Consumer Insights on a Local Haunt

My team turned observational research of a favorite Nashville haunt, Proper Bagel, into actionable findings that can improve the business's operations and customer experience.

As an assignment for our Consumer Insights course to observe a business's daily operations across a span of time, my team took over Proper Bagel (in disguise) to observe and evaluate several items, including the average time consumers spent in line to receiving their food, areas of congestion, store layout, and fluctuations in consumer traffic. We developed our own methods of measuring these pain points, such as counting customers in line at even intervals and recording waiting time in minutes. First, we developed conclusions from our direct observations, and then transformed them into possible action items to improve the efficiency of the business.

This project trained my eyes to see areas of improvement and to be able to quantify them with observed data and metrics. In the absence of sufficient market research and more intricately detailed analytics, there is much to be garnered simply from watching and observing the customer experience. When retailing environment improves, everything may improve.