15A-Figuring Out Buyer Behavior No. 2

This time around I stepped away from interviewing mostly senior women and interviewed two senior men and one senior woman. One man was 68 and the other was 76. The woman was 73. When speaking to them it was obvious how they go about picking a product or service. In the case of my product which is a access ramp to the entrance of their home they were all willing to pay more money for a higher quality product. One of the men brought up a good point about how with certain products saving money is a must but when you have something like a access ramp you cannot afford to sacrifice quality. Only the senior woman had a particular issue with the type of style the ramp would be. I explained to her that the ramp would be customized to the entrance of her home and that before anything is built she would be part of the design process the entire way. If a customer truly wants a wooden ramp to be more stylish and match the color scheme of their home then with using a material like wood it can always be painted. If I take the time to paint the ramp and buy the materials needed to do this extra bit of work of course the price would increase. There were no other factors that any of my interviewees brought up. Their main concern was that the ramp would be high quality so they did not have to worry about it failing or needing to be replaced within a few years.

The hardest part with dealing with senior citizens and the buying process is realizing that they are not as tech saavy as I was expecting. All 3 of my interviewees prefer to go to a store to purchase a product. 2 of the interviewees said that when it comes to purchasing something online they allow their children help them navigate the internet. The most experienced interviewee with technology was the 68 year old man and he did not mind making purchases by himself. All of them preferred to use cash and not have any debt on a purchase. However, when I explained that my product would offer financing options if it could not be paid in full at the time of purchase they liked that this option was available. My opportunity would be more so online because obviously I could not sell access ramps out of a storefront and also in the beginning of a business I would not be able to pay for a storefront. Seniors not being great at using the internet could cause a problem for me but I feel like advertising in newspapers and other outlets that seniors more so use would help draw attention to the product and if they needed me to come to their residence for a free consultation and go over the product a number would be placed in all ads for them to call.

When looking back on the post-purchase the answer varied among them. The 68 year old wanted to know that what he paid for was going to hopefully last for the rest of his life so he did not have to worry about going through a replacement process. The 76 year old cared mostly about peace of mind and after making this purchase wanted to know that they could feel comfortable right away when using the ramp. The 73 year old wanted to know that this product would look good with her home and that it would not fail her in time of need. All of them agreed that they would think the purchase was a bad idea if the ramp started to break down on them. They all felt that after a few months if the ramp started to crack or fall apart they would be extremely disappointed and would require some type of warranty on the ramp so they would not be out of their money and stuck with a broken ramp. No matter what age a consumer is I could completely understand where they were coming from and this only made me want to make sure that my ramps were done with integrity which would lead to higher quality.

I enjoyed my interviews and the insight that was provided. It is good to hear from customers I am targeting what they would want out of my product and how they would want to be able to purchase it. It allowed me to see some obstacles as well as ideas that I had that were heading in the right direction. One thing about dealing with senior citizens is that they are going to be very honest when it comes to purchases and spending their money. So far this has been very enlightening because it is allowing me to make adjustments so by the time I am in the process of installing and building ramps I know that I am providing a service that has been researched which I think gives me a leg up on competitors who are more concerned with profit and not the overall well being of the customer using their product.