A HAPPY EXPERIENCE WITH A STARTUP AS A CONSUMER

A HAPPY EXPERIENCE WITH A STARTUP AS A CONSUMER

A startup, whose app did not impress me at all due to its seeming over reliance on Google maps for address mapping , just won my heart on a more detailed usage. A milk app, it did what no other has done, and I have tried more than a few app based daily consumption products startups. Most have failed on the customer satisfaction aspect, with a poor understanding of the separate requirements of customer consumer and shopper. Either that or they failed on  the aspect of core business processes like billing and /delivery.

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THE EXPERIENCE

1. Human interface, not those indecipherable IVR that make you want to do 3 PhDs in Language, technology and soft skills!! IVR connects to a human being (💖💖💖💖💖) in a few seconds flat!! Too many businesses, especially customer facing ones, forget this all too simple reality, that an IVR system is not necessarily the optimal choice. While essential as a cost cutting tool, a customer needs a human interface as well. An optimal system should have a judicious mix of machine plus human in the customer facing functions.

2. Customer delight : milk testing kit free with the milk. Also, milk priced at the right point, meaning a target market that is large enough to sustain a startup, given the highly competitive milk space.

3. Shopper delight : old style order process as backup if app fails for whatever reason. Clearly these people are aware net connection is a serious issue here, and you just cannot rely on an automated front end customer touching  process. A friendly intuitive app interface that is easy to navigate and not too flashy. Simple processes. And key point being the choice of alternate day supply of milk, or milk on specific days which taps into the single & forced bachelor markets in metro cities.

4. Best of all, Consumer delight : Delivery as per my choice, at 540am sharp. I got milk just as I was done with my bath on the first day. Since then have been seeing delivery at 5-515am. Second, an eminently acceptable milk quality at a reasonable price. Third, excellent taste n thickness of the product.

PUTTING IT TOGETHER

What do I care, as a customer or as a consumer or as a shopper, what fancy tech lies behind the facade that faces me? I came with a problem. High quality milk delivered on time, period. The company seems to have solved it. Now they need to do this consistently to keep me in the system. That requires regular performance on the parameters identified by me above for me as an individual customer. At an organisational level, this means accurate identification of the target market, and ensuring the 2 C’s – 1 P (Customer, Consumer, Shopper/Purchaser) needs are satisfied.

Continuity will require a touch with market trends, and a narrow focus on costs, ensuring you make an operating profit. If you are not operating on profit, it isn’t a sustainable business. While market creation as an objective may dictate selling at deep discounts, unless the C’s n P of the market have clearly defined needs being satisfied beyond the price discount, your brand will not create a solid customer base for itself. This means in simple terms the day you reduce or remove discounts your sales either slow down or go to zero. This is a lesson any number of businesses have forgotten in the modern day!

IN A NUTSHELL

That in a nutshell is business! Be customer consumer shopper focussed... Be in touch with market trends, be in touch with customer consumer shopper needs, wants. And last but not the least is be aware of what current as well as potential competition is upto. None of this can come about without a direct touch with the market. That is the key… you have to be in direct touch with the target market. Survival and growth both depend on it. The challenge is to find a cost effective way to do it…