Segment: For my segment, I decided to focus on retirees because they are known to travel a lot, and most likely do not have teenagers or young adults in the house that can care for pets. I do pet sit for some currently, and was able to speak to some of their friends who I do not pet sit for. All of them are married and retired, except one spouse is retired and works part-time.
Interviews/Summary/Findings: Something they all had in common was that they had at least one annual trip around a certain time of year that they like to take in addition to traveling sporadically. This meant that these trips are usually bigger than last minute trips in terms of length, destination/distance, and costs. None of them used Google to find pet sitters and prefer to rely on word-of-mouth referrals because they trust them more. This is understandable to me because they are older and probably more concerned about who is staying in their house and looking after their pets and things. I did ask if finding a pet sitter far in advance was much easier than their last minute trips, and they did agree that it was less stressful because they had plenty of time to make arrangements. But, their need is also present when they want to go on a trip that isn't booked out as far in advance, and usually their referred pet sitters are booked. They then have to decide whether they want to book a kennel and go on the trip, or just stay home. One of the spouses told me that her husband has Alzheimer's, so its difficult enough to leave the house to run simple errands without worrying about him. This is a need that I hadn't thought of before, but it does line up with offering daily check ins. Another spouse, who works part-time, told me that when her husband travels, she would still like someone to check on her dog daily because he is used to having someone home with him most or all of the day. This lines up with daily check ins too, but both of them would like someone to spend a certain amount of time with their pet. This is an opportunity I've been approached with before, but I currently cannot devote more than 30 minutes in the afternoon when checking on an animal due to my full-time job.
Conclusions: l believe they confirmed my initial belief about their need awareness. I wasn't surprised about how they found their information (word-of-mouth referrals) because that is how I get all of my clients. I do think this does make it more difficult to offer services because it depends on them finding me, but the advantages are that they likely already trust me (or it will be easy to gain their trust), and fees for services should not be an issue.
Savannah,
ReplyDeleteI think your discoveries through your interviews make a lot of sense. It is interesting how you uncovered two new opportunities/ areas of need as a result of these conversations (the person with Alzheimer’s and the person whose spouse travels sometimes). That could give you additional room to further develop your idea into other areas. However, I agree that it would be a challenge (and expense) to find clients through traditional means because so much of the referrals are word of mouth. Perhaps you could consider a type of referral incentive program for existing clients to recommend your service, or for them and new clients to receive a promotional discount.
Susan