Buki School research that showed parents are buying peace of mind
In brief
Buki School is an online school with one-on-one tutors for schoolchildren, university applicants and Ukrainian children abroad.
The team wanted to understand why some parents buy lesson packages for years while others vanish after the trial lesson. We ran 26 in-depth interviews — with families who study, families who left and families who chose competitors.
The answer ran deeper than price or subjects: parents buy peace of mind — and lose trust exactly where it’s missing.
Key points
Parents buy peace of mind
The interviews are conversations with real families, and almost everything in them is personal and under NDA. So we show only the form: how we read the transcripts — bars where the details are, and a highlight on the few words where the insight was hiding.
“ says it straight: “, but is great, so I’ll keep studying.” .”
“ a level assessment . And after — , and I .”
“ — and it turns out I wasted the money .”
“: . I have to tell the same story .”
“. once a week — . I want at a fundamental level.”
“. And now she sits down and does it all herself — .”
“When you open the website and , it’s off-putting.”
Respondents
26 conversations — with those who stayed, those who left and those who chose others
Segments
One “tutor,” three different purchases
The global “job” for everyone
Peace of mind
“”
Who initiates the purchase, who pays and who actually decides — . The details stay with the client.
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01
Segment 01 ·
Parents whose
What they really buy
and
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02
Segment 02 ·
Parents focused on
What they really buy
as
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03
Segment 03 ·
whose children
What they really buy
and
Moment of choice
Where the school loses parents — and what keeps them
We broke the path to choice into five stages and read the conversations at each one through four lenses: what parents expected, what they got, where doubt arose and what ultimately decided it. The questions come from our interview guide; the conclusions stay with the client.
- 01Expectation
- 02Experience
- 03Doubt
- 04Decision
What were you looking for on the website — and what did you find?
- Expectation
- Experience
- Doubt
- Decision
Stage findings stay with the client
How did your first contact with the school go?
- Expectation
- Experience
- Doubt
- Decision
Stage findings stay with the client
What had to happen in the trial lesson for you to stay?
- Expectation
- Experience
- Doubt
- Decision
Stage findings stay with the client
How did you feel when it came to paying?
- Expectation
- Experience
- Doubt
- Decision
Stage findings stay with the client
What other options did you consider — and why?
- Expectation
- Experience
- Doubt
- Decision
Stage findings stay with the client
- 7points where the school loses parents
- 5reasons parents stay
- 22conversations the map is built from
Positioning
On the scales: the familiar alternative and the school. Which way will they tip?
- Price per hour
- Habit
- Proximity
- Quick start
- Fewer rules
AlternativeCheaper, closer and more familiar
- System
- Transparency
- Team
- Progress
- Trust
- +
- +
- +
- +
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SchoolAccountability for results
The main challenge is to define the value parents are willing to pay more for than the alternative. The interviews showed that today the scales tip toward the alternative — and what exactly can tip them back.
Marketing hypotheses
29 hypotheses — from the client’s voice to a validation metric
- 26 conversations with parents 22 made it into the analysis; we screened out 4 to keep the conclusions clean
- 12 points of choice 7 where the school loses parents and 5 where it keeps them
- 29 “challenge → solution” hypotheses each one rests on a challenge parents named themselves
- 29 validation metrics so each hypothesis is measured separately, by its own metric
- 01A challenge from the interviews
- 02A solution in product, service or communication
- 03A metric that shows the result
- Payment
- Trial lesson
- Tutor
- Service
- Brand
- Product
The hypotheses themselves, their priorities and validation results stay with the client.
Result
Buki School got a decision map: three segments with different “jobs,” the points where the school loses parents, and 29 marketing hypotheses — each with a metric to validate it.
Plus an honest answer to the key positioning question: school or private tutor. And a list of what has to appear in the product to tip the scales toward the school.
What we’ll do for you
In-depth interviews that show a business what to change so customers buy and stay
For when customers come and go, and your CRM data says nothing about why. We’ll talk to those who stayed, those who left and those who chose competitors — and turn the conversations into business decisions: where you lose sales, what customers will pay more for and what to change first in product, service and communication.
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01 In-depth interviews Conversations that reveal what customers really pay for — and why they leave. -
02 Customer segments Who buys, why and what they fear — so you can speak to each in their own language. -
03 Prioritized decisions What to change first to retain customers and grow sales — and how to see that it worked.
Team
- Agency
- DOGMA
- Client
- Buki School
