Assignment Task
Executive Summary
The Sitters provides house services to the people in Qatar when they are away from their homes. Services that the company has decided to offer include house cleaning, pet sitting and gardening. Customer segment includes adult homeowners and expat population. Value proposition of The Sitters includes peace of mind and convenience of customers. The company aims to establish long-term customer relations. For that it has decided to develop a self-service portal and remote assistance. Furthermore, customer feedback and loyalty programs will also be used to retain satisfaction of the target audience. Distribution channels of The Sitters are social media, SEO marketing, online chatbot, detailed information at the time of booking and customer form. Revenue streams include premium pricing strategy for home cleaning, garden cleaning and maintenance and pet sitting. POS, cash and payment links from QNB will be accepted for payment. The Sitters will partner with G4s for surveillance cameras, and Qatar National Bank for payment purposes. Key activities include hiring, training, partnering, marketing, informing, security management and feedbacking. Moreover, The Sitters has physical, human, intellectual and financial resources. Cost structure of The Sitters includes an investment to meet capital needs for fixed cost and add-ons services. For interrelationship, the company will have an office for a more personal interaction, and social media accounts to be able to connect. The Sitters has the adequate abilities to manage customers’ demands. It is offering strategic training and development opportunities to the employees to provide best quality of services. Self-service portal will retain customers’ trust by offering the autonomy. The Sitters will outsource customer support service, offer reward memberships and discounted offers to potential loyal customers. Downside risks include customer preference, website crashing and surveillance camera malfunctioning. Adequate initial investment, training and development and end-to-end customer support are critical success factors. ESG factors of The Sitters include eco-friendly products, recruitment of individuals who were affected by the pandemic, and compliance to the Qatar Labour Law.
Analysis of Building Blocks
Customer segments
Value proposition
Customer relationship
Channels
Revenue streams
Key partners
Key activities
Interrelationship
The sitters will use physical and virtual distribution channels to reach the target audience. Using these two combinations is vital to deliver the value proposition. The clients can schedule a booking through the customer portal, where they update their house and pet information and pay the bills online. They can also visit the office to interview the sitter and select the best suitable one to sit at their house. Using social media platforms such as the Facebook community, the clients can engage with one another and establish long-term relationships with the existing clients.
Hypotheses
One of our most important assumptions is that The Sitters will generate high profits within a short period because we are considered the only company in Qatar that includes house cleaning, pet sitters, gardening, and security in one company. For example, when a client wants a pet sitter and security to monitor his/her home at the same time he/she will be able to find this easily in our company at the ideal price. The second hypothesis is that The Sitters will be one of the most important target companies in Qatar, being unique in its kind. And the last assumption even if the company creates a company with the same contents, we believe The Sitters will still be the best because we will have a well-established name in the market.
“Having an organizational that offers taking care of your house increases the sense of security when you travel.”
Business model change
We see some changes being made in our company after establishment. In the future, The Sitters will work independently and find its own security section instead of partnering with G4S. we will not separate from the company; however, we will decrease their profit as we will partially depend on them instead of fully. We will also, increase our appearance on different social media to attract more customers. As The Sitters, we also plan to update our website and add features that offer better interactivity between the customers and employees, that way, any issue that may face customers will be solved in a convenient manner and time. We also most certainly plan to expand our staff to a larger number, as we expect to have many requests. We could extend our business in the future by providing other services such as, closet organization and car cleaning.
Downside risks
As with every start-up business, The Sitters are expected to experience certain downside risks. The most prominent risk is customer preference related to the house sitter. The customer could be comfortable with a specific house sitter and want to have him/her only. Maybe when that house sitter is not available, the customer might refuse to take services as they don’t wish to deal with another sitter. Furthermore, there is a chance of the website malfunctioning. The Sitters website could crash and make it difficult for the customers to book our services or communicate with us. Another significant downside risk includes the malfunctioning of the surveillance camera. For instance, due to poor installation of the surveillance camera or broken CCTV cameras, customers would not be able to monitor their houses. As a result, a threat to security would be increased for both customers and staff.
Critical success factors
The Sitters have designed critical success factors to evaluate the ability of its business to retain a sustainable position among the competitors. First of all, The Sitters have adequate initial investment to start a business. Furthermore, the company has decided to provide employees with training and development opportunities to increase their personal and professional capabilities. The company will also provide end-to-end customer support to the customers in order to maintain their trusts and satisfaction. The critical success factor is that we will give people the opportunity to travel and leave their houses for a long period of time. And still have it taken care of whether it is the security of the house or the cleanliness.
