Beware of Uncommitted Users

I would agree.

Ideally your early users should have this problem and maybe workaround solutions that they've used to address it. They would be most receptive to someone who comes with something that does it better and faster.

Also remember that there's a certain type of coffee shop that this would be attractive to - go for them based on characteristics you can identify. Ignore the others as you don't need to make a product for everyone, indeed I believe that's a mistake early on. Focus on a few who you can make amazingly happy vs lots who will only be somewhat happy.

IDK how your area is like but in Melbourne it seemed like almost overnight the CBD is filled with ~5 services that offer order a head by app. (used to be some before that started and might have failed here and there, but suddenly crazy surge...)
One of them puts another little tablet like device in the store front that shows the order lines..
Like most of the places that added these services added some or all of them.
They are marketed with promotion discounts and free credits... very startup heavy will burn money to gain customers...

(started marketing this as a coffee preorder and free coffees to join and than lunch pre-orders "skip the line"...)

I almost wonder if that niche has the story of one offer no-one wants, and if you have a few, everyone joins? :shrug:
Maybe competition made them put offers out that one can't refuse while taking investments to cover acquisitions...
Seems to me a bit like the taxi wars (uber, lift, didi, taxify etc..), close to the food delivery wars..

Almost leaves a place for an aggregator or maybe there is one which is why all of them have multiple providers :D

Are you sure? Some non-committed users can still bring you value. Do they use the product at all? I believe all users have value. It is up to you as the business owner to extract that value. Example: Can a non-committed user bring you FREE customer leads? As a very targeted LEAD has a $$ value.

Hi Noah --

Sorry, but I'm going to disagree with this advice. In fact, this uncommitted customer is great! This is an amazing opportunity for you to learn.

To start with:

• sales can take multiple touches to close.
• your customers will probably not be excited about your product to start with
• different customers need different sales pitches

Instead of saying this is an "uncommitted customer", you have to realize that a business owner has several different things going on at any one time. SMB are difficult to target for this reason; there is a bottle-neck at decision making, and implementing new ideas is a headache for them.

The outcomes they want are:

• increase sales,
• improve customer experience (usually only if it leads to more sales, but some cases regardless),
• improve employee experience (for better/more advanced businesses),
• save time/management headaches (intermediate business / when they realize they're wasting a lot of time)

In addition to this, they don't have a lot of spare capital to spend on implementing new things.
Every new thing they add is a new headache, and more training that is required.

How are you solving those issues for them? How are you creating benefits related to the outcomes that they want? And how does this fit in against every other option they have of how they can be spending their time?

--

So you need to look at your value proposition and compare it to all other value propositions and things that the business owner is juggling. How do you make it easy for them to implement and move forward with? How do you make it attractive enough for them to take the next step?

Do you have testimonials? How are you helping their bottom line? What's your sales pitch?

To be honest, if you emailed me, I would look at your landing page and probably 'x' out pretty quickly. It sounds like added headache for me and there's no talk about the actual benefits your customers have gotten. Have they seen an increase of sales? Was it difficult for them to implement? How does it integrate with my PoS? How do I train my employees? What if someone orders a coffee but there are already people in line?

It's clear that you don't understand my needs and I don't want to take the time to explain them to you. (not to be discouraging -- and I see that you're getting out of this business -- but I think this level of honesty is necessary and can help you as you move forward)

Look at the skip page (never heard of them before now, just opened their site for the first time) and look at how they're dealing with all of these questions right off the bat:

https://www.skip.com.au/venues/melbourne

It could be improved further, but it's a pretty good start.

---

For reference, my family owns a chain of grocery stores that i was very involved with before getting into tech, so I'm very familiar with the needs of SMB's, and was pitched on similar things super often. Most were a waste of my time, and I knew that right away. I would get dozens of cold emails a week. How you can improve your results for SMB marketing:

[a] respecting the user's time
[b] anticipating the questions they would have off the bat
[c] focusing on the benefits
[d] including testimonials
[e] including case studies from relevant businesses, again focused on the outcomes/benefits they want
[f] being transparent about pricing