-commerce brings to the industry forces stores to go above and beyond with personal, one-on-one interactions. Due to the competitive market, a retail store needs to define how it will establish a loyal customer foundation. In Generic Maternity Boutique's case, the target consumers are expecting mothers. We believe that the most efficient way to make its customers feel important and to keep them coming back is to implement a customer follow up sheet. This team has the credentials, knowledge and experience to create a perfect template for this store. All members of the team are Retail majors and have had experience in the retail field. In particular, Sarah has had two years of work experience within Generic Maternity Boutique. During this time, she recognized the need for a formatted tool that would offer Generic Maternity Boutique's customers exceptional service. Additionally, it would provide Generic Maternity Boutique with an organized means of doing so. A customer follow up sheet would allow an employee to look up information about the customer's previous shopping experience, what merchandise they are interested in, and to gather information about the customer. Generic Maternity Boutique's goal is to create a simple and efficient tool to utilize and ensure that its customers feel valued. A follow up sheet will not only provide an easy shopping experience for its customers, but it will also benefit the store. It will enable Generic Maternity Boutique to contact its customers about sales and promotions going on within the store.

Research and Design:

With the collaboration of the Profcomm Project team, the owner of Generic Maternity Boutique, and the employees of the store, we will begin gathering information about the store by spending time observing customers and again obtaining information from the employees. By direct observation we will be able to analyze and apply the most efficient template for such a unique store. Additionally, the Profcomm team will research past and existing formatted customer follow up sheets, in order to understand and implement the most effective form.

The template will include personal information such as:

Name
Phone Number
Address
Due Date
Sex of the Baby
Birthday of Mother
Past Purchases
Back Orders

Timeline:

DATE - OBJECTIVE
Tuesday October 2, 2001 - Designating Team Member Responsibilities
Tuesday October 9, 2001 - Submit proposal
Thursday October 11- 15, 2001 - Conduct Research
November 5, 2001 - Present final product

Conclusions/Recommendations:

The team will present the final product and the customer follow up sheet to Nellie Aimes in a scheduled meeting. With this document, Generic Maternity Boutique will have the ability to promote customer loyalty as well as a reputation of having superb customer service. As a result, Generic Maternity Boutique will become more profitable in the competitive retail industry once word of mouth advertisement begins. Generic Maternity Boutique will not only expand externally, but will increase internally, along with its profits.