Business Consultancy Project: Analyzing Daniel Cobb's Business

This business consultancy project analyzes Daniel Cobb, an estate agent in London, focusing on its strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (SWOT). The project includes a situational analysis, examining industry trends and identifying issues like website design and the lack of a mobile application. It proposes options for improvement, emphasizing the need for a user-friendly website with real-time chat and a dedicated mobile application. The project details a plan of action, including project aims, scope, risk assessment, and stakeholder analysis. Appendices include a SWOT analysis, Gantt chart, risk assessment framework, and an interview transcript, offering a comprehensive view of the company's current standing and potential improvements within the competitive market. The project aims to enhance Daniel Cobb's online presence and customer service capabilities.

Running head: BUSINESS CONSULTANCY PROJECT
Business Consultancy Project
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author note

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Table of Contents
1. Introduction....................................................................................................................2
2. Situational Analysis of Amazon and Problem Identification..........................................3
2.1 Impact of Business Analysis Tools..........................................................................3
2.2 The Industry Trends.................................................................................................4
2.3 Identified Issues.......................................................................................................5
3. Options...........................................................................................................................6
4. Specific Project and Detailed Plan of Action.................................................................9
4.1 Project Aims and Objectives....................................................................................9
4.2 Project Scope...........................................................................................................9
4.3 Risk Assessment....................................................................................................11
4.4 Stakeholder Analysis.............................................................................................12
4.5 A Detailed Plan of Action.......................................................................................14
5. Conclusion...................................................................................................................15
References.......................................................................................................................17
Appendices......................................................................................................................21
1. The SWOT Analysis of Daniel Cobbs......................................................................21
2. Gantt chart for the Project Deliverables and Outputs..............................................22
3. The Risk Assessment Framework...........................................................................23
4. The Interview Transcript..........................................................................................24

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1. Introduction
Daniel Cobb is considered to be one of the most reputable, leading and
independent form of estate agents located in London. The business firm are a family of
estate agents owning a 20 years of experience within the London property industry. The
company helps their clients in offering a wide range of services for their homes. They
have spread their branches all across the United Kingdom and ensure to provide their
clients utmost satisfaction by supporting them with proper advice in relation to their
queries (isolation and Working From Home: Routine 2020). The company also
possesses an experienced customer service team who are responsible for making the
proper matches between landlords and tenants. Within the offered service from the firm,
landlords are able to advertise their properties while setting out a proper deal with the
firm.
The discussion in the further sections of the report thus puts emphasis on the
analysis of the form by considering the different factors to determine the maturity of the
firm in the highly competitive market. The company has been chosen for the evaluation
since there is a wide necessity of people to choose properties while determining a
proper landlord and a suitable house at an affordable price. Thus, Daniel Cobb is
greatly within the field of connecting their customers with the most preferred landlords in
order to provide them with efficient service. The company also includes many new kind
of services such as plumbing, plumbing, internal and external decoration, maintenance
and repair services. Hence the business firm also helps them through getting the proper
resident who would be willing to accept the service from the landlord at a negotiable and
accepted price.

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2. Situational Analysis of Amazon and Problem Identification
2.1 Impact of Business Analysis Tools
The SWOT Analysis of Daniel Cobbs
Strengths: The strengths possessed by Daniel Cobbs are discussed as follows:
 Efficient service and various opportunities for clients
 Excellent consultancy services
 Best customer handling services
 Allocation of the best property manager as per customer needs
 Inclusion of other services such as electric fitting, plumbing and others.
Weakness: The weakness as possessed by Daniel Cobbs are as follows:
 The website of the company is not planned in a better way
 Live customer support is not supported within the platform
 Customers would need to visit office to gain consultancy
 There is an unorganized form of way of management of records
 Unavailability of a dedicated mobile application might lower the popularity of the
business
Opportunities: The opportunities for the upcoming business of Daniel Cobbs are:
 The area of customer service could be improved gradually
 A live chat functionality could be improvised within the website
 Property updates could be sent to existing customers who have made use of the
services from the firm

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 The business could look for new customer segments based on demographic data
 Expansion of services to other countries could also prove worthwhile for the
company
Threats: The business threats towards the business of Daniel Cobbs are:
• Rise in business competitors who provide more efficient services
• Focusing on a fixed demographic segment
2.2 The Industry Trends
According to the industry trends being focused for the company based on
property development and acquisition of homes in the UK, it can be discussed that the
company has majorly shown nice improvements. Different case studies as released
within press releases as released by the government have helped in understanding the
major industry trends that have been approached by the Daniel Cobbs in the recent
years.
The firm proposes different kind of actions, which are being performed by them in
the concern for the business and the wellness of the customers (David et al. 2017).
According to the trends focused within the industry and in relevance to the market
demands, the firm had incorporated the most important aspects within their business.
These include:
1. Asset Management – With the world class business leaders within the firm,
Daniel Cobbs have used their knowledge and experience for leading themselves into
the commercial market. This has been mainly been done for seeking a better form of
business value through renegotiating with the previous tenants and making new lease
agreements with new tenants (Hopkins, Read and Goss 2017). The group of business
leaders have well understood the needs of the tenant while also looking for greater
value based on relocating them in the existing building.
2. Commercial Management – After making a proper agreement with the
tenant, the firm generally takes over the occupancy of the building and manages it

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accordingly. Greater value is sorted for the tenants and also negotiated with the
customers based on analysing of budgets from both ends. Thus, by handling such kind
of services, it is intended to look forwards for bringing major improvement in business
performances and raising the company to the expectations, which are held within
(Ferreira, Matos and Pires 2018). According to recent surveys made over tenants and
clients, it has also been seen that the firm had received a major form of satisfaction rate.
This emphasizes the fact that the business has been able to make strong grounds
within the UK market.
2.3 Identified Issues
From the conducted business analysis with the help of SWOT tool, it can be
discussed that the company has been facing some major lacking areas. These could be
considered as one of the major issues faced by the firm and which could lower the
business value in the competitive market. The identified issues are discussed as:
a. The website of the business firm is not organized in a proper manner.
Although different aspects as served by the company is being utilized by the clients and
landlords in a proper manner, yet a proper organizing of every aspect as planned for the
clients is not considered to be appropriate. The present website engages different
facilities that could be served to the clients and hence gather their attention (Signori and
Vismara 2018). However, some of the contents advertised within the website is not
planned properly. Clients would need to search for different options from the side menu
bar. However, the different supported options should be made available in the front
page, which would be really helpful for the customers to spot and view accordingly. A
well-designed website that would integrate all the key features and which could be
easily be visible to the customers in the first glance could be considered as satisfying
(Xiao, Li and Webster 2016). Hence, the company should focus on the aspect of
increasing the availability of each option to the customers in a suitable manner such that
more customer visit could be encouraged, which would also help them in driving better
results.
b. From the analysis of the company and the recent market trends, it can be
understood that the company tends to satisfy their customers with their exclusive range

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of services. However, it can also be discussed that people in the recent times are
mostly habituated to using their mobile phones to search for various items (Hagedoorn
and Zobel 2015). Hence, a dedicated mobile application platform for the business would
prove to generate more value towards the business. Daniel Cobbs does not own a
mobile application, which could in turn lead customers away from their business. Every
customer would expect a dedicated mobile platform for the websites being used by
them. Hence, this could lead to a serious problem being faced by customers in dealing
with the business prospects as provided by Daniel Cobbs (Schönsleben 2016).
Absence of a dedicated mobile application for the clients would lead them to visit the
nearby office and communicating directly with the business officials.
The detailed interview from the Business Manager at the business firm is
attached within the Appendices section.
3. Options
The above section within the report focuses on the SWOT aspect in relation to
Daniel Cobbs for their firm. However, from the understanding of the possible issues that
could affect the firm, it can be discussed that the business firm faces some form of stiff
competition when dealing with their market competitors in terms of website suitability
and mobile application availability.
From the discussion and understanding of the various projects being handled by
the business firm and the kind of decisions being made by Daniel Cobb, it can be
discussed that the company would be able to make tremendous profits in the future.
This could further be proliferated with the use of efficient web analytical techniques and
tools, which would enrich the reach of the company into the minds of the people. The
possible course of actions, which could be considered as primary business options that
needs to be prioritized for incurring great benefits are:
a. Inclusion of a proper website availability – User experience is considered
as a major aspect in terms of driving more traffic towards the website established by a
business. Daniel Cobb is largely focused on managing of assets as proposed and sold
by tenants and matching with potential clients who would be able to purchase the

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property at their choice of costs (Abbasi, Sarker and Chiang 2016). Thus, the company
should be able to advertise these choices to customers in a presentable manner. In the
present understanding over the website, it can be understood that although the website
helps users to understand their stories in a better manner, yet these customers have to
locate their services by accessing each page individually. The clients would then have
to perform a reading over the user stories as being presented by other clients as per
their needed service (Parker, Parsons and Isharyanto 2015). This could be a tiring act
for clients and thus they might not like the service provided by the business while some
clients would have to visit the physical office in order to get their queries resolved.
Hence, in order to bring changes within the present business aspect, the website
of the company should be able to provide a better view of the business offerings as
performed by the firm (Cappuyns 2016). These would require a redevelopment of the
present website and then highlight the services, which are being set within the
company. Moreover, there are a wide number of services, which are included within the
company along with the regular services being offered. These include maintenance,
electric wiring setup, internal and external decoration and many others. These suite of
services should also be put within the recommendation for the clients, which would
ultimately help them in deciding whether they would need to avail the service
(Grobbelaar, Tijssen and Dijksterhuis 2017). Along with this aspect, a real-time chat
service should also be incorporated within the website for helping customers to gain
real-time assistance from the business leaders. This would help customers in getting a
prior knowledge over the property in which they might be interested and thus decide to
purchase them accordingly.
b. Availability of a dedicated Mobile Application Platform – In present times,
it has been researched that Daniel Cobbs do not own a well-planned mobile application
that would help them in proliferating their business (Hu and Li 2017). The business of
Daniel Cobb deals with the selling and purchasing of properties that are being
advertised by tenants. Hence, in order to proliferate the business, a mobile application
would be considered as essential. According to researches over the use of mobile
phone applications by users, it can be discussed that 81% of users make use of various

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applications to search for the required service. Having an online presence with a mobile
application, would be helpful for creating a first impression towards the customers.
With the implementation of a proper planned mobile application for the business,
it would lead the business for an increased visibility. The application would integrate the
prime functions in which the tenants would be able to post advertisements on their by
simply registering themselves within the platform (Frow et al. 2015). Tenants would also
be able to post pictures of their properties and set a proper rate for their property as per
their requirement. On the other hand, the customers who would be in need of a proper
property would sign in within the application and view the properties as per their
preferred choice. Clients would also be able to set a particular price range within which
they would require a particular property.
The application would also set a price calculator in which the client would be able
to calculate their demands and match them with their preferred requirements. The
application would also integrate better algorithms, which would help clients in getting the
most preferred results based on understanding their preferences and choices. Thus, the
application would also suggest the best kind of property result upon their search, which
would be preferred by them (Smedlund and Faghankhani 2015). Live chat facility should
also be integrated within the application, which would also help the clients to raise their
concerns and thus gain a proper advisor to help them regarding their queries. This
application would increase the exposure of the business to a broad number of users
and thus increase the business profit rate.
c. Social Media Presence – The website and mobile application should be
directly be linked with the social media platforms such as Facebook and similar others.
Social media marketing would also help in marketing their company for the clients and
tenants. Hence, with the digital marketing of the company towards tenants and clients,
hence, it would help in proliferating towards the business growth (Yang and Berger
2017). It would enrich the digital presence of the company and maximum client base
since the business reach would expand globally. Since, in the recent times, most of the
people within the company have a high addiction towards the various social media
platforms, they would be able to get to know about the business firm and thus would

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avail the services. A well-planned strategy for the business would help in increased
accessibility for users.

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4. Specific Project and Detailed Plan of Action
4.1 Project Aims and Objectives
The project aims to include a well-planned website and a mobile application for
the Daniel Cobbs business and thus increase the business reach to a broad client base.
In order to achieve the proposed aim by the business of Daniel Cobb, the
objectives set by the business could be set as follows:
 To prepare a detailed plan of actions detailing each of the steps required to plan
for the new business inclusion
 To prepare a detailed form of business scope that would list the important
features that would be provided by the business
 Assessment of risks and a proper stakeholder management plan
 Ensure that a proper business website would be developed and a successful
mobile application would be developed accordingly
4.2 Project Scope
Daniel Cobb is considered as the most reputable kind of property agents in the
United Kingdom. The business firm had been founded by Jenny Cobb, who had
identified opportunities within the housing property industry, which was primarily been
built on family values such as trust, support and honesty. The business deals with
accepting the requests of clients who would be looking for properties that would be
advertised for sale (Zhang 2015). Tenants register themselves within the company to
advertise their properties. There are a large number of houses in UK, which are being
sold by landlords. Clients from various parts of the world come to live in the UK for
various purposes.
Whenever a client would place a request within the company based on a search
request for a property, they would be re-directed to the most suitable property that
would be leased out by the landlords. The business leaders within the firm continuously
assess the needs of the client and help them in finding the most suitable property based
on their affordable price range (Schriber and Löwstedt 2015). After finding the correct

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property for the customers, the business would be able to fix an appointment between
the landlords and clients.
With the present project, the business would develop a mobile application and a
business website that would help in solving the business requirements. A well planned
business website would be developed for Daniel Cobbs in which each of the offerings
within the business would be accommodated in a well-planned manner such that the
clients would be able to reach to the business (Tan et al. 2015). A live chat facility would
also be included within the business website in which customers would be able to talk
with property experts and gain help in choosing the right deal. Customers would come
towards the business with a broad number of requests based on their affordability.
Hence, the experts within the business would help them in getting access to the proper
housing property as per their preferences.
In this project, a proper mobile application would also be developed that would
be helpful for clients as they would be able to download the mobile application in their
smartphones. The mobile application would help the landlords in registering themselves
individually and post advertisement based on lease of their property (Grimes and
Mitchell 2015). The application would also serve the request of customers as they would
be able to request for proper housing properties and thus the application would match
their requests to the proper landlords. A certain negotiation could also be made
between the landlords, tenants and clients after which a particular property would be
sold to clients (Cohen-Rosenthal and Musnikow 2017). The mobile application that
would be integrated within the business functionalities would help in mapping the
customer requests according to the input choices made by them. The mobile application
would also help the customers in selecting the proper price range in which they would
require properties to be displayed for them (Zavadskas et al. 2017). Thus, based on the
exact search results. It would be considered as highly helpful for the business to satisfy
the customer requests and thus increase the rate of customer satisfaction.