PROBLEM

Conceive, design and test an innovative service for fine food wholesaler and retailer Pennsylvania Macaroni.

Our teams were tasked with analyzing the current PennMac product service system and conducting research to identify unmet or underserved needs of existing or new customers, employees, partners and other stakeholders.

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SOLUTION

A digital recipe passport that allows customers to explore new recipes and strengthens the customer loyalty cycle

By conducting both generative and evaluative research methods, my team created the digital recipe passport. The goal of the passport is twofold:

1. Dematerialize recipe information for customers and rebundle in an accessible mobile format
2. Increase off-season order volume for PennMac*

*25% of yearly revenue is generated between Thanksgiving and New Years

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PROject TIMELINE

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RESEARCH Methods

From October to December, I conducted research to identify stakeholder needs, including:

• Directed Storytelling
• Guerilla Research
• Intercept Interviews
  

From these research methods we derived the following insights:

1. Customers want to learn about each other’s recipes, but do not have a centralized way to do so online
2. Customers do not want to see PennMac’s authentic, original servicescape change
3. Customers feel pressured to not hold up busy lines and sometimes avoid asking the cheesemongers questions

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SYNTHESIS

Personas: Building Empathy

Our research revealed two primary groups of PennMac customers:

ADD: PAINPOINTS

ADD: CUSTOMER JOURNEY MAP

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Service Proposition

From these insights, we proposed the Recipe Passport to connect customers with new signature recipes

The recipe passport gives customers access to seasonal family recipes. Customers can then share their new recipe creations online for the chance to be featured in the following season’s passport. When customers complete all the seasonal recipes or if their recipe is selected to be featured on the passport, they will receive rewards! Therefore, customers are incentivized to return more frequently and with higher order volumes.

By engaging customers with new recipes and giving them the opportunity to co-create the recipe passport, PennMac is strengthening the customer loyalty cycle:

SOLUTION

On-the-go dialogue, access, and transparency

PennMac was very responsive when we pitched our recipe passport concept, and one representative noted that he had even considered a similar idea in the past. When ideating rewards, we pitched the concept of the Wall of Fame, meaning customers could have their names written on stickers and pasted on the wall. PennMac was very receptive to this concept, as customers who love PennMac would place a high value on becoming part of the history, while also being a very low-cost solution for PennMac.

Value for customers:

• Learn from other customers
• Have a direct forum of communication with PennMac online
• Participatory design in co-creating the passport

Value for PennMac:

• Increase order volume and frequency year-round
• Co-opt customer competence in crowd-sourcing recipe ideas
• Advertise without competing with retail customers with Facebook sharing
• Increase engagement and sharing between 18,253 Facebook followers
• Attract a new, younger market by expanding digital presence

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FINAL SERVICE BLUEPRINT

Co-Creation of Value Between Customer and Employee

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NEXT STEPS

Developing Prototype and Usability Testing

There are many moving parts with this service proposition, from the Facebook page and marketing campaign to the passport design and backend database. Next steps would be to build out the flow more thoroughly and test on a set of frequent PennMac customers to concretely validate the value add and desirability of the new service. Stay tuned, and feel free to contact me with any quetions at naraya@andrew.cmu.edu!

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