Case Study: Blossoms

1.Introduction

Gardening was a key feature of post World War Two revival in the UK(PMM,2017). With the development of gardening industry, Blossoms Garden Centre , which was established in Glasgow in the mid 1960’s, was initially famous due to the quality, variety of plants and professional staff. However, the nature of garden centre changed with the emergence of a number of chains that had larger scale and provided a wider range of products. Then, Blossoms had to change the operating strategy, such as expanding business and increasing the staff levels. This case study explains the challenges that Blossoms Garden Centre faced and then consider management principles that need to be applied in order to meet the challenges. It examines the priority of developing the supply-demand relationship between the customers and Blossoms Garden Centre, competitive priorities, the internal management and financial management.

2.Challenges for Blossoms Garden Centre

For Blossoms Garden Centre, the deteriorating supply-demand relationship between the company and its clients has affected its operation and reputation. Simultaneously, this might influence the competitive ability of Blossoms, which is also associated with the internal management of Blossoms, such as decision-making. Finally, the finance management issue, such as use of capital, is should be considered by manager of Blossoms due to its crucial position in company operation.

3.The priority of developing external relationships

3.1 Following customer service principle

To evaluate the success of the clients’ relationship with the company, the customer service principle should be applied. Customer service principles include six parts: listening, respond, patience, courtesy, team building and customer care(PPM,2017). For Blossoms, following these principles may improve their service quality for customers. For example, Blossoms could seek to understand the customers’ demands through listening. Then, Blossoms might make decisions and adopt the appropriate measures to meet customers needs. Secondly, the staff of Blossoms could be more polite and patient to their customers, which might make the customers experience shopping more positive. Finally, the staff of Blossoms may provide superior service for clients through receiving professional training and cooperating with colleagues. So, the customers could experience superior quality service when they shop in Blossoms Garden Centre.

3.2 Keeping customer loyalty of Blossoms Garden Centre

Customer loyalty could be defined as the customer buy products or services from the same company for a long period