With rapidly advancing technology and its increased integration in the corporate sector, information systems (IS) have become essential in optimizing business performance. For an upcoming business such as the GPVE to streamline and sustain its operations against the backdrop of dominance by well-established and larger entities, its incorporation of management information systems is critical. One-year-old Generic Pet Vet Enterprise (GPVE) is an SME that provides veterinary products and services to pet keepers in Oklahoma. After the first annual business assessment report, GPVE’s management has noted with concern a significant decline in business performance and is considering deploying a robust IS infrastructure to enhance its operations. Among the key challenges resulting in poor performance are stiff market competition, supply chain and inventory management challenges, and customer dissatisfaction. The business has also identified its inability to capture new markets, as well as experiencing challenges in effectively monitoring and communicating with its workforce and clients, especially those located in relatively remote suburban areas.
Tellingly, GPVE requires systems for its numerous processes, including HR and inventory management, payroll checking, and communication across the various groups of employees, among other needs. This is achievable with a formidable IS infrastructure featuring the automation of currently manual processes, reporting, analytical, accounting, and customer relationship tools, as well as e-commerce platforms. This presentation focuses specifically on GPVE’s marketing challenges, including slow market growth, poor customer experiences, and dissatisfaction. Thus, the proposed IS offers solutions to problems related to customer acquisition, retention, and satisfaction, which are critical in maintaining a competitive edge for overall corporate success.
Business success or failure is determined by many factors. In a competitive industry such as the market GPVE has ventured into, marketing strategies significantly influence corporate performance. The lack of effective sales and marketing strategies means that a business is unable to raise brand awareness, attract new customers, win their loyalty, and generate market leads that turn into sales (Zhang et al., 2024). Hence, the struggle by GPVE and its perceived failure to achieve the targeted growth in its first year of operation is heavily linked to the business’s poor sales and marketing strategies. Therefore, sales and marketing strategies are crucial for the overall performance of a new enterprise in a competitive market in several ways.
Firstly, these strategies are essential for acquiring new customers. Effective sales and marketing techniques help businesses reach their target audience, communicate their value proposition, and persuade potential customers to make a purchase (Wachnik et al., 2022). Similarly, GPVE needs ways to make pet keepers across the state and beyond aware of the enterprise’s existence. It also needs to convince its target clients of the uniqueness of GPVE products and services in order to win them from their current suppliers of pet products and veterinary services.
Secondly, sales and marketing strategies play a vital role in customer satisfaction. According to Melinevskyi et al. (2023), when customers are not adequately informed about what the business offers or if expectations are not met due to misleading marketing messages, satisfaction levels can plummet. Unhappy customers are unlikely to return or recommend the business to others. As such, by understanding customer needs and preferences, companies can tailor their offerings and messaging to meet those requirements effectively, thus leading to higher levels of customer satisfaction, repeat business, and positive word-of-mouth referrals (Wachnik et al., 2022). Therefore, GPVE has been lacking the best sales and marketing strategies, leading to dissatisfaction among its new clientele. The problem has been further aggravated by the fact that even when customers have expressed their concerns, complaints, or suggestions with regard to GPVE products and services, the information has barely reached the management.
Additionally, appropriate sales and marketing strategies are critical for customer retention. According to Sugiato et al. (2023), loyal customers are the lifeblood of any business, and without effective marketing to keep them engaged and interested, they may easily be swayed by competitors offering better value or service. In light of this, Zhang et al. (2024) argue that by implementing retention-focused marketing initiatives and providing excellent post-purchase support, businesses can keep customers engaged and loyal over the long term. Similarly, Rane et al. (2023) noted that retaining existing customers is often more cost-effective than acquiring new ones and can lead to increased lifetime value for each customer. However, it is clear that the strategies that GPVE has been employing in the past year have not yielded the desired fruits. Customers may not have been content with several aspects of the business’s provision of services or delivery of products. Such disappointments during the first encounter may have created a negative impression about the business, while continuous trends with concerns and suggestions unaddressed must have also discouraged customers who may have been willing to remain loyal even after an initial negative encounter. Consequently, a significant proportion of the customers have discontinued their dealings with GPVE products and services, hence the business’s inability to retain customers.
It is, therefore, undeniable that the cumulative effect of poor sales and marketing strategies can lead to diminished business performance, including lower sales, reduced profitability, and a damaged reputation. It’s crucial for new enterprises in competitive markets to invest in sound marketing strategies to ensure they can effectively acquire, satisfy, and retain customers for sustainable growth and success (Zheng et al., 2022). GPVE needs to incorporate sales and marketing strategies that will foster a wider market reach and enhance customer satisfaction, hence securing a dependable market. As the love for pets grows tremendously among the population across the US, and while technology has been increasingly integrated into virtually all aspects of life, GPVE can effectively deploy information systems to enhance its sales and marketing.
The first category of strategies is those aimed at customer acquisition. Leveraging technology and data-driven insights can significantly improve a business’s customer acquisition strategies. One of the strategies GPVE can use to enhance its customer acquisition is targeted market campaigns. Information systems will enable the business to create highly targeted marketing campaigns by utilizing customer data to segment audiences based on demographics, interests, or past interactions. Thus, the business can deliver personalized and relevant marketing messages that are more likely to resonate with potential customers (Cordova-Buiza et al., 2022). For instance, they can identify which pets are more popular with the youthful population, which constitutes the highest number of internet users, and determine the use of digital payment platforms and online platforms to market their pet products and veterinary services. The second strategy involves the management of customer data. By understanding the preferences, behavior, and buying patterns of their customers, the business can tailor their marketing messages and sales approach to target the right audience with the right message at the right time. For instance, they can start printing pet product packages with messages or graphics that resonate with the youth if the products are intended for young pet keepers.
The third strategy is the use of IS for automation and efficiency. According to Wachnik et al. (2022), information systems allow for the automation of various marketing and sales processes, such as email marketing, lead nurturing, and customer follow-ups. Thus, automation will not only save time and resources for the business but will also ensure consistency in communication between pet keepers and the enterprise’s sales and marketing teams, leading to a more streamlined and efficient customer acquisition process. The other strategy involves integration and communication, where IS can facilitate seamless integration between sales and marketing teams. This will enable the sharing of real-time data and insights and more effective collaboration among marketing and sales teams as they align their strategies and work towards a common goal of acquiring and retaining customers. Lastly, performance tracking and analytics can be an effective strategy to acquire customers. Melinevskyi et al. (2023) noted that by tracking key metrics such as conversion rates, customer acquisition costs, and return on investment, businesses can evaluate the effectiveness of their strategies and make data-driven decisions to optimize their campaigns for better results. Hence, GPVE can utilize IS to gain insights into the performance of the business’s sales and marketing efforts.
The goal of the second category of strategies is to enhance customer satisfaction. Information systems are instrumental in elevating sales and marketing efforts for a business striving to enhance customer satisfaction. One of the strategies involves personalized customer interactions, enabling the business to gather and analyze its customers’ data electronically, thus creating personalized marketing messages and tailored sales experiences (Rahayu et al., 2022). The business should also strategize on efficient customer service. Information systems can streamline customer service processes by providing quick access to customer information, purchase history, and communication logs, hence enabling sales and customer service representatives to address customer inquiries and issues promptly and effectively, thereby enhancing overall customer satisfaction.
Feedback and reviews management is another strategy to enhance customer satisfaction. IS will enable monitoring, collection, examination, and proactive addressing of customer sentiments, thus demonstrating the business’s commitment to customer satisfaction by continuously improving its products and services based on customer input. Information systems also facilitate customer loyalty programs, including personalized rewards based on customer behavior and preferences (Seturi, 2024). Thus, by leveraging data analytics, the business can identify opportunities to reward loyal customers, incentivize repeat purchases, and strengthen customer relationships, ultimately driving higher levels of satisfaction. Finally, IS-supported omnichannel marketing strategies will allow the enterprise to seamlessly engage with pet keepers across multiple touch points through convenient and accessible online interactions (Zheng et al., 2022). The last category of strategies aims to enhance customer retention by fostering long-term relationships between the business and its customers. However, these strategies are essentially borrowed from customer acquisition and satisfaction strategies. Obviously, customers can only be retained once they have been acquired and are satisfied with the products and services. Hence, automated market campaigns, predictive analytics, customer relationship management (CRM), customer segmentation and targeting, and feedback management and satisfaction monitoring are among the IS-based strategies that can help keep pet keepers loyal to GPVE.
In essence, information systems are indispensable for businesses striving to enhance customer acquisition, satisfaction, and retention through their sales and marketing strategies. By leveraging customer segmentation, predictive analytics, automation, CRM tools, and feedback mechanisms, the GPVE business can establish relationships with new customers, foster their contention, and cultivate lasting relationships with existing customers. This will drive market reach and repeat business and ultimately lead to expansive markets and improved customer retention rates.
While the implementation of IS in the business has numerous strengths, it also renders itself to several limitations. On the one hand, the strengths include enhancing data-driven decision-making, efficiency, automation, and scalability. In this regard, the systems will provide valuable data and analytics that can inform strategic decisions, helping the business understand market trends, customer preferences, and opportunities for growth (Sugiato et al., 2023). They will also streamline processes, automate routine tasks, and improve operational efficiency, allowing the enterprise management to focus on strategic initiatives and personalized customer interactions. In addition, the systems can scale with the business as it expands into new markets, thus accommodating increased data volumes, customer interactions, and sales channels without compromising performance (Rane et al., 2023). On the other hand, limitations include the high cost of implementation, data security risks, and resistance to the technology shift (Wachnik et al., 2022). In light of these weaknesses, integrating information systems can be costly as it requires investments in software, hardware, training, and maintenance, which may pose financial challenges for the upcoming business. The sensitive information stored by IS systems is usually vulnerable to security breaches and cyber threats if not adequately protected, which can potentially erode customer trust and damage brand reputation (Dligach et al., 2023). Still, some employees and customers, especially the digitally illiterate and elderly populations with whom technology is not popular, may resist the shift to new IS due to factors such as unfamiliarity, fear of job displacement, or the lack of training, thus hindering the successful implementation and utilization of these technologies.
Nevertheless, with sequenced implementation, the limitations can be overcome by optimizing the strengths. Hence, the implementation of IS at GPVE should involve a sequenced process. The first step that the management should take is a critical assessment and planning. This should include assessing the current sales and marketing processes, identifying pain points, goals, and requirements, as well as conducting a cost-benefit analysis to determine the long-term value and return on investment (ROI) of implementing the information systems (Melinevskyi et al., 2023). This should be followed by the development of a comprehensive plan that outlines the objectives and key performance indicators (KPIs) so as to enable the selection of appropriate IS and a budget plan for the implementation (Cordova-Buiza et al., 2022). The IS should be implemented in phases to spread out costs and minimize disruptions by starting with essential functions that deliver immediate benefits before expanding to more advanced features. Hence, by following a sequenced process that addresses the strengths and weaknesses of implementing information systems, businesses can effectively leverage technology to expand into wider markets, enhance customer satisfaction, and achieve their sales and marketing objectives.
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