Customer discovery plan

Deliver preventative counseling to overseas workers in Central Asian cities.

Business Description: To improve the quality of life and lengthen the staying power of committed workers in Central Asian cities, this business will offer three preventative health packages: 1) online, 2) retreat 3) on-site. The online package will be client-focused online coaching on stress management and communication skills. The retreat package will be a resort with freedom to relax, opportunities to collaborate with others, and unintrusive assessments of health and wellbeing. The on-site package will be as-needed assistance in the development of a healthy, reduced stress home and effective team meetings.

Proposed Country & City: Singapore, Singapore.

Multicultural Dimensions: The online component will favor cultural and gender diversity to allow clients the opportunity to connect with people most likely to understand them. The retreat will be staffed by the local population, but may also include immigrants to Singapore. The on-site will be employed by a sub-set of the online coaches and counselors.

Proposed Customers: The direct customer is the overseas worker with a desire to remain in-country for over two years. Although some customers may utilize all three offerings, I anticipate the online package will be most valuable to single men and women on their first assignment overseas, the retreat package for singles and families with over two years in-country who exhibit negative stress-related symptoms or have endured a traumatic event, and the on-site package for singles and families with under six months in-country who face extraordinary adjustment-related obstacles, whether to daily living or team life.

##Customer Channel 1

The first channel I would test for customer traction is a presence at sending conferences. While some customers may directly access my business from personal contact, I think family, friends, and their sending organization will be the strongest influence. Therefore I would target conferences that supporters and organizations would be likely to attend rather than workers themselves. These may be worker-focused, national conferences, but I would also test smaller, church-based conferences that I expected to meet family and friends of workers. A recent prophetic conference may have been an opportunity for example.

This channel will give exposure to many but isn’t likely to result in customer acquisition without further development of my contacts to build trust and understanding of the product in order to be effective spokespeople to the workers they know.

This channel may be activated faster if I had success stories from an initial offering with a few early adopters to share with interested people.

##Customer Channel 2

The second channel I would test for customer traction is literature distribution. I would test both pamphlets and posters and offer them to local churches and sending organizations. This literature would target family and friends of overseas workers who would advocate for the value of stress management and preventative health to the people they send. I may also see a few direct contacts with overseas workers in time but anticipate their family and friends will be the primary channel.

One of the challenges to this method is credibility. I think this channel may be activated faster by partnering with well-known organizations so that I could share their credibility as an established institution. A website is also likely to be necessary as some may want to research the credibility of the business. With the website (even though it’s another channel) there’s also an opportunity to be linked in some fashion to well-known organizations to establish credibility.

##Customer Channel 3

The final channel I would test is community development. This is not likely to be my first channel, however, it may serve as an excellent second channel once a critical mass of customers has been attained.

There are two communities that, if developed, may build traction for the business. The first community is senders, such as family and friends. While these may often be small pockets of people across numerous organizations if there were a way to organize them in a visible manner their presence might attract more interested people and customers. The second community would be workers. The retreat package in particular would be an offering that could develop into a community zone, especially if workers who normally would not connect could be brought together at the same time. There is also an opportunity for the on-site package to enlist the assistance of trained workers who would form a cohort of certified consultants.

##Reflections

There are a host of ways to attract customers, more than I’d imagined! This exercise made it clear to me that the customers, who themselves are challenging to locate and connect with, are not the primary focus of any channel. I was also concerned that a lack of online media options would be a hindrance, but the focus on the family and friends of my target customer widened my opportunities dramatically and greatly reduced the security concerns of an online approach.