Iris Rice has managed Polly's Sweet Treats and Drinks for ten years. The owner, Mamie Hammond, essentially gave Iris full control about seven years ago. Mamie had established Polly's almost 30 years ago and has been in semi-retirement for about the last five years. Mamie is considering selling the store and is giving Iris first choice. Iris is extremely excited about the prospect of owning her own business. However, Iris wants to expand the offerings and ultimately increase the number of locations.

Iris asked Mamie if she could have one year to investigate how changes will be received by customers. Although excited, Iris is also very nervous about being an owner. It is one thing to manage a business owned by someone else and another to own it yourself. Mamie reflected on how she felt when she started Polly's. Mamie wanted Polly's to stay successful and would like it to grow as well. Iris was an excellent manager; therefore, Mamie believed Iris would be an excellent owner. Consequently, Mamie thought it was worth the time to let Iris make some changes and build her confidence.

Polly's Sweet Treats and Drinks has a variety of customers. Although Iris has never officially put them in any specific categories, now that she may be the owner, she began thinking along those lines. Polly's opened at 11 a.m. and closed at 8 p.m. Much of the lunch crowd consists of young mothers with children in school, on up to senior citizens. Around 3 p.m., the complexion of the crowd changes. It becomes dominated by teenagers. This made sense since school let out around 3 p.m. As 6 p.m. approached, Iris noticed that families were the predominant group.

Currently, the menu consisted of dessert-like food such as cakes, pies, tarts, muffins, doughnuts, and other pastries. The drinks were a variety of sodas that included diet and caffeine-free drinks. Polly's also served a variety of hot and cold teas, hot and cold coffees, as well as milk, hot chocolate, milk shakes, and frozen drinks.

Although Polly's Sweet Treats and Drinks has been in business for about 30 years and it still has a strong customer base, Iris is concerned about the future. She believes that for her to eventually expand and add new stores she will need a new menu. Iris thinks that she will have to expand the menu to include things beyond sweet treats and drinks. She is thinking about adding sandwiches and possibly a single blue plate special for those who may want a "full-course" type meal.

Iris has a Bachelor's degree in Business. The one point that her favorite professor drilled into her was that you need data to make effective decisions. Once you collected the data you had to analyze them, then use them to drive your decisions. Currently, Iris has no data except for her casual observations of what is happening in the store from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. In order to make the best decisions for Polly's Sweet Treats and Drinks, Iris understood she needed to collect some data. She could not assume that the changes she felt were necessary were the changes the customers would accept.

She talked it over with Mamie. Mamie's concern was that since such a variety of customers visited Polly's it would be a challenge to fulfill all their likes. Plus, many people liked the store as it was. They had visited it as children and now brought their kids there. Would they lose customers or gain them if changes were made? After much discussion Mamie and Iris agreed that they needed more information about what their customers liked and didn't like.

Discussion Questions

1. Iris Rice is planning to take a huge step toward changing Polly's Sweet Treats and Drinks' business strategy. What does she need to do to collect the type of data she'll require to make an effective decision? Explain what you would do if you were her. What would be your plan? Be specific.

2. Assume Iris moves forward with her plan to change the menu. This could alter the current customer base. Advise her on actions she should take to address customer defections. Explain how the actions will benefit her and potentially prevent customer defections.

3. The case suggests that many of Polly's Sweet Treats and Drinks' customers are from the same community. Parents came there as children and are now bringing their children there. Would you recommend that Iris use social CRM? Why or why not?