Final Project (35% of final grade) Overview: This project is assigned in lieu of a final exam. It is an authentic assessment of your ability to apply, analyze, synthesize, and evaluate, with clarity and exactness, what you have learned during this course, and to demonstrate this ability through effective written communications. Direction: you will select an existing business on which to base your project. Your instructor will approve your selection at the beginning of the assignment. The Business for my Project: India Palace Bar & Tandoor Assesses your ability to: a) incorporate the role of managing customer relationships within the company's overall business goals and marketing strategy; b) apply metrics to measure the success of customer relationship management efforts; c) differentiate customers by loyalty segments; d) evaluate technology-related tools (CRM) that will support various customer relationship management programs and goals; e) design customer loyalty strategies and programs; f) design customer service policies and strategies; and g) demonstrate critical thinking and written communications. Project Requirements 1. Current Situation A. Identify your company and provide the company's stated overall goals and marketing strategy. If the company does not have a published statement of goals and strategies, state what you believe them to be based on what you have learned and observed about the company. B. Provide a thorough description of the company's current customer service. Use the IDIC model for managing customer relationships as your framework. Include the organizations and processes that are in place to accomplish the IDIC (Identify, Differentiate, Interact, and Customize) tasks. Comment on the strengths and weaknesses of the current processes. Include your assessment of the impact on the company's goals and marketing strategies of the way the company serves its customers. For example, if the goal is to increase customer share, does the customer service process include a way to collect information about the customer's potential need for additional services? Do not provide a comprehensive description of the company. Only include the information required to satisfy the task at hand. 2. Redesign the Customer Service Policies and Strategies Provide a newly designed customer service program based on the principles of the IDIC model. Your design decisions should correspond to the assessment that you performed in step 1 above. You can recommend small or sweeping changes. Sometimes one small, very insightful change can make a dramatic difference in the service a company provides. The changes could be in organization, process, training, or another category. It should support the company's goals and marketing strategy. You should explain what principles of IDIC you are satisfying with your recommendations. For example, if you decide the sales force should have access to customer complaint information, you are basing your decision on the Interact building block and the principle of integrating across touch points. 3. Design Customer Loyalty Strategies and Programs Propose a customer loyalty strategy and create a customer loyalty program or programs. Incorporate the strategy and program(s) in the company's overall goals and marketing strategy. Those requirements and how they are to be met should be stated. Be very detailed in your descriptions. The program does not need to be extensive or complex, but it should meet the requirements of effective loyalty programs. If you have chosen a small, simply organized business, for example, you should be able to recommend at least three loyalty programs. Your recommendation would lack academic rigor if your only suggestion is that the business provide the customer with a card to be punched each time a purchase is made and the 10th purchase would be free. If, however, your recommendation involves creating a database generating real-time customer analytics used by multiple channels, one loyalty program, well worth the expense, would suffice. 4. Include Differentiation of Customers by Loyalty Segments in Your Customer Service and Loyalty Program Designs As part of your customer service policies and strategies design (step 2 above) and your customer loyalty strategies and programs design (step 3 above), classify your company's customers according to customer loyalty differentiation categories. Include those classifications in your designs. 5. Evaluate Technology-Related Tools (CRM) That Could Support Your Customer Service and Loyalty Programs Very clearly state the tasks you want the technology to perform for you. Identify the criteria against which you will appraise the technology (benefits, costs, features). Identify at least three CRM systems as potential candidates. Describe the purpose of each of the software and analytical tools. Decide which would best support your programs. Early on in the appraisal process, it may be clear that one or two of the three systems is not a match for the needs of your business. In this case, your comparison can stop at the point where you have eliminated the system(s) that do not meet your requirements. Complete the evaluation by showing how the remaining system meets all of your stated requirements. 6. Apply Metrics That Will Measure the Success of Your Customer Service and Loyalty Programs Exhibit the metrics commonly used to show the value of customer service and loyalty programs. Illustrate how they would be used to measure the success of your particular programs. For example, if you recommend implementing a customer service training program, the goal of which is to prevent customers from leaving and taking their business elsewhere, show how many customers you predict you will save and what the saved revenue impact is for your program. Show the cost of the program. Determine the break-even point. Select at least three sets of metrics to apply to demonstrate the value of your recommendations. The following rubric will be used to assess your performance on this authentic assessment. Please refer to it frequently to be sure you are on track. Requirement points 1A Current situation: company goals and marketing strategy 5 1B Current situation: current customer service 10 2 Redesign customer service policies and strategies 15 3 Design customer loyalty strategies and programs 15 4 Differentiation of customers by loyalty segments 15 5 Evaluate technology-related tools 15 6 Apply the metrics that will measure success 15 7 Adhere to readability, style and mechanics requirements 10 Total points 100