MANAGING AND RUNNING A SMALL BUSINESS: THE TOOLKIT

Analysis of planning and allocation of resources towards the business

• 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.

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.

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).

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.

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).

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).

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. For students analysing similar business plans, Business Assignment Help can provide useful guidance on areas such as target markets, human resources and customer relationship management. 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.

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