Electro-stuck? One Call To Solve It All And In The Comfort Bind Them!

What’s common when the new gadget goes kaput, or the old one needs a servicing? The sentiment of frustration. We all have been struggling with poor service from brand authorized service centres for a long time – it becomes a pain to deal with an appliance that has developed problems. Right from logging a complaint on the brand’s toll-free number to the time that an engineer came for repair, the whole process is torturous to say the least!The service engineers never turn up on time which affects our schedule many times, ask for all sorts of documents as proof of purchase and god forbid if they take a part with them for replacement or repair, we are sure it would take a long time for it to come back to us!

This is when IIM Lucknow grad Prerna Bhutani decided to put an end to this rather annoying ordeal. She co-founded One Call, a one-stop service that offers end-to-end solutions for all appliance related needs that a customer has. In conversation with Abhilasha Dafria for Yourstory.in, Prerna tells us more about how all the answers for our techo-troubles are just one-call away!

Prerna, please introduce yourself to our readers.

I am a software engineer, with experience in the IT Industry. After working with TCS for 2.5 years, I went for an MBA at IIM Lucknow. From campus I joined theAditya Birla Group in their LEAD-LEAP program. I worked in the group for 2 years across different businesses and functions in India and abroad, before quitting and starting One Call with K C Anand.

And what exactly is One Call?

One Call is unique concept in the Indian market – a single service that offers end-to-end solutions for all appliance related needs that a customer has. One Call helps customers at every stage of their dealing with appliances, be it making a buying decision – issues like which model to buy, where to buy from, how much will it cost, getting special discounts etc.; or servicing and maintaining it – problems like whom to call in case of a break-down, coordinating with the service engineer for a suitable time of visit, ordering spares, cleaning an appliance etc. Whether taking it to the service centre – wading through the city traffic to take a small appliance like the mobile phone or an IPod for service or keeping track of warranties and AMCs and even selling a used/old appliances, we do it all.

What if the product is under warranty?

Consider this scenario: you have a mobile phone under warranty that has developed problems and you have asked One Call to help with it. In this case, we will pick-up the mobile phone from your home/ office along with the proof of purchase, and take it to the brand authorized service centre. We will deposit it at the service centre, and follow up on the status of repair till the time it is ready. After this, we will check if it has been rectified, pick it up from the authorized service centre, and deliver it back to you. All this while, you are kept updated about the status of repair of your phone. This way you get the convenience of getting your phone repaired from the comfort of your home. You need not pay anything for the actual repair since the product is under warranty. For this entire transaction of pick-up-drop, we charge a nominal amount of Rs 100. However, if you are an annual member of One Call (i.e. if you have paid a subscription amount upfront), we will not charge you anything for any number of times you use One Call in your subscription period.

Could you tell us a little about your tie-ups?

We have networks with the brand authorized service centres, as well as reliable private technicians and vendors in each city. This way, we are able to provide our customers with options in case they require alternative solutions to their requirements.

How do your customers reach out to you?

We have a toll-free number 1800 200 2000 on which customers can call, and register requests with our customer relationship executives. Customers can also register with their details on our website, and we get in touch with them within 24 hours.

How does the revenue model work?

We earn revenues from our customers in two ways- The Pay-Per-Use option, where customers can use any of our services, and pay us every time they use a service on a case-to-case basis; or the Annual Subscription option, where customers can also take up an annual membership with One Call, and use the service unlimited number of times within the subscription period. They can also add new appliances to their existing subscription free of cost.

Are there other players in the market doing similar things? What is your USP?As far as I know, there is no player in the market offering a comprehensive range of appliance related services that we provide. At times a few retailers do promise to assist customers with repair related issues when they buy at their outlets, but such players are very few and are not completely service oriented.

Our USP is that we are a one-stop-shop for all appliance-related requirements. We call ourselves ‘The Appliance Secretary’, who takes away the pain in dealing with appliance related matters, so that our customers can spend time in doing better things.

Can you share with us some interesting trends about the market that you are trying to capture? 

We have noticed that many a times, while dealing with appliances, people don’t know whom to go to. For example, we’ve had many cases where people have bought products from abroad, which developed a small fault, and they did not know whom to take them to since they did not know a reliable technician who could fix the problem. Or many times, people have told us that they wanted to upgrade to a new appliance, but did not know what to do with the old one.

We are trying to provide a professional single-point-solution to customers for all such needs and more. We aim to help them in every possible way, so that their appliance needs get attended to comfortably, without them having to do the running around themselves.

So what triggered this idea?

We ourselves suffered the indifference and incompetence of technical service providers but the final nail in the coffin was when Anand (the co-founder) bought a home security system and called up the manufacturer for a technical issue within a week of its installation. It was a sophisticated system and could only be handled by an expert. He kept waiting for the engineers, who finally visited after 3 months! They said they needed to check a component and took it with them. The component got delivered back after many months!

That is when Anand called me and we decided to launch One Call. We had been toying with this idea for some time and wanted to create a service which will never let the customer go through what we had been experiencing in our respective cities – me in Mumbai and Anand in Chennai. Thus was born the concept of One Call.

What were the challenges you faced while starting up? Tell me about your initial hurdles.

The biggest challenge in the initial days was making people understand why they need a service like One Call. Since it is a concept which is very new to the Indian market, people took a long time to accept it. But once they experienced the convenience by using One Call, they loved it. That’s what gave us the encouragement to push forward.

Another challenge has been getting the right people, and making them aligned to the vision of the company. It has been a slow process, yet very interesting and fulfilling. It is very satisfying to see people whom you have trained and spent time with, live the vision of the company every day.

Since when are you operational? How big is your team? Are you looking at hiring?

We started operations in Chennai in June 2010. We now have a team size of 23 people, and are looking at increasing the size to 30 by the end of the current financial year, based on the growth that we are seeing.

How many cities do you operate in all across India?

We have our corporate office in Chennai. We currently offer services in 3 cities in India – Chennai, Bangalore and Gurgaon.

Did you fundraise to startup?

No, we are a boot-strapped company right now. However, we are looking to raise funds now to fuel our growth plans.

So what is the next big step? Do you intend to take this pan-India?

Definitely, we want to take this service pan-India. We have already been getting queries from all across the country, with people asking us to help them with appliance issues that they do not have the time to attend. We would also be looking at adding any more services that customers may require help with.

For more information please check out OneCall and do share your thoughts by dropping a comment here!

- Abhilasha Dafria