Getting input from a focus group
After having the interview script completed, we could finally start to connect more with our potential customers. This was an extremely important step in our project since the future customer is the best person to help us improve and customize our service. During a meeting for a coffee with some friends, one of the group members decided to start sharing ideas and insights regarding the PickUsUp concept. Apart from the normal in-depth interviews, this focus group approach of collecting primary data has also proven to be very useful for the development of our concept.
The following insights were collected:
One is more likely to use our service in the situation of a dinner/coffee break than after a night in a club, since people who go to a club usually plan for sure to drink alcohol. As a result, they tend to use public transportation or even share a taxi. On the other hand, almost everyone goes to a dinner in their own car and it is considered a situation where you will not exceed the alcohol limit. In case you drink more than expected, and you are not able to drive safely, you are more likely to request the service.
Using an app to request the service may have a lot of advantages. For example, inside a club the music is very loud and you may not be able to understand a phone conversation. In such a case, people would need to leave the dancefloor to do the phone call. This problem would be solved in the case of the app usage, where you very easily click on a button and the service is requested. On the other hand, there are also some disadvantages, for instance, some people mentioned the fact that they use a simpler and cheaper phone when going to a disco (not smartphones). There might also be a problem of exact customer localization with the app. A simple phone call could facilitate the explanation of the place where you want to be picked up. There was a suggestion of placing some kind of location flags near the entrance of club and other frequently requested places, to facilitate the location for the customer.
Most of the participants also mentioned that they would only use the service after having positive reviews regarding it. Therefore, the first ride will be crucial in a new service like ours. Additionally, they suggested some discount coupons for the first usage as a possible strategy to attract customers.
From our previous research we concluded that the folding scooters/bikes can be used because they are electric, meaning that the driver does not have to use his own power. However, they have a maxium speed of 25-30 km per hour. Let’s imagine someone requesting service from Santos to Benfica (a long distance service). The driver drops of the customer in Benfica, unfolds his bike and returns to our base (in the city center, for example). With such a low speed, the driver will need a lot of time to return. During this time, we could lose other customers and we might have a waiting line, which we want to avoid. Hence, it was recommended to have 1 or 2 simple cars to pick up the drivers and their bikes in these specific cases. As a result the driver will come back to our central base much more quickly and start a new service. This method would allow us to avoid both losing time due to lengthy returns and lose many customer requests.
The question of the influence of the weather condition was also covered. In case of rain or wind, it is more difficult for the driver to perform his job well. Some questions were asked: in case of rain, is the driver going to make the customer’s car wet? Also, the bike might get the car dirty, not only when it is raining but also on normal days. A solution for the last questions was to design a proper plastic bag that could cover the entire folding bike. Regarding the driver, we should consider to implement an umbrella on the bike to keep him as well as the customer’s car from getting wet. This factor is especially important for the case of the older segment.
Finally, we may face a problem that is also common with taxi drivers. It sometimes occurs that someone asks for a taxi/our service, and, in reality, there is nobody there when the driver arrives (for a joke or irresponsible action). This is a problem that will always exist in these types of services, but we should take it into consideration and try to control it. One idea was to store all the information of the users that request the service through the App, so we can control for incidences mentioned above.
