Welcome to Lunch Bites! Presented by the Entrepreneurship and Innovation Program at Western Washington University. Live every Thursday from 12:00-12:30 PM we highlight fresh and upcoming topics that hope to ignite and excite.
In this Lunch Bites segment, I got the opportunity to interview the CEO and owner of Trove Cannabis, Yin-Ho Lai. Yin graduated from WWU in 2011 with a degree in accounting and also an MBA in 2012. It all started for him when cannabis became legal in Washington State and he was lucky enough to be awarded a marijuana retail license. With this, came an opportunity to learn about commercial real estate development as he and his team had to construct their retail campus from the ground up.
Throughout this interview, we discussed some of the key resources and tools that are utilized in the E & I program, customer profiles, and customer journeys. I walked through an example of Trove specific customer profiles and a customer journey map while asking questions.
What does empathy mean to you, in terms of customer relationships?
“Putting yourself in the shoes of the customer when they come in. Were very self-critical of our operations and we strive for having the best customer service possible.”
Before creating any sort of customer profile or customer journey you should do an empathy deep dive of your customer. Building empathy allows you to imagine what is it like to be in the customer’s shoes. It also allows you to get a broader and deeper sense of who your customer is.
“Sometimes we will have a bad interaction with a customer, we are taught to think that the customers always right and that is a principle you want to live by. However, what we want to do is understand how we got to this negative experience in the first place. Ask questions and really try to understand where they’re coming from.”
Who are some of your target customers?
Specifically to Trove, there are three main target customers or buyer personas.
- Medical Patient
- Infrequent recreation
- Experience/ Connoisseur
What do you do to continue to refine and serve your customer’s needs?
“For this particular customer, I think education and resource are very important, especially when you have someone who is seeking our product not just for recreational purposes but for medical alleviates. From our standpoint being the utmost professional and having deeply researched information to provide at their fingertips is something we really strive for.”
In this segment, we took a closer look at the medical patient persona and their customer experience.
This is an example of a customer profile specific to Trove Cannabis.
This is an example of a customer journey map specific to Trove Cannabis. Link HERE.
This customer journey map walks through a five-phase process of a specific customer persona.
- Awareness
- Consideration
- Purchase
- Service
- Loyalty
Awareness is the customer’s discovery phase or when they become aware of your offering.
Consideration is when the customer decides when offering they’re going to take the next steps towards. They do this by evaluating what alleviates their pains the most efficiently and conveniently.
Purchase is the process the customer takes to buy your product or service, whether that be an online or in-person experience.
Service is when the customer tries the product and determines if it fully fits their needs.
Loyalty is when a customer is likely to refer your product or service to their networks. In addition, when they become a returning customer and sign up for any type of loyalty program you’re offering.
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