Business
The researcher has recently inherited his grandfather’s coffee shop, The Broadway Cafe, which is conveniently located in downtown Denver. The café has received market acceptance because of its specialty coffee beverages, homemade sideliners / starters / snack foods and several fresh bakery products. The owner has implemented an online communication and customer feedback portal to incorporate novel ideas and address service issues. The café management has recently received an extremely hateful anonymous feedback from a valued customer who recommended customers to avoid visiting on Thursday’s only at 2:00 p.m. because the Children’s Story Hour is taking place. The unknown client openly expressed his hatred for children and specifically opposed their presence at cafes as he couldn’t tolerate children’s entry even on a specific day for an hour. The owner regards this post as highly unethical because it showcases a disagreement with moral, social and cultural norms of U.S. society that places great emphasis on childcare by endorsing constructive activities for mental, physical, psychological and personal development of children. Therefore, the owner will start the response by first highlighting the ethical, social and cultural values and behaviors towards children in USA followed by clarifying that the activity could not be stopped in any circumstances. Secondly, the café is a public place that can’t restrict any specific group, segment or class as it comes under discrimination. Instead, the café management will allocate a special area for children activities so that the other customers could also benefit from café products in a harmonious and relaxing environment. The researcher will encourage an open line of communication with the customers and maintain an open forum on website by blocking the technical features of anonymity. In addition, the café website will also design forum communication and posting rules to avoid any future incidences of hate speech against any segment of society.
The Broadway Café should benefit from e-business strategies to enhance reach in downtown Denver and improves prospects of adding new customers despite competitive threats from small coffee shops and international chains including Starbucks. The first e-business strategy is to implement an IT system (more than a website) that connects online customers with The Broadway Café for online ordering, table reservations, customized menu selection, product delivery and event organizing. Secondly, the management should develop an extensive social media marketing strategy by using Face Book, YouTube, Instagram, Pinterest and LinkedIn communities. This will substantially enhance company prospects of establishing online customers who will generate additional demand, reduce average fixed costs and enable café to expand in Denver and adjoining counties across USA. In addition, the coffee shop should also implement an IT system for internal operations to connect all divisions and different areas of business such as marketing, finance, sales, distribution, customer services, human resources, procurement and admin. The coordination with suppliers will improve, thereby reducing probability of input shortages. Next, the cross-functional cooperation will also facilitate The Broadway Café in business process optimization, customer profiling, route management, supply-chain agility, elimination of redundant and repetitive jobs. Resultantly, the company could address right customers at the right time with right products by enhancing customization and addressing product quality complaints and service issues. The coffee shop could also install Kiosks to enhance customer services quality and minimize supply chain issues during peak hours.
