After interviewing these three people, I've learned that there are only a couple of other companies that I would have to compete with. What I found is that to college students, price is often the most important part of the evaluation process. Students are known to struggle with finances so offering a lower price than the competition is going to be important. That being said, the conveniency of the service is also important in customers evaluation. In terms of laundry services, having a delivery driver is what is going to put your company above the rest, it also allows you to charge more money. The interviewees talked a lot about how appealing it is to have your laundry delivered to your door, having that aspect in my business is going to help me get ahead of the competition.
The interview that gave me the most insight is definitely be the last one, which gave me a perspective in how well my idea would go with offering the subscriptions. After talking for over a half-hour, I found that offering subscriptions would help tremendously. That is because I found that students often do not have a lot of cash on them when they are in college. That being said, most resort to credit or debit cards to make their purchases, which is why offering subscriptions is a good idea. I say that because if people were allowed to set up a payment plan where they can choose how often they are to have their laundry done and pay a monthly fee, they would have the cards available to pay for said subscription, making cash a secondary payment option.
Finally, the most important part of the business within this segment is the customers experience with the company. Whether the customer enjoys the service that is being provided is what is going to attract the customer base to make the business successful. Word of mouth is the best form of marketing for a company, especially in a college town such as Gainesville. Giving customers a great experience where they are both happy with the results and the service will put us ahead of the competition.
Brian, I agree that subscriptions are a great idea for your business model! Personally, I do not carry cash very often so I would be more likely to use the service if it was card based payment. I also love the idea you have! Maybe offer a monthly opt-in subscription. Having yearly locked in programs can be intimidating and lose customers because not all customers need the product every single month, but the ones that do aren’t put out any.
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Price is definitely a big one especially to your local college student. When I plan to buy something, I do tons of price comparison. The cheaper the better! Having a subscription is a really go idea. Not only would people be more likely to purchase those but that would mean you have customer who will for sure be coming back to use your services. I feel like everything these days is subscription based. Just think of Netflix, Hulu and even Amazon Prime.
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