Student Sample #3 - Report Body

Report Body

Introduction

Generic Maternity Boutique is lacking an organized system that will allow it to track its customers and their shopping needs. While working in the field of retail, we have recognized the need for a formatted tool that would offer the customers of a store like Generic Maternity Boutique exceptional service. We believe that a customer follow up sheet is the most efficient way to make its customers feel important and keep them coming back. The customer follow up sheet allows employees to look up information about the customer and to contact them when necessary.

Currently, entrepreneurs and small businesses 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 competition, a retail store needs to define how it will establish a regular customer foundation. In Generic Maternity Boutique's case, the target consumers are expecting mothers. We believe that the most efficient way to make women feel important and keep them returning, is to implement a customer follow up sheet. This team has the credentials, knowledge and experience to create an ideal template for this store. All members of the team are Retail majors and have had experience in the retailing field. In particular, Melissa has had two years of work experience with Generic Maternity Boutique. During this time, she recognized the need for a formatted tool that will offer Generic Maternity Boutique's customers exceptional service. The customer follow up sheet will allow an employee to look up information about a customer's previous shopping experience, what merchandise they are interested in, and to gather personable information about the customer. Our goal to create a simple and efficient tool to utilize and ensure that Generic Maternity Boutique's customers feel valued. The 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.

Problem Statement

Generic Maternity Boutique is faulty for not having a structured method of tracking its customers. Currently, it uses a three ring binder with random and unorganized names and phone numbers. This system makes it difficult to find particular customers because employees have to look through every page in the binder in order to spot a name. Another problem involves a lack of information, including forgetting to record phone numbers or an item a customer is interested in. A customer follow up sheet will rectify this problem. It is a designed template with space to record all necessary information. Each page is labeled with a letter for easy alphabetization and the template is produced on Microsoft Publisher for an easy replication.

A customer follow up sheet is a gateway for Generic Maternity Boutique that will raise the standard of local boutiques. Building a reputation of a store that takes care of its customers and keeps them informed, will result in a customer foundation; an increase in word of mouth advertisement; and finally, a boost in profitability.

Methods

To design an effective template for this particular store, our team evaluated what needed to change and how we would accomplish this task. First, we evaluated the existing binder. Its contents include blank notebook paper with randomly placed contact names and information. There is not any order involved in this system. Employees record information they feel is necessary; therefore, valuable information has a tendency to be left out. Second, by interviewing all employees at Generic Maternity Boutique, our team has concluded that a formatted document needs to be put into operation to make the process of tracking customers more efficient.

In order to provide Generic Maternity Boutique with the resources to make valuable customer information available, our team has completed the following:

Has worked with Sarah Halliday and her staff, to provide a template that will work best for Generic Maternity Boutique
We suggest 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

Analysis

The customer follow up sheet is designed on Microsoft Publisher, an often used and familiar program at Generic Maternity Boutique, for easy duplication for additions to the binder. The sheet will be alphabetically organized by customer last names, into a three-ring binder. An employee working with a customer can easily take the binder, turn to the letter of the customer's last name and fill out valuable information. This system makes tracking easy and efficient. Once the mother has her baby, according to the due date, the sheet can be easily withdrawn from the binder to keep it updated.

We feel the customer follow up sheet, found in Appendix A, is an efficient and unbiased document. The design was created from the input and feedback of all employees and the owner of Generic Maternity Boutique. The original template was to include information such as the sex of the baby and birthday of the mother, however with the opinions of the Generic Maternity Boutique staff, this information has been omitted because it is needless. The following will be included on the template:

Name
Address
Phone Number
E-mail Address
Due Date
Past Purchase
Backorders

Additionally, the sheet will fit two customers and their information on one page. This format will accommodate the volume of customer flow that comes into the store. The design is based on the size and minimal amount of pages in an existing binder of blank pages that is currently in use. However, a customer follow up sheet will create an organized tracking system that previously has not been present.

The design of the template includes:

Generic Maternity Boutique's logo, for personification
A letter in the left hand corner for alphabetization of last names
A background labeled "bouquet" used often on Generic Maternity Boutique's forms
Different shades of purple, fitting Generic Maternity Boutique's color scheme
Comic Sans font, which is used frequently for store fliers, notices and additional documents

Conclusion & Recommendations

Our findings in collaboration with Generic Maternity Boutique staff, is the need for the implementation of a tracking system. The most effective way of accomplishing this is to use a customer follow up sheet. The follow up sheet is engineered specifically for Generic Maternity Boutique with their trademark symbols and information needed for the particular store. The sheet will provide the store with the means for contacting customers in day-to-day operations including sales and promotions. Adversely, it will allow for communication between clientele and staff. Clients will have the ability to request to be contacted if and when specific items are received. By giving Generic Maternity Boutique the ability to contact their customers with this information, the store's profitability will increase due to more transactions. Sales will also increase on the account of having exceptional service and thus bringing in loyal customers repeatedly. In this specific form of retail, maternity, it is important for customers to tell friends about the boutique. Word of mouth advertisement will provide the boutique with exceptional customer service. The customer follow up sheet will be the doorway for accomplishing this.