Remember Richie Rich, the animated show that we used to watch? It had an Robot maid named Irona. We all wished we had someone like her who could complete all our household chores in seconds.
Well, that dream still seems to be far from us for at least a century; however, there is a substitute to it which is as effective as Irona. on-demand apps for Home Services is that substitute.
We all know how that the on-demand delivery app have disrupted majority of traditional industries. From the way we travel, eat, shop, and even date, all has undergone a tremendous change because of the on-demand economy. Overall delivery app has become a successful business idea across the globe.
So, why not our household chores and errands? After all we all need an Irona in our lives who can complete our household chores and run our errands in a jiffy.
Before we understand the nitty gritty of on-demand home services apps, let us start from the basic at what exact services that it provides.
As the name suggests it serves as an on-demand household services platform where you can hire professionals for all your household chores at your fingertips. Like all other on-demand mobile apps it is inbuilt with all the essential functionality.
Got a leakage issue at home, hire a plumber near your locality who will fix it in no time. Got issues with your AC, call an air conditioning expert who will fix your AC in just a matter of few minutes.
Similarly, these on-demand solutions help in fixing problems of your potential customers such as carpentry, house cleanliness, home appliances, and all other household problems.
Building an on-demand application for home service is still in its nascent stage; however, there are already some established names in it. TaskRabbit, Thumbtack, and Handyman are well-known services in this vertical. That is why it is the best time for you to build on-demand home services mobile app to grab profitable opportunities.
All these apps are gradually gaining traction and one of them could well be as big as Uber.
Crucial strategies to grow as a top home service app
Identify customers’ need
Before you start your on-demand app development, it is imperative to understand your target audience and their needs and the cost of development as well. You can do this by conducting market research and surveys to understand what exact kind of services within the on-demand industry.
After gaining all the important information and insights you can strategize and set your goal in an efficient way.
Keep an eye on major players
Along with the knowledge of your customers’ need, it is equally important to know what’s your competitors are doing. Studying and analyzing your competitors help you to get to know about the latest trends and basic features that they are using. It also maintains a healthy competition and motivates you to do more.
Punctuality is the key
Since it is an on-demand service, time becomes an inevitable factor. If you’re not providing services in the stipulated time then you’re doomed for sure.
However, if you provide them with service before or on time then that would make your customers happy & satisfied. Moreover, as a result they would promote your on-demand services to their friends & family.
Introspect about your app onboarding experience
The competition in the app development Industry has attained new heights. Due to which it becomes very important that you take your app onboarding seriously.
You must ensure that the moment your user downloads the app he must get an experience which engages him as well as convinces him of the fact that it is adding some value.
Proper use of push notification & smileys
Usage of Push Notification is like a double-edged sword. Proper use of it can do wonders for your app; whereas, wrong timing of Push Notification could annoy your app users which may result in losing them.
While sending Push Notification ensure that it doesn’t look like a mindless advertisement, but a useful information which is of a user’s help.
Believe in product, not marketing
At the end of the day it's your product in which you have to believe. No matter if you spend millions on marketing, but if your product is not strong it won’t work. Your product is a foundation on which you build everything.
If the foundation itself is weak then no matter how tall your structure is, its fall would be inevitable.
Features which are imperative for your app
Features play an integral role in the success of any mobile application based on the on-demand model and the same applies to on-demand home service apps as well. Here is the list of features that you definitely need to integrate into your on-demand home services app:
Key features for users
Browse professionals using different filters
User must be able to find services without any hassle. Provide different types of filters which would ease the process. Filters such as finding the service provider based on cost, distance and specialty would increase the user experience considerably.
Schedule service
Empower your user with the flexibility to choose the service on their desired slot of time. This feature would allow your users to book their service appointment in advance.
This feature would also give your app another dimension apart from being an on-demand app.
Approval notification
Real-Time Notifications play a major role in the functioning of on-demand apps. It plays a similar role in the on-demand applications for home service too, So, you must ensure that the user receives a notification once the service provider approves the request.
Secure multiple payment options
Ensure your app has multiple payment options such as credit, debit card, cash, digital payments, and wallets. As sticking to any of the payment methods would backfire as all users have their respective preferences.
Along with it also ensure the total security of transactions through a robust payment gateway.
Order History
Order history is one of the integral functions of an app solution that provides home services on-demand. This is a centralised option where the users can access the detailed history of their orders.
Moreover, it connects the user with the best service provider in their area or locality. Along with this, the order history section will inform the users of service providers’ names, date, time, contact details, etc.,
In-app Chatting
Within a customer app for on-demand home service, you can provide in-app messaging for the seamless answering of customer queries. This feature is much faster than the customer calling service.
The in-app messaging feature allows the retailers and customers to understand each other in a better way. Moreover, it will reduce confusion and the possibility of errors. However, you need to make sure that your offered network is encrypted so that it can maintain the privacy of your communication.
Tracking of Services
Customers can track their home services from their inception thanks to the real-time GPS tracking software. For example, if a user booked an AC service then it can view the live location of the technician and can also get its estimated time of arrival.
Rate & review
Once the service is over your app must have the feature for review. It must allow your user to rate & review the service provider. This feature is very beneficial as it acts as a feedback and helps other users to select service providers of higher ratings.
Help & support
New as well as existing users faces many difficulties while using the app. To resolve the issue, you must have this feature which will be mixture of FAQs, customer helpline support, chat support and onboarding tutorial videos.
Critical features for service-provider’s app
Quick registration & profile approval
Your App must have a simpler registration process for service providers which does not consume excess of time. Once the profile submitted by service provider gets the approval; he will start getting assignments as per his specialty.
Real-time request
It is imperative that the service-providers get the inquiry notifications in real-time. Faster the notification better your app and service will perform.
You must include all the options for inquiry notifications such as email, text alerts, and push notification.
Payment details & additional costs
The service providers can add different payment details such PayPal, bank account no., or wherever they wish to receive their payment. In addition to that they can also mention any additional charges such as for transportation in the case a user lives far away.
Customer feedback
The feedback process works both ways. So, you must include a customer feedback feature where service providers can rate users on several criteria.
These criteria could be like service provider’s experience with the user, proper instructions given by user and many more.
Admin Panel Features for an On-Demand Home Services App
Interactive dashboard
The user panel for Admin must have an interactive admin dashboard. The interactive dashboard would act like a control center for the entire app.
You can control & track every action on the apps. Make sure that the admin panel dashboard of home service mobile applications is easy-to-access for maximum optimum results.
Service List Creation and Management
Admin can list out the required home service. Along with this, it can easily manage them by adding or removing these services. This management will let the admin deliver a better customer experience.
Manage & verify service providers
You must have a vital feature wherein you can manage all the service providers. You can also add new service providers manually. Apart from this, you must verify profiles of all service providers and prevent any fraudulent to register.
Manage payments
You must set the commissions and other payment details very clearly that would prevent any confusions later. Along with this ensure quick and safe transactions between users and service providers. This feature must assist you in resolving all the payment issues. Apart from this, it will help you manage different payment options as well.
Price Tagging
The price tagging feature allows the owner to tag prices for different home services. Apart from this, the admin can add additional costs and taxes from here as well.
Request Acceptance or Rejection
Admin gets authority of verification of the order request raised by the customer. After then it would check the work and select or reject it accordingly. However, the admin has to make specific arrangements to stop service providers from refusing requests.
Manage promotions
To promote your home service provider app, you can offer various lucrative promos and discounts. With this feature you can track your progress with respect to the discounts offered. It assists you in obtaining useful stats which will guide to offer discounts and promos in a better and relevant manner.
Manage reviews
Reviews are a must-have feature as they guide both the parties while choosing their allies. This feature will assist you to review all the reviews from both the ends. You can flag poor performers as well as can mention top performers based on their reviews.
Analytics
This is very crucial as it allows you to get vital insights into your business. These insights and stats guide you to take better decisions to improve your on-demand marketplace for home services.
You can check your progress again by analytics and can make necessary changes to get your on-demand application for home services on a right track.
Service Assistance
There are some instances with an on-demand home service business model that the clients have to face some critical issues. And to solve these issues, you need ample FAQs, video tutorials, and 24*7 chat or call support.
That is why it is essential that your home service app contains a customer help and support section where the users can get quicker resolution of their queries. This facility saves the time of the home service business admin as well.
Besides this, you can provide your contact number or ‘Add an issue’ option to the customers so that they can discuss the queries or issues with you that are not on your list. Also, this thing will let you know the latest problems faced by the consumers so that you can get prepared beforehand.
Cost to Build an On-Demand Home Service Application
The next and probably the most important aspect to discuss is the cost of app development. How much would it cost to make an on-demand home services app? The answer to this question is quite complex so we will go one by one.
Firstly, it is important to know that many factors come in to play while deciding for the cost of the app development process. These factors are:
The platform of the app development decides how much it will cost. And also the cost of app development relies on location, such as apps developed in the USA, UK will have high price than the apps developed in Asian countries.
No. of Features:- It is obvious that more the number of features more would be its cost. You have to pay more if you want your app to have more essential features and complexity.
UI/UX:- User interface and graphics play a significant role on the cost. User friendly on-demand home service applications are costlier.
Hire dedicated software development team:- If you don’t want to develop an online home services app for your business on your own. Then you can hire dedicated developers or an offshore software development team. They will deliver excellent solutions to you at affordable development costs.
Read More: Peerbits'fair cost estimation method
App Platform
Home services app development costs are mainly dependent on the type of platform for which you want to do your on-demand mobile app development. For this, you can compare native mobile apps vs hybrid mobile apps.
If you want to make heavy-duty home service delivery apps, then Native apps are the best choice for you as they require a dedicated platform. Moreover, Hybrid apps are the right option to cope up with the increasing customer demands. You should go for Hybrid apps if you are looking for faster updates to your application without the need to stretch your budget.
On the other hand, cross-platform app development needs a single codebase. It operates your app on multiple platforms such as Android, iOS and web and contains minimal cost compared to the native app development. This is the reason cross-platform app development is high in demand.
As discussed earlier, the development cost depends on multiple factors. After conducting an in-depth development market research, we can say that it would cost you around $10000 – $40000. Our dedicated team of professionals will build your app within 12 to 16 weeks.
Conclusion
Home Services app is the innovative idea in the on-demand app development market. Although, services like Handyman, Task Rabbit, and Thumbtack are already reigning in the on-demand home service app development market; there are still many possibilities which you can explore and execute in this app idea.
With proper market research, inclusion of vital features, implementation of innovative ideas followed by appropriate marketing can make your app successful.
The Demand for Home Services App will be on a rise as I imagine we all want an Irona in our lives. Exploiting this demand with a right approach is essential for which you would require expert guidance.
To obtain guidance and to build an app you should contact a top mobile app development company.
