Organizing a major chunk of the unorganized sector is nothing short of genius. Urban Company is one such name that comes to mind when you think about getting any home service through a formal channel. Urban Company, formerly known as UrbanClap, was founded back in 2014 by Abhiraj Singh Bhal, Raghav Chandra and Varun Khaitan. It’s an online marketplace that bridges the demand-supply gap when it comes to home services like beauty treatments, plumbing, deep cleaning, appliance repairs, and much more. Often, we need repairmen or electricians and don’t know where to find them. And when we do, we don’t know what’s the fair price for it, resulting in one party getting cheated. Urban Company found a way to bring these services to your doorstep through an app, and at fair market prices that proved to be a win-win for all. Today, the brand caters to 2 million Indians across 10 major cities. With 600,000 requests per month and over 100,000 professionals registered, it’s quite obvious that smart use of technology needed to be used for this model to work. Let’s look at some of the AI initiatives that helped Urban Company become the biggest platform for home services.
Microsoft Azure Cognitive Services
For all brands, user experience matters greatly. And when you’re providing a service that involves professionals entering the customer’s home, you’ve got to be extra careful. To ensure the highest level of customer safety, Urban Company adopted Microsoft Azure Cognitive Services. Microsoft uses cutting-edge technology to make the identity verification process faster and efficient. It aims to achieve data security and zero impersonation. Abhiraj Bhal, Co-founder, Urban Company says, “At Urban Company, safety is at the centerstage for us. And as we aim to deliver more than 10 million jobs per month by 2022 in 30+ cities across multiple countries it is important to invest in the right technology that can match our growth. This solution using Microsoft Azure Cognitive Services will benefit consumers the most. It will help us set an automated facial recognition pattern and set a new benchmark for safety standards”. The professional will have to click a selfie before entering the customer’s house. The software will verify that it is the same professional that’s supposed to do the job, thereby eliminating the chance of impersonation. This digital solution has helped them maintain high levels of customer safety that has led to them having an edge over the competition.
Enhancing the User Journey with AI
Urban needed to manage the volumes of requests that come in every day. To schedule this with ease and accuracy, the platform needed to understand the professionals – their routing schedules, chances of cancellation, and quality of previous jobs completed. The AI will gather information as to when the provider is active, when they have sluggish days, and how much a professional is willing to travel for the appointment. The accumulation and analysis of data have helped predict the professional’s behaviour and, in turn, manage the requests schedule. If the scheduling is done correctly, the job will be done correctly, and customers will leave a great review for the provider. “You want to, as a marketplace, support all the key use cases in the real world because ultimately, our business isn’t that of content, it’s actually driving real-world service experience,” says Raghav Chandra, Co-founder of Urban Company.
Controlling Prices with ML
Urban Company uses ML technologies and new-age algorithms to price the services after taking into consideration skill, experience, reviews, and logistics. If the professional has to travel with equipment and spend a lot to reach the customer, the algorithm will not showcase this provider to the customer. Urban Company believes that it’s important for the professional to be compensated fairly for the time and effort put in. It’s common knowledge that if the price of the service increases, the demand may fall, and if the price decreases, the supply may fall. The ML technology keeps an eye on this balance when prices are controlled.
Soft Skill Development with AI
While the providers had all the necessary technical skills, Urban Company decided to empower them with soft skills too. There are training modules on the app ranging from punctuality, additional skillsets, discipline, and code of conduct. It’s not only content, there are activities that the provider needs to perform that make the learning easy. The AI raises an alert if they are skipping the training or lagging behind. The idea is to send them to customers prepared and adhering to brand values. With more professionals signing up with Urban Company, it’s easier to manage them if there’s discipline.
Conclusion
Urban has leveraged AI and ML excellently since inception. They’ve even got an AI that monitors the app in real-time. It will flag glitches and lags in the app as well as in external variables, allowing the team to tend to the issue immediately. Because of these initiatives that the company has been implementing consistently, Urban Company has a higher-than-average NPS of 46%, making them the go-to platform for home services.
Source: indiaai.gov.in
