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2. Fact Pattern: Question

You own your own small party supply and rental business. You maintain an Excel list of potential customers and clients who have rented or purchased from you in the past two years. The list includes both physical mailing addresses and e-mail addresses for each person listed. You have a “category“ code to show whether the contact is a client. If they have done business with you, they show a code of “CUST” for customer. If they are potential customers who have not yet purchased or rented from you, they are coded as “PROS” for prospect.

You want to grow your business, and feel the best way to do this is to solicit business from customers who show a physical address in the same zip code as your business location. Respond fully to the following questions regarding this task:

• A – (TCO 4) Explain how you will use Excel to find in your list the people you are targeting for new business. Be specific.
• B – (TCO 8) You want to send a letter to each person on your list from Part A of this question. You have a nice form letter that you have used in the past. Explain how you might personalize the letter by adding your customer names.
• C – (TCO 7) If you get the results you expect to get from contacting your prospects, you want to be able to do this every month. Explain how you might use Excel to automate the process of separating your list as you did in Part A.
• D – (TCO 6) You want to gauge the impact of mailing to only your customers, to only your prospects, or to everyone on your list. You have the numbers for each group, the estimated cost per letter, and the expected increase in income for each letter mailed. What Excel tools might you use to see the anticipated outcome for each of the three situations?