Employee Retention Strategy

As a relatively new business, we hope to generate a strong workplace culture for our employees to thrive and see opportunities for their development. Specifically, we would like to improve our employee retention by uncovering what influences employee decisions to stay (or not stay) on board with our company. Tasks include: Conducting research on current human resources and workforce trends to determine common reasons people are leaving their jobs today. Brainstorm strategies to reduce turnover in the company based on the common reasons for turnover that were found in the research stage. Decide on the best strategy based on its predicted effectiveness, cost-effectiveness, and the logistics of putting the strategy into action. Students will create a report detailing their research findings, as well as an implementation plan for each strategy they explored.

New Employee Onboarding Package Development

Instead of conducting onboarding in a face-to-face setting, our company hopes to transition to an online course that will introduce employees to their roles, and show them all of our start-up resources. This will involve several different steps for the students, including: Examine the current onboarding process for new hires to identify what should be included in the onboarding process including forms, documentation and information. Establish a logical structure and order for the onboarding process, divided into “segments” or “modules” and their content. Research platforms or websites to automate the onboarding process. Create a segment specifically introducing new employees to our workplace culture and values. A more specified challenge for this project (although not required) is the development of an onboarding package for the specified role of Laundromat Owner/Operator. Some key considerations for this package would include: Differences in operating brick & mortar vs virtual businesses A checklist of ways to achieve success in this specific role A document detailing how to best support other employees

Email Marketing Campaign

Our company advertises our services in the community, on our website, and on social media. We would like to expand our outreach with email marketing to attract more customers. We would like to work with students to design a new email marketing campaign for our company. This will involve several different steps for the students, including: Familiarizing themselves with our company’s products, email marketing campaign goals and target market. Identifying types of emails and content that our company should send out such as welcome emails, newsletters, and re-engagement emails. Researching factors affecting the effectiveness of email marketing such as when emails are sent and making recommendations. Identifying metrics to monitor throughout the campaign. Bonus steps in the process would also include: Identifying ways to personalize emails for customers based on market segmentation.

Loyalty Program

Our company offers various laundry services, advertising these in the community, on our website, and on social media. We want to take our customer engagement to the next level through loyalty programs. We would like to collaborate with students to develop new loyalty programs. This will involve several different steps for the students, including: Familiarizing themselves with our target market, products, and services. Identifying customer actions to be rewarded and types of rewards. Recommending ways to market the program and enroll more customers. Identifying possible partnerships for more attractive offers. Bonus steps in the process would also include: Recommending ways to gamify our loyalty programs.

Mobile App UI / UX Design & Prototype

Our company would like to explore designing a prototype for a mobile application that will allow us to expand our current services. We would like to reach more users through bookable services which we hope to achieve by collaborating with students who can design a mobile application. Tasks may include: Conducting background research on our existing web application for the product. Identifying key areas of our current product and how they might translate to a mobile application. Learning and using various software design tools. We strongly recommend students learn how to use Figma as this is the latest and greatest tool currently available. Creation of a screen-by-screen UX / UI prototype of a native mobile application that can be used on both iOS and Android Conducting UX / UI testing with real potential users potentially involving paper prototypes or other software tools to support this

Chat Function Design

Our company advertises our various services on our website However, we currently rely on modes of communication with our customers that could be improved. Users would like to have their questions answered and needs quickly met via a real-time chat function. We would like to work with students to design a general chat interface. This will involve several different steps for the students, including: Conducting background research on our users and products. Producing a wireframe or mock-up of the resulting system’s user interface. Testing the design with users and making improvements. Bonus steps in the process would also include: Prototyping multiple possible chat function designs.

Appointment Scheduling Design

Our company prides itself in great customer service. We would like to make this service even better by introducing virtual appointment scheduling to our client base. We would like to collaborate with students to design an improved appointment scheduling system. This will involve several different steps for the students, including: Familiarizing themselves with our company’s target market, products, and services. Learning about our current service delivery methods Researching features of scheduling designs. Producing a wireframe or mock-up of the resulting system’s user interface. Testing the design with users and making improvements. Bonus steps in the process would also include: Recommending new features to include in our appointment scheduling system. Prototyping multiple possible scheduling designs.

Strategic Prospecting Plan

Our company is looking to revamp our sales with an enhanced outreach process. We are hoping to find students that are excited to build a plan with us that will help us reach and meet the needs of our target audience. This will involve several different steps for the students, including: Identification of key contacts Writing and planning key messaging for our clients Create a guide to help us enhance our booking process Bonus steps in the process would also include: Developing messages for our mailing list