MANAGING AND RUNNING A SMALL BUSINESS: CRM Strategy
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This assignment presents a small salon business plan for Cut O Mane in Essex, targeting Generation Z customers aged 18–24. It examines target audiences, human, physical and financial resources, resource allocation, CRM, customer retention, digital marketing, loyalty programmes, and operational recommendations to support customer satisfaction, business efficiency, competitiveness, and long-term growth. It also provides useful insights for Assignment In Need and students seeking business assignment help.
Slide 1: Title Page
Slide 2: Introduction to the business idea
This presentation will bring into perspective the fresh ideas of an entrepreneur willing to start a salon 'Cut O' Mane' near Maldon in Essex the UK. However, before getting invested in the ideal of serving customers with a well-maintained plan for hair management. The entrepreneur will thoroughly delve into the market and specifically consider the target consumers it wants to attract to its salon. Moreover, the resource procurement will not only take a financial investment, but it will also require prior permission from government agencies to continue the venture. In the former category, the financial focus will be more based on capital-related plans that involve a bank loan or an initial Kickstarter fund. Finally, as these issues begin to resolve the practitioners operating within the salon will look to figure out the customer relationship management processes. That might include operating through a website that posts the different prices for hair-related services- including haircuts, hair trimming, beard work, moustache work, hair wash, hair setting, and others. At the end of the presentation, a few suggestive remarks will be made in the case of the organisation ‘Cut O’Mane' that ensures their overall growth and success in the long run. Each remark will also be referenced with scholarly advice.
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Slide 3: Explanation of the target audience
- Customers within the age group of 18-24 including male and female prefer female hair cutting staff, who have grown by 88% after the pandemic.
- Customers in the age range of 22-24 prefer innovation that increases the earnings of common salons (Coole, 2021).
- Male customers from 22 to 24 prefer curly and wavy hairdos in comparison to female customers who prefer keeping beachy waves or short bobs (Coole, 2021).
- The majority of salons within Essex County bet on stylish trends to maintain their trends, which might be the requirement of the market. ‘Cut O’ Mane’ will target the same.
Speaker Notes: After the pandemic-induced salon market improved concerning revenue and expenditure management, these businesses excelled. That was through the young customers or Generation Z groups with a moderate income margin from £3500-8000 (Visit The Strand, 2022). The intention of such customers has been altered based on their choice of hairstyle, which goes from choosing curly based on the weather to keeping wavy hair as liked by their friends. Next- the other salons have wanted female staff for haircutting services who understand the requirements presented by the customers (Visit The Strand, 2022). Therefore they can become better trendsetters by representing the salon, and in that way, they can help the salon earn better goodwill, especially concerning Generation Z customers.
Slide 4: Main considerations of the business
- Human resource consideration 'Cut O’Mane’ will have 5-6 staff members including professional hair-cutting experts, hair hygiene consultants, and other hair-related experts apart from cleaners (Pickton et al., 1996).
- Physical resources the salon of 'Cut O’Mane will require all the necessary equipment including vacuum cleaners, hair dryers, hair steaming machines, massagers, and other related resources.
- Financial Startup costs are taken for 'Cut O’Mane' as £95800, which includes a few pertinent costs that will be needed by the business initially (Pickton et al., 1996).
| Particulars | Amount (£) |
|---|---|
| Rent | 1200 |
| Equipment | 35000 |
| Salon Supplies | 10000 |
| Insurance | 2300 |
| Legal Fees | 1800 |
| Salaries and Wages | 40000 |
| Miscellaneous Expenditures | 5500 |
| TOTAL | 95800 |
Speaker Notes: Concerning the above three factors of human resources, physical resources, and financial resources, the salon 'Cut O' Mane' will require all three which will be interdependent. That refers to building up a staff who possess unique knowledge of hair cutting, hair maintenance, and other related expertise (Pickton et al., 1996). Furthermore, they will be provided with the latest brand of hair dryers, vacuum cleaning machines, and others that help the place to be hygienic and cleaned along with better organisation of salon-related products. It is expected that the startup cost will be affixed at £95800.
Slide 5: Analysis of planning and allocation of resources towards the business
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First phase: Introspection- The salon owners of ‘Cut O’ Mane’ will build their salon business on their ideology of providing customers with their chosen hairstyles, and cuts (Werner, 1990).
- Second phase: Idea Generation- Innovative haircuts and hairstyling using modern equipment will be the key feature of ‘Cut O’Mane', which allows customers to choose from a wide range of styles. Before they are convinced of their ideal choice (Rubin, 1984).
- Third phase: Execution/Allocation of resources- To help hairstylists fulfil their desired hairstyles, they will be given better machines (hair dryers, clippers, mousse products, and others) apart from other resources that keep the premises of 'Cut O’Mane well-maintained (Rubin, 1984).
- Fourth phase: Depending on the customer reception and review, ‘Cut O’Mane’ will look to alter its business strategy including widening space for customer accommodations, better scissors or hair clippers, and extending discounts.
Speaker Notes: The process of planning will be executed in four segments, before stepping onto the process of resource allocation that will be part and parcel of the business requirement (Werner, 1990). It will be the consideration of the shareholders looking into the affairs of ‘Cut O’ Mane’, towards improvising with demand fluctuations within the salon (Rubin, 1984). That includes the sudden requirement of better hair gels, mousse, or shaving equipment.
Slide 6: Critical analysis of resource allocation showing relationships between resource allocation and business objective achievement
- Allocating the resources judiciously ensures a Lean philosophy is observed in minimising wasteful expenditure for start-up allocation (Shepherd and Gruber, 2020).
- The use of diverse equipment for fulfilling customer needs increases the unique value proposition of the salon, differentiating its services from those of local competitors (Bailetti, Tanev and Keen, 2020).
- A Lean focus on resource allocation therefore sustains the continuity of business for the start-up enterprise of 'Cut O' Mane' salon.
Speaker Notes: The business strategy is complemented by the focus on differentiating the otherwise common service of hair styling and related actions at the salon, as the diversity of modern consumers makes it possible to generate sustainable value by accommodating their different appearances and needs. Therefore, investing in the proper equipment enables workers to fulfil customer needs equitably and maintain the value proposition, while also generating customer satisfaction and retention through success in these service encounters (Hsu, 2018).
Slide 7: Evaluation of customer relationship management process for small business and social enterprise in reaching, retaining, and supporting customers
- The 'Cut O' Mane salon will target customers based in the Generation Z category for their interest in keeping up with contemporary hair styling and fashion trends.
- In addition to the primary website domain, the business will expand outreach by targeting customers through social media platforms like Instagram and using advertisements on third-party channels like Google (Werner, 1990).
- A loyalty programme will be used to incentivise customer retention by rewarding them with in-store points to use in gaining discounts as well as promotions on future visits (Jani, 2022).
Speaker Notes: The scope for customer support in the overall Customer Relationship Management (CRM) process is extensive, owing to digital channels such as telephone, websites and email, as well as social media platforms (Perez-Vega et al., 2022). Using a loyalty programme encourages customers to generate referrals to acquire more points for in-store benefits; studies indicate 4 in 5 UK consumers avail of loyalty programmes broadly, making it indispensable as part of the retention strategy for ‘Cut O’ Mane’ as well (Jani, 2022).
Slide 8: Critical evaluation of successful CRM processes
- The CRM processes require seamless integration of marketing, sales and customer service to achieve customer-centric responsiveness (Chen and Popovich, 2003).
- Based on customer feedback acquired through email feedback forms, the loyalty programme content will be developed to respond to customer suggestions.
- This will be reflected in marketing and sales to attract more customers and retain them based on feedback input (Vilkaite-Vaitone and Skackauskiene, 2020).
- Maintaining customer service channels through telephone and email contact, as well as social media and website, ensures diverse avenues of contacting ‘Cut O’ Mane’ are available.
Speaker Notes: The advantages of digital technology are used to increase responsiveness in the CRM processes at ‘Cut O’ Mane’, as the integration of marketing, sales and service increases customer satisfaction and future visits. Over 75% of consumers intend to spend more with businesses that offer satisfying customer experiences, which is achieved by integrating physical and virtual touchpoints with the salon through the stated service channels (Bishop, 2023). Another successful element of CRM process integration is customising promotions based on individual customer feedback, offering an omnichannel experience for the customer (Gitter et al., 2020).
Slide 9: Recommendations
- Customer Relationship Management involves different challenges, such as the cost of establishing in-house CRM systems and training employees to use them.
- This challenge can be avoided by procuring an off-the-shelf solution from a reputed provider like Salesforce.
- This improves team collaboration and increases efficiency in resolving customer issues, thereby increasing satisfaction and reducing attrition of the customer base (Long et al., 2013).
- Operations management also benefits from Salesforce integration by reducing costs to increase the profitability from net revenue (Suoniemi et al., 2022).
Speaker Notes: The multi-fold benefits of using a vendor-provided CRM system like Salesforce make it indispensable in recommending increasing CRM practices at 'Cut O' Mane'. The prevalence of such off-the-shelf solutions is indicated by findings that 91% of SME businesses use CRM software from vendors, and therefore using similar CRM software is needed to attain competitive positioning in CRM performance (Malczan, 2023). The ‘Cut O’ Mane’ employees can be readily trained by Salesforce representatives in using the CRM system without hurdles, reducing adoption lead time and potential expenses related to in-house equivalent measures for CRM competency development (Madhani, 2015).
Slide 10: Recommendations…(Contd)
- The customer experience can also be improved by developing communications strategies to empower customer-centric support services, such as anticipating customer needs across different touchpoints (Sheth et al., 2023).
- This increases customer satisfaction across different service encounters and reduces friction from distant service encounters such as emails, telephone and social media contacts (Voorhees et al., 2017).
- The customer experience in the 'Cut O' Mane salon will also improve through communication with stylists to ensure their requests are being attended to for greater satisfaction (Sampson and Chase, 2022).
Speaker Notes: The customer experience in a salon involves attentive customer-centric participation by all employees and business participants, as the business generates value through service add-on functions related to hair styling and other actions. Therefore, anticipating customer needs becomes feasible from the demographic identification of Generation Z-aged customers (McCann, 2022); employee training ensures that salon workers gain insights into unique hairstyle requests based on different sub-genres of individual styles followed by consumers (Renwick, 2022). Their inclusion, the anticipation of need and accommodation are indispensable to sustain their continued visits for styling accommodations at 'Cut O' Mane salon.
Slide 11: Conclusion
The presentation concludes that ‘Cut O’Mane' have created a business plan they intend to launch within the populated county of Essex. Their intended target consumers are the Generation Z masses who are in the age group of 18-24. That features both males and females. The unique selling proposition of the salon is catering to the customer needs, by fulfilling their hairstyles as per their expectations. Moreover, the hairstylists and haircutting experts or staff members kept within the salon, will be provided with better equipment and machinery that might help in the accomplishment of the customer's needs. However, due to a stymied financial capital pulling and a lack of human resource management activities. It can be seen that the salon might suffer from poor feedback and limited hands that can lend additional sustenance to its customers. Due to this certain levels of improvisation are expected from the salon, through its customer resource management activities over the period.
Slide 12: References
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