12A – Figuring Out Buyer Behavior No. 1

1. The segment I will be focusing on is owners of smaller restaurant chains where their business relays heavily on dine-in orders. More specifically, I'll be targeting restaurants in large suburban areas in which families go out regularly. 

2. The first restaurant owner I interviewed ran a cafe that sold smoothie bowls and fresh-pressed juices with a crew of about 15-20 employees. The second restaurant owner I interviewed ran a shop that sold french breakfast food and pastries and had a crew of 10-12 employees. The third restaurant owner I interviewed ran a very popular Colombian restaurant in their city with a staff of 20-25 employees. 

3. The first interview: This restaurant owner held their employees responsible for all closing and opening duties and one of those tasks is dishes. Their employees have mentioned to them the inconvenience of doing dishes mid-shift or after a rush because of the mess it creates. They were very curious about what I had in mind for a solution and thought that their employees would appreciate a product like mine. 

The second interview: This restaurant owner was very enthusiastic about my product since it was something that they experiences and their crew did as well. This owner would do dishes during rushes to help their employees out and they always had the issue of water getting everywhere. They thought plastic aprons were the only product on the market that would help. Also, they were glad to see that the aprons would come with matching shoe covers. 

The third interview: I personally know this restaurant owner and I understand how they run their staff. Like many of the restaurants I've mentioned, the whole crew is responsible for getting dishes done. They were quite relieved to hear about a product like mine since they had been contemplating for months about purchasing a commercial dishwasher. My solution would buy them more time to save up more money to purchase one. 

4. Every owner that I interview noticed that it was a real issue that had to be handled once they saw and heard their employee's frustrations. Two out of the three owners I interviewed were looking on Amazon to find another brand of plastic aprons or water-resistant shoe covers. They were looking up terms like "water-resistant", "plastic aprons", "silicone shoe cover", "adjustable aprons", etc. The third owner I interviewed says they researched out to family and friends in the food business to gain some insight. They said they didn't gain much information from their help. 

5. From the interviews, I learned about the key aspects that should be important to my product. The idea of selling bundles of the apron and shoe cover was appealing to all the owners. Also, learning more about their information search gave me some ideas on what material would work for my product and how I should advertise them. This exercise showed me the key similarities and differences between the customer I may reach. 

6. I believe the segment I selected was highly aware of the issue I was trying to solve. There aren't a plethora of options when trying to find something other than a plastic apron. This gave me more hope about my idea because it told me the issue was inconvenient enough for owners to look for a solution but just couldn't find it. Also, smaller restaurant owners tend to have more of a connection with their employees since they work so closely and I think this helped my research since their staff was so vocal about the issue.