Urban Company: User Onboarding Teardown
Who books home services, what job they hire Urban Company for, and where the first booking flow helps or gets in the way.
- Year: 2024
- Industry: Home Services
- Type: UX & Growth Teardown
- Platform: Android App
What is Urban Company?
Urban Company is an Indian online platform that connects customers with professional service providers for various home services, such as cleaning, beauty, repairs, and maintenance.
What is their value proposition?
To provide convenient, reliable, and high-quality home services by connecting customers with verified and skilled professionals, ensuring a seamless and trustworthy experience for both service providers and users.
Competitors
- Housejoy: Offers a variety of home services like beauty, cleaning, plumbing, electrical, and appliance repair.
- Bro4u: Provides home services including cleaning, repairs, pest control, and personal services like grooming and fitness.
- Zimmber: Offers services like home cleaning, repairs, painting, and pest control.
- QuikrEasy: Formerly QuikrServices, part of the Quikr platform, providing cleaning, repairs, and beauty services.
- Sulekha: A digital platform for local services, including cleaning, repairs, and pest control.
- Mr. Right: Specializes in home services like cleaning, appliance repair, and pest control.
- Timesaverz: Provides home services including cleaning, repairs, and beauty services.
- Helpr: Offers home cleaning, repairs, and other personal services.
- Cheep: A platform for home services including cleaning, repairs, and beauty treatments.
For this exercise, I have covered only B2C customers, e.g. home makers and professionals.
Ideal customer profiles
| Attribute | ICP 1 | ICP 2 | ICP 3 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Name | Shruti Singh | Anita Desai | Vikram Patel |
| Age | 27 | 45 | 38 |
| Gender | Primary: Female · Secondary: Male | Primary: Female · Secondary: Male | Primary: Male · Secondary: Female |
| Location | Bangalore, Karnataka | New Delhi, Delhi | Pune, Maharashtra |
| Occupation | Software Engineer | Home Maker | Business Owner |
| Income level | 60k+ PM | 50k+ PM (household) | 2 lakh+ PM |
| Education | Bachelor's in Computer Science | Bachelor's in Arts | Master's in Business Administration |
| Marital status | Single | Married | Married |
| Household size | 1 (lives alone or with roommate) | 5 (Anita, her husband, two children, and mother-in-law) | 3 (Vikram, his wife, and one child) |
| Tech proficiency | Very high (works in tech industry) | Moderate (uses smartphone for basic needs) | High (uses technology for business and personal needs) |
| Primary needs | Grooming services, appliance repair, fitness training | Elderly care, deep cleaning services, pest control | Commercial cleaning services, AC repair, plumbing |
| Apps used most | Instagram, YouTube, X; all OTT platforms; shopping sites, Blinkit, Swiggy | Shopping sites, Blinkit, Swiggy; all OTT platforms; LinkedIn, Facebook, YouTube, X | LinkedIn, Facebook, YouTube, X |
| Most-used features | Salon, spa, massage; electrician, plumber, carpenter | Salon, spa, massage; cleaning & pest control | Electrician, plumber, carpenter; AC service; painting & home decor |
| Pain points | Lack of time for household chores; finding trustworthy, skilled professionals for grooming and home maintenance | Finding reliable, caring professionals for self and elderly care; keeping a clean, pest-free home | Finding reliable office maintenance; quick response time for repairs; balancing work and home life |
| Willingness to pay | Moderate: prioritises value for money and compares with local store prices | Moderate: prioritises value for money and compares with local store prices | High: wants to save time at the expense of money |
| Hobbies | Gaming, photography, traveling | Gardening, cooking, watching TV | Golf, networking, reading business books |
| Preferred communication | WhatsApp, SMS | Phone calls, SMS, WhatsApp | Email, phone calls |
Jobs to be done
After talking to 25+ Urban Company customers and going through Play Store reviews where users mentioned both their frustrations and moments of satisfaction, these quotes were the highlights:
- Great app, very convenient for getting services done at home without having to step out.
- I love how easy it is to book a service and have professionals come to my home at a time that suits me.
- Every service provider I've used has been professional and skilled, making the whole process stress-free.
- Used the app to organize home repairs before hosting a family event. Everything was fixed perfectly, and on time.
- Great for busy schedules. I can book a service while at work, and it's done by the time I get home.
- I love that I can spend my weekends relaxing instead of doing chores. Urban Company takes care of everything.
- Get professional service at home: Users want access to professional cleaning, beauty, and repair services in the comfort of their homes, which matters most to people who don't have the time or means to travel for them.
- Access reliable and certified services: Users look for trustworthy, skilled professionals. Urban Company's background checks and mandatory training for professionals are a significant draw.
| User persona | Primary · Functional | Secondary · Personal | Secondary · Social |
|---|---|---|---|
| ICP 1 | Get professional service at the comfort of my home | Need to look good at the party in the evening | I look good and everyone notices it |
| ICP 2 | Get professional service at the comfort of my home because I don't know how to drive | Need to look good at a family event and organise the home for guests | Be seen as a good wife and enhance personal image and living space |
| ICP 3 | Get a professional to fix home issues without getting my hands messy | Get work done while I spend quality time with kids and wife | I get things done and everyone appreciates it |
Activation metric hypotheses
- Users who book at least 1 service in their first 7 days. People who book at least one service are more likely to interact with the platform and see the quality of service Urban Company provides.
- Users who re-book the same service within 45 days. This shows the user likes the core value proposition of the app and is more likely to be retained.
- Users who rate their first service 4 stars or more. A satisfied user is more likely to book another service once trust is built.
- Users who book a 2nd time within 30 days. Services like salon, spa and massage are used more than twice in 30 days, so a user who books again in that window is more likely to be retained long term.
- Users who subscribe to Plus within 90 days of signing up. Subscribing in this window signals perceived long-term value and willingness to commit to repeat purchases. Personal care has short repeat cycles and home services longer ones, so 90 days covers both.
Onboarding teardown
Screen 1: Category Selection
What works
- Auto detects location
- Clearly articulated top categories with graphical representation for older people
- Very clean interface, CTA-driven search bar
What doesn't
- Most popular category for new users, bathroom cleaning, is not put here
- Too many options, repeated by progressive disclosure as well; need to reduce pathways
Opportunities
- "Buy" CTA for the RO water purifiers
- "Water purifier" is a more searched keyword than "RO"
- "Book service" CTA for quicker action
Screen 2: Product Selection
What works
- Good choice of emoticons for easier product selection
What doesn't
- Selling the Native purifier before I've experienced the service or have enough trust in the brand
- No CTA on how to move ahead
Opportunities
- Mono-colour icons feel inactive; add colour to refrigerator and washing machine repair
- Could have used a CTA to select a service instead of repeating the header "Appliance repair"
Screen 3: Service Selection
What works
- Addition of video at the top is really helpful
- Ratings and number of bookings completed create trust
- Spare part price list is great for reference
What doesn't
- Coupons are not very clear on what's actionable
- UC Cover is for reassurance and belongs on the booking confirmation page
- Could have avoided images for service sections when the detailed view is right below
Opportunities
- Use the labour illusion effect to relate to the detailed work SOP via video snippets at the top
Aha moment: Spare pricing, 30-day guarantee, service SOP video and UC Cover showcase immense transparency, quality and trust.
Screen 4: Sub-service Selection
What works
- Warranty period added subtly, in assuring green and very well placed
- Precise information about service details
- Anchor effect nudges people to buy the best service for just ₹200 more
What doesn't
- The share button is meant to help multiple household members decide, but the shared link has no clear action
Opportunities
- Put a "Popular" tag on the Foam-jet service; it's the most commonly picked and aids the anchor effect
Screen 5: Safety Guidelines
What doesn't
- Breaks the booking flow; could have been a checkbox on the service add-ons page
Screen 6: Service Add-ons
What works
- UC Cover icon well placed here, adds to trust
What doesn't
- Asking me to keep adding information is frustrating; this is not quick
- People usually book basic services because they don't know the actual fault, so this is too much information
Opportunities
- Place this screen next to Sub-service Selection
- Use a storytelling or goal gradient effect to keep users engaged
- Bundling services for other products here would generate more revenue
Screen 7: Payment Page
What doesn't
- First-time users would not be willing to add card details
- Most core users book once or twice a month, so wallet or card integration is highly unlikely
Opportunities
- Confirm service details in the top half of the screen so users don't go back to re-check
- Free cancellation prompt here to reduce drop-off
Screen 8: Booking Confirmation
What works
- We did it! Finally!
- UC Cover promise gives good assurance on what the service covers
- Ability to connect directly to a supervisor
What doesn't
- Decision fatigue: choosing across 8+ screens to book a low-frequency service is just too much effort
Opportunities
- This page could be used to explore other offerings, or is it great the way it is?
- A good way to showcase multiple products under one roof for the future
Metrics to track
- D7, D30, D60, D90 retention: Shows whether users keep booking services like home cleaning, beauty treatments and appliance repairs, a sign of ongoing engagement and satisfaction.
- Monthly active users per cohort: Many services (salon at home, cleaning, repairs) are needed monthly, so MAU per cohort shows whether new users find consistent value.
- M1, M3, M6 transactions per cohort: Transactions at 1, 3 and 6 months show how users fold Urban Company into routines like monthly beauty treatments or quarterly deep cleaning.
- Repeat booking % per service category: Reveals which categories, like pest control or home maintenance, users return to most, and where they're likely to spend more.
- Plus membership renewal % per cohort: Renewals of Plus (discounts, priority bookings) gauge loyalty and satisfaction over time.
- MoM top 5 and bottom 5 booked services: Surfaces seasonal trends (AC repair in summer) and preferences, highlighting underused services to promote or new ones to introduce.
- Customer satisfaction (CSAT): Immediate feedback on specific interactions, like cleanliness after a cleaning or the professionalism of a beauty therapist.
- App store reviews: Direct feedback on usability, the booking process and service quality.
- Social media reviews: Public sentiment and recurring praise or complaints about specific services or providers.