University of BahrainCollege of Business AdministrationDepartment of Marketing and ManagementElectronic Commerce and Marketing- MKT460ServeME ApplicationBusiness PlanSubmitted by:Ola Mohammed Ali – 20133627Sara Jaffar Ali Sedaif – 20155412Zainab Mohamed Shehab – 20144573Bayan Rashad Fikree – 20136170Kareema Farhan Swied – 20122923Fatima Nadeem – 20145598?ServeME ApplicationName of the business: ServeMESlogan: The service you EXPECT, the quality you DESERVE• The way we work:DISCOVER how we will make your life easierMATCH and get closer to the services that interest you the most RELAX with our satisfying helping hands • Who are we?”ServeME” is a Bahraini online trade agent that connects people to services, wherever they are using a flexible smartphones application. ServeME helps people in simplifying their lives by providing individuals and companies with the engine to find services, the job seekers to find a suitable job, and the employers to find the best talent. The application offers services in more than 20 cities all over Bahrain, providing miscellaneous services, trusted employer companies, and sophisticated job seekers.ServeME pioneered the intermediary business of providing services, is also offering valuable online advertising space to companies with different business types, looking to showcase their brand to their target audience. Ease of access in getting the desired quality service will be the key driver for our business. • Why ServeME?We have designed an integrated approach that focuses our more innovative technology into powerful, easy to use application. Why? To help you find not only the best quality services but more of them.
To streamline the process so you can save your time, to improve your experience in the field you are working on and give you the ability to promote your business to hire the qualified ones.Basically, we want to provide you with the service you EXPECT, the quality you DESERVE.• Our services”ServerME” offers you the chance to discover and request services from our partner service providers throughout Bahrain. Each partner has a prescribed working area. This is to ensure that the services reach the customers’ door as fast as possible.
When the customer is outside the area of a certain company, a message will notify them and suggest another service provider. Working hours’ information will be presented to each partner therefore operating hours will vary from a company or individual provider to another depending on the availability of our partners.Our services are diversified as we are developing our strategies day by day to connect you with more service providers. We categorized the services to let you find your need in a couple of seconds, instead of that, a search engine with keywords will be provided to best help you ease the process.the categories and the available services are:1. Car services: Car wash – Car polish – Car maintenance 2.
Transportation: Taxies – Furniture moving and others 3. Household maintenance: Air conditioning services – Cleaning and general maintenance – Electricians – Gas provider – Pipe fitting – Shades – Housemaids4. Saloons and barbers5. Networking: IT – Telephone fixing – Satellite fixing• Become a member!Looking for a way to maximize your income is unfortunately hard. Let us make it easier by giving you the opportunity to apply in different fields of jobs.
As individuals:ServeME provides unemployed people with the chance to invest their ability in working.For applying, people must have work permits, then upload their resume so recruiters can contact them. On the other hand, they can post their information “Name, Age, Nationality, Experience, Type of services, Personal photo” to apply as an individual service provider.As Business company:Business owners who want to become a partner in providing services can upload the company’s information “Name, Available services, Nationalities of employees, working hours” and a monthly contract between us will be signed. Take advantage of a wide range of partnership opportunities by linking your business to our application.You can get alerts if a customer requested a service or a recruiter is interested in your experience and ability to work.• How to use it?Users are requested to go through some easy steps to REACH their needs.
1. Registration: Users must register to have the ability to make an order, they are requested to provide their names, addresses, phone number, email address, and password. Therefore, ServeME team can manage their orders with their data.2.
Basket: Is a tool where the selected services appear, and it allows users to modify dates, time, type of services and they are allowed to cancel the order. Also, it enables users to choose payment methods and confirming the order.3. Payment: We accept the following credit and debit cards, American Express, Visa and MasterCard. We are unable to accept cards that are due to expire within the next month.
4. Order management: After confirming the order, a message will be sent to both the customer and the service provider to provide them with the order number that will inform them of all the details about the order: list of the requested services, user information, details of the address, date and time and payment information. The team will send a notification reminder a day before the requested day to ensure that the customer is available, and they can delay it within 24 hours before the chosen time. 5. Our way to thank our customers: To make our customers satisfied and happy, ServeME will allow customers to provide a feedback after being served by our service provider partners and it will appear for all the users. As ServeME team, we will provide our customers with the option to schedule the needed services daily, weekly or monthly. hence, to ease the process and to save their time. After each order, a magnet with our logo and application name will be given to the customers by our partners instead of a business card.
Moreover, discounted coupons will be available for our effective users.6. Customer care centre: A 24/7 chat will be available to help users in answering all their questions.• ServeME target marketWe are targeting Bahraini people who are working with an average income and have other responsibilities that prevent them from doing their housework. The application provides household services to best help people and saves their time by serving them in their houses or at their offices.Business owners who want to market their brand and work with intermediaries to provide different services for people and companies are another targeted group. We are also helping employers to find best people to hire by providing the unemployed with the opportunity to post their resume and get hired by a well-known company.
What is more, ServeME provides a space for posting paid advertisements to help others reach their target audiences and to increase its profit. ?Market ResearchIn order to obtain information about people opinion on the concept of providing an Application or Web page for different service providers, A survey method has been used to collect data. Questionnaire presenting has been conducted to ensure the willingness and the acceptance of the ServeME Application in order to know their need and difficulties they face with the services. It was distributed to 46 people from different groups of ages.
Data Analysis: -The first question reflects the demographical information which is the majority of the respondents were female (80.43%), and the minority are male (19.75%). -The second part of the demographical information shows that most of the respondents from 18 to 24 Year (78.
26%), and (15.22%) from 25 to 34, and very few people from 35 to 44. – In the above figure, we asked them about what type of services that find it difficult to search for, we have a diversity of percentages among each service, this assures us that many people need an easy way to search for the services they want. -Most of the people here think that type of services depends whether to have it at home or going to the location of the services, because some services require to make it at the service location, like car services, sometimes the maintenance for the car or electronic require to stay more than one day. But the majority here prefer to having the services at home.-This figure shows that the majority of the respondent prefer to book their services before they go for it (84.
78%), It might be because they don’t want to go far away and then they don’t have the chance to get the services, or it requires waiting for line before they have the services, so it’s waste their time. -Most of our respondents search for Applications that help them to book their services (89.13%), it provides the easiest way to search for services and book it to have it at the home. ?- Here The majority of respondents didn’t find like ServeME Application in Bahrain (80.43%), and the minority (19.56%) find similar applications like it. And only one respondent mentions the name which is (Khadamaty).At the end we asked two question about the difficulty and the opinion, to know more and understand more from our respondents.
What is the difficulty you face when you search for services?Here all the answers provided by the respondents:-The transportation-Limited Options-Lack of the available services.-Not expecting quality.-Untrusted.
-Hard to find nearest services to my location.-Paying method. -Lack of Information-Wasting Time.What are the advantages of having like ServeME Application?Here all the answers provided by the respondents:-fast and easier.-will not lose our time.-Accurate information.-More efficient.-read the reviews and feedbacks of others.
-Avoiding waste of time.?ServeME Marketing StrategiesAs we know that marketing a service differs from product, because product is easy to feel it and touch it, but services require more information and explanation to inform the customers more about the features, the advantages, what they will gain from this service, so we have to give our customers the full knowledge about our services and the categorize under these services to give them the opportunity and diversity to choose different type of services. In order to identify our services that we will provide we have to focus on the uniqueness of our services and how our customer will benefit from these services, we are offering. We will provide a variety of services to make our customers satisfied with the different type of services and to find what they want in the different times, all of us need some services from time to time, and these services are not the same. At ServeME Application, we can find these different services that each one of us needs it from time to time.Easy of booking the services: People can search for the type of services they want and book it easily, and we have a call button for old people. Fast in delivery: The people who book for the services he doesn’t have to wait for a long time, it is fast in response.
Diversity in services: A lot of services that ServeME Application provides to reach different need, and easy to find the services. And these are the services that we will provide and why we choose it:1- Car services: Not everyone has a free time to take their cars for maintenance, wash… so we provide these services to give them the chance to not waste their time while they can set at home at the same time.2- Taxi: Some people need to go for a specific distance, but as we can see in Bahrain most of the people have their own car so there is no large people deal with taxi like other countries. And this application it gives people an easy way to reach and contact with Taxi services. 3- Household maintenance: Air conditioning services, cleaning and general maintenance, electronic, Gas provider, Pipefitter, Housemaids, all these services sometimes require to communicate with them via phone call, and it is difficult to search their numbers to see whether there is available services provider or not, and sometimes they are not flexible in the time. 4- Networking: IT-Telephone fixing.
Many people face IT problems, some phones are not working, or the screen has been broken. And some people may don’t trust any shop to keep their things inside it with stranger workers, so they want everything to be done near them.5- Saloon: There are many salons that give Home Services, some girls don’t have cars, or some women have children, and no one holds them, so they can use this application to choose what services they want and they come to her without any difficulty. ?ServeME Customer Relationship Management Policies (CRM)”Serve me” application provides to customers’ wide range of services in the online setting.We serve them to save time and effort in searching for the services that all people need from time to time. CRM is a strategy for managing and interactions with your customer and potential customers.
It helps us improve your profitability. How the CRM work in our application? Help:First in our application but some tips and instructions how to use and we make it easy and flexible so anyone can use it also we but two ways can customer contact with as can use the direct contact by telephone number or online shopping cart. Our application also answers all costumer’s questions with all pleasure and clarifies all their queries without any indications of distress and boredom Listening:We are good listeners to our customers even customers who say that we are not nice about our services or to judge our services without any experience, we must take all of this in all pleasure and prove his speech is incorrect by clarifying the advantages of services that do not know the client and focus on the guarantees we offer the case of any fault or damage. In any business, the seller hears more than the speaks because there is no bother the client more than we speak. because the client’s words help as to his need.Memory: One of the main things in our application is to remember everything mentioned in a contact or interview with any customer who contacts us on a phone or personally meet how trivial it may help us in analyzing the customer personality it is easier for us to influence him as a customer when he sees we remember even the smallest details will be of interest to us. we remember all the services requested by the client between the period and the other Me, we serve him some offers and reductions to thank him and earn him longer?Supplies required to build up ServeME ApplicationIn our application, we contract with many of the supplier’s companies that help us to provide our services with all professionalism and easeApplication Maintenance:Because the fast-evolving Internet environment and our customers’ expectations are changing rapidly, we need a company based on the maintenance of the application from time to time.
This company works to maintain the application on the Internet in an excellent and effective at all times, either through technical upgrades or changes in the coding company maintenance covers a wide range of modification and maintenance services such as text changes and image modifications and change graphics or applications crisis Also protect sensitive folders and create account and protocol and provide an application through which we can know the number of visitorsBanking Services: Banking services are the most important elements that help the success of any business. All businesses need banking servicesWe are, for example, contracting with banks to benefit from their services, such as? Loans: where we submit a request to borrow a certain amount from the bank and then start to pay in monthly instalments or annually? Money transfer: It is one of the banking services that facilitate us to transfer funds from one account to another in a place around the world without the need for a check amount or go to the converter? Credit Card: We have been able to pay invoices claimed online or via ATMs with easeLogo design: Because we are here in our application we care about detail details. We also contract with individuals to design our own logos to differentiate us from other applications by designing a unique logo that reflects the type of services provided by us. Advertising is an important and influential tool in various business processes. It is a means of communication that depends on the influence of one or more individuals; by using one of the means of promotion available to build communication between consumers and products; advertising is the method used by the trader to influence the buyer; A range of non-personal communication means and methods; to convey ideas and promote products and services Due to the importance of this announcement we are contracting with a specialized company to carry the promotion of our site through several means and the most important and most widespread on the road TV or broadcast media and we rely on our ads on the style of thrill and altruism to attract the customer more and excited to enter and register in the application. ?ServeME ; Social MediaSocial Media is the marketing tool of the future, emphasis on the use of Social media should be discussed and a well-structured strategy must be made for every company especially ServeME, as ServeME is a Mobile application and nowadays most people use their smartphones to use Social media application. The following ways how we will promote ServeME on social media, including but not limited to: Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, Snapchat and YouTube:• Increase brand awareness and Improve brand loyalty:Through having active social media accounts, that we post every day on and regularly replying to comments and inquiries from our customers we improve our brand loyalty as well as making sure that our social media accounts can be found easily and are available on all our platforms we increase brand awareness and help gain new customers and awareness to different types of consumers.• Gain valuable marketplace and customer insights:Social Media is a medium for gaining customer insights, whenever we engage or keep an eye out on what the customers are reacting to the most we can understand what the market wants and needs, through continues monitoring and observation we can find out what the customer’s interest and in doing so we react to what they engage with the most producing more content of what peaks their interests.
• More leads:By using social media, we are in the position of gaining more leads and having them turn into customers, this can only be done through regular engagements and interaction on our social media platforms. Through social media, we can measure the insights gained from each post and use that to our advantage by fixing and designing a perfect post that would gain the interest of the leads and convert them into customers.• Targeted posts with insightful results:Nowadays through social media, segmenting and targeting has become much easier. Through the use of applications such as Facebook or Instagram we can actually select the target audience we are looking based on things such as Location, Gender, Age, Interests, Number of people the post reaches, Number of likes needed and many more criteria’s that can be set by us, we can also monitor the performance of the post and look at real-time results of how well a post is doing and if we have reached the interest we are looking for.• Share content faster and easier:Social media has created a what some might call dreamland for marketers, through the easiness and fastness of sharing content and reaching large amounts of consumers, because of how quick we can post something and have it reach to our target audience without having obstacles we faced before many marketers are steering towards using social media as the main way of advertising.• More Ability to control and manage:Social media allows companies to gain more control over their market share and target audience, it gives a company the ability to determine their own way of promoting their products by their own rules.• Cost-Effective:Social Media is much more cost-effective than the traditional marketing campaigns, it allows more access to customers and specifically the target audience as the promotion through social media application can grant companies access to a wider market that can reach more customers.?VISION E-UNIVERSITY: MARKETING MIX• Product: Our company is characterized as a service company thus offering services like booking a service from a company or entity that provides services such as car services, transportation, house maintenance, saloons and barber services and Networking.
We are medium between consumers and businesses, we only cross match and help customers reach their desired service and help businesses reach more customers. • Price: Our company has a membership program for businesses, in which if a business would like to offer their services on our application they will need to pay a membership fee that would be taken on a monthly basis, this fee includes giving the business a profile where they can add their services and information. Any extra benefits such as having their business as one of the “featured” businesses, sending push notifications to the customers as an advertisement for their business, or placing an ad on the main page of the application are added costs that would be paid separately. We also offer individuals who are unemployed and have different skills a chance to set up a profile on our application and be able to connect with the businesses that are members in our application, this has a commission fee that would have to be paid by the individual should they get employed through our application.• Place: ServeME is a mobile application that can be used on different devices such as smartphones, tablets, and any other android or IOS systems.
ServeME can be found on all the various app stores across all platforms.• Promotion: ServeME’s main focus will be on digital and social media as more access can be granted from using such channel of promotion. Through social media apps such as Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, Twitter and YouTube, as well as using digital media such as SEO to make sure more awareness and being easy for people to find our application.
• People: The employees that are employed in ServeME are IT technicians, App Developers, Marketing and Sale agents, Customer service representatives. • Process: The procedure is when the customer downloads the app, and goes through the process of registration, selecting the service required and ends with the services booked being done and have the opportunity to give feedback.• Physical Evidence: Our business is a mobile application, which means there is no physical location in which customers can visit or pass by, the physical evidence that the customer would receive is the email confirmation for the booking of the service, as well as the receipt after the service selected, has been done.
?9) Strategic AlliancesWhat is strategic alliance?Strategic alliances are cooperative agreements between two or more companies to work together and share resources to achieve a common business objective.Businesses build strategic alliances for Sharing Resources like products, distribution channels, manufacturing capability, project funding, capital equipment, knowledge, expertise, or intellectual property to gain competitive advantage.As per the above-discussed E- services following are the strategic alliances/collaborations:Type of E-services Examples Strategic alliancesCar services:Car washCar polishCar maintenance Lazer(car wash and lubricants) Lazer car wash servicing Bahrain since 1995 have international collaboration with international detailing (IDA) since 2011.Their new car washes and lube centres opened in Isa town in association with ‘CASTROL’ lubricants.
The brand new ‘five-star’ car wash experience for Bahrain customers.They also have a vertical strategic alliance where lazer car wash & lubricants are the exclusive distributors for WYNN’S consumer ; professional fleet and equipment’s range for the kingdom of Bahrain.Transportation:TaxiFurniture Mover KareemAl Reyada furniture movers Careem expansion took place in partnership with Arabian taxi, the first full taxi service company established in Bahrain.They are collaborated with transferring offices and homes furniture.
Removal and installation bedrooms, air conditionersPackaging furniture and goodsTransfer all cargo to and from the Gulf states.Household maintenance:Air conditioning servicesCleaning and general maintenanceElectricianGas providersPipe fittings Nader repairing of air conditionersValentine cleaningBahrain Gas They provide quick service to homes, offices, shops, mallsRepair all kinds of air conditionersInstallationClean without decodingThey provide cleaning services to villas, apartments, houses, hospitals, schools, customized housekeeping services that not only meet the need of customers but their budget as well.They provide LPG cylinders, refrigeration& A/C gas, professional food service equipment. Petroleum division. They collaborate with Wayne, victor, Zanussi, mireless.
They provide services hotels, industries, villas.Networking:ITTelephone fixingSatellite fixing Sab technologyYasser electronics They collaborate with offices, malls, hotels, restaurants, houses, schools provingAnalog cameraAnalog DVDTime attendance deviceIntercom systemRestaurant pagerCentral vacuum cleaning system.They provide satellite services, CCTV, solar power system, access control system, IPTV, broadcasting.They collaborate with al muntaza market. Ruyan group, jawad groups, Al kooheji group and they also collaborate with Sony, OSN, AZtech.
Their clients are Al Moayyed properties diplomatic towers, orbit communication Bahrain, Bahrain news agency, the ministry of interior, Bahrain world trade centre.?Ethical considerations for ServeME: Ethics is a broad concept, with a lot of things to consider. There is never a right way to do something wrong.
Simply put, that’s what ethics is all about. Business ethics involves determining what is right and what is wrong and then making the right decision. Ethics are very important in our business because the decision made by the workers will have the ability to impact people and organizations in many different ways and it can have everlasting consequences.In ServeME, we believe that morals and ethics are the most valuable assets a business can have. That’s why we give a great importance to ethics and morals in making decisions.
– Trustworthiness The trust and confidence we earn from our client s are the key success of our business. Customers are seeking to secure their assets, it requires that service providers must avoid being curious about the house, rooms, mail, or what resides on someone’s device. And of course we can make sure that our staff have the highest standards in their job duties by outsourcing their requirements, it could be better assured the staff has been well trained and screened for doing their tasks with the utmost care, all while upholding ethical standards when in the presence of people’s belongings in their houses. Our customers should be assured the people that will serve them can be trusted and are conducting themselves with the highest regard for their privacy. – Quality: Our services will be delivered at an outstanding quality and reliable performance.
We will pay our attention to our primary principles which are: responsibility for customer satisfaction and respectful attitude towards our customers. Services will be delivered by our certified specialists at the highest quality as they strive for excellence by using their high skills, experience and competencies through: • Providing services fairly with a focus on customer needs. • Identifying the root cause of problem s before starting the services. • Using the proper tools. • Focusing on quality while maximizing service delivery. • Being flexible, innovative and reliable in service delivery. – Honesty and integrity We believe that our people perform better in a culture of trust, and we are committed to maintaining such a culture by being committed to act with extreme h honesty, perform jobs with integrity, and behave morally. • Honesty and integrity will come before the desire for reward s, growth and profitability.
• We will admit our mistakes and we will be responsible for any damage that may occur when providing the services. • We will be honest about our abilities to provide services and we have the best people to fulfil customer needs perfectly. • We will be respectful in all interactions; managing disputes and confrontation constructively – Respect for customers: • We will maintain a polite and courteous attitude and behaviour toward our customers, employees, and the public.
• We will respect our customer’s properties and leave them clean. • We will arrive on site at the agreed time • Our customers will be immediately notified of any expected delay in arrival. • In case of any customer dissatisfaction, it will be handled in a courteous, respectful and objective manner. • Our customers will be provided with the opportunity to comment on the quality of the service they received and our employees will do whatever is necessary to resolve their concerns – Earnings management: • We will agree with customers before and based on our fees as they will be proportional to the quality of the delivered services and the responsibility we accept. • Our intention is to maintain a profitable business as part of our responsibility to our employees and families. • Our services will be reasonable and required. – Social Responsibility • We will be fully abiding by the health and safety rules to protect the health and safety of our communities. • We will respect the ethical values, people and communities, and the natural environment • Safety and environmental needs will be considered more important than production requirements.
– Civility and Responsibility We admit that positive interaction s build trusting relationships and maintain a healthy environment. • Suggestions and ideas are always welcome. • If you have any complaint, you can rest assure d that it will be resolved as soon as possible. • We have customer services working 24 hours a day to make sure all your inquiries are resolved. • We look forward to receiving any feedback to improve our services.
?The Survey: ?References:
