feedback post 1

Q1 .Is the ability to strip down and rebuild a PC a useful skill in the modern workplace? Many people now think that this skill is redundant in the workplace. Please give your opinions on the above statement.

A. I believe having that knowledge can only better your performance in the workplace. While most companies have a specific team of people that are responsible for the repairing of PCs, knowing how it works can make your life easier. You are able to fix most issues on your own and can have an idea of what is wrong when the PC malfunctions or breaks. It would save you time since you wouldn’t have call those responsible for repairing PCs for every little problem you encounter.

B. I believe the ability to strip down and rebuild a PC is very useful due to the amount of money that goes into tech workers and the amount of time a malfunction can take up. If people within the workplace understood how to fix a PC and install one this will allow many issues within the workplace to be quickly fixed without affecting the projects and missions that need to be completed before a deadline.

C. I believe it helps to understand how the components and system operates, but not in the field. I see it in my work,who hired an IT contractor company to handle everything. If I have a problem with the PC, they’ll check it over for software issues, but if it’s hardware related, they replace the computer. The IT guy told me he creates a copy of all the drives and switches to new system. I guess they recycle or repair and re-sell? I wonder how much the company spends for this.You may either agree or disagree while providing supplemental content for your argument.

• Choose any 2 and give feedback based on the question 1
• You may either agree or disagree while providing supplemental content for your argument.
• Both the response and reply should be at least 4, well-written sentences
• No plagiarism.

Q 2. Review the following:

• Barriers to Entry in the Ecommerce Business
• Google Analytics Collection
• How Cloud Integration Is Defining The Future Of CRM
• The top 10 customer relationship management services

Provide an example of how two different companies accumulate customer information for their customer and sales database. Describe in detail.

A. The first company I looked at was naturally the company that I have been researching over the past week, Groupon. They actually have published an article of what their recommendations are for this very subject, and I’m taking an educated guess that their own practices follow closely with these practices.

• Basic Info:
  • Groupon recommends gathering basic information about customers, such as geographical location, race, age, etc. just to setup a baseline for customer categories. This information will allow for further analytics as more information can be gathered. This information is simple to gather, as most of it is required to set up an account with companies like Groupon.
• Real-Time Consumer Behavior:
  • This information is specifically designed to help e-commerce businesses like Groupon. They recommend using Google Analytics to find out what links the customers are clicking on, what content is being downloaded (also when and how much), what sites are sending them to their sites, what key words are being searched for to find their site, if they are posting things on social media about Groupon and their products, and the list can go on. This type of information can answer they why a marketing strategy is failing or succeeding, and Groupon considers it to be invaluable.
• Social Media:
  • I just read an article that discussed how Groupon was spending millions of dollars marketing to Millennials, and now I read the Grouponrecommends using social media (i.g. Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc.) if a company is marketing to Millennials. Groupon doesn’t specify which tools to use (they use the term various online tools in the article), but one could infer from the articles tone that there are plenty of online tools to choose from. This information can then be used to determine what issues and topics their customers care about, and then tailor a more genuine advertising campaign, which Millennials have shown to be more responsive too.
• Customer Service/Customer Preferences/Customer Contact Details:
  • Groupon seems to put a big emphasis on the opportunity that is present for information gathering when ever directly communicating with customers. They recommend for the customer service department to have a list of questions ready that they can ask a customer whenever a customer is returning a product. These questions don’t even need to be related to why the customer is returning the product (some of them should be) but the questions should dig a little deeper – preferences about different aspects of products, favorite products and why, etc. They also recommend re-gathering information if the opportunity presents itself.
• Source: https://www.groupon.com/merchant/blog/ways-to-use-consumer-behavior-data-to-market-target-audience

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The second company I took a look at was Netflix. Their data accumulation can be summed up in one word – algorithm. Netflix will collect information about there customers viewing behaviors, and not just what titles they watch, but which ones they watch completely, which ones they rewind/fast forward/pause, which series they watch all they way through/stop after the first few episodes, which titles they add to their lists, which titles they rate positively/negatively,etc. All of this data is then run through an algorithm and customers recommended titles based on the results. These titles are not simply based on specific genres (i.g. horror, action, comedy, drama, family, etc.), but on sub-categories, and micro-categories. The data that is gathered and processed is used to make a Netflix experience that is tailored made for each viewer.

B. One company I researched for this assignment is Fandango. Fandango is a movie ticket selling website so movie fans can buy their tickets online via E-Commerce. They didn’t have a lot on their website in regards to how they store information but the websites eludes to their being some sort of cloud service functionality with their fans. They say on their website that they show off the newest movies to fit their customers needs. It seems as if they collect fans favorite genres according to what they normally buy tickets for. “Fandango entertains, informs and guides film fans with must-see trailers and movie clips, exclusive and original content, insider news and expert commentary. We make it easy to find and buy the right movie at the right time, with showtimes and ticketing to more than 26,000 screens nationwide.” That quote came directly from the Fandango “About Us” section on the website. Fandango reaches out to their fans via push notifications if the user allows them. That sends notifications straight to the person’s phone and it brings them to the app.

https://www.fandango.com/AboutUs.aspx

Best Buy is the second website I chose. Best buy is a technology giant with the world revolving solely around technology. Best Buy records customer information such as gender, age, billing/shipping info, demographic info, etc., to use to advertise to their customers. They gather the information and market things that fit in the specific areas they pulled the information from. From there they use that info to advertise products and services to best fit the customers needs.

Example: My laptop broke last semester so I’ve been doing a little research looking for a new one. I looked at 2 on the Best Buy website and all advertisements I see are lap tops with similar specifications like the few I looked at. Best Buy, right there, grabbed info about what i was researching and displayed systems that fit my needs.

C. Netflix – Utilizing analytics to gain insight into customer preferences is helping Netflix become a better business and service. The company currently uses an algorithm to improve the accuracy of recommendations based off of a user’s movie preferences. Data is collected from 130 million subscribers which include what they watch, when they watch content, what location they watch from, searches, browsing behaviors, and when a user pauses and if they ever come back to the app or close out. Measuring this data gives Netflix insight into their customers which gives them a better understanding of customer cancellations and how they can be prevented for future viewers. It is important for Netflix to keep subscribers engaged and recommend shows or movies they might like so they are less likely to cancel. 75% of viewers content is driven by the algorithm which proves just how useful it is to collect customer data to provide a better experience and maintain subscribers

Ipsy – Ipsy is a subscription site where customer data is collected and they are sent 4-5 beauty samples per month. Before customers receive any products they take a quiz about preferred products, interests, experience with makeup, skin tone, and hair color. This information is then applied to future subscriptions so beauty samples are more tailored to their customers. By building a customer profile and allowing customers to rate the products they receive, Ipsy is able to provide a better customer experience because they have a better understanding of their customers.

Although both companies collect data differently, accumulating customer data gives companies the opportunity to provide a better customer experience by applying data to their business strategies.

• Choose any 2 and give feedback based on the question 2
• You may either agree or disagree while providing supplemental content for your argument.
• Both the response and reply should be at least 4, well-written sentences
• No plagiarism.