Assessment Task
Food Fiend Experience is a new business venture founded by a local entrepreneur; she is very passionate about food and established Food Fiend Experience to be able to fulfil her dream of running her own business and to create memorable cooking and dining experiences.
The business was established around March 2012 and primarily provides catering services / experiences but also some auxiliary services that include hosting of networking events and the provision of training for new start-up businesses through a sub brand called ‘YEAST’.
To date Food Fiend Experience has sold 5 group sessions (2 or more people), 2 taster sessions (loss leaders), 1 YEAST session and 3 individual sessions. The client is looking to increase sales and therefore the turnover of the business.
Currently Food Fiend Experience offers a range of catering services for both individuals and groups, with prices ranging from £30 to £140. More details are available at www.foodfiendexp.com
The number of enquiries and level of sales turnover after the first year were not meeting the client’s expectations. When considering Porters Value Chain, the problem with Food Fiend Experience lay not with the inbound logics but rather with the marketing and sales and acquisition of customers. The online visibility of the business was considered to be an important area to address in order to acquire more customers. Consequently the client identified the Food Fiend Experience website as an area for development. The pre-existing website was created using a technology called Flash, which is somewhat old and not considered to be very user friendly by modern standards. This was subsequently redeveloped to meet modern standards in web design and to be more accessible and appealing.
The objectives for the business are to:
1. 2 group experience sessions per week generating between £250 and £500 each.
2. Annual turnover of £15,000 through any combination of experiences sold.
3. Acquire leads and / or sales through the use of e-commerce.
The new website has led to an increase in the number of visitors but has not resulted in the business objectives being achieved. Further research is required to ascertain why the business is not growing and other possible interventions that might help the business to reach it’s objectives. The client is keen to explore how leads can be managed and converted.
Your team have been commissioned to produce a formal report to address the following points in relation to the case study provided.
1. Provide an explanation of Customer Relationship Management (CRM) and explain how the concept of CRM could benefit Food Fiend.
2. Review two CRM systems that Food Fiend should consider implementing. Your reviews should include benefits and drawbacks of each system. Food Fiend is a small business with limited funds so the client would like you to consider an Open Source solution and a viable Commercial Off The Shelf (COTS) solution.