Ab fab — UrbanClap finds the perfect fitness trainer just for you

Heaven can be defined as perfect chemistry. Be it with partners, family, friends, bosses and colleagues, or even professionals who make your life and lifestyle possible. And perfect bliss lies in finding reliable personalised service providers. With our busy schedules and hectic regimes, locating good local services, such as salon professionals, photographers, tutors or fitness trainers, is a challenge. Bespoke may be all the rage, but finding that perfect match on your own is a tough call.

But be blessed that you exist in the 21^st Century: there are service providers who specialise in service providers. One such is UrbanClap, a platform that homes in on the right person for the right service, particularly the all-important aspect of fitness and wellness. These are important requirements in our lives, given our sedentary jobs, erratic food habits, and stress-inducing deadlines. The way we’re tied to our jobs and commute, we urban dwellers are hard-pressed for time to hit the gym. Increasingly, young and not-so-young professionals are on the lookout for personal trainers who will push their bodies – and thus their minds – to a reasonable degree of fitness. But again, the challenge is to find someone suitably qualified, and within one’s budget, and available at a convenient time. And, crucially, someone trustworthy enough to be allowed into the home.

Tailored both ways

Personal fitness trainers are among the non-standardised services that UrbanClap offers. Once a user comes on board by downloading the app, he or she can view the profiles of fitness professionals, and connect with the most relevant ones by answering questions specifying their needs. The platform assesses the customer’s requirements and aligns them with the right professional. Simultaneously, it looks at the match from the professionals’ perspective and connects them with prospective customers who would be interested in their services.

Happy discovery

Yasser Raja is a Bengaluru-based personal trainer who is on the UrbanClap platform. A former HR professional and corporate trainer, he suffered a severe lower back injury in an accident. He turned to fitness to regain his strength and soon discovered it was his true calling. He went on to get certifications from the Indian Institute of Fitness Training, a medical association, and the American College of Sports Medicine.

Yasser says, “People in India want to get fit but are unwilling to invest money to do that. For me, this is a second start in life. My background is in corporate training, and I was planning to move abroad to start my own soft-skills training company. UrbanClap gave me the confidence I needed to become a fitness trainer. Usually, people have to be forced to attend soft-skills training programmes, but fitness is something they come looking for by themselves.”

“More that 90 percent of my clients have come via UrbanClap. I foresee myself as one of the top trainers in India in the next five years, and none of this would have been possible without UrbanClap. Traditionally, being a fitness trainer was something people looked down upon. But this platform gave me so much encouragement I’m now planning to compete in national and international fitness competitions this year,” he adds.

At the other end of the spectrum, Harikrishan has been working with Yasser on his fitness for four months after connecting with him through the UrbanClap app. He is thrilled with the experience of using the platform. “UrbanClap is a very easy and convenient app to use. After placing the request, I got responses from various trainers. It was so easy to find Yasser, who is a really good trainer and has a good profile, and I hired him right after the trial.”

Matchmaking process

UrbanClap is able to achieve high success rates because of an extensive onboarding process for service providers as a precursor to such matchmaking.

All professionals have to submit a comprehensive business profile, which is then verified. Once a candidate completes his or her profile -- which includes personal details, proper ID, certifications, and proof of work experience -- the UrbanClap team conducts a rigorous quality check before the professional is allowed to go live on the platform. Apart from this, UrbanClap also keeps detailed information about their history, their likelihood to convert, the kind of customers they prefer, their pricing brackets, their availability, and their responsiveness.

When customers logon to the app, they specify their requirements by answering some questions and looking at a few profiles to get a feel of the quality of professionals available. Behind the scenes, all kinds of information are captured, and then used to formulate matches. And within seconds, the matched professionals are contacted.

Smart algorithm

UrbanClap’s algorithm is able to decipher customer preferences in terms of service, pricing bracket, home location, availability of professionals in that vicinity, and their rating and quality to make accurate matches between the clients and service providers. Professionals can also choose to connect with the customers of their liking, making this a two-way match.

This creates an intent to engage on both sides, and within hours, customers hear back from the processionals themselves and are able to quickly make an informed decision by going through their portfolios, short work videos, and reviews. Consequently, both sides skip a large part of the tedious and time-consuming work, and can have meaningful conversations towards a tangible result.

“We use a lot of data to understand what the customer requires, predict the likelihood of a professional quoting for a request, to evaluate the fairness of the business opportunity, and then calculate the most relevant matches. The data available and the algorithm offer a 360º view to drive the hiring with a very high match rate; this reduces a lot of manual work in selecting the right person,” says Raghav Chandra, Co-founder, Urban Clap .

The process ensures that only the most qualified matches are made, with a high degree of trust and compatibility of needs. It helps circumvent redundant and often unreliable processes, and leverages transparency in price, behaviour and feedback to help anyone using the platform make the right match.

Now, sir, madam, would that be for your abs or those spare tyres? As long as you know what you are looking for, the rest can be entrusted with UrbanClap.

This article is sponsored by Urban Clap.