Where could UrbanClap head next?

I have been thinking on what UC could improve on & change in the app. I realised while these tiny increments help the product move forward, the people with internal access to data and users have obviously uncovered them & will be actively working on these. I tried to think of bigger features/ strategic positioning that UC could do, this is a result of that thought experiment.

a) Move-In Package :

Target audience: New to City, 22–30, doesn’t know the local language, found an independent cheap accommodation.

Why build this: Every year Bangalore itself has a growth rate of ~4%, most of which is contributed by people moving into the city. There is an opportunity to capture the young app savvy people on UC, this relationship could go on to prove a long term retention & low churn rate if job done well.

Feature overview: The app has an icon with “Moving In” written under it, clicking it would ask you for services you need; Movers & Packers, Cleaning, Kitchen set-up, Electrician ( washing machine, Water filters), Wi-Fi(Brand recommendation), Maids, Cooks; You then give your address & preferred time-slot & Boom! Just like that, 3 clicks gets you from a house to home versus 10 calls you would have to place & the information you would have to gather prior to the calling. All simply laid out.

Success Measures:

1. No.of users/MAU users
2. If retention of these users is higher or significantly better than other sections of the app.
3. Ad performance to Installs to Conversions for this feature.
4. If it hits your magic number of services a customer avails to be considered loyal, just via this master service.

b) Apna Apartment:

Target Audience: Smaller apartments (20 homes), don’t have a proper system in place to address issues of the building, local plumbers and others don’t do a satisfactory job.

Why build this: An opportunity to capture an entire apartment is huge, this means that every household & residents could also be possible users. As, residents move in & out, this channel will also work as a passive acquisition channel. The apartments counts are rising as we speak, although this will involve a bit of Sales team to go and push partnership, on a larger scale it will be worth it.

Feature overview: Will require apartments to signup as partners, will also need users to give data on which apartment partner they are residing in. Any household work can be passed on via the app & will be assigned partners that live in the vicinity (therefore may able to onboard more partners) and are rated very well. The visits for pest control, Gas checks, other maintenance activities are auto scheduled for the apartment.

Success Measures:

1. Number of apartments signed up
2. Number of residents availing service
3. Non apartment services availed by residents (beauty etc)

c) Customer care portal — Improvements:

This is not a new feature, but some improvements that I think could help move the NPS of users. I have noticed that most responses on Playstore, have a very standard response asking for the contact details of the person. While, I understand this is need to check the internal data I feel, if it was more contextual, it would also help the users feel listened. In this case, two things could be done,

1. An assurance that the user’s feature suggestion is noted & will be looked into
2. Rescheduling her appointment or giving her a coupon for a beauty service could easily help turn this around.

When looking to better Playstore results, I have seen the smallest things can move the rating towards positive outcome. Additionally it would also help to have quicker response to customer queries, so it doesnt’ reach Playstore as often, by maybe using services like — Verloop

d) Partner app — Check in process:

This might be an ops process problem, since most people address problems around not being verified, not getting enough leads or poor customer support. While there are obvious things that I, as an outsider cannot understand about this internal system, I have some suggestions that may help here.

1. Assigning a chat bot & addressing queries on the app in itself, especially frequent concerns raised by the partners.
2. Some handholding on how to convert more leads or how to present their profiles better to get picked for their respective services.
3. Holding meetups & having high earning partners to share their ways, it will increase trust, build community & more over allow partners to share vital concerns offline & not online as much, where we could lose the potential partner signups’ trust.

What do you think UC should do next? I’d love to know what you think! :) Reach me on twitter!