Posh Pals dog groomer: business expansion

0. Framing the Challenge

Posh pals is a small business that offers mobile dog grooming services to the north-eastern suburbs of Johannesburg. The business is owned and managed by Leigh-Anne and she employs about 10 groomers operating a small fleet of fully kitted grooming vehicles. 

The business gets most of its clientele from referrals but avenue has slowed down so she wants to other avenues to attract new clients. She has done a little bit of research chatting to existing customers to get some ideas of where she can improve and she believes that improving her digital presence would help.

How might we generate new business

How might we create a new business lead sources

How might we increase Posh Pals digital foot print

1. GATHER INSPIRATION

Inspire new thinking by discovering what people really need.

Client/Stakeholder Information session

• Q&A with the Posh pals owner
  • Key insights
    1. No new clients in the past 6 months
    2. Paying to host a website but not seeing returns

User Research

• Structured interviews with 5 existing customers
  • Key insights
    1. All were referred by word of mouth to Posh Pals
    2. None knew that there was a website
    3. All loved the personal relationship that had with the owner
    4. Some thought a website would make bookings easier
    5. Two suggested that the business have value added services like food supply.

• Interviews with dog owners at the local park (guerrilla style interviews with people walking their dogs)
  • Key insights
    1. Some are aware of mobile grooming services
    2. None knew about Posh Pals
    3. Most would like the services offered
    4. Some were willing to look at social media but all thought a website would give them more reliable information

Competitor analysis

A look at what competitor are doing that Posh Pals can learn from.

• Online booking service
• Google optimised site
• Up to date information
• Detailed service information

Content Inventory

A high-level look at what digital content was available to users

• Existing digital presence
  • Key insights
    1. Some engagement on social media (only Facebook)
    2. No link to social media on the Posh Pals websites

2. Generate Ideas

Reminder: Posh Pals wants to grow its business to ultimately increase it revenue.

Card Sort

Pushing past the obvious to generate some new ideas we performed a card sort with the Posh Pals team.

We presented them with an overview of information from the information gathering process and asked them to write down ideas of how might we generate new business. Once they individually wrote down the ideas we asked them as a group to sort the cards from least to most viable options.

We did this to include the main stakeholder in the idea generation process. Their wealth of knowledge of the business coupled with the insights we gathered made this a richer exercise.

3. MAKE IDEAS TANGIBLE

Learn how to make ideas better.

Gut Check

Once the card sort was done, the hard work started. We decided that a gut check was needed to critically evaluate the most promising ideas.

The team looked at the constrains and barriers of the top 3 ideas. Once that was don it became clear that with the objective of growing the business revenue the most viable option to explore was the food service.

4. TEST TO LEARN

Refine ideas by gathering feedback and experimenting forward.

Test

This step involves reaching out to existing clients to see how many would sign up for the service and what their specific needs would be.