Interviewee #2 (A female, local, Cuban restaurant owner): She also noticed that her business has dwindled since the beginning of the virus' hysteria in the US. She has also continued to notice it over the last few months. She claims that it is most noticed on Friday and Saturday nights when the restaurant was typically at 75%-80% capacity, filled with people. The crowds have become much smaller since then. She has also put out signs saying they are open, provided employees with masks and have scattered bottles of sanitizers everywhere. Still, maybe one or two families a day come and eat in at the location. She has come to rely on call in orders. She asks her usual customers for advice and has done everything they have suggested. She still blames most of the business on the governments 50% capacity, temporary regulation. She wants to know how she can have customers come back and feel comfortable coming back.
Interviewee #3 (A female, local, botique owner): She first noticed her business was dwindling at the same time that the other interviewees noticed there's were dwindling, in late March. However, her business has completely stopped as the government does not deem boutiques as essential. She had to close her shop for several weeks with no income. She is now open, however no one is coming in like they used to. Typically, she would receive the most visitors in her boutique during the weekend afternoons, with about 40 visitors each day. She has asked her employees and searched the internet on how to bring people back to clothing stores during the virus. She has had her employees wear masks, and has had all the clothes dry cleaned, and has put up people modeling the clothes on her website, as many no longer try on the clothes themselves.
Conclusion: This segment is pretty much in the dark about how they should handle their need. Each has their peak days of and times of the most business (which are all during the weekend) and notice their need the most during the weekends and their hours of operations. They typically do not go very far when searching for help, as they contact family and friends mostly or even their own employees for ideas and solutions. Only one of them did any real research on the internet, however it did not surpass more than a few internet searches.
Conclusions:
Hey Brian, great job on the interviews. You went into depth with each one and began to see correlations regarding the situation of each person. In your summary you showed how the three people you interviewed have all seen their business take major hits in profits due to the pandemic, and you also found out how they are barely doing any research to see what they can do about it. All of them only relied on close relations for advice but besides that have not taken the necessary steps. This segment was essential to show you the mentality and situation of the specific segment you are targeting and how they compare.
ReplyDeleteHi Brian,
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed your detailed interviews. It seems as if these business owners have given up before really putting in effort to make their businesses stay afloat. They most likely have no hope for the future, however, I believe you can help them. You interviewed different business owners with similarities. Now that you know a little bit more about the effect corona has on the capacity and profits of these business, you can build upon your idea and help these struggling business owners.