19A – Idea Napkin No. 2

1) You. Who you are. What your talents are. What your skills and experiences are. Also: what are your aspirations? Specifically regarding your business concept, how do you see this business (if you were to start it) playing a role in your life?

Hey y'all! I'm Robert Martin, and I'm a Junior General Business Administration major. I have over 5 years of customer service experience with Chick-fil-A and Publix Supermarkets. I am currently the Director of Training for Chick-fil-A at Lake City, FL. I have a passion for customer service and human resources, and with my training experience in these areas, I find myself to be very proficient in these areas. I hope to continue in the customer service and HR management industry after college, and continue to make a difference in this area of business. If I was to start this business, this would be a huge part of my life. I would be able to do the exact thing that I am passionate about for a living, and that would be amazing. 

2) What are you offering to customers? Describe the product or service (in other words, how you'll solve customers' unmet needs). 

I am offering an outside service that comes in to train employees of businesses in customer service and hospitality. This would include group classes as well as one on one training with each employee. We would come in and put special focus on hospitality and customer service, training employees to understand and use these concepts more effectively on the job. We would focus on helping businesses increase their customer satisfaction statistics, as customer service has a huge effect on overall satisfaction for customers. Our biggest point with those we are training would be to see customers as guests, not as customers.

3) Who are you offering it to? Describe, in as much detail as possible, the demographic and psychographic characteristics of your customers. Think especially of this question: what do your customers all have in common?

My customers would mainly consist of businesses that need their employees trained in customer service. This would be restaurants, grocery stores, big box stores, and any other retail establishment that deals with customers. It would tend to be newer businesses that would have a higher need for this service, as their managers are not as experienced in training. Businesses with higher turnover percentages would also be a higher need customer, as they have more employees to train in shorter periods of time. I also believe that larger companies that have their managers stretched too thin, would be an ideal customer for this business. 

4) Why do they care? Your solution is only valuable insofar as customers believe its valuable to them. Here, explain why customers will actually pay you money to use your product or service. 

Many businesses struggle with training and keeping friendly employees. By using this service they would be relying on us, the customer service professionals, to train their employees in this highly important area of retail business. We would be the professionals that they can rely on, and depend on to train their employees correctly. They would care about this service because it can greatly benefit them in their business. They would use us because we know what we are doing, as we are customer service professionals, and we put special emphasis on this area, making our training more effective. 

5) What are your core competencies? What sets you apart from everyone else? Also: what do you have that nobody else has? 

Because of my experience that is specifically in customer service training, as well as my business degree, I have specific qualifications to be able to balance the importance of customer service with the fundamentals of running a business. My service is exclusively customer service training, setting us apart from anyone else, as we will put special focus solely on this area of the business. This is my niche in the business world, as customer service is what I am trained in and truly passionate about. 

All of these elements fit together very well in my opinion. My experience and qualifications, as well as my passion for this industry is what drives this business, and ties all of these elements together. I believe that starting this business could pose some challenges, as I would have to prove myself before this business really takes off. But I believe that I can build a successful business here.

Feedback: My feedback on the first post was very positive. The only thing I heard that needed change was that I needed to add more in the "why do they care" section and keep talking about my passion. I did both in this post, as I added onto the "why do they care" section and added more about my passion overall.