#teamcho

Customer relationship is the topic that we have discussed this week. From what we understood, our relationship to our customers is an important aspect which we can get, keep and grow our customers. These customers are the ones that buy our products so it is needed that we gain good relationship with them. This week, it was discussed to us how to get, keep, and grow customers, the Customer Acquisition Cost, and the Customer Lifetime Value.

For this Monday, we will be presenting about our customer relationship.And also, there are some changes in our BMC especially, the customer segments and relationship. In order to get/attract customers, we are going to give a FREE 5-DAY TRIAL. This will give make them test our product if they will find it good, for sure they will purchase it. Also, to keep our customers, we have to give product updates, we will also let our customers know if there are updates about our products. For keeping customers, we can make it grow, our loyal customers can refer our product to their friends, co-workers and etc.Some of the data are to be discussed tomorrow.

Last week, we had our pitching about our product. We have learned lots of things since the panels had shared their insights and ideas about how we can improve our product and the solution that we are trying to make. They did not really tell us to change our product but instead they just commented that what if, what if like that and etc.

When our group introduced the product and presented the pitch deck, we were asked about how it works, are smart phones better, and many more. In our economics slide, we can give 10% discount. One of the panels suggested that maybe we can already give that 10% discounts to all, so instead of P3200 then give a discount, we can just price P2880/watch. And also, sir Pallugna suggested that instead of having the smart watch, what if we will just have it as software. He also added that the watch that costs P3200 can be purchased in a less costly price through software and more customers can be gained because of that. After the pitching, we gathered and think about having the software. So, in order for us to be certain of having that change of product, we validated it. We contacted those people we had interviewed in the past weeks. We told them about the changes and they thought that it is still good since it is less costly and the features are still the same. They also said that they can still manage their time with our product, so it is not a problem of changing it. 

Our team decided to pursue this change, from hardware to software. In this product, it still has the same feature as the smart watch but it is to be installed in smart phones. In smart phones, they already have alarms and calendar. But having our product comes easy in managing time. Smart phones can’t use many sound alarms, they just use one as default for all alarms. With our product, we can use different sound alarms for every alarm that is set. But the main feature of this is to record your voice and set as alarm sound. This recorded voice can be the things that you need to do at that certain time. 

Last week, we haven’t been able to continue our pitching since we were given time to get ready for the next one. So, for this week, our team made some changes and gave some additional details in our pitch deck.

We have already made our pitch deck last week but there are still some unsure slides, so we corrected it. First is the economic part, the price that we can offer is P3200. With cost of materials equivalent to P2000 and labor cost of P500. If we are to give some discounts, it may be around 10% which is equivalent to P2880 per watch. The least profit that we can get with the discount already subtracted is P380. So, if we multiply it with our SOM (7.4M)  we can accumulate at least P 2.81 Billion. And with our Traction, we describe how far we have gone as startup business company. And as for our competition, we have lots of competitors since there many producers of watch and smart watches. Some are expensive and some are affordable. We can consider our product as affordable and also we can have online transaction. People can purchase through physical store or online. Regarding in our ask section, we have assumed to ask funds from investors and this can gain much profit which can satisfy both investors and us. The greater the investments, the greater profit can be gained. 

Last week, we had interviewed people, asked them on how do they want to purchase our product, the channels and also search for the best and right customers for our product. In the early weeks, we asked them about their problems, solutions, what do they do in overcoming their day to day problems and etc. With the problems that we had gathered, we are to create a solution through the use of technology and sell that solution to our customers.

This week, we are assigned to create a pitch deck which we will discuss for 3 minutes-time. We, our team, had decided of the smart watch since the people that we had interviewed had problems about time, and they hardly manage their time and unable to do the activities that they need to do. So, that was the solution that we had offered, the smart watch. It is not only an ordinary product of a watch but it has an alarm system which the user can record his/her daily activities, appointments and other necessary things to do with the use of voice system and set the time for alarm. The user will then be alarmed and feel the vibration. It has 3 easy steps. First, the user will record his voice with what he wants to hear or the activities that he will do later. Second, set it as the sound for alarm. And third, you will be alarmed later to do the activity that needs to be done. 

Since, we are still a startup business, we will only be focusing in Cagayan de Oro because this is the area where we can easily contact the people that would avail our product. There are lots of competition in terms of watch, like Apple, Casio, and Timex but as far as we know, the features of product is quite different from theirs. There are existing smart watches that could record your health issues, the distance that you have walked and etc. We are trying to make a difference so that the customers would want our product. 

What we are assigned for this week is to know our potential customer segments and the channel that we are to use in selling our products. We stick in our customer segments, these are professionals who are working busily, loves using wrist watch, time conscious, and main consumers or economic buyers.

How do we know what should be the channel to use? We interviewed these professionals and asked them on how they buy things/products they need and can they suggest for more. And in order for us to know if the physical distribution channel that we had decided before is good or not. We asked them and gathered data and ideas that are very much useful in learning the best channel to use.

There are many who buy products through store since they find it easier, it has more assurance since they can physically see the product itself, and also some say that they are victims of “expectation vs. reality”. This means that in the online store or any virtual or non-physical distribution channel, they display the best of the best appearance of the product and you expect that it is somewhat like that and you are driven to buy it but in reality, it is somehow disappointing since it is not within your expectations, and even less. But some also purchase through online since there’s no hassle and can save more time. And also, the advantage of this is cash on delivery.

We learned something different this week about distribution channel. From what we have interviewed, some suggested that business card with contact no. can also be useful so that the consumers can easily contact the manufacturer if he’s in need of information or will buy products. And also, some suggested that brochures can also be good just like some of the companies like Avon, Boardwalk, and etc. And the products in the brochures have description so buyers can be filled with information about the products.

Last week, we focus on students because we believed that these students need time management for they have lots of paper works, projects, and they still need time to study for other subjects. But sir Mabulay told us that students just say this and that but they are not the ones who buy things since they don’t have money/income to buy. He gave us this week to interview professionals.

Yes, it is time for us to interview those professionals since they are really in need of time management. And these people are the decision makers and buyers of things they need and want.

When we interviewed people, we have mistaken a student as professional but as we continue to ask her some questions, we have learned that she is a student and as well works in her vacant hours, thus we have thought that she needs time management. But when we asked her if does she finds time hard to budget? She said no, time is not a problem for her. So, we didn’t further ask her or even introduce our product since she doesn’t find time a problem. We also got rejected when we approached people.

But somehow, we interviewed people who are professionals that are really in need of time management. We asked questions like, what are their problems(pains)? Then, what are the things they do to solve those problems? What do they feel if they are able to solve those problems. And since time is our main problem to solve with our product, we asked them if is time a problem for them. And how they manage time, what do they to budget their time. Then after, we introduce our product, ask more questions. We also asked them if they are the ones who buy things, the ones who decide or the ones who endorse and etc.

Last time, we focused on time as the problem to be solved. We thought about smart watch, that was the product that we endorsed in presenting our BMC last Monday. When we discussed about it, there are things that was clarified by Sir Mabulay. If it really is a solution for time management, and if people would really buy it. When sir Mabulay asked those questions, we were in doubt about the product.

So, what we did is we validated it by conducting some interviews. We focused on people that are in need of time management. When we introduced our product as a way to manage time , there were some who didn’t acknowledge it since the features can also be found from cellphones. But some also agreed on the product depending on the price. Some people thought that it is somehow a good idea to remind them in case cellphones failed to remind them. Because, sometimes, we get some notifications from our cellphones and ignore it not knowing that it is an important reminder. Most of the cellphones available is when you set an alarm, the ringtone for the alarm are the usual or common sound and that’s why it is ignored. Some also suggested that maybe it is better if we put some vibrations so that the user can easily be notified, and also the alarm should not be easily turned off since most of the alarms from clock, common watches or even cellphones can easily be turned off which is why people tend to go to sleep after a while. We also asked about the price that they can afford considering that it is a smart watch, not an ordinary watch. They gave a range of 500-800 pesos. And as we think about it, that is somehow a price that we can give when we are to sell the product. It is affordable to people who really can’t afford expensive smart watches that are sold in malls. So, those were the things that we found out from our interviewees.

Time is precious. Time is important to the people whose conscious about it. Some people are lazy when it comes in time managing and some people can’t manage their responsible because of some lack or shortage of time. We, our team plans to design a solution concerning about time management. We plan to create a device which is easily to access and easily to notify. We propose a smart watch which is capable to solve the main problems to the people we interviewed.

Our team did a validation concerning to the proposal. Our proposal which is the smart watch is need to validate by interviewing some people who is relevant to the problem we focus. Based on the result, we can’t avoid criticism and expression of the people but some people have good impression. About the criticism, only one interviewee did it. She said that “why not used a cellphone” but she thinks it will depend on the price of the smart watch. On the other hand, some of our interviewees have a good opinions and impressions. They said that “it is very helpful for them” and some of their opinions are the alarm must be notify and must effective when it comes for waking up. They said that “dapat dili ringtone iyang alarm kay kung saba ang surroundings dili mabantayan, dapat muvibrate para mabantayan jud” and “dapat dali mabantayan jud iya alarm para makamata ug sayo , ug dapat dili dali mapalong para makamata jud mi, kay usahay amo raman jud palongon dayon matulog ug balik”. And other interviewees have a common answer which is they like the product and it will help them to manage time effectively. And the price that they can afford is averages from 500 to 800. We found out that the feature of our smart watch is very important not just the time awareness but the feature must be effective and the price of the product must be affordable.