I am still going strong with my idea of a concierge service for working people; not necessarily a one on one but multiple clients on a as needed basis. I felt I hit a good mark of customers, bachelors, working families, single moms, students. If I was to change anything, I would likely remove students or young adults from my demographic on the basis that while all people seemed interested in the services being offered, not everyone could afford them. I decided to really step out of my comfort zone this time and expand by demographic to small businesses. This is something I should have done from the get go.
The small businesses liked the opportunity to have someone to assist in day to day business practices and were more comfortable with certain areas that personal families were; ie: two businesses said that bank drops would be incredibly helpful (providing the business was insured properly); other areas expanded into picking up catering for business meetings; picking up clients or transporting them to their location for meetings (providing there was a nice vehicle).
In summary, the demand is definitely there, however, businesses have more stipulations and a higher insurance policy would definitely be needed.
As this assignment relates to other students, I would say - step out of your comfort zone; I noticed in a lot of the other interviews that I reviewed, people just interviewed other students in school. I feel I learned a lot more by starting with different races, ages, and then expanded into small businesses. When you interview the people in a more casual atmosphere, they feel less pressure as a "sales pitch" and more like they are talking to a friend. One of my first interviews was at Lake Eola with a group of mothers who were on a play date. My third tip would be, step outside your demographic. I went to East Orlando, Downtown Orlando and Wekiva Springs; all three locations produced different people, businesses, etc.
Hello Nicole, I enjoyed reading your post. It is pity that I could not take a look at your interview videos but at least your idea hooked me. I agree with your idea getting out of comfort zone is one step to expand to the business. Though my opportunity was to finding the fast food restaurant value among the college students, I filmed the students at UF. However in addition to that, I try to interview people with different races and gender to assess the result.
ReplyDeleteYou can take a look at my blog post here. http://yukikokurashima.blogspot.com/2016/02/interviewing-customers-no-2-week5.html#comment-form
Hey Nicole,
ReplyDeleteI think your idea of a concierge service is definitely interesting, and I enjoyed reading and learning more about it. I have never imagined a business such as this before, but I definitely see how there could be demand for something like this. This is a very unique idea, and I agree that a higher insurance policy would be necessary for its success. Overall, I think you have a great idea here!
Here’s a link to my blog if you want to check it out!
http://wallacestage.blogspot.com/
Thank you!
Hey Nicole,
ReplyDeleteYour idea of a concierge service sounds very promising and interesting. Good thinking about scratching young people and students from your interviewing poll - that’s definitely a group that won’t be interested because of the financial reasons. Also I like your advices on interviewing, branching out can only help get you more feedback. I will try to make the best of it next time I interview!
This idea sounds great and very possible, as it wouldn't be very complicated to create! I think your tips were great, but more for your particular idea. Some ideas, for example, one that I reviewed was about parking at UF, require students to interview other students, because that's who would be affected. I think that's important to have an understanding of who your target clientele will be, and primarily interview them as they'll be the majority affected by your movement. However, I do still think that it it important to broaden your horizon when interviewing, like you said, because you never know about untapped potential within a different audience that you hadn't considered.
ReplyDeleteOverall, great job with you idea and application, as well as tips from what you've learned! I definitely will have to take it under consideration next time I conduct interviews! Check out my blog to see what I learned from interviewing people!
http://ent3003max.blogspot.com/2016/02/interviewing-customers-no-2.html
I think you are right on the mark with the concierge service needing to be more focused when it comes to demographics. I believe that is the key to success with these kinds of ideas. As you noted as well, maybe business wouldn't need to be included either. There is high liability when it comes to cash drops. As an accountant, I have a hard time trusting our servers to do cash drops much less a third party. Great idea though! I think you are on the right track in development.
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