Role-play 1: Sales and Marketing Manager

Supply information when the candidate asks questions and provides opportunity and encouragement for you to speak. You are time-poor and would like to wrap up the meeting once you’ve shared necessary information.

You want to help the company to achieve its goals through meeting customer needs and generating sales in a competitive marketplace.

For the e-commerce strategy to succeed, in your view, we will need the following:

1. 8 skilled online sales and customer service people will be needed to manage the increased volume of online customers. Positions require skills and knowledge to:
   • Handle customer interaction in under ten minutes. Customers will not tolerate longer than this.
   • Provide detailed product information. 10% error rate is industry average. We need to do much better than this to match our in‑store service quality.
   • Take and process orders manually to assist online customers to modify automatic orders. 10% error rate is industry average. We need to do much better than this to match our in store service quality.
2. Since stores are overstaffed, four online staff could be gained by drawing from existing employees at the two stores.
3. Training for online customer service. Training needs to be taken seriously. We need to deliver an online experience that replicates the quality of our in‑store experience. Currently no staff has online customer service skills. Management would like to develop people through re-training rather than hire new staff to handle online sales where possible.
4. As for our e-commerce website, usability for customers is the key to success according to customer research. Also, our customers demand we accept all major credit cards and PayPal.
5. BBQfun needs to be able to manage content that is put on the website and will need to ensure that there is an agreement with the website developers for BBQfun to be the owners of any content produced by the website developers.
6. Office space needs to be reconfigured to accommodate online sales. Access to information is the key to quality service for online customers.
7. Set up logistics for online retail. We will need to purchase delivery vehicles, make arrangements with Australia Post, purchase forklifts and reconfigure warehouse.

You are concerned that the board may be getting cold feet because of e‑commerce set-up costs. Profit projections for e-commerce over the next three years are positive but moderate; however, the real danger is the risk of revenue loss if there is no online store. Unsatisfied customers will flock to our online competitors. The choice is stark: accept the costs and moderate profitability, or prepare to go out of business, if not this year, then in three years’ time.

Role-play 2: Technology Consultant

Do not supply information unless the candidate asks questions and provides opportunity and encouragement for you to speak.

As an e-commerce specialist, you are primarily concerned that all the required steps are taken to ensure success of the strategy. Steps required:

1. Choose a sales platform. In this case we will need to choose a solution that is flexible, to some extent future-proof and has regular maintenance built into the service contract. The system will need to integrate with existing website and CRM (customer relationship management) and ERP (enterprise resource planning) systems.
2. Choose a payment method, such as credit card.
3. Choose a payment gateway. This means choosing a provider to process internet payments to your merchant account. You will also need to ensure your merchant account with NAB is capable of accepting internet payments.

All of these steps will need to be built into planning to achieve success.

Role-play 3: Operations General Manager

As the OGM, you are concerned that the implementation of the e-commerce strategy is on time, on budget, and in line with legislative requirements and company strategic objectives.

You want to know:

• What physical resources are required for implementation?
• What legislative responsibilities does the organisation need to comply with and what are the risks of non-compliance?
• What human resources are required for implementation?
• What’s the cost?
• What’s the benefit?
• What’s the cost if we don’t proceed with the resourcing?

You need to be sold on the benefits before you approve the resourcing.