Idea Napkin No. 1

DRYlivery—Dry Cleaning delivery on your time…

1.       About Myself: I am a retail field management veteran with over 14 years of experience. The talents I possess are being resourceful, figuring out other’s strengths, and taking difficult situation and transitioning them into more streamlined moments. I am customer-centric focused and believe that is the root for any business model to be successful. My aspirations for Drylivery is to create a service that its focus is making the lives of its customers easier by giving their time back to them instead of running daily errands. The role the business would play in my life would be to contribute giving time back to others. Time is a valuable resource and assisting others in having more of it gives the opportunity for a simpler healthier life.

2.       Drylivery is a dry cleaning delivery service. The inconvenience of forgetting to pick up your dry cleaning, not making it before they close, or wasting a lunch break by picking it up will be eliminated through Drylivery’s services. Similar to Uber, Drylivery will us a mobile application, in partnership with local professional dry cleaners, for customer to schedule pickup and delivery of their garments to their home or work place. For the owner/operator of the dry cleaner, their partnership cuts down amount of staff making deliveries allowing them to focus on what they do best for their customers.

3.       The demographics we would be offering these services to would be all customers whose dry cleaners have established partnerships with Drylivery. The dry cleaner partners of Drylivery benefit from lower operating costs by cutting back their expenses on delivery expenditures (such as gas, labor costs, workforce management, etc.); overall supporting better Profits/Losses.

4.       Customers and dry cleaner partners would care about Drylivery because it supports their goal of having more time to focus on what they do best. Delivery customers get a friendly convenient service that is an extension of their favorite dry cleaners. With the dry cleaner being able to keep their operational costs lower through phasing out in-house delivery services, Drylivery gives them the ability to optimize their operations more efficiently and effectively.

5.       Drylivery’s core competencies are customer experience, inclusion of the community’s businesses, and utilizing technology to help streamline day-to-day tasks. Another key competency is that we do not want to start a dry cleaning business, yet offer a service that will enhance businesses that have established their reputations as a community inspired business.

Business Evaluation

                After examining the element of the business, the one area that I cannot seem to piece together is whether customer would pay a monthly fee or on a per usage basis. Both have their advantages with monthly fees, we have cash flow up front for business operating expenses, while with per usage we have the opportunity to gain more customer through a no-commitment mentality. Another item to figure out is for our dry cleaning partners. With each dry cleaners’ business operating differently how easy would it be to incorporate user friendly technologies in their business to assist and potentially grow their business through our services. I feel like the big picture of having both businesses and customers benefit from our services is realistic. However, breaking down the specifics of how much Drylivery wants to invest in partnership technology and payment options is where there is a slight blur. 

Interviewing Customers No. 2

Takeaways from Interviewing Experience

·         I think now I have a better idea of who my clientele base is for my opportunity. After the first round of interviews I do not think I was asking the right questions to have anyone think why they do not use dry cleaning services. Now asking the question and diving deeper into the root of the issue, I can gain more insight into what customers are thinking.

·         I felt like last time I did not speak to the right customers. This time I think my questions were better so I received more well-rounded answers. How I adjusted “who my customer is” was to think through every customer has a different opportunity/reason for using or not using dry cleaning services. By using better questions I was better able to figure out those reasons and allow them to tell me what I needed to hear versus what answer I was looking for.

·         The changes I made to my questions were I incorporated the use of app usage versus dry cleaners usage. The results lead this round lead to an untapped customer base because of pricing and convenience of time.

·       What is different this round of customer interviews versus the last were that I found that all my interviewees had never or rarely use dry cleaning services. With this knowledge and knowing their reasons why they have rarely/never used a professional dry cleaner, I can tailor my opportunity to capturing an untapped customer who may not normally use these services by enticing them with promotional pricing and/or limited time upgraded services to create more value in their day to day lives.

·         Three Tips for Other Students:

o   I recommend having someone come with you to hold the camera or use a tripod. The flow of conversation wasn’t as easy from my perspective because I couldn’t focus on the customer as much as I’d like.

o   Have more questions that I can ask each person. By having a variety of questions, I would have had the ability to get more responses on different areas.

o   Choose a specific day and time to do the interviews. I chose different days and times. It would have been easier to do it all at one time frame to create consistency of mindset and interviews.