Date Doctors Final

8/6/2019 Date Doctors Final

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Amrut Mody School of Management


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Executive Summary:

Date Doctors Inc. is the firm, who will provide dating services to its

customers. It will be set up by five entrepreneurs who found opportunity to

create a business in the concept of dating. The Company will operate in the

city of Ahmedabad. The target market segments will be youth of the city

having age between 18-27 years.

Under its operations, Date Doctors Inc. will serve two kinds of customers in

two different categories. First kind of customers will be those who are single

and are searching for their partners. Date Doctors Inc. will find better matchto such customers as per their preferences and will arrange date for them

and accordingly charge fee for services provided, which will be the main

source of revenue for the company. Second kind of customers will be those

who are committed to someone. For such customers, company will just limit

itself to arranging dates for them and will provide better services than

normal dates, which they are arranging by themselves.

The company has done a market research as well to check the viability of

this business in the city and to identify the preferences of the target

customers.

This business wont require any huge capital expenditure so initial

investment will be low and there wont be necessary to borrow capital

externally. So, five partners will contribute equally as initial investment.

The company will have an office to run its day to day operations. And

company also has plans to run its web-site for registration and other

communication process.


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Introduction:

The mindset of the Indian society has changed drastically through the

decades. The prime reason behind it is that there has been a

tremendous influence of western culture on the minds of Indian people.

Whatever happens in the western countries, it gets adapted in the

countries like India with some adjustments to suite the present

situation. If we look at the demographics of India, teenagers and the

youth of India gets directly affected and they want to adopt the

western culture as it is. Today even school children are not averse to

the idea of dating. College students consider themselves to be hip if

they have a boy/girl friend. Moreover people have phased out of theconcept of arrange marriage and are now open to love marriages. Our

company sees this trend as a huge market potential to create a

business and generate profits.

Our company creates a platform wherein people who share similar

interests meet and spend some good time with each other. The main

purpose of our company is to help individuals to find people who they

like and arrange a date where in the two can meet and have a goodtime.


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Date Doctors Inc.

Date doctors INC is a partnership company. There are five partners who

have given an equal share as capital and each of them will remain an active

partner through the course of the company.

What date doctor provides is not only a service but a mix of services that

makes a date a memorable experience. The product is an experience that

we provide to our clients rather than just the set up of the date. We provide

flexibility in choosing the person of your interest to choosing the time, day,

date and venue. We also provide pickup and drop services. We set up dates

with the preferences of the client in mind. What kind of a person does theclient like, what kind of place would they like to go to, how much money are

they willing to spend, would they like extra services like pick up and drop or

flowers and chocolates or even simple dos and donts about what to do on a

date- whats rude, whats acceptable etc. How important is the ambience,

food or proximity of the place to them. All this is decided by us. Hence our

product is a mix of all these services.

Our target customers are people who are in between the ages 18-27. These

are the people who are young and are pretty much open to the idea of

dating. Most of the people in this group are not averse to the idea of datingand are actually the ones who have created a demand for our services.

Majority of this age group are college going students who consider it hip to

have a girl/boy friend. These are our target customers as they have the most

demand for our service.

The process that a customer has to undergo includes registering the name

then we find a good match according to his/her preferences and organize the

date. From planning the date to reserving the tables everything is done by

us and is done according to what the customer wants. If a customer is willing

to spend enough then we also provide pickup and drop facilities, providingflowers, chocolates or gifts on the day of the date and we also provide some

common dos and donts to our customers.


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Vision of Date Doctors Inc.

Our Vision is the society where search for a partner is as fulfilling as journey

with a soul mate.

Mission of Date Doctors Inc.

To provide customer oriented services in innovative and creative ways and

to satisfy them by providing a memorable experience.


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SWOT Analysis of Date Doctors

Inc.STRENGHTS :

New Concept:

Concept of dating services is new in the city like Ahmedabad.

There are no existing firm who are into providing dating services.

So the firm will have First Mover Advantage in this business in

Ahmedabad

High Anticipated Demand In Target Audience:Looking at the growth of the Ahmedabad city and mindset of

youth of the city and youth culture, we can easily determine that

there is High demand for such services in Ahmedabad city

Low Initial Investment:

The firm will only organize the dates for our clients, so there will

be no need for Physical Infrastructure in this business any any

other high initial investment wont be required for start up

Low Requirement of Long term Capital, Business can function

with Short term Capital:Apart from less Initial Investment, in future, this business will not

require any Long term Capital. So finance function of the

business can be easily taken care of

WEAKNESS:

Require A Lot of Networking:Whenever some new business is incorporated, it is necessary

that its target customers are aware about existence of such

business. To start the dating services, target customer must be

made aware about such services and one of the best tool for


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making them aware is Word of Mouth, which requires lot of

networking at the initial phase

Depends a lot on Kind of the customer and their preferences:

In dating business, goodwill or reputation must be maintained.So selecting the right customer is also very important for the

successful running of the business

Tough to find People Matching to Preferences:

Customers will fill detailed preferences to search their

counterpart, and it is tough task to find people matching to all of

those preferences

OPPURTUNITIES:

High Demand:

As above mentioned, there will be high anticipated demand for

such services, so there will be opportunity to satisfy such

demands

Youth is open to the Idea of Dating:Seeing the youth culture in the city, youth is now very open to

the casual dating. They dont mind going on a date withoutspecific reason which increases the demand for such services

Opportunity also Lie in People seeking Marriage:Apart from the people who are interested in casual dating,

People who are seeking Marriage can also be our customer to

find their Life-partner

THREATS

New entrants:We have first mover advantage in this business, but in future

there is a threat of new entrants in this business, which will

result into competition

Negative Image of Dating in Indian Culture:


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In Indian Culture, some people are still not open to the concept

of Dating, which can affect the business negatively

Political / Religious Organization may opposed the Concept:

Importance of the Political and Religious organization in theIndian culture can be a threat to this business as such

organizations opposed such concept by labeling them as

Western Culture


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Service Marketing Mix

We, Date doctors, are essentially service providers, our offering is arranging

the date for existing couples and organizing the date for singles, who do not

have any partner and want us to find a partner for them. Our offering is

characterized by various characteristics of service such as experience,

intangibility, not resulting into an ownership etc.

Product:

As a service provider we need to be attentive to all aspects of the service

performance that have the potential to create value for customers.

The product is an experience that we provide to our clients rather than just

the set up of the date. We provide flexibility in choosing the person of your

interest to choosing the time, day, date and venue. We also provide pickup

and drop services.

Price:

This component addresses management of all the outlays incurred by

consumers in obtaining benefits from the service product. Consequently,

services marketing strategy is not limited to the traditional pricing tasks of

determining the selling price to consumers, setting margins for any

intermediaries, and establishing credit terms. Marketers must understand

and, where feasible, seek to minimize other outlays that consumers are likely

to incur in purchasing and using a service. These outlays may include

additional monetary costs, time expenditures, unwanted mental and physical

effort and exposure to negative sensory experiences.

As our offerings fall under service category, price is charged is as per

product differentiation.The price of our services depends on the clients


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preferences, budget, kind of experience and services that they require.

Service fees will be charged as a percentage of expenditure made.

Place:

Delivering product elements to consumers involves decisions on the place

and time of delivery, as well as on the methods and channels used. Delivery

may involve physical or electronic distribution channels or both, depending

on the nature of the service being provided.

Registration for our services would require customers to visit our office. The

service is available only in the city of Ahmedabad for now. The services are

restricted to only this city. Though there could be dates that require clients

to travel to nearby cities/towns if they wish for an outdoor place to date.

Promotion:

Promotion is an important factor for any firm that wants to survive and

outlive the competition profitably. When there are many firms offering

almost similar product, promotion assumes all the more responsibility of

creating value for ones offering in the minds of the consumers.

But as our product is new and we have first mover advantage, there will be

no competition to our offerings. Therefore, our promotion budget is not so

high and funds will be used to just making the potential customer aware

about the offerings.

Promotion will be carried out through tools such as posters, billboards, word

of mouth and online advertisement. Promotion posters will be put up at hipcaf s and restaurants in the city where the target audience visits frequently.


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People:

All the human actors participating in the delivery of a service provide cues tothe consumers regarding the nature of the service itself. How these peopleare dressed, their personal appearance and their attitudes and behaviors allinfluence the consumers perceptions of the service.

In Date Doctors, the people will include employees. But at initial stage we

wont be hiring anyone and the partners will do the all the work divided

equally amongst each other. People also include our clients. The people who

require our services are our clients.

Process:

The actual delivery steps that the consumers experiences, or the operationalflow of the service, also give consumers evidence on which to judge theservice. Some services are very complex, requiring the consumers to follow a

complicated and extensive series of actions to complete the process.

In our service process includes registering the names of the people, finding a

good match according to preferences and organizing the date. From planning

the date to reserving the tables and from pickup to drop and making the

entire experience memorable, all this comes under the process.

Physical Environment:

The physical evidence of service includes all the tangible representations of

the service. In our offerings, the Entire appeal of all the places where the

dates are set up comes under physical environment. Most of the people


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prefer to have a good ambience and Cleanliness. This should be kept in mind

while planning the date.


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Research Methodology:

Marketing research process involves the identification of problems, research

design, collection of the data, and interpretation of data for reporting the

conclusions to solve specific problems. Each research process must be

carefully planned, effectively coordinated and integrated.

Research Objective:

The group has defined its primary objective to test the viability of the

concept and to determine the demand in the target market

And secondary objective is to identify the preferences of target customers.

Research Approaches:

The two types of research approaches are as mentioned below:

Observational research: It is the collection of primary data by observing

relevant people, actions and situations.

Survey research It is the approach best suited for the collection of

descriptive information. A research group that wants to know about peoples

knowledge, attitudes, preferences, or buying behavior can often find out the

primary data by asking relevant questions to the concerned individuals

directly.


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For the purpose of this project the group has use survey research approach.


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Contact Methods:

It includes contacting people related to the area of study through mails,

telephone or personal interview. The contact method used by the group is

personal interviewing of respondents for the survey purpose.

Research Instruments:

In collecting primary data the group has used questionnaire as a research

tool.

The two forms of questionnaire are close-ended and open-ended

questionnaire, from which we have used a combination of both close-ended

as well as an open-ended questionnaire.

Sample Design:

The group conducted a survey for the project. Population survey gives

reliable and authentic information but due to time and cost constraints it was

not feasible to undertake a population survey so the group has adopted a

sampling method.

The group has surveyed 50 people who fall in the target market category.

The group has choose non-probability sampling techniques, under which

the group has followed convenience and judgment sampling as we

attempted to obtain a sample of convenient elements(convenience) and we

selected those respondents who we think are representative of the

population or are otherwise appropriate.


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Analysis and Interpretation of Data:

After the collection of data, the task of research process is the analysis and

interpretation of the data. The questionnaire is processed to make sure that

all the questions answered are recorded. The resulting data should be logical

and consistent. After editing, the data is tabulated and analyzed.

The group has used graphical analysis and mean of the preferences to

analyses the data collected.


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Interpretation:

We have tried to keep up the balance in the gender ratio in our survey

because of the nature of the service. Dating service will be very gender ratio

specific, high percentage of any gender may result into dissatisfied

customers. But achieving equal ratio may not be possible. In such

circumstances we would like male ratio to be on a slightly higher side as thiswould as we dont have dissatisfied female customers and equal demand

from both side is maintained. Accordingly, in our survey we have tried to

maintain the balance and kept the male ratio slightly higher.

Interpretation:

Concept of dating primarily caters to the youth of the society and the same

is reflected in our survey. We divided our population surveyed in three

categories, 18-25 years, 22-25 years and 26 years and above.


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Above Graph represents the composition of sample surveyed. Our sample

represents 46% of the respondents from the age group of 18-25 years and

48% of the respondents from the age group of 22-25 years. 6% of the

respondents have age of 26 years or more.

Reason behind such distribution is that concept of dating is more familiar in

youth, as above mentioned, and that is why majority part of the sample is

represented by the age group of both 18-21 years and 22-25 years.

Interpretation:

Question in the questionnaire was asked that are you open to the idea of

dating? And above graph shows the results. A positive answer to this

question was very important for the viability of our service. And 86% of the

respondents agree that they are open to the idea of dating.

This 86% positive answer is also result of the age group of the people

included in the survey (94% of respondents were between 18-25 age). This

also proves our general introduction and the changes in the Indian society

mentioned by us in the beginning.


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Interpretation:

This question infers that people are not only open to the idea of dating butthey also have been on date. Been open to the idea of dating and have been

on date are different aspects. The 70% of people who have been on date can

have 2 categories i) presently committed. ii) Were previously committed.

Both are target customers for us.

The other 30% of people who never been on date are singles presently as

well as previously and also have 2 categories. I) people interested in dating

ii) people not interested in dating. The first categories of people are prospect

customers for us.


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Interpretation:

This question makes the bifurcation of 30% of people in previous question

more meaningful. It would mean that apart from 70% people in previous

question there are other 22% who find this idea interesting(70% +22%=92%). This 92% have other inferences too. 86% of respondents

admitted that they are open to idea of dating but when they were asked

whether they find going on date interesting or not, this number increased by

6%, so we get people interested in our service at whopping 92%.

Our task would to actually give them an experience of an organized date,

this unique service will help them to find their choice of partner and help

them to go on their perfect date (organized by us) and who knows it may

help them to find their perfect girl/boy too.

Interpretation:

This refers to how often a respondent would prefer to go on a date with the

same person. The most preferred option was twice a month. Initially, this

looks a good option as meeting too frequent may be uncomfortable for both

the parties and meeting only once a month would increase the gap between

two dates considerably. This data gives us an idea how often we need to

serve the same customer in a given month (provided he is managing onedate at a time).

The above graph shows 16% of the respondents choosing for any other

option, when asked to them specify the frequency of date the majority

answers were every weekends and thrice a month. So we can interpret that

higher the frequency of date will result into more customers to serve.


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Interpretation:

The purpose of going on a date is perhaps the key factor for matching a

person to other because if the purposes only differ the relationship cannot

survive.

From the survey, we got that 56% of respondents were interested in casual

relationship, 24% in short term relationship and 20% purpose was marriageoriented. Here we can see that 80% of respondents have admitted that the

purpose of going on a date was not from a long term relationship point of

view but they would like to keep it short and casual (again it relates to

influence of western culture on Indian teenagers and youth- nowadays they

are ready to accept that relationship can be of short-term as well).

As it is now acceptable, it opens new avenues for our business model

because more the number of people who believe in short-term relationship,

higher will be the probability of those people wanting are our service again.

Interpretation:

Here we can see that 58% of respondents say that they would like to go on a

date with someone known to them, 20% would prefer a stranger and to 22%


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of respondents it doesnt matter who their partner is. This revelation would

increase the complexity in our service to a certain extent as it may be not

possible to have a person to our customer as our customer.

As we are arranging dates for existing couples, 58% of the above

respondents can fall into that category as they will seek to arrange dates for

them. And other 42% of the respondents can go for our Blind date category.

Interpretation:

When asked at what time they would like to go on a date, 60% of

respondents say that they would prefer to go on a date in evening, 34% said

night and 6% said afternoon.

Here we can see that 94% of respondents would like to go on a date either in

evening or night as it is assumed that they are free by that time(back from

college or their service, business etc.,). This data gives us crucial information

about at what time we need to serve our customers and accordingly plan ourservice. And we can also add few facilities to attract more dates in afternoon

time to expand our service offerings.


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Interpretation:

When asked about the place. i.e. where they would like to go on a date, the

responds were a kind of evenly distributed for places like a movie, a coffee

shop, a restaurant, an outdoor place ranging from 10% to 21%.

This gives us an idea that customers have a list of varied choice of places

for a date to make it a memorable one. So we as a service provider have to

arrange for anything (legal and permissible) asked for by customizing our

services.


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Preferences while going on a Date:

In our questionnaire, we had asked respondents to give preference to

various factors that would be affecting their date. This will help us to know

that what are the factors important to people when they go on a date, and

thus we can accordingly we can arrange and make arrangements for the

completion of customers wishes.

We had asked respondents to rate factors such as ambience, food, service

and proximity to place and also specify if there is some other factor too. We

had asked them to rate this factor on a Richter scale of 3. 3 as most

important and 1 as least important.

1) AMBIENCE:

Ambience is defined as - The character and atmosphere of a place.

For the company, The Entire appeal of all the places where the dates

are set up comes under ambience. The ambience of a place is one of

the most influencing thing in a date. Most people prefer a place with a

good ambience in their dates. This makes ambience the first priority in

selecting a venue for setting up a date. Everyone has a different

perception about what is good and what is not. This makes it an even

tougher job as to what kind of places the customer would like to go to.

For this reason the company takes into view the preferences of the

individuals before arranging a date. Some people like open aired

restaurants some like cafes with good interiors other prefer to outdoors

where there is greenery and some like to go to malls. Each individual

has a different preference and this is what we keep in mind before

arranging the date.

2) SERVICES:

Many people prefer services to be very important in a date. Services

include a wide variety of things. This could be service at the

restaurant/coffee shop etc or services that the company provides as

well. The company decides a place only after seeing that the place

provides good and adequate service to our client and if possible pay


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more attention to them. Our company provides a host of services to

meet the clients requirements. If a customer is willing to spend

enough then we also provide pickup and drop facilities, providing

flowers, chocolates or gifts on the day of the date and we also provide

some common dos and donts to our customers.

3) Food:

The quality of food that is available at the place where the date is

arranged is also an influencing factor. Restaurants or coffee shops

selling bad, unhygienic or even tastelessness. People of Ahmedabad

are food lovers so food is an important element in a date too. The

company has to check what kind of food the clients prefer in a date

and also see where such food is available and then set up the date.

4) Proximity:

Proximity refers to the nearness of the place from the clients home.

For women they feel more safe if the date is somewhere near to their

homes so that if there is some problem they can rush back as soon as

possible.


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Interpretation:

Analyzing all the responds we can infer that ambience was very important to

our respondents. Out of 50, 46 have rated it as very important. This accounts

to 92% which is a very high. A suitable ambience or a great ambience sets

the mood for the date; it gives a good feeling to the boy and the girl. For

e.g.; if the boy has brought the girl on a date and the place (a restaurant,

coffee shop, outdoor place etc.,) has a good ambience it certainly gives a

good impression to the girl for the boy and if things happen well, we get

satisfied customers. So here we are actually not working to satisfy our

customer but his or her date.


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Interpretation:

On the preference for food, there was a mixed response. Out of 50, 23 said

that food was very important to them, 22 and 5 moderately and least

important respectively. Here we infer that for people, on date, food is the not

the first priority. It is not important to have best of the dishes, but bad food

may spoil their date too. Places with best food may also be very crowdy and

consequently less preferred to go on a date. So we infer that utmost care

should be taken regarding the taste of people on the date as well as quality

of the food. Food may not be best but not bad too.


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Interpretation:

The respond for services at the date were also almost on the same lines as

for food. More than half respondents wanted very good service on a date.

But we are quite focused at the service part as we dont want any kind of

dissatisfaction occurring at the time of the date.

The services will also include any special request by the customer which

makes the date memorable for them and this been the U.S.P. of our

business, giving best service possible is very important for us.


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Interpretation:

The proximity of the place of the place is where we got the most mixed mix

response. It is actually very difficult to infer on such a mixed response. The

respondents are evenly distributed in all the 3 categories. What we can do is

give the required service (customized) to each customer as the cost for

customization in such factors will be less.


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Mean forpreferences for

consumers while going on a Date:

Preferences Mea

n

Ambience 2.9

Food 2.36

Services 2.46

Proximity 2

Interpretation:

Above table shows various mean calculated for each preferences consumers

have while going on a date. From the given four preferences Ambience has

the highest mean of 2.9, which means consumers perceive Ambience as

most significant factor while going on date.

On the other hand, Proximity of the place has least mean of 2 which meansconsumers are not much affected by the proximity of the place as compared

to other above preferences.

After Ambience, respondents rated services as the next most significant

factor over the food provided on the date.


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Such statistical analysis of the rating of preferences help us to identify the

factor which our customers will prefer the most and plan our offerings

accordingly.


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Conclusion:

Firstly we would like to give our conclusion for our market research; our

primary research objective was to check the viability of the Date Doctors Inc.

So we can conclude from our findings that concept of dating services is

viable in the city of Ahmedabad, as 86% of the respondents were open to the

Idea of dating , 92% of the respondents are finding going on a date

interesting and most of the people selected casual option for their purpose

behind going on a date.

Our secondary objective was to identify the preferences of the targetcustomers, and from the findings we can say that Ambience of the place has

the most importance in the mind of customers while going on a date, Night is

the most preferred time for going on a date, different people wants deferent

places as a venue for their date.

These results can help us to provide better offerings to our customers and

create value.


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Questionnaire

Dear respondent,

We appreciate your efforts in filling this questionnaire. We are carrying out a researchas a part of our course of MBA at Amrut Mody School of Management and we assure

you that information shared by you will be used strictly for academic purpose.

1) Name: ______________________________________________________

2) Gender:

Male Female

3) Age:

18 to 21 years 22 to 25 years

26 years & Above

4) Occupation:___________________________________

5) Are you open to the idea of Dating?

Yes No

6) Have you ever been on a Date with someone?

Yes No

7) Do you find going on a Date Interesting?

Yes No

8) How much you can afford to spend on a single date?

_______________________________________________________________

9) How frequently would you like to go on a Date?

Once a month Twice a month

Any other (e.g. once in a year) please specify_______________________


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10)What is your purpose behind going on a Date?

Marriage oriented

Casual

Short term Relationship

11)With whom would you like to go on a Date?

Someone known to you

Stranger

Doesnt matter

12) During what time of the day would you like to go on a Date?

Afternoon Evening

Night

13)Where would you like to go on a Date?

A Restaurant For a Movie

A Coffee shop An Outdoor place

Other, Please Specify ________________________

14)Rate the following factors according to the preference they have for you whilegoing on a Date

1 if it has least significance2 if it has moderate significance3 if it has high significance

Factors 3 2 1

Ambience

Food

Services


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Proximity of the Place

Documents

Date Doctors Final