Tap-receive-pay-rate driving instant gratification

With today’s lifestyle being in a state of upheaval due to the advent of mobile application service culture and the pandemic, a pivotal shift has taken place in how people perceive the service industry.

From a culture of hire-receive-pay to a culture of tap-receive-pay-rate, we have become an instant gratification type of consumer.

Food, groceries, medication and transport, all kicked off the mobile application era of urban lifestyles. The behemoth-like industry growth spurred on the next generation of services, which have now expanded to include home cleaning, handy-men and facilities maintenance, personal beauty and grooming at home.

In the Middle East and the UAE specifically, it is now common to see working professionals hiring domestic help using a mobile application. In a recent study conducted, 40% of users use mobile applications to book beauty services at home and 50% use mobile applications to book a cleaning service at home.

The speed of booking, ease of payment and the ability to rate service providers makes the entire process a necessity to a busy lifestyle.

And it is a lucrative industry — the online on-demand home-services market value topped $3.4 billion globally in 2021, according to Data Bridge Market Research, with expectations for that figure to double by 2029. In the UAE alone, the growth of the sector is at a CAGR of 9.7% from 2021 to 2026.

As with any mass-impact consumer service, there is always the consideration of customer service quality. Post-pandemic consumers – mostly millennials and Gen Z, brought up in a mobile-native environment of instant feedback – are invested in providing feedback on any service used, as they are prone to repeat orders. The time involved in searching for new service providers is not palatable to the consumer that craves instant gratification.

In light of this need for reliability, many service providers are now moving to data-heavy decision-making, where the layers of information customers share on the mobile application help improve services. Data allows them to understand the must-have and the nice-to-have customer demands, helping the mobile application predict customer purchase patterns. It also lets them understand areas of improvement, helping them train their staff to provide greater service quality.

65% of consumers are known to sever ties with brands over bad service experiences. Entities use extensive data collected from the mobile application to enhance the skills and service quality of professionals.

The hybrid mode of work is now overtaking the world’s more traditional forms of work and the current workforce is only too eager to take advantage of it. This means there will be a consistent increase in demand for data-driven home services contractors who can take steps to mitigate customer complaints and enhance their offerings and experiences.

One method to do so is by incorporating contractor training into the business’ operations, something many providers realised during the pandemic. The ideal way comprises a five-step process including screening of interested parties, training in hard and soft skills, practical demonstrations of learned skills, a final exam that assesses their readiness and, finally, real-time customised re-training based on consumer feedback once they are live on these platforms. This is the way forward for the industry to ensure customer loyalty and word-of-mouth marketing.

With billions of dollars in growth projected over the coming few years, and with the region’s young working population growing fast, the need of the hour is a strong data-driven attrition mitigation strategy, and on-demand home service providers in the region need to be ready for this.

Key takeaways

• Online on-demand home-services market value topped $3.4 billion globally in 2021.
• In UAE, the growth of the sector is at a CAGR of 9.7% from 2021 to 2026.
• As with any mass-impact consumer service, there is always the consideration of customer service quality.
• Millennials and Gen Z, are invested in providing feedback on any service used.
• The time involved in searching for new service providers is not palatable to the consumer that craves instant gratification.