Action plan
Questionnaire
Since marketing is giving the customers what they want, it makes sense to find out what that is. There are two type of research – field research and desk research.
I prefer field or primary research as it is useful to find new information and getting to know customers’ views on my service. From the other hand it is expensive to collect and time consuming when desk research is much cheaper and easily found in government publications, newspapers and magazines but it is not always relevent to your needs and can be often out of date.
So, I consider that field research will give more needed and useful information about customers’ opinions and as this is very important in business, I will use field research – I will make 10 questionnaires, give them out to people, then collect the results and analyze them, making the summary of my findings and things I have to change about my business.
Questionnaire for
Private Psychology Center
“Le CIEL”
independent psychology
service
- What is your sex?
- How old are you?
-
13-18 ❍ more than 50
- 19-30
- Have you ever visited a psychiatrist?
❍Yes
❍No
For people who said “Yes” for the previous question:
- How often do you go to a psychiatrist?
❍ quite often (almost every day)
❍ once a week
❍ when I need to
❍ very rare
- Do you think that psychology service is needed and that it can help people?
❍Yes
❍ No
- What location do you prefer for a psychology center?
❍ Krechatic
❍ Vladimirskaya street
❍ Artyoma street
❍ other
- How much can you spent on a psychiatrist for ONE consultation if you needed to go there?
❍ not more than $10
❍ from $10 to $100
❍ from $100 to $200
- Do you think that students should have special psychology sections in schools?
❍ Yes
❍ No
If not, why?
………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
- Please write your comments and wishes on our service.
………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
I have given my questionnaires to 10 different people and I have collected the results. A lot of answers surprised me and made me change some of my decisions about my business.
Most of people agreed that the best place for a private psychology center is Vladimirovskaya street. I was really surprised about the answer to the 3rd and 4th question: 2 people out of 10 said that they have never been to a psychiatrist and 6 out of 8 said that they go to a psychologist rarely. From the other hand 9 out of 10 said that my service is needed and important and all people from the group age 19 –30 said that they can pay from $10 to $100 for a consultation. All adults also said that they would like their children to have some psychology consultations in school.
I can only add that as this kind of service is a new one in Kiev and Ukraine, people still have the thoughts that you need to visit a psychiatrist only if you have psychiatric diseases and illnesses or some serious family problems but still I have found that people are worrying about their children and I have to provide more psychology consultations for kids and students.
Sources of information
At first I have found sites about psychology centers in Europe and the USA and most information I have found on a Web site . This site is devoted to psychology itself and psychology centers all over Europe and on-line so some of information from this site turned to be very useful for my business. I have also used such Business Studies books as “GCSE Business Studies-the Revision Guide” (Section 2 – Marketing/ chapter “Market research” and “promotion – Advertising”) and a David Needham and Robert Dransfields book “Business Studies for you” I have also used information about psychology consultations, companies and my potential competitors from the “Yellow pages in Kiev”.
Aims and objectives
- My main aim is of course to provide qualitative psychology service and psychology consultations for families, adults, children, big companies workers and businessmen from high-qualified doctors of psychology.
- To help people from psychological point of view: to fight their fears, to solve their mood and disturbance problems, family, kids, students and business partnership problems.
-
For the 1st year to cover the costs and loses and to have profit.
-
For the 3rd year – to expand my business.
Resources
As I have already said marketing is giving the customers what they want, and it makes sense to find out what that is. There are two type of research – field (Primary) research and desk (secondary) research.
Primary research is useful to find new information and getting to know customers’ views on my service. From the other hand it is expensive to collect and time consuming when desk research is much cheaper and easily found in government publications, newspapers and magazines but it is not always relevent to your needs and can be often out of date.
Primary research methods include:
- questionnaires
- telephone surveys
- product testing
- working with consumer groups
I have already finished questionnaires and got useful information about customers’ opinions.
The other thing that is even more important is promotion – Advertising. There several methods of advertising that I can use:
- Television – the advantage of this television method is that it can reach millions of people, but it is very expensive and, in my opinion, it is not suitable for a psychology center.
- Radio is cheaper but the audiences are usually smaller and also it s not to advertise a psychology center.
- Newspapers and magazines can be very useful for me as I can insert all important information and target readers of particular magazine, like “Health & Beauty” and so my advertisement will read potential clients.
- Posters, brochures and billboards have high visual impact, stay in place for a long time and can be seen daily by many people so they can also turn very useful for me. I can give out brochures about my psychology center in such places like Medical service, offices and Emergency building.
- The other advertising method that I consider to be important is an Internet site – I definitely need to create an internet page for my business.
Besides I can also use such advertising methods as Discounts for children’ consultations and workers in big companies or big discounts if a person visits my center every week. For the first half a year I can even speak about first one hour consultation to be absolutely Free.
For making a conclusion: I will insert my advertisement into some health magazines or newspapers, I will probably make my own Web page and create the brochure for my psychology center to give out to people. The example of the brochure is on the next page.
Different Plans
If my business will not succeed during the first half a year I will quickly to make some important decisions to change my business plans.
- I will need to change my staff – doctor’s of psychology because qualified, clever and pleasant psychologists are the main part in my business.
- I will also probably need to change the location of my center – to make it on the better place, where people can clearly and often see it.
- I will also lower the prices and make the promotion company bigger – probably I will need to start an advertisement on the radio and TV so more people will get to know about my business.
- For this also new banks loans will be needed and maybe I will have to find partners for my business.
Problems
I think that the main problem with starting this business – a private psychology center is hidden in such factors as:
- Psychological condition of people. As I have found from my questionnaire many people have never visited a psychiatrist, don’t have time, money and will to do so and think that only people who have diseases, illnesses and serious psychological problems need to see a psychologist.
- Political situation in Ukraine is also important – as the taxes are much higher than any European or other developed country in the world and the average person’s salary is very low I can say that my psychology center will be opened only for people whose living level is much higher than the average, also to big industrial companies and to international companies that work in Ukraine or have franchises here.
- My competitors are psychologists that work for the Emergency Free Service and for the Government clinics that’s why people will prefer to get free consultations from them.