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M5- SVP Assignment

SVP Assignment

Q Your Complaint is a European-based company that provides an online platform to users (hereafter “customers”) for posting complaints about products and services. The platform first verifies the authenticity of the complaint and then communicates with the seller/manufacturer/service provider firm (hereafter “firm”) to offer a solution for the complaint. After the firm’s response is received and the customer and the firm privately communicate about the issue, the platform asks for customer feedback, categorizes the solution offer as a success or failure, and publicizes that information on the platform. YourComplaint currently does not charge customers. The firms pay an annual fee for receiving detailed reports and a small fee for each complaint they access from the company YourComplaint charges firms for providing information on: • how well complaints were addressed; • what percent of the customers decide to churn; • if customers churned, to which competitor they switched, and • about which attributes of the products or services customers complain the most. YourComplaint is now planning to enter the U.S. market. The platform does not have any customer base in the U.S. Your team will write a report advocating the best way to gain the most market share, taking into consideration the following: • What would you suggest the platform do to solve the chicken-egg problem? • Would you suggest any platform design features to improve network effects? • Would you recommend any additional information that can be provided by YourComplaint to client firms? • What is your suggestion for the pricing/fee charging strategy? • What metrics would you use to measure the success of the platform as the platform evolves? Note: metrics may differ for different stages of the platform evolution.

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? What would you suggest the platform do to solve the chicken-egg problem? Every emerging business asks itself the question; should there be supply first? Or demand? This also refers to the challenge of drawing customers to your business without having much to offer at initial stages of launch. YourComplaint is no different. The European based company needs to understand whether providing a steady supply would result in a larger market share, or if creating a demand first and then providing a supply would prove to be more beneficial. As YourComplaint is a brand new entrant in the US market, a lot of factors need to be considered before tackling the age-old question. Given the success of YourComplaint in Europe, we believe that the platform should first focus on the demand of their services within the US market. This will significantly decrease the risk of failure for the platform and secure the initial investment for YourComplaint. This is how we suggest YourComplaint solve the chicken-egg problem: