Customer Management

Assessment Information – What you need to do

This is an individual assignment.

This assignment requires you to assess the customer management competence of a chosen company, and will identify its strengths and weaknesses in managing its customers from acquisition, to retention and development.

Criteria for Assessment – How you will be marked

This assignment is designed to assess the following learning outcomes:

LO1. Assess organisational competence in customer management
LO2. Identify weaknesses in customer management performance

Assessment Details

In this section, you will find detailed information on Coursework 1 highlighting:

• Required structure
• Marking breakdown (i.e. marking criteria)
• Student checklist

You should take your time to go through the brief and familiarize yourself with the coursework requirements.

Word Count: The word count is 1,500 words (+/- 10 percent)

There will be a penalty of a deduction of 10% of the mark for work exceeding the word limit by 10% or more.
The word limit includes quotations and citations, but excludes tables, figures, the references list and appendices.

Instructions

You must select ONE company from the below list:

1. KFC
2. Shein
3. Tesla
4. TikTok
5. Uniqlo Then, you will critically assess CURRENT customer acquisition, retention and development
   strategies of your chosen` company along with a competitor as explained below.

Required Structure:

Title Page (title of the report, student number, module name & code, tutor name, submission date, word count) (Title page is not weighted.)

Organisational Summary (one page; 5 marks)

Organisational Summary will provide a background to your company – must use the Template on page 6.

1) Customer acquisition, retention and development strategies (550 words; 30 marks)
Considering the key customer segment of the company, assess the chosen company’s customer acquisition, retention and development strategies. These strategies need to be current ones which can be online, offline or both. You should NOT propose or recommend new strategies (as this will be the focus of Coursework 2).

This section must be structured around three key sub-sections:

1. Customer acquisition
2. Customer retention
3. Customer development

Your discussion should include references to the key relationship marketing constructs such as:

• trust
• customer commitment
• customer satisfaction
• customer loyalty
• customer value
• relationship benefits

• share of wallet

When presenting the current strategies, we strongly encourage you to discuss these in relation to customer segmentation, such as:

• converting prospects
• activating newly acquired customers
• turning loyal customers into advocates
• turning low purchase customers into high purchase customers
• re-engaging dormant customers

Your discussion should be supported with credible academic and practitioner literature.

2) Comparative Analysis (400 words; 25 marks)
In this section, you should compare the customer acquisition, retention and development strategies of your chosen company with one of its key competitors operating in the same industry.

First you must present the competitor’s current strategies in a table as below:

Customer acquisition, retention and development strategies of …………………. (competitor’s name)
Customer acquisition
Customer retention
Customer development

(Tables are excluded from word count)

Next, compare and contrast your chosen company’s strategies with this competitor, highlighting the similarities and differences between the two companies.

3) Customer Value Creation (400 words; 25 marks)
Apply EITHER IDIC OR KANO to the chosen company.

This section must be developed around IDIC or KANO that you have selected. Having identified your theoretical framework, you will apply this to your chosen company. In the discussion the focus should be on how the company can create value to its customers.

• This section should be structured around the chosen theoretical framework. For
example, if you have selected IDIC you should have four paragraphs, each around one
of the four strategies of IDIC.
• You must present a diagram of the theoretical framework APPLIED to your company
(diagrams are excluded from word count).
• Your discussion should NOT be on a mere description of the framework. Instead, you
will need to APPLY the framework to the chosen company, with particular emphasis
on customer value creation.
• You will need to cite academic / practitioner sources throughout the section.

4) Conclusion (150 words; 7.5 marks)
In this section, you will need to identify strengths and weaknesses of your chosen company in relation to their customer management strategies. This discussion must be informed by:

• the company’s current customer acquisition, retention and development strategies
(Section 1)

• its key competitors’ customer management strategies (Section 2)

• how the company offers value to its customers (Section 3)

Despite being a brief section, Conclusion is an important section as it will lay the foundation for Coursework 2.

The Structure and Professionalism of Your Report (7.5 marks)

Structure, Referencing and Professionalism of Your Report (including language and grammar)
Your understanding of the module content should be reflected well in the report. This means you will need to refer to learning materials, concepts and theories learnt in the module, in the context of the chosen company.

• Please use 1.15 line spacing and 11-point Calibri.

• On Submission Title on Turnitin, please type this “your student number- – “.
  • Report needs to be structured well, professional looking, clearly expressed points in
  English, adopt careful punctuation and appropriate use of paragraphs (including the
  choice of terminology, spelling and grammar).
  • The appendices you include in the report should be relevant. Materials that appear in
  the appendices must be referred to and commented upon in the main text, otherwise
  they will not be counted towards your grade. Appendices should not be treated as an
  extension of the main report.
  • Tables, graphs, diagrams are EXCLUDED from word count.
  • Your reference list should demonstrate your close engagement with module textbook
  and the sources on “online research list”. A full list of references of all sources
  (whether academic or industry-based) must appear at the end of your assignment,
  written in Harvard (Cite Them Right). Further information can be found here:
  https://library.dmu.ac.uk/refguide. Sources must also be indicated clearly in the main
  text, as they arise. You must not copy materials directly from any source word-for-
  word without acknowledgement, and neither must you paraphrase material from any
  source (academic or business) without acknowledgment. To do so is ‘plagiarism’, which
  is a serious academic offence.
  • Very important: this report must be entirely your own work and no-one else’s.  
  Organisational Summary Template (max one page)

The chosen company

• turnover
• number of employees
• products/services
• market share

(remember to provide a date for these data)

What competitors exist in this marketplace, and their market share?
(remember to provide a date for these data)

Digital marketing landscape

What social media platforms does your company engage with its customers, and the level of engagement (in the form of likes, tweets, comments and so on)?

(remember to provide a date for these data)

What value(s) does your company offer to its customers?

How to Submit your Assessment

The assessment must be submitted by 12:00 noon (GMT/BST) on Friday 12 January 2024. No paper copies are required. You can access the submission link through the module web.

• Your coursework will be given a zero mark if you do not submit a copy through Turnitin. Please take care to ensure that you have fully submitted your work.
• Please ensure that you have submitted your work using the correct file format, unreadable files will receive a mark of zero. The Faculty accepts Microsoft Office and PDF documents, unless otherwise advised by the module leader.
• All work submitted after the submission deadline without a valid and approved reason will be subject to the University regulations on late submissions.
o If an assessment is submitted up to 14 days late the mark for the work will be capped at the pass mark of 40 per cent for undergraduate modules or 50 per cent for postgraduate modules.
o If an assessment is submitted beyond 14 calendar days late the work will receive a mark of zero per cent.
o The above applies to your first attempt at the assessment. If work submitted as a reassessment of a previously failed assessment task is submitted later than the deadline the work will immediately be given a mark of zero per cent.
o If an assessment which is marked as pass/fail rather than given a percentage mark is submitted later than the deadline, the work will immediately be marked as a fail.
• The University wants you to do your best. However, we know that sometimes events happen which mean that you can’t submit your coursework by the deadline – these events should be beyond your control and not easy to predict. If this happens, you can apply for an extension to your deadline for up to two weeks, or if you need longer, you can apply for a deferral, which takes you to the next assessment period (for example, to the re-sit period following the main Assessment Boards). You must apply before the deadline. You will find information about applying for extensions and deferrals here.
• You MUST keep a copy and/or an electronic file of their assignment.
• Checks will be made on your work using anti-plagiarism software and approved plagiarism checking websites.

Return of Marked Work

You can expect to have feedback returned to you on 2 February 2024. If for any reason there is a delay you will be kept informed. Marks and feedback will be provided online. It is important that you access the feedback you receive as this will help to make improvements to your later work, you can request a meeting with your Module Leader or Personal Tutor to discuss your feedback in more detail.

Marks will have been internally moderated only, and will therefore be provisional; your mark will be formally agreed later in the year once the external examiner has completed their review. More information on assessment and feedback can be found here.