Part 1
You are employed as a Sales & Marketing Clerk in Head Office for Swaggies. In the accompanying audio file (text version attached) is a record of a telephone conversation that took place between the staff of Swaggies Head Office and a customer. Listen to the recording then complete tasks 1 - 3.

Refer to the Policies and Procedures Manual, Organisational Chart and Products List.

Task 1 - Handle Customer Complaints
Task 2 - Product Documentation
Task 3 - Dealing with Customers

Part 2
The call from Robbo has prompted a few thoughts. His mention of the Tamworth Country Music Festival makes you wonder how many other visitors to Tamworth visited Swaggies store during the festival. You also recall overhearing comments made by the Sales & Marketing Co-ordinator re variances in sales between stores for the same periods.

As the annual sales figures are currently being submitted by the stores in preparation for the Annual Sales Meeting you decide to have a look at these reports as they come into Head Office. This isn’t a problem as your duties include filing all correspondence for the Sales & Marketing section.

These investigations confirm that sales for the Tamworth store increased significantly during the Country Music Festival in January, the figures being in excess of those for traditional summer holiday areas for the same period (eg Byron Bay, Merimbula). The thought crosses your mind that Swaggies may further increase their sales if promotional activities are scheduled to coincide with special events in each store. You decide to investigate this idea further. You should now complete Task 4.

Task 4 - Investigate promotional opportunities

Part 3
You find yourself humming a well-known song as you work and try to remember why this song is on your mind at this time. You recall that during a visit to a large variety store during your lunch break they were playing music over the store PA system and this tune was one of the songs. It also reminds you that the music was occasionally interrupted by promotions for different products and services available at the store, as well as special offers such as fuel discounts.

This sets you thinking that Swaggies could adopt a similar promotional activity in its stores, though on a smaller scale. They could perhaps play music by Australian country music artists at the Tamworth store during the Country Music Festival, adding promotions for selected Swaggies products and services. You wonder what needs to be done to put such a production in place. You should now complete Task 5.

Task 5 - Promote organisation and products

Part 4
A Customer Feedback Form form has been received. The customer has been pleasantly surprised to find that the imitation fur toy Kangaroo purchased from a Swaggies store is totally an Australian product. You have to admit to also being surprised as you assume all products are made overseas.

You decide to check the full range of Swaggies products for manufacture details, and find that all are totally Australian made. You then wonder why Swaggies management does not use this fact more to the organisation’s advantage and ask the Sales & Marketing Co-ordinator if she can enlighten you.

You also query if there is any information relating to the Aboriginal art products Swaggies sells in the stores. It seems that management were under the impression that all staff were aware of the All-Australian status of Swaggies products. Somehow you must have missed this and think it might be a good idea to put in place some form of communication to ensure staff are kept informed of innovations.

On the other note, unfortunately there does not seem to be any background information on the Aboriginal products. Your thoughts focus on the need for all Swaggies staff to be aware of the cultural background of the Aboriginal products for sale in the stores.

You know that Mandy (a Clerical Assistant in Accounting) is of Aboriginal descent. You get chatting to her at morning tea the next day and find that she has many interesting stories about Aboriginal culture and history. You can see that this knowledge could be used to promote products and increase awareness of the Aboriginal culture. You should now complete Tasks 6, 7, 8 and 9.

Task 6 - Research products
Task 7 - Improve practices
Task 8 - Provide information on products
Task 9 - Recognise and work effectively with individual differences

Back to Sales and Marketing Scenarios and Tasks