Mia Lorén
About
”How can we get more people to become electric bicyclists?”
A service design project
TARGET AUDIENCE
– 35-45 years Male / female / non-binary
– Lives outside the city center with 2-3 children
– Good income
– Works full time and is car heavy
– Active family with many activities
– Technology enthusiasts
RESEARCH
We started by working based on our own and the customer’s hypotheses about the target group. On those hypotheses, we built semi-structured in-depth interviews. In total, we conducted 25 in-depth interviews and 49 supplementary interviews. These interviews were conducted with electric cyclists, regular cyclists, electric bicycle opponents, bicycle dealers, and service personnel. To validate the data from the interviews, we sent out surveys on social media and conducted on-the-go surveys at commuter stations, in gyms and at lunch places, etc.
INSIGHTS
Our thorough research and triangulation took lots of time and required patience. We washed lots of data, identified gaps, we got in touch again, started over, rethought, and asked more. But in the end, we stood with a well-founded knowledge of our target group’s decisive factors, our hypotheses had been transformed into clear needs and we stood with a clear strategy going forward. Staying in the research stage a little extra meant that we could accelerate in the next step and save time later!
FINDINGS
THE TIME CHALLENGE
With an everyday life that consists of family life, full-time work, commuting, activities, houses, and gardens, our target group finds it difficult to allocate time to explore new interests and invest in themselves. Visiting a bicycle dealer is seldom high on the list, especially if the only time you have is on Saturday morning when many others also visit the store.
THE SELF-IMAGE
There is an attitude that electric bikes are for lazy, elderly, and unhealthy people. We met with opposition when we suggested that the interviewee should become an electric cyclist. When we instead exchanged the word for ”Smartcykel” there was a completely different interest. You associated a smart product with other smart products in your life and immediately felt like a person who was at the forefront of innovation if you were to become a customer.
THE MISCONCEPTION
Many of the opponents of an electric bike were of the firm opinion that it is a motor vehicle that does not provide any exercise. Those who were of this opinion had not tried cycling either. In conversations with dealers and owners of these bicycles, it turned out that you need to pedal to power the engine and that activity has increased as you have replaced many means of transport you previously did by car to the bicycle.
”The easiest way to sell an electric bike is let the customer take it for a spin, it sells itself while you wave goodbye”
-Anders, bicycle retailer
the project takes form
As Anders mentions above, one of our most obvious findings in the research is that customers who test electric bikes often become convinced and immediately see more areas of use for the bike than they previously thought. We chose to call this frELsningen.
INSIGHTS
If we create more test cycling opportunities, more bicycles will be sold.
There we create a mobile pop-up!
PLACES WHERE OUR TARGET GROUP WANTS TO MEET CRESCENT
Here are the places where our target group would like to be offered to test ride a smart bike without it interfering with their fully planned everyday life. To combine a smartcycling-experience when you are still at the children’s football training, at a trade fair with colleagues, during the coffee break in the office or when you visit a shopping center.
Here we took inspiration from Ge Blods’s Blood Bus. Making yourself available in places where you can be seen and people have time to stop creates visits
To test ride at the pop-up, the customer needs to download the app Connect, it is done easily via a QR code, already here we create a customer relationship.
We expanded the existing app with more functions and a webshop. We create added value in the app and this way the customer can order the bike already at the test cycling occasion. Our target group prefers the payment solution Klarna as it is the most flexible. That’s why we also built them in as a payment solution. At the time of purchase, the customer is offered home delivery as an alternative – another effort against their lack of time.
Like the reminder of an old receipt you find in your pocket a few days after the pleasant restaurant visit, we follow the waiting customers home in your pocket.
Business model canvas
INSIGHTS
VALUE PROPOSITION canvas
INSIGHTS
I must, in my future use of Business Model Canvas, be sure that the value proposition is what the customer segment demands, if they do not match, I will fail. Again, examine customer needs carefully!
Trying to build the model so it is possible to be able to scale away parts to make the company more profitable is thankful, try to look outside the box and find ways to reach the goal in a compromised way, it can be the salvation if I see that there is an imbalance between revenue and expenses.
Business model in itself is good, but I will also in the future keep in mind and take into account what external factors can affect the company, it can e.g. deal with competitors’ offers or other factors such as technology, politics or the global economy. And of course, is it the right timing for what we plan to do? It is therefore a good idea to draw a ring around the model where I can fill in any external influences.
We used VPC on 2 occasions. The first was to see the current situation between the electric cyclist and Cycleurope. The next VPC was created when we made a decision about our concept. To test whether we, with our concept, could meet the customer’s challenges and create additional value. This time we had more data than the first time and we had identified jobs that we did not have with the first time, it was a contributing factor to our second VPC getting better. And that made it very clear to me how important strong data is.
What I take with me into the future is not to make a VPC too detailed, I do not have to include every finding I have made, a VPC does not get better just because I continue to fill it, it only makes it harder to create one overview. I should also not get stuck and become too analytical. Sometimes it can be difficult to decide if a thing is a pain reliever or a gain creator, and the group does not always agree on the answer. Then we put it on whichever, the important thing is that it is identified and included, it will fall into place eventually. It is also important to be concrete, do make to general points, then it will be more open to interpretation and more difficult to see if you remedy the point as a whole.
A weakness I see in the work with this model is, for example, if I did not have access to an end customer and that the company itself provides an analysis with the information from a general analysis program such as. Mosaic that we saw in the meeting with our client. Then we may end up in a situation where we solve other problems or needs than what the customer actually has (or do not understand the real cause of the presented problem) and it benefits no one.
Customer journey – current situation
Customer journey – pop-up
This is the customer journey for a customer who visits a bicycle dealer today. As a B2B company, you have no control or customer contact with the customer before making a purchase which depends a lot on the seller’s recommendation. We wanted Crescent to contact the customer at an earlier stage to provide the experience Koppla offers..
This is what the complete customer journey would look like for Crescent’s pop-up. It becomes clear that Crescent makes a contact before a possible bicycle purchase by the customer downloading the app. It provides user data. The app gets to go home with the customer in their pocket regardless of purchase. Cycleurope gets e.g. the chance to send an alert with an offer shortly from the test cycling. The customer can also look through the range of bicycles at home more easily accessible than before.
Why wait?
We wanted to make this project as easy as possible for Cycleurope to implement. Therefore, we peeled off the pop-up so much in our customer journey that they could move out of their retailers and stand 2 meters outside the store. And offer the same to the passers-by.
INSIGHTS
It creates additional value for the customer if they make an effort to show as implementable a version of the service as possible. It arouses inspiration and creativity in the presentation and becomes a service in itself. Here we created added value!
