The Service Concept
The present individual project introduces the service concept that provides dog owners with dog food by subscription. The purpose of the service is to make it easier for dog owners to get high-quality, locally produced food for their dogs delivered to their doorstep. Moreover, it would allow any brick-and-mortar store that already has an established audience of people living in the neighborhood to extend their service and transform the traditional business without losing its customers.
The target market is dog owners, men, and women who would be able to benefit from having organic dog food to be delivered every week or month. The customers of this business are working people, active users of the Internet and social media (Customer A), and those who have chosen against digital services (Customer B) or do not have the necessary skills of being online (Customer C).
Customer experience consists of several steps. First, a dog owner learns about this newly available service. They then visit the website and fill out a survey on their dog age, breed, allergies, weight and fitness, and food preferences (if they are new customers). If they are already familiar with our brand, there is an option to order a particular type of food directly. The customer also provides their contact details and fills out a payment form. However, the possibility of calling and ordering food with the help of phone customer support is also possible for those who prefer this type of communication. Then the food is delivered to the customer’s doorstep without direct contact. For the convenience and safety of customers and their dogs, customer support in the form of a call center and online chat is available.
Performance specifications of this design are as follows: customers receive the product of their choice on time left on their doorstep from a vendor they already know without the necessity to visit a physical shop (Table 1). Customer expectations can be seen in Tables 2 and 3.
Several actions would have to be taken to fit into the design and delivery specifications to implement the service. The most critical aspects are developing an easy-to-use and reliable website, establishing a customer support center, logistics department, hiring communications and marketing specialists, and deciding upon possible collaborations with local stores to provide printing services and organizing campaigns.
The Service Blueprint and Customer Journey Map
Table 1. The service blueprint
Table 2. Customer journey map for Customer A (Modified from source: Gibbons, 2018)
Table 3. Customer journey map for Customer C (Modified from source Gibbons, 2018)
The Media Channels
The customer journey that this service design aims to provide for the targeted audience requires the use of different media. The choice and utilization of various channels depend on their ability to create meaningful touchpoints. Moreover, it is crucial to take the beneficial side for the business into account, which “requires a thorough understanding of the company’s customer base and customers’ preferred digital touchpoints” (Hallikanen, Alamäki, and Laukkanen, 2019, p. 392). Therefore, based on the fact that our customers are both tech-savvy and anti-digital, using a multichannel approach, combining both digital and traditional media, has been chosen.
The use of printed ads and leaflets positioned in store and locally is recommended to raise awareness of the new service available for the business’s existing customers. Moreover, the personnel can spread the word while talking to customers, and promotional posts in local community internet-based groups are welcome. It is essential to emphasize the availability of different order options. Furthermore, it can also be suggested to allocate a small budget on targeted ads on Facebook and Instagram to expand the potential customer base.
The customer’s interest can be sustained through online posts on Instagram and Facebook pages of our store. Since the company has already built a community in these channels, it seems only logical to make it a touchpoint. To make it effective and meaningful, it is advised to focus on creating engaging content that would allow customers to move on to a consideration phase.
At the consideration phase, it is vital to provide customers with opportunities to read more about offered products and services. It is advised to make sure that all the necessary information – reviews, information on the product, and delivery options – is easily found, both in digital format and printed. Moreover, PR campaigns such as in-store signing-up of particular customers might help the client base to consider the service and choose it.
The retention phase presupposes, paying much attention to the customers’ feedback and comments. To do this, it is important to ensure the implementation of social listening and search engine reputation management. It would include managing the community’s responses and comments, neutralizing negativity and finding solutions to improve the service. The media that would be involved at this stage would be forums, social media, review websites, and traditional channels like newspapers. Moreover, it is advised to continue implementing PR campaigns among existing customers.
Finally, the advocacy stage would involve further promotions, and the use of influencers – both those who would be potentially interested in collaborations and existing brand’s fans. They should be advised and incentivized to share brand content and produce their own content relating to the brand (Dimitrou and Guesalaga, 2017, p. 589). Moreover, it is essential to consider this phase as the next awareness stage, but at a higher level, that would allow the business to expand geographically and transfer operations solely to order-and-deliver (and potentially digital-only) schemes.
The Strategic Importance of the Service Design Project
The presented service design’s importance is strategic as it allows stores to gain a competitive advantage ahead of other similar establishments. It not only makes purchasing dog food easier for digital natives of young age but also for those customers who are not proficient enough in e-commerce procedures. Therefore, the company which employs this service design would potentially acquire a particular group of customers who are typically excluded from contemporary service innovations. Preparedness to provide different types of customer support would demonstrate to existing and potential customers a personalized approach.
Moreover, this service design is oriented on community-focused businesses, that usually value peer cooperation. Therefore, this model must allow companies to implement this service design to support other local businesses, such as printing services or local newspapers. This circumstance might play a vital role in improving the company’s image in the community. The developed brand image on a local level would potentially allow the company to expand and experience organic growth into regional and state proportions.
Finally, since the service encounters in the service design are mostly done through the Internet or over the phone, it allows minimizing human interaction between customers and employees. This aspect is especially relevant for the contemporary situation when public health and safety have become a priority. Thus, it creates another advantage for business as people might want to prefer conscious types of companies now and in the future.
Reference List
Dimitriu, R. and Guesalaga, R. (2017) ‘Consumers’ social media brand behaviors: uncovering underlying motivators and deriving meaningful consumer segments’, Psychology & Marketing, 34(5), pp. 580-592.
Gibbons, S. (2018) ‘Journey mapping 101’. Nielsen Norman Group.
Hallikanen, H., Alamäki, A. and Laukkanen, T. (2019) ‘Individual preferences of digital touchpoints: a latent class analysis’, Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, 50, pp. 383-393.