15A – Figuring Out Buyer Behavior No. 2

15A – Figuring Out Buyer Behavior No. 2

Segment- Business owners

Construction Company- Max

The first person I conducted an interview with in order to determine buyer behavior for my service, BeyondKash, was a construction company owner named Max. I questioned Max about what types of payment methods he accepts for his work, and if any of the ones he used had any flaring problems. He explained to me that a majority of his work is calculated extremely accurately to incorporate wages, materials and labor. Furthermore, he explained that PayPal and other middle-man payment apps take a percentage of the transfer, as well as charge a fee to withdrawal the money. I asked Max if price was the most important part of deciding between a money transferring app and he exclaimed that the amount and percentage of fees is the main component he looks at when deciding which money transferring app to use. He also explained that he looks specifically for apps that offer the most inexpensive way to instantly transfer his money to his accounts. This is important for his business so that he can pay his workers their wages, as well as pay for the materials and machinery to conduct such projects. To continue, I asked Max how the majority of his customers pay for the work. He claims that a majority of the work he does is for large businesses that finance the project until its completely finished. Ultimately, Max explains how this hurts his business as he continually has to pay transfer and withdrawal fees for every money statement sent to him online. Max exclaimed to me that he and his lawyer are the one's who make the final purchasing decisions. To go on, Max's main interest in searching for a middle-man money transferring app is that he wants to know that if he's paying to use the app, he's finding the best way to send and receive money, and also the most inexpensive way to withdrawal and transfer money to his accounts. He claims that investing into one of these applications would be considered worth it if he knows there are no competitors out there that offer a faster, more reliable and inexpensive way to accept money for projects.

Real Estate Realtor- Barbra

The second person I interviewed was a real estate agent named Barbra, who mostly sells property down in South Florida. Barbra exclaimed to me that, since her job requires large transfers of money from buyer to seller, each cent is crucial to breaking a deal and ultimately making both parties happy. She goes on to tell me that most clients purchase property through a mortgage and finance it over time. Her clients pay through bank transfers, checks or direct deposits in which she is payed separately for her work through other forms of payment such as cash, checks or credit. Barbra goes on to say that she doesn't look at the price when determining whether to use a specific money transferring service, and more so one that she can recommend to clients to help them continually finance their payments. In this case, she looks for the best quality and most comprehensive way to help her customers pay for the property, and also the seller to receive their money timely and in whole. When I questioned her about the 'rightness' of the purchase, Barbra explains that she will invest however much in order to make sure her clients are receiving/paying their money in full and efficiently. She likes the idea of a one time fee in order to help reduce the amount taken from each individual transfer as property sales cannot afford to lose any money when the two parties agree on a deal. Barbra claims she would recommend this application to her clients to help them finance their properties, to not worry about expensive fees and ultimately to help her receive her money for her labor in a timely manner. Although, if the app were to delay the money transfer or charge her extended fees, she would be disappointed in purchasing the application. 

Bathing Suit Company - Cameron

The last person I interviewed was a college student who created and manages her own bathing suit company. Cameron is a junior at Appalachian State University and sells custom made female bathing suits right out of her apartment. She has her own online retail store and receives payments from customers through money transferring apps such as Venmo and Cashapp. One thing that deters her from using these apps are the constant fees and time it takes for her to deposit the money she receives, so that she can go out and continue to buy and create more bathing suits. The main component of these apps that she looks for is the most inexpensive way for her to efficiently receive payments from customers and ship out her products to her clients. When hearing about the opportunities that BeyondKash offers, Cameron immediately claimed that she would invest into a one time fee in order to help manage her sales, profits and ultimately allow her to expand her company without worrying financially. She told me that most of her sales are through online purchases and that she rarely receives cash for her products. Cameron is looking for a new and improved app to help her efficiently move money and would be considered happy after investing into a middle-man app if it offers the features she is looking for. If Cameron were to invest into an application that still charged fees and took time to transfer her money, she would be disappointed with her purchase and would regret it. When questioned about the 'rightness' of her purchase, Cameron claims that she would be comfortable if she knew that there was no alternative to being able to transfer money fee-less from her online retail store to her bank accounts. 

Summary and Conclusions:

Throughout these three interviews, a reoccurring theme of time and price were mentioned by Max, Barbra and Cameron. This helps me to understand how to efficiently advertise to companies who are already utilizing current applications that could be considered competitors to BeyondKash. Offering a new way to "pay the fees" would ultimately bring an abundance of customers from current competitors, as some businesses need to manage their sales, profits, expenses, and withdrawal fees in order to understand the well-being of their company. Adding additional fees throws off their numbers and can hurt the companies status. To continue, another main issue with current applications available are the time it takes to transfer the money from the app to the user's physical bank accounts. In these apps such as Venmo, Cashapp and PayPal, it cost more money to instantly transfer from the app and so a one time fee would be more appealing to user's transferring money frequently or running a business. In all, these interviews helped me to understand how small businesses or corporate businesses accept payments for their work and products, and ultimately how I can advertise BeyondKash to each specific business owner. The segment of business owners is in need of a new and effective way to transfer money inexpensively and timely, and ultimately to help their clients with purchasing decisions and evaluations. Using an app that is accustomed to the user and client will assist in satisfying business owners as they can effectively close deals, expand their companies and not have to worry financially about when their next payment will be cleared. To go on, user's will be more content knowing that no other competitors offer a better way to pay for such a service or product and this will increase post-purchasing evaluations on the application and the parties using it.