Acquisition project | UrbanCompany | GrowthX

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Acquisition project | UrbanCompany | GrowthX

Note: For the scope of this assignment -

We are limiting the user base to Indian geography only.
As user behaviour and journey could differ in every aspect for categories, limiting most aspects to beauty category (salon, spa & massage, hair, nails, treatments) and Cleaning as they are very similar in nature, and certain aspects which are common across categories would be considered in that sense.

What is UrbanCompany?

Few insights from UrbanCompany Annual Business Summary

UrbanCompany Revenue

UrbanCompany Funding

Key metrics

How are they very user experience and customer first in their approach

What is the core value proposition?

Convenience
Quality
Variety of services

WOM game is 💪

70% of users mentioned they have recommended UC via WOM or App referral

52% of users heard about UC via WOM

Why have we tagged Home cleaning along with Beauty?

Beauty is more of want based service. Frequency is higher and not need based. Similarly, as a user, you might have house helps at home to cater to cleaning. But UC's professional expertise on cleaning makes them stand out, and hence users prefer Deep cleaning with machines from UC, on a monthly, 3-monthly, 6-monthly etc basis.

Ideal User Journey + How they feel emotionally of a newly signed up user -

Note: We have connected the new user's ideal user journey to the user experience research and certain hypothesis possible in the breakdown. Hence the newly signed up user's journey.
For eg: A lot of focus was on quality - ratings and reviews for retained users, hence our OB breakdown might prioritise ratings & reviews for some pages.

File

ICP

*Note: This is on basis of 6 extensive user conversations

	ICP 1 Mrs.OCD - Prefers 1.Quality 2.Convinience	Mrs.Experimental - Prefers 1. Convinience 2. Quality	Mr.Specific - Prefers 1. Convinience 2. Quality 3. Professional expertise
Age	35-40	26-35	35-40
Gender	Female	Female	Male
Relationship status	Married	Married	Married
Which city are you based in?	Bangalore	Delhi	Bengaluru
Kids?	No	No	No
Income level	20-25L	15L-20L	15L-20L
Avg spending	500-1200	800-1500	500-1200
Most used social apps	instagram, linkedin, facebook, yt music, not go-to news - inshorts, startup funding	Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, no specification news	Insta, Netflix, Hotstar, Prime, YT
How do you spend your weekends	Budding content creator - engaging on insta, travel	Movies, Friends, Restaurants	Movies, Restaurants
How often do you like to pamper yourself?	Not much	Pampering	No
For which service you use Urban Company? (Please select all that apply)	Women's salon and spa - beauty, massage styling, laser treatments, House - Electritian, Plumber, Carpenter, Deep cleaning - house, bathroom, sofa etc., A/C and appliances service and repairs - Chimney, gas stove, water purifier, laptop, microwave, television, referigerator, washing machine, etc.	Women's salon and spa - beauty, massage styling, laser treatments, Men's salon and massage, House - Electritian, Plumber, Carpenter, Deep cleaning - house, bathroom, sofa etc., A/C and appliances service and repairs - Chimney, gas stove, water purifier, laptop, microwave, television, referigerator, washing machine, etc.	Men's salon and massage, House - Electritian, Plumber, Carpenter, Deep cleaning - house, bathroom, sofa etc., A/C and appliances service and repairs - Chimney, gas stove, water purifier, laptop, microwave, television, referigerator, washing machine, etc.
Which services do you use most frequently?	Want based: Women's salon and spa - beauty, massage styling, Deep cleaning - house, Need bathroom, sofa etc Need based: A/C and appliances service and repairs *rest are used as per the needs	Want based: Women's salon and spa - beauty, massage styling Need based: A/C services and repair *rest are used as per the needs	Want based: Men's salon, Deep cleaning - house, bathroom, sofa etc Need based: A/C and appliances service *rest are used as per the needs
Frequency	Every month	Every month	Every 2 months
When did you last use Urban Company app?	Last week	Last month	Used it last week
How did you discover first about Urban Company?	TV, Newspaper, Radio advertisements	Word of mouth	Social Media
What's your preferred interface for using Urban Company?	Mobile Application	Mobile Application	Mobile Application
What makes the booking process easier on Urban Company App?	transperency, ease ux	transperency, can pick a timeslot	Clear UI
Are you subscribed to Urban Company Plus - their Annual Memberships plan?	Yes	No	No
Why do you use Urban Company? (Rank in the order of importance, and think what matters most you) Convenience - I can book it anytime, anywhere, Ease of booking - Easy to use mobile app, Service quality - I will get trusted experiences, Variety of services - My go to app for all self care and home services, Price effective, Professional expertise	1. Convenience - I can book it anytime, anywhere 2. Service quality - I will get trusted experiences 3. Price effective 4. Variety of services - My go to app for all self care and home services 5. Professional expertise 6. Ease of booking - Easy to use mobile app	1. Convenience - I can book it anytime, anywhere 2. Ease of booking - Easy to use mobile app 3. Service quality - I will get trusted experiences 4. Variety of services - My go to app for all self care and home services 5. Price effective 6. Professional expertise	1. Convenience - I can book it anytime, anywhere 2. Service quality - I will get trusted experiences 3. Professional expertise 4. Price effective 5. Ease of booking - Easy to use mobile app 6. Variety of services - My go to app for all self care and home services
Features you really like	1. Transperency in ratings & reviews, while filtering it 'my area' 2. Detailed info for services	1. Slot picking and express service 2. Transperency in everything - prices (repairs), ratings & reviews 3. SOP followed	1. SOP followed 2. Transperency in everything - prices (repairs), ratings & reviews
Any average / bad experiences	Plumbing, Electrician	Plumbing	Found massage ok, did not get the ambiance feel like outside
Have you recommended UC to any user?	Yes, via WOM	Yes, via WOM	Yes, via WOM
On a scale of 1 to 5, with 1 being the least satisfied and 5 being extremely satisfied, how would you rate your overall satisfaction with Urban Company?	4	5	4
Willingness to pay	Moderate Since many categories has sub-category categorization in terms of prices, she generally prefers affordable or premium depending on service	High Opts for commonly used premium services and not luxury or affordable Might prefer affordable for a few services only	High Prefers premium. Does not mind paying good amount till he gets professional expertise and value for money. Might prefer affordable for a few categories
Time Vs Money	Money	Time	Time

JTBD & User goals

	Functional	Personal	Financial	Social
ICP 1 Mrs.OCD - Prefers 1.Quality 2.Convinience	Gets waxing done frequently. Less use of other pampering services	NA	Looks for price effective skus in the categories. For eg: If she sees Classic category chocolate waxing for 450rs and Prime category honey waxing at 550rs and chocolate waxing at 600rs, she will go with Classic chocolate waxing	NA
Mrs.Experimental - Prefers 1. Convinience 2. Quality	Very focussed on convinience, has always loved the fact that she can get the service whenever she wants. Anytime, anywhere.	Likes pampering herself with frequent mani-pedi, massages, facial	NA	NA
Mr.Specific - Prefers 1. Convenience 2. Quality 3. Professional expertise	Focussed on convenience. He likes the flexibility of selecting the slots.	Prefers professional expertise. For eg: They have a house help who can do the bathroom cleaning but he prefers UC for it's professional expertise. Similarly, for spa & massage, he prefers only leg and head massage which he calls 'convenient' and not full spa because he misses the ambiance with UC.	NA	NA

Certain user experience specific pain points to consider - Based on UX research

*Note while some points were told upfront by users, some were validated with certain hypothesis of their previous answers.

Cluttered UI on browsing on category pages
- Category pages are where a newly signed up user could be thinking much so a lot of unclear information can add to the cognitive load to make a decision.
- This gets really confusing for users, because the master-skus (Pedicure, Manicure etc) are not highlighted clearly. The font size is more or less the same for all categorization. The colour is not different too, which makes it difficult to read. Sometimes the positions of Master-sku also keep changing.
- Opportunity: Make UI simpler, maybe different font colour, size, type can help. Highlight the master-skus correctly. 3 out of 6 ICPs mentioned this has been confusing for them.
Lack of sub-skus differentiation
- Category pages are where a newly activated user could be thinking much so a lot of unclear information can add to the cognitive load to make a decision.
- On the browsing page, there are 2 types in Manicure and Pedicure, Elysian rose and Elysian chocolate, with the similar names interpretation is that there is no major except the flavour, which can give a good aroma and feel. But when clicked on 'view details' , differentiation was distinctively shown.
2 out of 6 ICPs mentioned added cognitive load for this
Auto-adding membership in the cart is annoying for users
- A newly signed up user, is in a happy + hurry state to finish the checkout, and has built trust to book the service. BUT!! Suddenly, a membership is added. First time user who has never experienced a service, is asked to purchase membership. This is really going to disappoint them, and auto-add can be identified as misleading and trust is almost broken. :(
- If you're not a member, this could be something you can relate to. Everytime you add a service, a membership is auto-added. This bothers users, because they face this everytime they want to buy a service. Some users felt the cart can be misleading as it should be only showing the items which they added to the cart as an authority and not someone else. Users remove it everytime.
- Opportunity: If this is shown to user 'x' number of times, and user has still not purchased membership, we can simply not show it at the cart, and show it in some other way, where they would actually make a purchase. 4 users out of 6 don't have membership and it was annoying for them.
Extra charge from 6pm is disappointing as they feel it's too early for late hours
- A newly signed up user, is again in a happy mode, to select the convenient slot and fulfilling it's convenient goal.. BUT!! We are charging 150 extra for 6pm slots. Isn't this is reverse of convenience? I have to pay 10-30% extra to get my convenient slot? How is this convenient? Trust broken again.
- While it's understandable that professionals should not be working late and it's for their safety, but for our ICPs, most working women, this could be a problem. 6pm is too early. and especially if the service is short <1hr, then it might not feel viable.
- Opportunity: For 6 and 6:30pm, this can be done at a service time level. If user's cart has total services which takes '>x' time, only then it should be shown to the user. Additionally, UC can identify 'Unsafe zones' (They already track demand zone level), and apply it more strictly to unsafe zones instead of all zones.
Go through the whole process for the repeat service
- Most retained users have fixed services that they always opt for. Users have to go through the whole process of search, browsing, finding and selecting again (>2mins). They find it a bit inconvenient, repetitive, and time consuming.
- Opportunity: We can simply add this in the front page as a quick option for users.
- Risk: Could limit the users to explore other skus/services. In this case, after they select the repeat option, we can simply take users to the same browsing page, while the 'checkout' option could be hovering / floating below at the screen in case users wants to directly jump on checkout.
Unable to find repeat professionals
- Most users complained about unable to find their repeat professionals. They would like to prefer repeat over auto assigned option, but since they don't get that option enough, they just go with auto-selected as the 2nd and only option. This could lead to drop-offs, in case users are certain about their professionals.
Loading takes time
- Sometimes users mentioned loading takes time and back button takes you to 2-4 screens back which increases the cognitive load.

Onboarding teardown

Metrics to track

UrbanCompany - Onboarding teardown (4).pdf

Onboarding steps

Primary metrics

Time to value -

Metric: Category page browsing in 24-48 hours.

Why?

Most users mentioned they booked the service for a need based service or the service they can't find outside easily and hence it was urgent.

Secondary metrics

Activation metrics

Primary metrics

Net booking (Completed service, Not cancelled / rescheduled) within 72-96hrs
Rating the professional >=4
Why?
65% of UC users rate the professional as per our user research and a trusted source.
Demarcation of >=4 to define good and valued user experience. 5 out of 6 users mentioned the significance of 4+ ratings and how they tend to give 4.5-5
Once in 3 months for want based service, Once in 3 months for need based service

Why?
While want based services are limited but have a higher frequency due to industry demand

Need based services has a very large portfolio, and let's agree some or the other thing can be broken in the house quarterly.

Secondary metrics

Check-out drop-offs in case of extra 150rs on most preferred slots

Not getting slots

Retention metrics

Users booking a particular service quarterly
Why?
Shows that they value a service the most and it brings them back to the platform
70% of services are rated
Why?
Once a user, has used UC and found the value in standardization, they would get accustomed to rating the service
Increase in breadth, using <=1 service quarterly other than they generally use
Why?
4 out of 6 users interviewed said they started to use all services one by one, after they gained trust in 1-2 services

Feature usage/adoption

Ratings & Reviews
1. No.of clicks and views on ratings and reviews on category page and post booking assigned professional's page
Why?
5 out of 6 users have priortised quality as the 1st or 2nd factor with conveinience

Availability of slots
No.of clicks and views

Availability of evening slots in weekdays and weekends should have a 80% slots availability
Why?
4 out of 6 users have priortised convenience as the 2nd factor along with quality

'View details'
No.of clicks and views

1. 4 out of 6 users mentioned they went through all the details while booking a new service