Customer Interviews No. 1

I live very close to UCF in a subdivision off of North Tanner Road and McCulloch Road.  On this intersection there used to be a 5/3rd Bank that is now defunct.  It is on a simple stretch of road that is adjacent to a nature preserve on one side and the rest of the surrounding area is comprised of single family home subdivisions.  It is an established area as it's close to the UCF main campus and a prime opportunity to implement a solution for the young families, students and commuters in the vicinity.  I was able to identify the need for maybe a gas station or a daycare facility in the existing building/lot where the bank used to be.  The reason these 2 offerings came to mind and I decided they were unmet, is that I often find myself needing gas before driving to work and taking my daughter to daycare, or I find myself wanting a late night snack or need to buy milk and all the other stores are closed.  The gas station/convenience store fulfills that particular need.  The child daycare center however would be a great solution as well as there are plenty of young families with children in and around my neighborhood.  The location is strategically located and there aren’t many child daycare centers in the direct vicinity.  You do have to drive to specific locations away from the area in order to locate one so the scarcity of such a business is present.

I asked 5 strangers that live in and around my neighborhood what would better serve their needs and the following are the results.

Questions:

1.  What would better serve the members of this community, opening a gas station/convenience store or a child daycare center?  Why?

3.  What would be some negative impacts if such a business were to be implemented?

4.  What other types of businesses do you think would compliment or would you like to see in close proximity relative to this location?

Ian Gesundheit

Matt Schafer

Jose Garcia

Fab Schafer

Rob Vetter

After talking/interviewing 5 strangers, I came away with the positive affirmation that this would be a great and viable idea to implement and it would serve the community in a good way for sure.  The gas station/convenience store option was the more popular one and the one that I think would generate the most steady stream of revenue as well as providing the greater amount of convenience.  

Talking to strangers and asking to interview them was a daunting task for me as I consider myself fairly introverted and not an outgoing and gregarious personality that finds it easy to talk to people I don't know.  What I did find is that strangers have a lot of patience and are normal human beings just like myself and after the first 2, the rest of the interviews became a tad bit easier to conduct.   I greatly appreciated their time and their feedback as I honestly did not think I was going to be able to pull this off seeing as how I'm not a super outgoing person that finds this type of task a walk in the park.  It definitely did get me out of my comfort zone and it made me realize that it wasn't so difficult after all.  I should not have stressed it so much and I hope this makes it easier for the next interview assignments coming up.