University of Roehampton: Eco-Fone Business Report 2019

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of the Eco-Fone business, focusing on the UK smartphone market. It examines market trends, customer satisfaction, and the feasibility of expanding the business to Kingston. The report uses data from Deloitte and other sources to assess the current market landscape, including the growing segment of older smartphone users. It includes a pros and cons analysis for the proposed expansion, financial considerations, and customer feedback. The report concludes with recommendations for improving customer service and overall business strategy, including an analysis of the company's performance and suggestions for future growth. The report is a summative assessment for a work placement student from the University of Roehampton.

Introduction
The company Eco-Fone is in the business of selling Smartphone and accessories from the two
shops Richmond and Putney. Since its set up in 2014, the net profit has shown a steady growth
year on year. As the company continues its journey on the growth trajectory, there are several
important issues that it has to address. It is important to evaluate the current trends that are being
demonstrated by the Smartphone market. Based on the analysis of current market trends, the
report in the following pages have been prepared. Based on the findings regarding trends,
information regarding products, finances and customers; recommendations are given for future
expansion of the company.
1. Analysis of Issues for Eco-Fone Smartphones
1.1 An Overview of the Mobile phone market in the UK
Among the 33.5 million workforce in UK now, 32 million are engaged in an occupation. Among
the employees who owned a Smartphone, it was found that only half of them used it for at least
one work related activity (Deloitte, 2017). Voice call, calendar management and emails were the
three applications that were most frequently used by the workers on the Smartphone. The
commonality of these three applications was a result of the fact that these were optimized for the
Smartphone.
Additionally, there are number of unofficial Smartphone applications that are used on a daily
basis at the workplace. Amongst the entire workforce, it is found that 40% of them use whatsapp
on a daily basis. The reason again for the popularity of these applications is that they have been
optimized for the Smartphone (Deloitte, 2017).
However, as compared to applications related communication, there was a limited usage of other
applications related to workflow. There has been little change in the adoption of workflow
applications in Smartphone over the years. The reason behind this paucity of usage is not due to
lack of needs. On the contrary, the lack of usage of smart phone for work related activities is lack
of suitable software and applications.

1.3 Smart phones - A potential market for older customers
In recent years there has been an increase in the smart phone usage amongst older customers.
There are plenty of reasons that can explain this trend. One explanation behind the habit of older
generation in buying a smart phone is higher than average wealth of the people belonging to the
age group of 55 to 75 years (Kellion, 2017). In some cases the children of these elderly
populations might have gifted them a Smartphone. In certain cases it is the situations that have
forced the elderly population to purchase a smart phone. For instance, smart phone might be the
most convenient method for paying at the numerous parking meters that have cropped up.
Without a smart phone app, it might also be difficult to book a taxi in certain cities, thereby
prompting the elderly to make a purchase (Rosales and Fernández-Ardèvol, 2016).
Another reason that has contributed towards the growing popularity of smart phone amongst the
elderly users is the changes that have been brought about over the years. Certain features of the
modern day smart phones like bigger screens, louder speakers etc. have helped the elderly
(Kellion, 2017). The applications have also become much easier over the years and some of the
Android app makers now make dedicated applications that are especially targeted at the elderly
population. For example facial recognition as an application for authentication has become
extremely popular for the elderly population who no longer have to fiddle with buttons or search
for their glasses to key in their password for unlocking their device (Pang, Vu, Zhang and Foo,
2015).
1.4Feasibility of Expanding business to Kingston using Pros and Cons table
In order to address the question of whether the company should expand its business to Kingston
we have evaluated the pros and cons of this decision. Kingston can serve as a thriving business
opportunity. However, for setting the business in Kingston, the company has to bear additional
capital and operational cost (Cantwell, 2009). However, be bearing this additional cost, the
company can proceed on diversification, and thus gain the opportunity to expand its customer
base. However, business might not be well received by prospective customers at Kingston.
Although, the company can leverage the experience it had in the current shops at the new
location, Kingston is however an uncharted territory for the company. Thus, although the
company can usher in profitability and growth by this venture, it can also lead to heavy losses
and reputational risk.

However, upon considering all the pros and cons, it is recommended that the company should
expand its business to Kingston.
Should we expand our business to Kingston?
Pros Score/10 Cons Score/10
Can be part of thriving
business opportunity 8 Cost of setting up in a
new area 6
Helps in business
diversification 7
Advertisement costs
and the additional cost
of manpower
7
Opportunity to expand
customer base 9
The business might not
be well received in
Kingston
7
Can leverage the
experience of shops at
Richmond and Borough
8
It would be similar to
stepping into uncharted
territory
9
Can further boost net
profit and usher in
business growth
7
Losses or operational
failure in the new
location can have
negative impact on
existing locations
9
Total Pros 39 Total Cons 38
Average Pros 7.8 Average Cons 7.6
1.7 Customer Satisfaction
The result of the customer satisfaction survey reveals several insights regarding the perception of
Ecofone amongst the customers. The average customer has made the latest purchase of product
or service between 3 months and 6 months. On the contrary, most have been using the products
or services of the company between the past 1 and 3 years. Thus the customers have a tendency
to stick to Eco-fone which is good as it shows that the company has been successful in building

brand loyalty. While giving rating for the different departments of the company, the customers
have rated 2 in terms of customer service, 3 in terms of product service or quality, 3 for the sales
staff and 3 in terms of price or value. However, in terms of overall satisfaction with the company
and whether they want to continue doing business with the company the customers has rated as
neutral. It is also seen that the customers are unlikely to recommend the product and services of
the company to others perhaps owing to the bad customer service that is exhibited by the
company (I was seduced by exceptional customer service, 2018). If the company wants to
increase promotions through word of mouth then customer service has to improve (Ferguson,
Paulin and Bergeron, 2010).
1.9 Conclusions &Important Findings
A review of the smart phone market in UK and other areas for the company were conducted in
the above pages of this report. It can be deduced that amongst the working population in UK who
are having access to smart phones, only half of them have work related applications because
most of the business applications smart phone friendly versions. It is also deduced that the usage
of smart phone is increasing among the elderly population. This tendency can be perhaps
explained by the increase in wealth among the elderly, certain features that are old age friendly
and compulsion. After analyzing the pros and cons, we feel that the company should make a
move in this direction and open a shop at Kingston. We have also tried to forecast the sale of
smart phones over the next 2 years and have figured out linear forecasting is not the best method
to follow in this regards. We have also concluded that there is no significant difference between
the net takings of these two stores. The customer satisfaction survey reveals that the company
performs weekly in terms of customer service and that is why the customers are unwilling to
recommend the products and services of the company to others. Thus, the company should
improve its customer service on a priority basis.

Reference
Cantwell, J., 2009. Location and the multinational enterprise. Journal of international business
studies, 40(1), pp.35-41.
Deloitte. 2017. State of the smart. Available at <
https://www.deloitte.co.uk/mobileuk/assets/img/download/global-mobile-consumer-
survey-2017_uk-cut.pdf > [Accessed 31 March 2019].
Ferguson, R.J., Paulin, M. and Bergeron, J., 2010. Customer sociability and the total service
experience: antecedents of positive word-of-mouth intentions. Journal of service
management, 21(1), pp.25-44.
I was seduced by exceptional customer service (2018) YouTube video, added by Tedx
Talks[Online]. Available at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GH1TXfQSwUQ [Accessed 31
March 2019].
Kellion, L., 2017. Smartphone sales boom with over-55s. Available at <
https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-41319684 > [Accessed 31 March 2019].
Pang, N., Vu, S., Zhang, X. and Foo, S., 2015, August. Older adults and the appropriation and
disappropriation of smartphones. In International Conference on Human Aspects of IT for the
Aged Population (pp. 484-495). Springer, Cham.
Rosales, A. and Fernández-Ardèvol, M., 2016. Beyond WhatsApp: Older people and
smartphones. Romanian Journal of Communication and Public Relations, 18(1), pp.27-47.