With $500K funding, after-sales service platform HandyHome gears up to process 800 daily transactions soon
After-sales service is a huge problem in India. The brands are very conscious of what happens till a sale is made, but after that the customer is left for themselves. Over the past few years, a slew of startups has emerged to offer better post-sales service on home & kitchen appliances and other gadgets.
One such startup is Mumbai-based HandyHome which lets users book brand-authorized repairs and other services for electronic appliances online. The company started early in 2015 and since then it has scaled up fast. Speaking about the traction, Harmin Shah, Co-founder, HandyHome says,
Starting with one-two orders per day in the last week of March, we now cater to 150 plus households everyday via our app and website. Over the last month, we have catered to 4000 households, with 30% repeat users.
The company recently raised half a million USD from Bessemer Venture Partners and Kae Capital. The investment was principally agreed in April and was finally closed in the first week of June. Harmin adds,
The very first time we met these investors, they showed immense enthusiasm about the idea and believed a lot in the team. We knew right from that moment that we would click together, and hence we wasted no time in getting associated with them.
With HandyHome, one can order a repair in a couple of clicks by selecting the appliance, brand, and a few basic details. The brand's authorized service technician will be at his/her doorstep. Harmin points out,
We cover over 40 appliances on our platform, and we ensure service by multiple follow ups and tracking. It's a simple ‘click it to fix it’ concept.
For the brands, it acts as a channel to bring in service requests. Brands have now realized that users are shifting to mobile, and there is a strong need for a partner who could aggregate these services for the end users. Harmin outlines,
We have access to the brand's internal CRM database, where we directly register a complaint we have received from the customer and make follow ups/track status for the customers.
Importantly, HandyHome helps brands get customers who otherwise go to the unauthorized local repair shops, and also act as a useful tool for customer satisfaction.
Revenue model
HandyHome’s strategic alliances with the brands have opened up a lot of revenue streams for both the parties. “Our revenue is directly proportional to the number of requests we cater to. We're also working on a stable model with retailers, where we provide them support for solving their customers' repair problems,” says Harmin.
There are other multiple streams which HandyHome can explore, but the team’s current priority is to improve the product and reach out to a maximum audience.
Differentiators and USPs over competitors
Unlike other startups in this space, HandyHome has a unique model of providing services from the OEMs (the brands). Because of this, it has a lot of advantages like reliability and consistency of service. Harmin points out,
Electronics, as a vertical, is quite different (in terms of skill set) from other home services (plumbing, painting, etc), as there is a lot of sophistication and complexity involved. We believe that problems of electronics repair has to be tackled separately.
The company is using funds to ramp up to 800 plus transactions by the next month. “Our goal right now is to solve this problem completely in Mumbai. Within the next two months, we aim to expand to 10 different cities, including Bengaluru, Delhi, Pune, Hyderabad, Kolkata and Chennai,” adds Harmin.
