Sunday, February 14, 2016

Meeting My Customers - Customer Interviews #3

Describe your interviewing strategy
As we are moving on in our entrepreneurial path, I’ve been able to build and develop skills that are helping me to approach my potential customers with more confidence and self-assurance. In this case, my interview was focused on letting five UF students know about my business plan. I handled them a short paragraph with a brief description of my product and I recorded their immediate reaction.
The main question that I asked was based on their getting to know their opinions about my products. The question I asked is: “What do you think about it?”

The short paragraph that I handled to my interviewees was the following:

The Gator Spotter
I’ve discovered a new way of helping UF students manage their time when taking the bus. The Gator Spotter would be a smartphone App that would work with a GPS system and it would contain a map that describes if he or she is late for taking the bus. The app will send you notifications varying from 15, 20 to 25 minutes before the bus gets to your bus-stop. The app would let the students configure their own settings in the following order:
  •     You will set what bus route (bus number) you often use.
  •       You will set the bus stop where you usually wait for the bus.
  •       You will set the time in the day when you frequently go to the bus stop.

Once you set up all this, you will be able to know that the bus you always take is approximately 15, 20 or 25 minutes away from the bus stop you always use.
It is plain and simple!
Say no to getting late to the bus again!

Conduct the interviews


Reflect on what you learned
The results of all the interviews were very positive. I showed my business plan to my potential customers (who are UF students) and I caught their immediate reactions to it. I figured out that the question I asked lets them express themselves freely and that was very important for the interview. I included a couple of extra questions to try to make the student a little bit more confident with the interview. However, I believe that the only aspect that I would have to fix for future interviews is to ask more question about their reaction, this would definitely give me a better perspective of what they really think.

6 comments:

  1. Hey Alejandro! Nice job! I thought you provided a pretty quick and sufficient summary of your business on that card. I think it would definitely be convenient for so many students here at UF. I thought it was pretty clever of you to conduct these interviews right by the HUB or by Turlington where there is a bus stop nearby. Great location to seek out potential customers. Nicely done! Here's mine: http://cindyblogs4u.blogspot.com/2016/02/customer-interviews-no-3.html

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  2. At first I was worried that the RTS app would already have most of these accessories, but being able to set the desired time of day and bus stop that you usually go to is something that I've wanted an app to be able to customize for me. I think your idea could be extremely helpful for UF students in our community or even for major subway systems in big cities around the country. Keep up the good work! Check out my blog if you like! http://josetheentrepreneur.blogspot.com/

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  3. Hey Alejandro! Your idea is definitely a good idea for students that are usually late. I'm always afraid about losing the bus since Gainesville buses are very specific with the time they pick you up(they are not always on time however). If the app could be able to track down the bus location and notify you in how many minutes away it is from your location, that would be cool! Keep up the good work :)

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  4. Great idea. I agreed with Jose in that I thought the RTS app might have these features but being able to post when and where you will be everyday is super useful. Using the buses can be a pain, but if you know when they will be to you, you can plan ahead and have a stress-free day. Your interviews were great and using that card to give people background on the idea was awesome. Very good idea and keep up the great work. These app seems extremely marketable and has a great demographic that needs it on campus. If you want you can check out my post at http://ahamuf.blogspot.com/2016/02/interviewing-customers-no-3.html!

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  5. Hey Alejandro, cool idea. I thought you wrote a nice paragraph that encompassed many aspects of our business idea including your proposed solution to a problem as well as explaining the value it can provide its customers. I myself have had to run to a bus before and it would be nice to get alerts all the time without me having to constantly schedule them. The rider app by Transloc provides a similar service but does not have the user friendliness or convenience that your idea has. Nice job.

    Check out my blog for other cool posts! http://shamelesslylearning.blogspot.com/?m=1

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