bass company - final final

Business Consulting Final Report

SDSU Small Business Consulting Program

Bass Company

SDSU Small Business Consulting

Final Report

BA 404

Fall 2014 Prepared by: Levente Imbuzan - Project Manager Gevorg Avetisyan Tyler Harper Ronald Weaver Assisted by: Kamila Sikorsky SDSU Business Graduate Student Michelle Engel Small Business Development Center Consultant

December 5th, 2014

Bass Company


EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Bass Company started in 1951 when it was originally founded as a private

investigation firm. Through the years its focus shifted from private investigation to

market research, specifically mystery shopping.

The company was bought by Mr. Murrell, the current owner, in 1994 and has

been operating as one of San Diego’s premier mystery shopping companies since then.

Currently, Bass Company employs one part time employee and utilizes 30-40

independent contractors to conduct its evaluations. Mr. Murrell is in charge of all of the

accounting for the company and is also responsible for reviewing and editing all of the

final reports before they are distributed to clients.

Through our analysis of Bass Company we came across a few key findings. We

learned that in the San Diego area the two main competitors for Bass Company are

Interactions Marketing and TrendSource. We learned that while the company does have

a website almost all of its marketing is conducted via word-of-mouth and through no

other mediums. We also discovered that ever since the 2008 financial crisis Bass

Company has been steadily losing clients due to an increase in the number of

companies switching to other forms of customer evaluations.

Finally, upon completion of our Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and

Threats analysis we found that Bass Company has a number of strengths: good

customer relations, low turnover for reports, and they are able to tailor reports to a

company’s specific needs and vision. We did, however, discover that the biggest threat

currently facing Bass Company is companies switching over to conducting market

research through the online receipt model as well as other forms in order to cut costs.

Bass Company


After conducting our analyses for Bass Company we pinpointed the top 10 key

issues that we found and highlighted them in this report. We organized them from what

we believed to be the most pressing issues at the top to the least pressing but still

requiring attention at the bottom. These key issues will hopefully help Mr. Murrell

identify areas in his company that need improvement and fixing.

After identifying and analyzing these key issues we also came up with a series of

10 “slam dunk” recommendations for Mr. Murrell. These recommendations are meant to

be things that can be implemented by Bass Company immediately and/or cheaply and

would allow it to promptly see net benefits. In addition to these 10 “slam dunks” we also

created recommendations for three ideas that we believe are important for Bass

Company to implement. These ideas are, for the most part, time and labor intensive and

not necessarily inexpensive but we feel that despite some of the work required and

challenges posed by these recommendations they should be whole-heartedly

implemented and if such, will absolutely bring a positive benefit to the company. All

recommendations are listed according to what we believe would bring Bass Company

the most benefit if implemented.

Bass Company


TABLE OF CONTENTS

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY ................................................................................................. 2

LIST OF APPENDICES ................................................................................................... 5

LIST OF TABLES AND EXHIBITS .................................................................................. 6

INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................................. 8

ANALYSIS OF CLIENT BUSINESS ................................................................................ 9

Company Description and History ............................................................................... 9

Administration ............................................................................................................ 10

Financial Analysis of Business .................................................................................. 15

Customer Analysis ..................................................................................................... 17

Marketing ................................................................................................................... 19

Competitor Analysis ................................................................................................... 23

Situational Analysis .................................................................................................... 31

SUMMARY OF OVERALL FINDINGS .......................................................................... 36

KEY BUSINESS ISSUES OR PROBLEMS IDENTIFIED .............................................. 38

GROUP’S OVERALL RECOMMENDATIONS .............................................................. 48

GROUP’S TEN “SLAM DUNK” IMPROVEMENTS........................................................ 63

IDEA 1: Create an Effective Marketing Message ....................................................... 64

IDEA 2: Implement a Marketing Strategy ................................................................... 68

IDEA 3: Implement a Customer Relationship Management System .......................... 74

IDEA 4: Develop a Marketing Budget ........................................................................ 74

IDEA 5: Hire a Marketing Salesperson ...................................................................... 80

IDEA 6: Increase the Price of Evaluations ................................................................ 82

IDEA 7: Develop a More Robust Online Presence .................................................... 84

IDEA 8: Redesign the Website .................................................................................. 88

IDEA 9: Use of Contracts in Business Dealings ........................................................ 91

IDEA 10: Implement the Business Model Canvas ..................................................... 93

REFERENCES .............................................................................................................. 96

Bass Company


LIST OF APPENDICES Contained herein is a list of appendices that can be found at the back of this report. A – Time Logs

B – Business Model Canvas

C – Bass Company Marketing Flyer

D – Sample Employment Contract Form

Bass Company


LIST OF TABLES AND EXHIBITS

Figure 1. Bass Company Online Performance Analysis Breakdown ............................. 13

Figure 2. Bass Company Website Homepage .............................................................. 20

Figure 3. Bass Company Testimonials Page ................................................................ 21

Figure 4. Bass Company Logo ...................................................................................... 22

Figure 5. Segments of the Mystery Shopping Market ................................................... 24

Figure 6. Visual Representation of SWOT Analysis ...................................................... 35

Figure 7. Market Force Company Logo ......................................................................... 59

Figure 8. Seceret Shopper Company Logo ................................................................... 59

Figure 9. Customer 1st Company Logo ......................................................................... 60

Figure 10. Google AdWords Search Terms and Daily Maximums ................................ 72

Figure 11. Zoho.com Mainpage .................................................................................... 75

Figure 12. Calender Feature on Zoho,com ................................................................... 76

Figure 13 Current Bass Company Homepage Layout ................................................... 90

Figure 14. Business Model Canvas Template ............................................................... 93

Benchmark 1. Interactions Marketing Market Segments ............................................... 25

Benchmark 2. Why choose IM, What the Service Entails, and Industries Best Served . 26

Benchmark 3. TrendSource Services Offered Page ..................................................... 27

Benchmark 4. TrendSource Expertise by Industry Page ............................................... 28

Benchmark 5. Interactions Marketing Client Showcase Page ....................................... 29

Benchmark 6. TrendSource Client Showcase Page ..................................................... 30

Bass Company


Table 1. Gross Receipts, Total Expenses, Net Profit 2012-2013 .................................. 15

Table 2. Wages, Gross Receipts, Total Expenses 2011-2013 ...................................... 15

Table 3. Comparison of Net Profits, Total Expenses and Gross Profits ........................ 16

Table 4. Details of Membership for MSPA-NA .............................................................. 51

Table 5. MSPA-NA Membership Fees based on Type of Membership ......................... 52

Bass Company


INTRODUCTION

The purpose of this report is to provide the owner of Bass Company with an

analysis of the company as well as recommendations for improvement. Research of the

company’s prices, operations, finances, marketing, geographical and on-line

competitors is included to present Mr. Murrell, with a clear understanding of the

company’s position in the market. The detailed analysis identified several business

issues which are pertinent to the long term success of Bass Company. The

recommendations the Small Business Consulting Center (SBCC) team have provided

herein are constructed with the goal of increasing the company’s current and potential

revenue streams.

Bass Company


ANALYSIS OF CLIENT BUSINESS

Company Description and History

Bass Company was founded in 1951 by Rod Bass. Originally, because of his

background in Naval Intelligence, the company operated as a private investigation firm.

It was his wife, Virginia Bass, who changed the focus of the company from private

investigation to mystery shopping.

In 1994 Mr. Murrell bought the company for $100,000. He graduated from

University of San Diego with a degree in Accounting and acquired his license as a CPA.

Bass Company is currently run as a sole-proprietorship by Mr. Murrell. He has

one employee that has been with the company for 10 years. Previously, the daughter of

the Bass’, Suzan B. Cresto, worked at the company but resigned some time ago.

The main focus of Bass Company today is mystery shopping. Mr. Murrell

specializes in, in-person “shopping” as well as shopping conducted over the phone. He

is currently the dominant mystery shopping company in San Diego, providing mystery

shopping to various financial institutions located around the county.

Bass Company


Administration

Management

Bass Company has been operated by Mr. Murrell for almost 20 years. He is

responsible for almost everything, he does, however, have one employee who assists

him with bank account management, and with accounting. Mr. Murrell has extensive

experience in accounting, which makes it easy for him to monitor and control the whole

business. Mr. Murrell is also the last step in the mystery shopper sequence of events.

He reviews every single report and edits them before sending them out to his clients to

ensure professionalism and consistency.

Staffing

The staff of Bass Company consists of only Mr. Murrell and his assistant. All

evaluators are hired as independent contractors. They work part time and get paid $10-

$11 per hour while Mr. Murrell’s assistant, gets paid $18 an hour. She helps around the

office with whatever she is tasked with as well as manages all of the 90+ bank accounts

Bass Company currently has open with various financial institutions in San Diego.

Evaluators are paid depending on where and how they evaluate a certain product or

service. Evaluators get paid based on three variables:

- performance of the evaluation;

- time they spend on the evaluation;

- mileage compensation.

Bass Company


If the evaluator had to purchase any service or product from the customer, he or

she can either retain it at a discount price or return it for a refund if they do not want to

keep it.

Qualifications required in order to be hired as a mystery shopper

● Excellent writing skills including grammar, punctuation and composition

● Be able to adhere to time constraints and deadlines

● Reliable; self-motivated; ethical

● Detail oriented; observant; factual

Operations

Bass Company operates with five types of organizations:

● Hospitality Industry;

● Food and Beverage Industry;

● Financial Institutions;

● Parks and Recreational Venues;

● Retail Establishments.

Bass Company used to work with Subway, SeaWorld and the San Diego Zoo.

After some period of time working with Bass Company, Subway decided to switch their

model of customer service evaluation to a receipt model; SeaWorld switched to using

video cameras, rather than using Bass Company’s services. The San Diego Zoo

entirely changed their model, by setting up kiosk machines, through which customers

can participate in an electronic survey.

Bass Company


One of Bass Company’s major clients is California Coast Credit Union (CCCU).

Bass Company utilizes different customer service related analyses and evaluations.

These services are performed by telephone, and in-person. These services include:

1. Employee Evaluation

Bass Company’s philosophy is to work closely with management in order to

implement a program that encourages and monitors customer service and sales skills

such as: cross-selling products and upselling services as well as product knowledge,

and repeat visitations. A considerable advantage can be achieved if employees know

that they can be evaluated anytime.

2. Performance Analysis

Bass Company also provides performance analysis services by using an online

tool. The online system allows unlimited access to employee evaluation’s and summary

information. Tables, graphs and charts are available to help track performance and

achievements. Information can be provided on different operation levels including:

Overall company performance

Branch/store or regional results

Historical information by individual employee

Figure 1 shows a generalized Online Performance Analysis Breakdown that Bass

Company offers on their website.

Bass Company


Figure 1. Bass Company Online Performance Analysis Breakdown

3. Internal Controls/ Cash Handling

Cash handling evaluations performed by Bass Company give the client the

opportunity to test certain procedures (how employees handle the returns, for example).

Additional attention has to be paid when cash is involved, especially for the different

types of transactions with cash.

4. Competitor Analysis

Bass Company also provides additional services related to the evaluation of

competitors ‘services and products. The evaluation program comprises monitoring new

trends, the actual market and the competitors’ business state. This information can be

used to enhance the customer’s competitive advantage and create more value for their

clients.

Bass Company


5. Customer Feedback

Bass Company’s services also include assisting their clients in collecting data

gathered from customers. Customers’ feedback creates value for businesses. It is a

good idea to compare how customer service is evaluated by shoppers and how the

same service is viewed by ordinary customers. This data can be used in order to

conduct marketing research. Bass Company is able to not only collect data but also to

interpret it and give recommendations to the client based on their findings.

Physical Facilities

Bass Company’s office is located in San Diego at 8265 Commercial St, La Mesa,

CA 9194. It is the only facility in the possession of the company. The office occupies

1,000 square feet and Mr. Murrell rents it on a monthly basis.

Bass Company


Financial Analysis of Business

Bass Company is a modestly profitable business that derives its revenue from

customer service related evaluations and analysis. As shown in Table 1, in 2013 the

Gross Receipt went up 4.5% and Total Expenses decreased by 21%. This decrease in

Total Expenses in large part accounts for the dramatic increase in Net Profits.

Table 1. Gross Receipts, Total Expenses, Net Profit 2012-2013

2012 2013 Difference

Gross Receipts $155,844 $162,869 $7,025

Total Expenses $152,686 $120,638 ($32,048)

Net Profit $3,158 $ 42,231 $39,073

From 2010 to 2013 Net Profits have been unsteady. In 2010 Net Profits were -

$9223; in 2011 $10,812; in 2012 $3,158; in 2013 $42,231.

As shown in Table 2, from 2011 to 2013 the wages paid out to independent

contractors were an average of 29.1% of gross receipts and an average of 33% of Total

Expenses. From this we can see that wages to independent contractors are a large part

paid out by the business.

Table 2. Wages, Gross Receipts, Total Expenses 2011-2013

2011 2012 2013

Wages –

Independent

Contractors

$49,363 $47,247 $46,867

Gross Receipts $174,947 $155,844 $162,869

Total Expenses $164,135 $152,686 $120,638

Bass Company


Table 3 shows a line graph comparison of Net Profits, Total Expenses and Gross

Profits. There is a trend of the company retaining a low percentage of Gross Receipts

and high Total Expenses.

Table 3. Comparison of Net Profits, Total Expenses and Gross Profits

Bass Company


Customer Analysis

Current Customers

Most of Bass Company’s current clients are financial institutions. The largest of

which is California Coast Credit Union. These financial institutions want to make sure

they are providing their customers with the best service possible. It is difficult for a large

institution to stay on top of all of its employees.

Industry Analysis

The mystery shopping industry is a $500 million dollar a year industry that

provides insight into their consumers businesses (Hutchings, 2011). It is pertinent that

businesses constantly adapt to their customer’s needs in order to remain competitive in

the market. Mystery shopping providers employ independent contractors to go to

businesses and measure quality of the services provided and monitor whether

employees are following regulation and business policy. This industry helps to create a

culture of excellence especially when employees know that at any time they can be

evaluated.

Businesses in the mystery shopping industry work with their clients to find out

what they want to measure. Businesses always need to do market research to keep

abreast of the needs of the consumer. This is why there will always be a demand for

mystery shopping companies. Statistics show that almost 90% of customers that are not

satisfied with their services will not say anything directly to the business, but will go

straight to the competition (“Facts about mystery shopping – Industries that use

shoppers”, n.d.). It is important for businesses to keep their customers if they are to

Bass Company


remain profitable as it is more expensive to acquire new customers than to keep loyal

ones. In 2004 the Mystery Shopping Providers Association conducted a test to see how

many businesses used mystery shopping. They found that over 8.1 million mystery

shops were conducted and these businesses who employed mystery shoppers saw an

average growth of over 10% (White, 2004).

Bass Company


Marketing

Product

Bass Company provides market research through the employment of

independent contractors, also known as “mystery shoppers.” Evaluations are performed

in person, by telephone, and via the Internet. Bass Company delivers personnel

evaluations, performance analysis, internal controls/cash handling evaluations,

competitor evaluations/analysis, market impact of new businesses and

customer/member feedback.

Promotion

Most of the clients acquired are from word of mouth. Although a large amount of

the promotion is through the company’s website, (Figure 2 shows a view of the Bass

Company homepage) Mr. Murrell also used to go into businesses, conduct free

evaluations for them and then present the owners with these evaluations, but this tactic

proved ineffective. The website offers information about the company, its services and

testimonials.

Bass Company


Figure 2. Bass Company Website Homepage

The website does not include links to social media websites because the

company does not have a presence on social media and also has a very weak online

presence. Figure 3 shows the testimonials on the website; these include those from

retail stores, financial institutions, food companies, and recreational parks.

Bass Company


Figure 3. Bass Company Testimonials Page

This lack of an online presence, especially in social media, hinders the

company’s credibility. The company must link with multiple sites such as LinkedIn,

Twitter and Facebook, in order to gain trust and interest from potential customers.

In relation to recognition, the company’s logo, as shown in Figure 4, is not one

that stands out. . It makes no mention as to what the company does (i.e. a tag-line)

which can turn potential clients to competitors due to a lack of brand recognition.

Bass Company


Figure 4. Bass Company Logo

Placement

Bass Company services all of Southern California and recognizes the importance

of serving different markets. They pride themselves on being the best mystery shopping

company in the area and does not utilize this effectively in marketing materials.

Price

The prices of the services in this industry can range from expensive to

inexpensive. Larger player’s in the industry charge substantially more because they

have contracts with larger corporations and offer more services. Bass Company

charges a lower price, around $40 for an in person evaluation and $28 for a telephone

evaluation.

This can be an advantage or a disadvantage; a lower price can attract clients

who may not have as much funds as large corporations. Bass Company could capitalize

on small businesses who cannot afford to use larger mystery shopping companies. On

the other hand price can be an important marketing tool conveying value. If too cheap, it

can deter potential clients who are seeking quality of price.

Bass Company


Competitor Analysis

Bass Company operates in the Market Research industry (NAICS code 54191).

According to IBISWorld.com, this industry is highly fragmented with the two largest

companies only dominating a small part of the overall industry. Nielsen Holdings N.V.

controls 14.2% of the market and Kantar Group controls 4.6%. The remaining

companies that make up this industry are extremely small with 81.2% having 20

employees or less (IBISWorld, 2014).

Although the companies in this industry might be small, the annual revenue

generated in this industry is expected to increase by 2.9% every year until 2019,

increasing from $21.1 billion to $23.7 billion (IBISWorld, 2014).This represents a vast

and growing market which companies in this industry can tap into.

As shown in Figure 5 Internet research accounts for the largest segment of

market research, accounting for 31.8% of services offered. This includes online surveys

sent out to customers as well as a receipt-based survey model that is given to

customers after their visit, typically at the bottom of their receipt. Face-to-Face market

research accounts for the 2nd largest segment with 22.8%. This includes traditional

“mystery shopping” services that companies offer. Market research by telephone is the

4th largest, accounting for 14.0% of the services offered (IBISWorld, 2014).

Bass Company


Figure 5. Segments of the Mystery Shopping Market

Due to the mobile nature of mystery shopping and the need for evaluators to “go

out into the field” and see how companies operate in the real world, physical facilities

are not usually necessary beyond a small office within which to coordinate day to day

work and/or within which to meet clients. This makes a company’s website paramount,

as it is usually the only way customers can gain any knowledge about the company and

what services it offers.

Barriers to entry within this industry are low. With no need for facilities or any sort

of licensing the only perceived barrier to entrance is the experience and knowledge of

the company conducting the market research. Due to the low barriers to entry,

competition within this industry is high. Companies compete on the quality of their

service, their expertise and knowledge, survey and sampling techniques, timely

presentation of reports and price.

Bass Company


Benchmarking

The main competitors for Bass Company in the San Diego area are Interactions

Marketing (IM) and TrendSource (TS). Benchmark 1 is a screenshot from Interactions

Marketing’s website. They offer a services page that highlights all of the different types

of market research they are able to perform. Each service is a clickable link that takes

you to a page that highlights IM’s experience with this particular service, (Benchmark 2)

showcasing why you should choose them, what the service will actually consist of and

then lists a few industries that are best served by this particular type of service

Benchmark 1. Interactions Marketing Market Segments

Bass Company


Benchmark 2. Why choose IM, What the Service Entails, and Industries Best Served

Benchmark 3 is a screenshot from the website of TrendSource. In much the

same way as IM, they offer a services page that goes into great detail about what each

service they offer is and how it can help your business.

Bass Company


Benchmark 3. TrendSource Services Offered Page

Benchmark 4 is a screenshot from the TrendSource Website. In order to inspire

faith in their expertise and abilities TrendSource has a page dedicated to their

experience in the market research industry. They break down the page into different

industries they serve, and on each page highlight their expertise within that particular

industry, what specific area’s they focus on, and what products that they offer that would

be best suited for that particular industry.

Bass Company


Benchmark 4. TrendSource Expertise by Industry Page

Benchmarks 5 and 6 are screenshots from the websites of IM and TS

respectively. In order to inspire customer confidence in their abilities, both companies

utilize dedicated webpages showcasing the clients that they serve. IM in particular is

quick to point out the large, national brands that it serves while TS takes a more

conservative approach and does not reveal any client names.

Bass Company


Benchmark 5. Interactions Marketing Client Showcase Page

Bass Company


Benchmark 6. TrendSource Client Showcase Page

Bass Company


Situational Analysis

SWOT analysis has been selected as a method to analyze the current business

condition and future trends and opportunities. Based on overall SWOT analysis findings

a better marketing strategy can be implemented later on. The main idea of SWOT

analysis is to ensure that after a certain amount of time, weaknesses will become

strengths and threats will become opportunities. Strengths and weaknesses are

considered internal factors influencing the whole business, whereas opportunities and

threats are external factors. (Erstad,1998)

Strengths

Valuable experience from the customer's perspective.

Companies have the opportunity to gain valuable knowledge about how their

businesses operate from a trained professional. Mystery shoppers are individuals, who

are able to provide unbiased evaluations within a short period of time. Many companies

base new programs on the judgments made by these individuals.

Customer Satisfaction

Evaluators in Bass Company are known specifically for their ability to evaluate

customer service, this gives businesses an insight into their respective customer

satisfaction. Companies can find out if any employees exuded behaviors that might

lead to low customer satisfaction. It can also help a company understand how

Bass Company


employees interact with customers when management is not physically present. The

feedback and professional evaluation has proven to reduce the level of uncertainty that

managers have about their employees and enhance the overall experience for

customers.

Low Cost of Evaluation

Bass Company has relatively inexpensive and affordable prices for certain

evaluations. The prices vary and depend on the type of services Bass Company

performs. Mystery shopping does not require much investment in order to get

feedback. Since companies are looking to cut costs around company evaluation,

mystery shopping may be a very useful option.

Generate New Research Ideas

Companies are always thinking about new ideas and coming up with new

research questions. Often, without a customer's critical assessment, it is difficult to

receive insight into how the company can improve its business. Mystery shopping is a

strong tool that many companies can use to stimulate research for a desired result.

Weaknesses

Absence in Professional Organizations

Bass Company is not a member of any networking or professional organizations.

It is a good idea to be enrolled in some professional organizations, where the company

will have access to new information and an opportunity to interact with new clients, get

Bass Company


feedback and additional data. These interactions could potentially generate new

research ideas and further professional development and growth.

Lack of Advertising on Social Media

Bass Company struggles to find new clients due to a lack of exposure on social

media. Word of mouth is the main marketing tool which helps attract new clients. If

Bass Company limits itself to just word of mouth, it is severely limiting its potential

customer base.

Opportunities

Launching a New Advertising Campaign on Social Media

A new advertising campaign will raise awareness among companies, which need

their services. The more customers know your company name, brand and the

intricacies of services offered, the better the chance you have of gaining a new client

and potentially turning them into a long-term customer.

Reaching the Right Person in the Company

There is a need to be able to reach the right person within a certain organization

in order to make the marketing effort more efficient. It is always a good idea to know

who the human relations person is for a potential new client. It is also a good idea to

know who the actual decision makers are, the person who is able to actually sign a

business contract with your company.

Bass Company


Threats

Feedback on Social media, different apps (software)

With the growing number of information technologies and access to alternative

sources of information for different types of products and services, there is a high risk

that clients would be able to receive adequate evaluation services by using social

media, software programs and mobile applications. This could lead to a reduction in

demand for Bass Company’s services.

Financial Crisis

Crisis’ and a lack of resources within companies force them to the cut their costs.

Clients may not be interested in service improvements through Bass Company if they

have to solve short term problems like wage payments or a lack of money to buy

supplies for their businesses.

The Receipt Model as a Form of Evaluation

Even though the receipt model of service and experience evaluation is very

unprofessional and biased, in recent years this type of evaluation has become a very

common form tool used by many companies. This tendency could influence a new

customer’s decision allowing them to choose an alternate model as their main form of a

service evaluation. This could lead to a reduction in the number of customers for Bass

Company or undermine the whole idea of mystery shopping.

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Figure 6 is a visual representation of everything discussed within this preceding section.

Figure 6. Visual Representation of SWOT Analysis

STRENGHTS

WEAKNESSES

Valuable Experience from the Customer’s Perspective

• Absence in Professional Organizations

• Customer Satisfaction • Lack of Advertising on Social Media

• Low Cost of Evaluation

Generate new Research Ideas

OPPORTUNITIES

THREATS

Launching a new advertising campaign on social media

New Technologies and Software Applications

Reaching the right person in the company

Financial Crisis

Receipt Model of Surveys as a Form of Evaluation

Bass Company


SUMMARY OF OVERALL FINDINGS

A thorough investigation of Bass Company was conducted and their client

relationships, marketing, financial situation and competitors were evaluated. Bass

Company is owned by Mr. Murrell and it is currently a sole proprietorship. Mr. Murrell

has one assistant who is a full-time employee as well as evaluators who are private

contractors that work part-time. Bass Company offers a mystery shopping service for a

number of markets although, their main clients are in the financial industry. Their

evaluators investigate specific areas of their clients businesses and file a report on their

findings which is then summed with key issues, and recommendations are made to

respective clients on these issues.

The company’s financial situation could be improved upon. Although they are

not losing money, the profit margin is not ideal and does not allow Mr. Murrell to live

solely off of its profits. They also do not have an adequate marketing strategy in place

which hinders the growth of the company. The only marketing techniques currently

used are word of mouth and personal selling. The website is mostly utilized for one-way

communication; customers can access it but have a hard time communicating with Bass

Company through it, at this point it is mostly informational which presents a weakness

for the business. It also needs to be updated for Search Engine Optimization. Bass

Company does not currently have a presence on any social media site such as Twitter,

Facebook or most importantly LinkedIn, which is another weakness.

Despite these shortcomings, Bass Company possesses many strong points.

Bass Company has been operating for over 50 years in the San Diego area and began

Bass Company


business in 1951. Mr. Murrell has over 20 years of mystery shopping experience that

he is able to rely on for each and every report the company does. In addition, they are

the dominant mystery shopping company for financial institutions in San Diego,

dominating 70-80% of the market. Furthermore, they are one of only a handful of

companies that actually open bank accounts with their financial clients.

Mr. Murrell continually updates his client’s evaluation forms every 6-12 months,

while custom tailoring every evaluation to the clients own personal needs and vision.

This, coupled with a quick turnaround of 2-3 days for a report, makes Bass Company a

strong competitor with other mystery shopping companies in terms of efficiency.

Bass Company


KEY BUSINESS ISSUES OR PROBLEMS IDENTIFIED

Key Business Issue One – Lack of a Marketing Message

When a business creates a product or service they typically have a specific

market demographic in mind that they would like to market it to; this can be a very broad

or a very narrow segment. In order to be successful in their marketing, a company

needs to have a concise and effective message that they want to convey about a

specific product or service they offer (Mathson, 2010).

In the case of Bass Company, there is no clear or concise marketing message.

The website offers testimonials from previous clients as well as provides an overview of

what the services they offer. However, there is no mention of why a customer should

choose Bass Company over a competitor; or what value Bass Company can bring to

the consumers business.

In this volatile market consumers have access to a wide variety of sources with

which they can obtain market research information. For example, they have the choice

of other mystery shopping companies, using an online receipt model to garner

feedback, email surveys and self-input kiosks. The lack of a clear delineation between

the benefits of Bass Company versus other forms of market research is a serious

detriment when it comes to acquiring new cliental, and the lack of a clear, concise

message is a serious roadblock towards gathering a potential customer’s attention.

Bass Company


Key Business Issue Two – Lack of Business Strategy

For any business, a clear and concise business strategy is not only a necessity,

but a business cannot remain profitable long term without one. A business strategy acts

as a map to reach a specific business goal. It is important to establish core

competencies for a business and to decide what initiatives limited resources will effect.

Bass Company must establish a strong business strategy for the market they are

in, in order to move forward. It appears as though the company is operating on a day to

do basis and not looking at the big picture for future growth. For example, Bass

Company has yet to establish either a differentiation, a low cost strategy or both (Root,

n.d.).

In addition, it can be detrimental if an organization fails to make plans to

anticipate changes to the market or the industry in which they are involved. If an

organization is not prepared they will be at the mercy of the external forces. This is why

it is important to be proactive instead of reactive by formulating a business strategy

before conducting business (Olsen. n.d.).

Bass Company


Key Business Issue Three – Lack of Customer Feedback Data

Bass Company does not receive critical data feedback from its customers. The

importance of receiving this type of feedback is paramount to marketing strategies.

Marketing managers can use this feedback in their materials to prospective companies

to show data on specific improvements that Bass Company heavily influenced. For

example, during a talk with Mr. Murrell he stated that his company helped decrease the

wait time that customers stood in line for a financial institution. Receiving specific data

from this customer on how much wait time was decreased and specifically what

recommendation(s) his company made to improve this feature would-be paramount in

advertising to prospective financial institution clients. The marketing materials would

include the aforementioned specifics on wait time and therefore, can help the

prospective company see how Bass Company can help increase customer satisfaction

through their services.

In order for Bass Company to grow, it is imperative that they it gather specific

data from current clients on how their mystery shopping has helped the clients business

improve. This type of information would not only be beneficial in terms of marketing and

promotional materials it would also enable Bass Company to set benchmarks that it can

pride itself on accomplishing within specific businesses. Currently, there are no such

benchmarks in place, which Bass Company can compare itself to and as such, there

are no historical standards that it can constantly compare itself to and continue to strive

for professionally.

Bass Company


Key Business Issue Four – Lack of an Extensive Marketing Strategy

The current problem facing Bass Company is their lack of an extensive marketing

strategy. In the past Mr. Murrell has attempted to provide free evaluations to

businesses in an attempt to spur interest in his company but to no avail. As of now, the

only marketing strategy that Bass Company employs is word-of-mouth marketing, this

severely limits their potential customer pool to only a few organizations.

Operating in a Business-to-Business (B2B) environment such as Bass Company

does severely limits the effectiveness of word-of-mouth marketing. In a Business-to-

Consumer (B2C) environment a simple recommendation of a business from one

person to another may be enough to spur that person’s interest in investigating that

company further. In a B2B environment, however, the two people having that

conversation may not be in any position of power or even have the responsibility to

investigate the services Bass Company offers.

This further limits the types of business Bass Company is able to receive work

from as it is rare for people from varying industries such as finances, hospitality and

retail to engage in conversations together as most people prefer to engage with people

who work in similar fields (Hague, n.d.).

All of these factors combine to put Bass Company at a serious disadvantage with

its competitors. The already limited effectiveness of word-of-mouth marketing is further

stunted by the B2B environment and therefore limits Bass Company’s potential market

segments.

Bass Company


Key Business Issue Five – Website Redesign

Having a website for a business is an important marketing tool to raise

awareness of their offerings. In today’s market, potential customers use the internet in

order to find the services they need. If a company does not have an online presence,

they can miss out on potential customers.

Although, a company may have a website, it does not mean that they can forego

continually updating it. Website layout and overall look and feel is important for

attracting new consumers. If a website is unorganized and hard to find information, the

credibility of a company can be harmed (“The importance of having a website for any

business”, n.d.). Having a well-designed website can help level the playing field for a

small business, so it must not fall to the wayside and be merely a forethought.

One important tool is to use colors that represent your business and the type of

clients you want to attract to it. Colors can be a part of your branding strategy. Too

many bright colors should be avoided on a website (Web design mistakes to avoid –

WHTwiki, n.d.). For example, brands use red to represent power, passion and energy.

Blue is used to represent trust, integrity and communication which may be more

appropriate for a business in the Mystery Shopping industry (Stranger, 2012).

Bass Company’s website layout could be better optimized color wise in order to

increase its effectiveness. The company follows a red and gray color scheme. The

psychological significance of red was previously mentioned, but gray is a color

representing compromise, non-involvement and can be an overall unsettling color

psychologically (Smith, n.d.).

Bass Company


In addition, customers on Bass Company website are not able to view a client list

of past and present businesses that have been worked with. Not having such a list is

detrimental to Bass Company; customers may have decreased confidence in the

company’s skills, abilities, and expertise due to a lack of reference to any actual

companies that the business has helped or worked with in the past.

Bass Company


Key Business Issue Six – Lack of Online Presence

As of now Bass Company currently has a very weak online presence, particularly

on social media. It does not have a LinkedIn or Yelp page and while it does have a

Facebook page, the profile is not filled out well and simply states the name of the

company and its address.

In addition the company website is not currently search engine optimized and

does not make use of Google keywords in order to make the site easier to find by

Google’s search engines and thus allowing it to appear on the first page of results.

These limitations place Bass Company behind its competitors Interactions

Marketing and TrendSource who both have very well established Linkedin, Facebook

and Yelp profiles as well as having very robust websites that consistently appear at the

top of searches for “mystery shopping San Diego”.

As we move toward an ever connected world it is imperative for companies to

have a strong online presence (Williams, n.d.). A presence in the virtual world is akin to

a presence in the real world and many consumers actively search for information about

companies on the internet before making a decision. Bass Company’s weak online

presence is a weakness for the company. It does not allow for communication of its

brand and message to reach potential customers and even more importantly it may

cause some customers to lose faith in the reliability of the company if they cannot find it

online.

Bass Company


Key Business Issue Seven – Lack of Marketing Budget or Marketing Sales

Person

Bass Company does not have a definite marketing budget, which hinders growth

and expansion. A marketing budget is an estimate of projected expenditures to market a

service or a product (Friezner, 2014). A well-established marketing budget can aid not

only with growing a business and expanding the customer base it can also provide

peace of mind to a company owner. Many businesses struggle with marketing and often

times wonder if they should be doing more or if they are spending too much on

marketing. Creating an efficient, well organized marketing budget can aid and undo a lot

of stress that owners face. Most marketing budgets are created by allocating monthly or

annual funds from gross revenue. The U.S. Small Business Administration recommends

that a business with 10% profit margins allocates 7-8% of their revenues to marketing

(Beesley, 2012).

There is also a need for a personal selling approach. Personal selling is a

promotional technique, where a salesperson uses his or her skills and knowledge to

build a relationship with the other party (decision maker or other person responsible for

the purchase) in order to sell a product or service. (KnowThis.com). For a type of

service like mystery shopping, it is beneficial for a company to have a personal selling

approach and have face to face interaction with a client. A salesperson is more likely to

understand and be able to clearly explain the benefits of mystery shopping to a potential

client as well as interpret any questions or doubts they may have about the service. In

addition they will also be able to follow up with potential customers and further try to

persuade them on using Bass Company’s services.

Bass Company


Key Business Issue Eight – Lack of Membership in Professional Association(s)

Bass Company is currently not a member of any professional associations,

market research or otherwise. From a business growth perspective it is essential to be

enrolled in at least one professional association. Most of these associations offer

workshops, seminars, access to free publications related to the specific industry, a huge

database full of articles, white papers, and books (Cherwin, n.d.) that can be a valuable

source of ideas and knowledge as well as provide plenty of opportunities to interact with

other members; if taken advantage of, these types of opportunities could prove

invaluable to improving the knowledge base and network of a company.

In order for a company to remain competitive, especially in a highly competitive

industry such as market research, it must constantly be on the lookout for new ways to

improve its business and streamline its processes to make them more efficient. Bass

Company’s lack of enrollment in any association seriously limits its growth potential in

addition to placing it constantly one step behind the competition in the way it conducts

its operations.

Bass Company


Key Business Issue Nine – Price of Evaluations is Too Low

Pricing is an important tool in marketing value to customers. Price is the tangible

cost of a product or service but value is the gain a customer gets from a product or

service, over what they pay (Coker, n.d.). What is often overlooked is that price can

communicate value to a customer (McLaughlin, n.d.). It can communicate the gain to be

received from purchasing a service. A price that is too low can unintentionally

communicate to a customer that a product might be of an inferior quality than competing

products and in effect drive said customers away.

Currently, Bass Company charges a price of $40 for in person evaluations and

$28 for telephone evaluations. This is a very low price for a business delivering services

in market research. Wages for Bass Company account for an average of 29.1% of

gross receipts for Bass Company, almost a third. This alone is an indicator that the

company needs to increase revenue, and one of the ways in which it can do this is to

increase the cost of evaluations.

How much prices should be increased will be left up to Mr. Murrell to decide.

While there are two direct competitors for Bass Company in San Diego both of these

institutions are large, national organizations and therefore charge exorbitant rates,

($100 per evaluation for IM and $95 for TS). This team, however, recommends that

even a price increase of $10, from $40 to $50, will allow Bass Company to see a boost

in its overall revenue.

Bass Company


Key Business Issue Ten – Uncertainty about the Future of Bass Company

Financial statements as well as interviews conducted with Mr. Murrell have

revealed that the future of Bass Company is uncertain. During our first interview he

indicated that he probably should have sold the business before the economic crisis and

got out while he still could. He has also stated numerous times that he would have

preferred to sell the business and that his current commitment is only due to the fact

that it is no longer financially profitable to do so.

In addition, the future of the office space that is currently being used as the

company headquarters is also very uncertain. Chances are the space could be

renovated and turned into another type of business in which case Mr. Murrell presented

the team with two options he envisions for Bass Company. One option would be that

both he and his assistant work on the company independently, from their homes. A

second option would be that Mr. Murrell rents out an office space from a friend of his

and he returns to doing accounting work while managing Bass Company on the side.

The financial statement he shared with the team also show’s an unsteady trend.

In 2010 the business operated at a loss of $9223; in 2011 net profits were $10,812; in

2012 $3,158; in 2013 $42,231. The reason for the dramatic increase in net profits from

2012 to 2013 is because of a decrease of $32,048 in total expenses. This wild

fluctuation in profits makes it very hard to map out a solid growth plan for Bass

Company’s future.

Bass Company


GROUP’S OVERALL RECOMMENDATIONS For the purposes of this report the SBCC team has identified 3 key

recommendations that we believe would be extremely beneficial to Bass Company if

implemented as well as 10 “slam dunk” recommendations that Bass Company would

be able to implement at little to no cost that would allow it to increase its overall

business and revenue.

Recommendation One – Join a Professional Organization

There are two types of organizations that Bass Company can enroll in that

would give it the biggest benefits.

● Enrollment in professional organizations (where competitors are present and

where industry related issues are discussed and shared)

● Enrollment in organizations, where most of the participants are current and/or

potential clients.

One professional organization that Bass Company should enroll in is Mystery

Shopping Providers Association-North America (MSPA-NA). They are an organization

that aims to improve the quality of customer service by enrolling mystery shoppers and

uniting mystery shopping service providers. MSPA-NA is the leader in customer

experience management and also serves to measure the quality of services provided by

companies (MSPA, 2014). Member companies combine their efforts and resources for

the sake of improvement of their businesses by finding new and efficient ways of

dealing with customer service dissatisfaction.

Bass Company


Customer experience metrics provide clients and business owners the

opportunity to compare and ensure that, at the point of interaction with the customer, a

company delivers on its brand promises. MSPA-NA member companies help their

clients to figure out how their services work by assessment as a representative of a third

party.

Even if Bass Company, as a participant, would not be as active as other

members, it could benefit by reviewing updated database’s or even by implementing

new ideas and practices used by its competitors and, therefore, Bass Company would

be able to keep up with the market.

Bass Company


Table 4 shows a list of the different types of memberships that MSPA–NA offers.

Table 4. Details of Membership for MSPA-NA

Regular Members

Mystery shopping companies that operate

within North America. Companies

whose primary product is customer service

evaluation

Associate Members

Firms or persons that provide goods or

services to mystery shopping provider

companies.

International Affiliate

Companies whose primary membership is in

another MSPA Region and do not have an

operating office in North America

Shopper Members

Individuals that want to further their mystery

shopping careers through certification and

other resources provided by MSPA-NA.

Bass Company


Table 5 shows the varying prices of each type of membership.

Table 5. MSPA-NA Membership Fees based on Type of Membership

Regular Members

Total revenue is under $1 Million

($550 annually)

Total revenue is $1.1 - $5 Million

($750 annually)

Revenues is above $5 Million

($950 annually)

Associate Members

$1200 Annually

Affiliate Members $250 Annually

Regular shopper $20 Annually

Benefits of enrollment:

● Access to “The Mystery Times”. Provides knowledge about other mystery shopping

companies in the industry. In this quarterly newsletter, there is also some practical

cases related to customer service evaluation

● Relevant updates to legislation policies having an impact on business operation.

●Access to the shopper social network “The Listening Post”. The web site is only

available for certified shopper members in MSPA- NA

●Information and workshops to help and increase your revenue and business

development as a mystery shopper

Bass Company


There is one more professional organization that Bass Company could benefit by

joining; National Association of Mystery Shoppers. This organization has several types

of memberships. The types vary from $24.95 (Regular Membership) to $300 (Platinum

Membership) annually. Regular membership gives mystery shopping companies some

benefits, which are: (NAMS, 2014)

1. Companies “Profile” is available to over 80 of the top, most trusted mystery shopping

firms in the USA.

2. One easy application, no need to fill out an application for every shopping company

you want to apply to.

3. One simple place to update your profile. No need to contact every company you’ve

signed up with, just update a few simple things like a new phone number, new email

address, etc.

4. Easy to remove your profile from the shopping pool should your career take a new

path.

In addition to professional organizations Bass Company should belong to other

organizations whose membership consist primarily of businesses that could be potential

clients for the company. These organizations can vary from Financial Institution

Organizations to Hospitality, Restaurant and Food and Beverage Associations. After

enrollment is such organizations Bass company should gradually take a leadership role

and try to establish trust between the company and potential clients.

Bass Company


The California Restaurant Association is an organization that Bass Company

should enroll in. Among the members of the California Restaurant Association are a few

local companies, one of which is headquartered in San Diego; Cohn Restaurant Group,

located at 2225 Hancock Street. Starting with one single dinner in 1981, David and

Lesley Cohn now own over 21 restaurants in Southern California.

Another alternative in order to build a network with businesses is through the

Southern California Association for Financial Professionals (SoCal AFP, 2014). Among

the members of this association are representatives of treasury management in certain

banks throughout the Southern California region. These representatives have a great

deal of responsibility and influence in banks’ management decisions, therefore, these

people could help Bass Company expand its business to more financial institutions.

Mr. Murrell also expressed the desire to be involved in working with retail

businesses in California. There is a great opportunity to build long term relationships

with members of the California Retailers Association. Building a network with key

people in these organizations is a wonderful opportunity for Bass Company to attract

new clients.

Bass Company


Recommendation Two – Create a Brand

A brand is a "name, sign, term, or a combination of which helps to distinguish the

product or services from one provider to another one. (American Marketing Association,

2012). Brand is a promise to a customer. So, everything which is reflected in the brand

should be delivered at the “moment of truth” or “when a company’s product or service is

fully and finally revealed to a client” (American Marketing Association, 2012). A

company brand has to be derived from who you are, who you want to be and who

people perceive you to be. It also has to match with the company’s mission and vision.

Bass Company has to build a reliable brand according to services the company

provides. Therefore, branding is not about allowing your target market to choose you

from different competitors, it is instead getting them to see you as one single provider

which can find the way to meet customer’s needs and wants accordingly (Lake, 2014).

The foundation of any brand is a logo. A company’s website, services, and promotions –

all should be imbedded with a logo and thereby communicate your brand.

Consistent, strategic branding helps a company to survive in the long term,

especially during crises. A company is also able to charge extra money for its services

because of strong brand awareness among its clients. For example, “Secret Shopper”

mystery shopping company is perceived as a reliable mystery shopping brand which

helps the clients identify their services very easily. People are ready to pay extra money

for a brand, rather than to trust another company with the same services but with a

weaker brand name. Sometimes, even though your services or products may be getting

worse compared to the competition, people will still buy from you because of a strong

association with the brand.

Bass Company


A brand encompasses all of the feelings of the customer as well as the the total

experiences and perceptions people have when they think about your company. Bass

Company has to work on building a strong brand that customers will associate with.

Regardless of the type of business or through what mediums a business

currently engages its customers there are several steps to building a reliable brand:

Deliver the message clearly

Clear explanation of what the company does and what value it brings the

consumer

Build credibility

Credibility can be confirmed by having a client list, or by highlighting key

business partners

Motivate the Buyer

Use active verbs and interesting images to encourage people to act and be

excited)

In addition to these steps Bass Company has to communicate a brand message to

customers that encompasses answers to these questions:

What is the company's overall mission?

What do your customers already think of your company?

What qualities do you want them to associate with your company

Bass Company


Ultimately, Bass Company has to take several actions to build a strong brand:

Have a Well-Designed Logo and Place it everywhere.

Every communication with people has to be the same. For example, if Bass

Company’s web site hosts the company logo every other piece of communication has to

include that same logo in order to make it memorable for customers.

Communicate the Brand Message to Customers

The brand message should reflect that Bass Company is an experienced

company that can evaluate customer’s services in a professional way.

Integrate the Brand With the Logo

Bass Company’s brand has to be integrated with the logo. In other words the

logo and the brand have to work in conjunction to convey the message that Bass

Company wants to present to customers about itself. If Bass Company’s brand

promises professional service evaluation, the logo cannot contain something that does

not convey professionalism.

Develop a Tagline.

Write a memorable, meaningful and concise one to two sentence statement that

captures the essence of your brand. This tagline should be present on the company

website as well as expressed in all promotional materials used by the company.

(Entrepreneu.com, 2014)

Bass Company


For instance:

“For over 60 years Bass Company has provided the San Diego and

Southern California region with mystery shopping services that are fast,

reliable and tailored to the needs and vision of your company.”

Create Brand Standards and Keep It Consistent

Building a strong brand is not as easy as simply placing a well-designed logo on

all promotional materials; the logo must go along with other important variables like:

brand message, images, words, and color. Creating standards for the brand within all

promotional materials is a must; in addition all materials must remain consistent with

regards to the logo, message conveyed, and images and colors used.

Keep the Brand True.

The brand should be honest. Do not promise something that you cannot deliver.

This is very important in building trust with customers especially in the very beginning

when your brand is not as strong and is still trying to establish itself. (Entrepreneu.com,

2014)

Bass Company


Here are some examples of well-known mystery shopping brands.

(Note the cool blue colors used that convey calm and professionalism.)

Figure 7. Market Force Company Logo

Figure 8. Seceret Shopper Company Logo

Bass Company


Note in the following example the use of the check-mark to convey

professionalism and a sense that “things are in the bag” when using this company.

Figure 9. Customer 1st Company Logo

Bass Company


Recommendation Three – Establish a System to Obtain Customer Feedback

In order for Bass Company to grow it is imperative that they gather specific data

from current clients on how their business has helped them and in what ways. Mr.

Murrell has stated that he would prefer not to use contracts in his business dealings,

however, this team feels so strongly about this recommendation that if a company is

unwilling to provide the sort of detailed information needed by Bass company we feel

that the use of a contract with his clients explicitly stating that they must provide specific

technical feedback on numbers and figures that directly resulted from his companies

evaluations and recommendations might be necessary.

One of the things that Bass Company measures for their client California Coast

Credit Union (CCCU) is customer wait time in line. Evaluators write down how long they

wait in line to see an agent and then this information is given to CCCU. Let’s say that

CCCU does some extra training for employees and management is able to decrease

wait time by 20 seconds using the evaluation as a starting point for this measure. Bass

Company needs to be able to get this type of feedback from their clients immediately as

it will allow them to better market these changes in real time to future banking

companies who may be interested in decreasing customer wait time.

Another element Bass Company evaluates is the up-sale of other products and

services. For example, during an evaluation an evaluator notes that the teller didn’t

offer to open an Individual Retirement Account (IRA) (based on customer information

the teller has access to). For example purposes let’s say that this customer qualifies for

an IRA and has the extra funds to do so. However, since the teller did not offer it to the

customer, they did not open an IRA and the bank incurred a missed opportunity on

Bass Company


potential revenue. Another three evaluators note the same thing at this particular

location and CCCU changes specific operations based on these analysis to increase

sign-ups for IRA’s. Looking back at a month of data CCCU sees that their IRA’s indeed

have increased by 15% and the company is now generating more revenue from this

task. Currently, Bass Company does not receive this information and could not use

their evaluations on this specific increase in revenue in their marketing materials to

other financial institutions that want to increase the number of people that are signed up

for an IRA.

Obtaining this type of feedback information from customers is important in order

to enhance Bass Company’s marketing efforts and make them more efficient. Any type

of data and statistics received from an organization needs to be included in some way in

marketing promotions to businesses. Customers will be much more likely to choose

Bass Company if they can see that it delivers quantifiable, tangible results for its clients.

This type of information will also help to establish Bass Company’s brand as one that is

reliable and professional and gets results.

In order to grow and be competitive in this industry a company must have a “leg

up” on their competition. After reviewing competitors in San Diego we found that most

of them do not list specific data on how they helped another company with operations

and revenue. The use of information like this in marketing promotions will allow Bass

Company to expand its operations to even more businesses.

Bass Company


GROUP’S TEN “SLAM DUNK” IMPROVEMENTS

1. Idea One – Create an Effective Marketing Message

2. Idea Two –Implement a Marketing Strategy

3. Idea Three – Implement a Customer Relationship Management System

4. Idea Four – Develop a Marketing Budget

5. Idea Five – Hire a Marketing Salesperson

6. Idea Six – Increase the Price of Evaluations

7. Idea Seven – Develop a More Robust Online Presence

8. Idea Eight – Redesign the Website

9. Idea Nine – Use of Contracts in Business Dealings

10. Idea Ten – Implement the Business Model Canvas

Bass Company


IDEA 1: Create an Effective Marketing Message

Even though it sounds very straightforward and clear, there are some challenges

that have to be taken into account by a company before they establish their marketing

message.

1. Content of the message

How is your message perceived by people? Did they understand the values the

company is trying to convey?

2. Easiness of calls to actions

How easy is it to follow calls to action? Sometimes, when it is hard or

inconvenient people may be pushed way from any action.

3. Interestingness

A catchy message is more interesting and easy to remember for the consumer.

The more the message is appealing to people, the better the chance that it will remain

in their heads.

4. Consistency of the message

The main idea, or values which are highlighted in a message should be

consistent regardless of the means in which the message is being delivered. People

often remember messages much more easily if they hear them numerous times.This

means the same message should be delivered across the website, flyers, emails and

marketing promotions.

Bass Company


Highlighting Benefits in the Message

Considering these 4 variables, there is a need to highlight the benefits of Mystery

Shopping versus alternatives methods of customer service evaluation.

Highlighting benefits in the marketing message is a good way to persuade

clients and make them consider purchasing a product. Highlighting how your company

is able to bring value to the consumer is a very effective tactic in convincing them to

choose your product over another.

Many Mystery Shopping providers have already adopted this method of

highlighting the benefits of their organization. For example, ‘Five Diamonds Hospitality’

and ‘Reflections MS’, which cater to clients from Southern California, have very clear

marketing messages on their official web sites. Therefore, they are more likely to be

interested in their services and purchase them. Some of the most common benefits

highlighted by these companies are:

●Personal approach

●The quality of service

●Variety of services

(Nowadays most mystery shopping companies are more oriented toward a

broad range of services, rather than just one single service)

Mystery shopping is a more professional and objective way to evaluate customer

service performance. According to Dwek (1996), “mystery shopping has competent,

knowledgeable and trained personnel by which the whole concept of mystery shopping

becomes more reliable, serious and with the better quality performance than traditional

forms of service evaluation.”

Bass Company


The SBCC team has identified three key benefits that we believe Bass Company

should highlight in all of their marketing materials. These benefits in order of importance

are:

1. Evaluation of Competitors

Bass Company has a competitive advantage because the company can evaluate

competitors’ businesses and share this information with their clients. As competition in

industries is ever increasing this type of evaluation can prove very beneficial to

companies looking to outdo their rivals. We believe this type of evaluation should be

strongly advertised by Bass Company.

2. Tailoring the Report According to the Customers’ Needs

Another advantage of Bass Company is its ability to customize each report

according to the clients’ needs, without generalization the reports and making one a

universal standard. Some customers need comprehensive business evaluations, while

others are only looking to have a specific component of their company evaluated. The

ability to tailor evaluations to a customer’s needs and wants has the potential to put

Bass Company ahead of its competitors who mainly use generic evaluations with their

clients.

Bass Company


3. Diverse Staff

One of the key components of Bass Company’s evaluation system is its use of

multiple, and diverse people in their review process. Bass Company will send 2-3

different people to the same location to evaluate one business. This approach allows

the client to receive unbiased feedback from multiple evaluators and most importantly

allows them to know how gender and race differences might affect the service that a

customer receives in their business. We believe this is another strong benefit that Bass

Company needs to make more of its consumers aware of.

Bass Company


IDEA 2: Implement a Marketing Strategy

In order for Bass Company to expand its operations to more customers and grow

its business it needs to implement an effective marketing strategy. A marketing strategy,

according to Homburg (2009), is “the goal of increasing sales and obtaining a

competitive marketing advantage. Marketing strategy includes all basic and long-term

activities in the field of marketing…”

According to Hague (n.d.) there are 10 reasons benefits to operating in a B2B

environment such as Bass Company does. For the purposes of simplicity we have

selected only the top three that we feel impact the company the most, these are:

1. B2B Buyers are More Rational

In a business setting decisions such as how much money to allocate to customer

evaluations and which company should perform said evaluations is rarely left up to a

single individual; instead, more often than not, a team of people will decide upon these

decisions. This allows the team to rationally consider all options and consider all of the

factors of each option such as pricing and technical expertise. As Hague said (n.d.) “as

consumers we are often less well-informed, less accountable to others and far more

susceptible to whims, indulgences, recklessness and showing off than is the case when

we are in the workplace.”

2. Personal Relationships are More Important in B2B Markets

Often times the products consumed in a B2B market are complex and very

technical. This forces companies operating in this environment to expend a larger

Bass Company


amount of revenue on salespeople that are able to readily explain to clients what a

product is, how it works and how it can bring them value.

3. B2B Markets Don’t Rely as Heavily on Packaging

In a consumer marketing setting products are often packaged in certain ways to

highlight aesthetic characteristics to consumers, such as a brand name for phones or

“sex appeal” for cars. Due to the nature of the B2B market, however, this type of

branding is not received well as companies are more interested in the technical aspects

of a product rather than the perceived visual appeal.

What this all means for Bass Company is a marketing strategy that focus on the

expertise and abilities of Mr. Murrell and his evaluators, their ability to bring value to a

corporation and the individual attention that each report receives from its inception all

the way until its final delivery to the client.

A marketing plan that Bass Company should follow is one that is tailored to the

B2B market. A great place for Bass Company to implement its marketing strategy is

LinkedIn. LinkedIn is a fantastic platform for the B2B market because most users on the

site are business minded; in fact, a study by Hubspot research concluded that “LinkedIn

traffic has a three-fold advantage over Facebook and Twitter in B2B lead conversion.”

(Devaney. 2013).

Developing a respectable LinkedIn account (which will be discussed in a

separate recommendation) is one platform that Bass Company should spread its

message through. This will allow the company to interact with other businesses, and

build personal and professional relationships with potential clients.

Bass Company


Another marketing strategy that Bass Company should implement is the use of a

blog (also discussed further in a separate recommendation). Creating and continually

updating a blog will allow Bass Company to establish its self as a respected source of

news and information about mystery shopping and will cause clients to shift their

perspective of the company from one that is merely selling a product to one that is an

expert in the field of mystery shopping (Devaney. 2013); expertise and technical skill are

an important selling point in B2B markets.

An effective strategy to creating a well-respected blog is to “pick up your industry

trade magazine and look at the topics its covering. Then write something similar.

Interview an industry thought-leader, post your views on legislation that impacts your

industry, and write a how-to” (Devaney. 2013).

Google AdWords is another marketing tool that can greatly contribute to a

company’s marketing strategy. If a potential customer does not know you exist it is

difficult to obtain them as a client. The use of AdWords allows a company to market

itself on the first page of Google search results for particular keywords. The cost of this

varies by keyword, but allows for an increased online presence.

How AdWords work is through a Cost-Per-Click method (CPC). Through the

CPC method you are only charged when a search term that you’ve specified is clicked

on by a user. This eliminates the need for any recurring fees that need to be paid. Users

are also allowed to set a daily maximum that limits how much a company gets charged

per day by users clicking on their search terms. Once the daily maximum is reached the

campaign turns off and does not resume until the next day.

Bass Company


One thing to be aware of is not selecting keywords that cost too much. If a

particular search term cost is extremely high it is likely that many other companies are

using the same search terms and therefore, the competition is increased and that term

would be considered ineffective. It is recommended to choose narrow, defined search

terms to allow for greater targeting and minimal costs. Figure 10 is an example of

search terms Bass Company could use and suggested daily maximums for each term.

When starting a new campaign it is necessary to do a trial run for a week and

see what kind of data results you obtain. The data received will tell you what search

terms were effective and which ones were not. A suggested daily maximum for this

type of trial is $5.00 per day to keep costs low. This is effective enough to make an

informed, educated marketing decision for the continuation of the campaign and its

effectiveness.

Bass Company


Figure 10. Google AdWords Search Terms and Daily Maximums

Although this is a paid marketing strategy, if done well it can be extremely cost

effective. It will allow for more strategic targeting of your marketing strategy and allow

you to only see results from people who are interested in a mystery shopping service.

Bass Company


Finally, the use and implementation of a CRM system (discussed in a separate

recommendation) will allow Bass Company to spread its message through mass

marketing email “blasts”. These “blasts” can be sent out to as many people in as many

companies as Bass Company sees fit and will help to put the company “on the map” of

many businesses throughout San Diego.

In order for these mass emailing’s to be effective, however, they need to engage

the attention of the receiver. They should contain the marketing message flyer we have

included in Appendix C, include the company’s logo, the branding statement, as well as

links to the company website, company Twitter account, company LinkedIn account and

most importantly the company blog. All of these materials put together will promote

Bass Company to potential clients as a company that is well-established, respectable,

and that is an expert in its field.

Bass Company


IDEA 3: Implement a Customer Relationship Management System

Maintaining and growing relationships with customers is important for any

business to survive. Utilizing a customer relationship management tool (CRM) is an

industry standard and the most effective way of undertaking such a task.

There are numerous tools a CRM is equipped with in order to easily help a

business manage their customers. We feel the most important tools for Bass Company

are lead management, contact management, account management, workflow

automation, marketing automation, opportunity management, sales reporting, sales

forecasting, social CRM, and mobile App capability.

There are a plethora of programs available online to download however, we

found one that has a free and paid version and is easy to use and contains all the tools

we recommended. The program we found is called Zoho and has a free version and a

paid version available for download. Figure 11 shows the homepage of Zoho.com

where this service can be accessed from.

The paid version has a few extras such as email integration, social CRM,

workflow automation, call center connectors, and unlimited records, meaning can hold

unlimited amount of customers in the database. This is the professional version and

costs $20 per month. With the capabilities it offers and the efficiency gained, we feel

that this cost is minimal compared to the return on investment.

Bass Company


Figure 11. Zoho.com Mainpage

This software is simple to learn especially due to the “how-to” videos available on

Youtube as well as the Zoho site itself. The Zoho website claims that the software is

easily customizable allowing the user to add the tools they need and delete the tools

that are unnecessary. Also, within the individual tools themselves, they are

customizable to fit the needs of a growing company. We will highlight a few of the tools

from the Zoho website that we deem most important.

Lead Capturing

With this tool a company can take the data received from their website and

import it into the CRM. This allows for quicker contact time for new customers which is

vital to the success of a business lest they sign a contract with another company before

you get the opportunity to talk with them. In addition the software allows for easy

Follow-up. During talks with Mr. Murrell he revealed to us that his ability to follow-up

Bass Company


with leads has been lacking. With this software it will remind when follow-up with a lead

is necessary and put it on a calendar with a specific day and time this action is

necessary. Figure 12 is a screenshot of the calendar on the Zoho website. This results

in a decrease of lost customers due to inability to follow-up as well as makes the

company appear professional and genuine.

Figure 12. Calender Feature on Zoho,com

With the workflow tool a company can assign leads and or customers to different

representatives. For Bass Company this would be ideal as their evaluators are

essentially representatives for the company and assigning new mystery shopping jobs

to them in an easy timely manner would increase productivity.

Bass Company


Marketing

This CRM allows a company to track and measure all marketing activities.

Some of these can include mass email campaigns and media rich campaigns such as

Google Ad-Words. Receiving any kind of metered data with marketing efforts can be

long and tasking. Using this tool can help ease some of the stress of trying to evaluate

a certain marketing campaign by having the data already organized as it is received.

Forecasting

With the forecasting tool one can use it to understand a trend a certain company

has pertaining to when they typically need mystery shopping. Being able to forecast

when a company needs this service will enable Bass Company to beef up staff at

certain times as well as cut-back on staff during forecasted slower times saving money

and resources.

With all of these tools combined plus the many more, Bass Company can

become increasingly organized and grow customer relations. Although organization is

key to any business, in a B2B environment it is the relationships that weigh more

heavily on the success of a company.

The use of a CRM will maintain these positive, growing relationships as well as

generate new ones in the future. This will inevitably increase profits and allow for

expansion into other industries such as retail which is one of the current main objectives

for Bass Company.

Bass Company


IDEA 4: Develop a Marketing Budget

The amount that a company should spend on marketing depends on two

variables: total sales and net profit margins. According to the United States Small

Business Administration, if total sales do not exceed $5 million and the net profit margin

– after all expenses – is between the 10 – 12 per cent range; it is reasonable to spend

7-8% on marketing. (Boykin, 2013) Bass Company should certainly consider a

marketing budget within these parameters. The actual numbers however depend on

other factors such as what the goals of Bass Company are and how much money can

realistically be allocated toward marketing. If the company is looking to increase their

short term profits then allocating more money toward the marketing budget is advised.

There is, however, a high risk of failure, because success depends on time.

In order to be able to determine which marketing strategies are the most

effective Bass Company has to keep the track of its Return on Investment (ROI) or the

amount that it gains from the amount that is invested.

According to the National Federation of Independent Businesses, there are 5 ways to

track marketing ROI.

1. Ask customers how they heard about your company.

When asking, provide a list of the sources you advertised in/used as well as an

“other” option. This allows you to determine which sources are the most effective and

which ones are not.

Bass Company


2. Manage and track contacts

Keeping track of the costumers a business has is paramount to keeping them as

well as building a new customer base. CRM is a fully integrated tool that allows

companies to keep track of data from customers that visit their website, keep track of

online marketing and advertising efforts, as well as create mass email marketing

campaigns and help with company promotion on social media websites.

3. Handing-out Coupons

Coupons are handed out by companies promoting new services or attempting to

attract new customers to their business. They can be a valuable tool to track marketing

as they allow the business to see which specific coupons are people coming back with

more frequently, this then allows them to more accurately invest their time and

resources.

4. Code marketing materials and emails

Coding marketing materials and promotions with a unique numerical code or a QR

code is an effective way to track ROI. A CRM system would be able to keep track of

every time a code is scanned or input on the website and would thus allow a business

to more effectively track its promotions.

5. Track phone calls

Tracking phone calls is another effective way a company can determine its ROI.

A call tracking system can monitor where a customer is calling from, can be used to

establish which promotional source they received the number from and can be used

in conjugation with a CRM system to manage marketing efforts.

Bass Company


IDEA 5: Hire a Marketing Salesperson

A marketing salesperson is an individual who helps a company sell a certain

product or service. A salesperson can be very beneficial, especially for a company like

Bass Company, which sells an intangible product (customer service evaluation). For a

product like customer service evaluation it is often best to have a real life person

explaining the process and the benefits of it versus a piece of promotional material.

Against the background of the current situation a marketing person would be very

beneficial to Bass Company. A salesperson also can help the owner develop and

implement a marketing budget as well as manage the CRM activities of the company

and adjust them accordingly. In addition they will be responsible for creating new

marketing promotions as well as obtaining new clients. All of this will allow Mr. Murrell to

have more time to focus on the client reports and evaluations.

In order for a marketing salesperson to be effective their job must be treated as a

long-term investment and, as such, they should be paid accordingly with a base pay as

well as a commission for each business successfully recruited to Bass Company.

According to ‘Sales Talent Agency’, a Small Business Consultant Company in Canada,

the most popular compensation model that is used in most small businesses is 50%

salary/50% commission. This is especially common for companies that require new

business development.

According to the same source, however, if a company is focusing on increasing

existing revenue (what Bass Company is trying to achieve) the best option is a high

base and low commission. There is no precise figures on what is the actual percentage

and salary should be. Salary depends on State policies, whereas the commission

Bass Company


percentage depends on the total revenue of the company and its ultimate goals. For

instance, the minimum wage in California is $9 (effective from, July 1, 2014)

(Department of Industrial Relations, 2014). Based on the fact that the other employee at

Bass Company earns $18 an hour, we recommend that the marketing person be paid a

wage of $15-20 as well. The percentage of the commission will also depend upon the

total revenue of the company and what is feasible but we recommend 10% as a fair and

decent amount.

Bass Company


IDEA 6: Increase the Price of Evaluations

The main goal of choosing the right price is to communicate value to prospective

customers and to ensure that Bass Company remains profitable and is able to cover all

expenses. The price must capture the value of the services offered.

Mr. Murrell indeed delivers great value to his customers and the price must

communicate this. For example, he revises the report form for his clients every six to

twelve months to keep the services current. In addition one of his clients, San Diego

County Credit Union has been rated number one. These things will help communicate

value to his customers and justify him raising his prices. The team discussed with the

Tom the importance of showcasing the specific benefits of his services. Mr. Murrell

could include statistics and testimonials in his presentations to prospective clients.

In addition, another reason for Mr. Murrell to raise prices is because of his no

contract policy of doing business. This means that clients can cancel their services with

him at any time. If Mr. Murrell is to continue to offer this no contract policy then prices

should be raised due to risk. Most market research and secret shopper companies

obtain contract with large corporations and this way of business could possibly be a

disservice to Bass Company. The fact that clients can alter and add or decrease

services at any time puts Bass Company high in customer responsiveness. This is yet

another reason to raise prices since this flexibility adds value to the services that Bass

Company offers.

Raising Prices

In the industry, mystery shopping services prices vary. Complexity of the

evaluation in addition to basic requirement can add to the price. They are usually based

Bass Company


on a per evaluation basis and can range from $35 for basic service audits to $300 for

video recorded interactions (Donnelly, 2013). We feel that Mr. Murrell has a

considerable reason to increase his evaluation prices considering the value of market

research to today’s business. On the Mystery Shopping Providers Association website,

it states that the mystery shopping industry is estimated at almost $600 million in the

United States (Mystery shopping providers association, 2005). In addition the report

states there were about eight million mystery shops conducted. If we do the math, this

breaks down to $75 per evaluation. As we can see, Bass Company’s prices are well

below the average, and need to be closer to this price.

Raising prices can be challenging, however there are action a business can take

to make the process smoother. First, Bass Company can rebrand itself, create a new

label, or differentiate itself. In an earlier recommendation we addressed changing the

business logo which can help make raising prices easier. If you appear to have a

business that offers premium services, clients will feel comfortable paying more. In

addition language is very important, and adding a subtitle to Bass Company business

name can help add value. For example, Bass Company: Market Solutions, or Bass

Company: Market Research Firm.

In addition, bundling services can help add value and justify raising prices. For

example, Bass Company can take the current needs of a client, and for a one-time

offer, bundle additional services using an upsell strategy. In the future, the client will see

the importance in having this service included and will be willing to pay more. Bundling

alone helps add value for the customer (Michalowicz, n.d.).

Bass Company


IDEA 7: Develop a More Robust Online Presence

In our modern, ever connected world social media has become an absolutely

tremendous opportunity for businesses to grow and expand their customer base.

The top two benefits that studies have found about the effectiveness of social

media indicate that “A significant 89% of all businesses that have a dedicated social

media platform as part of their marketing strategy reported an increase in their market

exposure.” As well as, “More than half of marketers who have used social media

marketing for over 3 years reported an increase in sales over that period.” (Angelova,

2013). These two findings indicate that a company that is not active on social media is

one that is not maximizing its potential market exposure and is not earning as much

revenue as it potentially can.

Choosing the right social media platforms to focus on is something that a

company has to consider very hard before choosing to invest time, money and

resources into developing a strong presence on that site. For the purposes of this report

the SBCC team identified the three top B2B social media websites that we feel would

benefit Bass Company the most (DeMers, 2014).

The first social media site is LinkedIn. LinkedIn has become the pre-eminent

website for businesses looking to connect with consumers and more importantly with

other businesses. Surveys indicate that out of 81% of respondents that used the site,

48% used it primarily in a business capacity (LePage, 2013).

The way that LinkedIn works is users create a basic profile, upload a picture of

themselves (or in Bass Company’s case, a picture of their logo), users can then upload

background information about themselves, select a list of skills that they have, and

Bass Company


projects or groups they have been involved with. After this users can begin connecting

with other users and developing professional networks on the site.

What makes the website truly useful, however, is its ability to connect someone

directly with a “decision maker” in a company. Most users add their job title onto their

pages so finding the right people in an organization comes down to simply looking at a

company’s LinkedIn page, determining who the leaders are based on posted

information and then contacting them via InMail or even better, requesting that one of

your contacts who may also be a contact with this person introduce you to them (Elad,

n.d.).

A strong presence on the site indicates to potential customers that a company

has a good reputation and is a reputable organization to conduct business with. It can

also be a valuable tool for finding the right people in a business to contact with email

blasts.

In addition to being on LinkedIn, Bass Company needs to develop a strong

presence on Twitter (Burdett, 2014). Twitter is a social media site that allows users to

“tweet”, or create posts, of 140 characters or less to followers, people following the

original poster. These posts can then be “retweeted”, or shared on a user’s page, by

users that find the post interesting/amusing/insightful/etc. All users can see all posts

therefore content has to be filtered out using hashtags (#) that allow users to see only

posts within that specific hashtag, for example #BassCompany #mysteryshopping

would only show posts with those specific hashtags.

Bass Company


The value of twitter comes from the fact that it can be used to generate a lot of

buzz very quickly. Users retweet posts instantaneously and if a certain one picks up a

lot of traction within a certain group or with a certain hashtag a lot of users will be able

to see it in a very short amount of time.

Another advantage is that users can tweet links to websites or articles. This

feature can be used by Bass Company to share links leading to articles on mystery

shopping, legislation involving mystery shopping or simply links to its website or blog.

This type of link sharing will help to establish Bass Company’s online credibility as well

as help drive online traffic to its blog and website.

The final site that we recommend Bass Company establish itself on is

WordPress.com. WordPress is an online site that allows users to create and host a

website or a blog for free. Users simply enter in some basic information after which they

will choose a url for their blog, such as: BassCompanyBlog.wordpress.com, and then be

allowed to develop their blog however they see fit. The website itself has hundreds of

templates, colors, styles and options to choose from, therefore the blogs are extremely

customizable for a user’s needs and wants.

The benefit of establishing a blog is that it will allow Bass Company to begin to

write about things that are relevant to the mystery shopping industry. As stated before

the best way to find things to blog about is to “pick up your industry trade magazine and

look at the topics it’s covering. Then write something similar. Interview an industry

thought-leader, post your views on legislation that impacts your industry, and write a

how-to (Devaney. 2013).

Bass Company


Blogging will allow Bass Company to establish itself as an expert in the industry

and build credibility with its customers. The blog can then be added to Bass Company’s

LinkedIn site as a professional source for customers to view, promoted on the

company’s website and repeatedly tweeted about on the company’s Twitter account. All

of these sources will help drive traffic to the site and help get Bass Company noticed by

industry professionals, be they in the mystery shopping industry or outside of it.

Bass Company


IDEA 8: Redesign the Website

Objective

Bass Company website should be redone in order to instill a level of trust and

importance in the minds of current and prospective customers. It should help market its

services and raise awareness about the company.

Website Layout

Bass Company website should be reorganized to follow an “F” shaped format in

order to follow the natural pattern in which the prospective customer looks for

information. The picture below (Figure 10) illustrates this (Jones, 2012). Website users

often read important information very quickly. Users generally first read in a horizontal

movement at the top of the page and then scroll down and continue this horizontal

movement.

Bass Company


Figure 10. F Website Format

Finally, users read the content’s left side in a vertical motion, and this is done

more slowly (Nielsen, 2006). From the above description you can see that users will not

read the text thoroughly, so the first two paragraphs must state the most important

information. In addition, “start subheads, paragraphs and bullet points with information-

carrying words.” Bass Company should put the Services, Staff Login, etc. buttons on the

lefts side of the home page following the format of the above example.

Bass Company


Figure 13 Current Bass Company Homepage Layout

Before the “Who We Are” and “What We Do” sections (found in a screenshot of

the Bass Company homepage in Figure 13) there should be a quick synopsis of what

the prospective customers absolutely must know about the company and at the end a

mention of the complimentary evaluation services followed by a quick link.

Website Color Scheme

Bass Company should change its color scheme from red and gray to more

appropriate colors such as blue, white and black. As mentioned earlier blue represents

trust and communication, which is more appropriate for this type of business. In

addition, color scheme and aesthetics communicate value to the prospective client. The

care taken on visual representation of a company is important to draw in clients and to

maintain profitability and ensure growth of profitability.

Bass Company


IDEA 9: Use of Contracts in Business Dealings

Through numerous discussions with Mr. Murrell the SBCC team learned that

over the years Bass Company has lost a significant number of clients due to a change

in management. The new managers did not see the need for in-person evaluations or

were trying to cut costs and ended up switching from using Bass Company’s services to

using the online-receipt model or in-person survey kiosks.

Despite the fact that Mr. Murrell prefers doing business the “old-school way” and

would rather not use contracts, the SBCC team feels that their use would greatly benefit

Bass Company’s retention of future clients.

The main benefit of using a contract, in Bass Company’s case, is that it would

make their services immune to a change in management. The implementation of an

employment contract that states Bass Company will render services to this company for

X number of months/years would prevent that client from cancelling the use of Bass

Company’s evaluators for a set time.

This would not only allow for more steady growth of the company as income

would be fixed and predictable for a set amount of time; it would also help Bass

Company avoid large fluctuations in revenue as new clients could be found before old

ones leave.

Another benefit of using a contract is that it will allow Bass Company to state the

rate and terms of payment ("Why use a Contract?” 2008). While we did not ask Mr.

Murrell if non-payment was an issue for him nor did he ever explicitly state that this has

happened in the past, using a contract would none-the-less mitigate this issue from ever

Bass Company


happening. It would also allow Bass Company to estimate what its future revenue would

be and aid it in financial planning decisions.

The main components of a contract that Bass Company creates should be:

Description of Duties/Work to be Preformed

Length of Time of Services to be Rendered

Terms of Cancellation of Services

Rate of Pay/When Pay is Due

Agreed Upon Terms to Resolve Contract Disputes

Other Information – As Needed

In order to assist Bass Company with the creation of a contract we are including

a link to RocketLawyer.com (https://www.rocketlawyer.com/document/employment-

contract.rl). This website will allow Mr. Murrell to create a free, printable version of a

standard employment contract that he can then begin using with clients. This website

will provide step-by-step directions on how to fill out each part of the document as well

as provide access to local attorneys to review the document or answer any questions if

need be.

In Appendix D we have included a sample employment contract created through

RocketLawyer in order to showcase how effective the service can be.

https://www.rocketlawyer.com/document/employment-contract.rl

https://www.rocketlawyer.com/document/employment-contract.rl

Bass Company


IDEA 10: Implement the Business Model Canvas

The most important piece of developing a focused strategy is thinking of Bass

Company in terms of the business model canvas. Figure 14 shows a template for the

Business Model Canvas. Originally created by Alexander Osterwalder, the business

model canvas enables companies to focus on operational and strategic management

(Canvanizer, n.d.). Below is a picture of a business model canvas (Cosby, 2013).

Figure 14. Business Model Canvas Template

Bass Company


The business model canvas has nine building blocks: Key Partners, Key

Activities, Value Proposition, Customer Relationship, Customer Segment, Key

Resource, Distribution Channel, Cost Structure, and Revenue Stream.

Key Partners – Who are your key partners/suppliers? What are the motivations

for the partnerships?

Key Activities – What key activities does you value proposition require? What

activities are the most important in customer relationships, revenue streams,

etc.?

Value Proposition – What core value do you deliver to the customer? What

need of the customer are you satisfying?

Customer Relationship – What relationship does the target customer expect

for you to establish? How can you integrate this into your business in cost and

format?

Customer Segment – Which classes are you creating value for? Who is your

most important customer?

Key Resource – What key resource does your vale proposition require? What

resources are the most important? (For example for customer relationships or

revenue streams?)

Distribution Channel – Through which channels do your customers wants to be

reached? What channels work best? How much do they cost?

Cost Structure – What is the most cost in your business? Which key resources

or activities are most expensive?

Bass Company


Revenue Stream – For what value are you customers willing to pay? What and

how do they currently pay? How would they prefer to pay? How much does every

revenue stream contribute to the overall revenues?

All of these pieces of the business model canvas come together to give you a

visual overview of your business. For reference we have included a canvas for Bass

Company in Appendix B. The canvas forces Bass Company to consider key elements

for strategy and success. If Bass Company is unable to fill in any part of the canvas, it is

important that section be focused on. The left side of the canvas concerns the product

or offering and the right side concerns the market (parts of the business not under the

company’s control.) In addition the canvas allows for flexibility, permitting easy changes

to be made in order to adjust to varying conditions as needed for Bass Company.

Overall, the business model canvas is an essential tool for every business

Bass Company


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Bass Company


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