SUMMER INTERNSHIP

REPORT
A report submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the
Award of Post Graduate Diploma in Management

TOPIC:

Driving Growth &

Customer Experience Evaluation of Beauty & Wellness Category

in Urban Company

UNDER THE SUPERVISION OF:

Industry Mentor: Faculty Mentor:

Mr. Divyansh Apurva Prof. Manoj Pant
(Senior Category Manager, Urban Company) Associate Prof. PGDM, BIMTECH

Submitted By:
Vaibhav Arora | 2020 - 2022
PGDM – Marketing
20DM236

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 SUMMER PROJECT CERTIFICATE

This is to certify that Mr. Vaibhav Arora, Roll No. 20DM236, a student of PGDM
(Marketing), has worked on a summer project titled “Driving Growth & Customer Experience
Evaluation of Beauty & Wellness Category in Urban Company” after Trimester III in partial
fulfilment of the requirement for the Post Graduate Diploma in Management programme. This
is his original work to the best of my knowledge.

Date: 13th September, 2021 Prof. Manoj Pant

PGDM (Retail Management)

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 LETTER OF TRANMITTAL

Mr. Divyansh Apurva,

Senior Category Manager, Gurugram
Urban Company
Udyog Vihar, Phase IV
Gurugram, Haryana -122015

Date: 13th September 2021

Dear Sir/Madam,
Subject: Regarding Summer Project Report

Attached herewith is a copy of my summer-project report ‘Driving Growth & Customer

Experience Evaluation of Beauty & Wellness Category in Urban Company’. which I am
submitting in order to mark the completion of my 4-month summer project at your
organization. This report was prepared by me using the best of practices and summarizes the
work performed on the project and is being submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements
for award of diploma.

I would like to mention that the overall experience with the organization was very good and
helped me to know how work is carried out in real practice with the help of your esteemed
organization. I feel honoured that I got an opportunity to work with Urban Company, an
organisation of great repute.

I hope I did justice to the project and added some value to the organization.

Your suggestions would be appreciated.

Yours truly,
Vaibhav Arora

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 LETTER OF AUTHORIZATION

I, Vaibhav Arora a student at Birla Institute of Management Technology (BIMTECH), hereby

declare that I have worked on a project titled “Driving Growth & Customer Experience
Evaluation of Beauty & Wellness Category in Urban Company” during my summer internship
at “Urban Company”, in partial fulfilment of the requirement for the Post Graduate Diploma
in Management programme.

I guarantee my research work to be authentic and original to the best of my knowledge in all
respects of the process carried out during the project tenure.

My learning experience at Urban Company, under the guidance of Mr. Divyansh Apurva,
Senior Category Manager, Urban Company and Prof. Manoj Pant, PGDM (Retail
Management) has been truly enriching.

Date: September 13, 2021 Vaibhav Arora

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 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

I would like to gratefully acknowledge the contribution of all the people who took active part
and provided valuable support to me during the course of this project. To begin with, I would
like to offer my sincere thanks to Mr. Divyansh Apurva, Senior Category Manager, for giving
me the opportunity to do my summer training at Urban Company. Without his guidance,
support and valuable suggestions during the research, the project would not have been
accomplished.

My heartfelt gratitude goes to him for being my industry mentor and his dedicated assistance,
inspiring guidance and for his suggestions throughout the training process. Besides this, he
sparked into me raring aptitude which a student should possess. It is a pleasure to
acknowledge his dedicated assistance and professional skills.

I also sincerely thank Prof. Manoj Pant, PGDM (Retail Management), my faculty mentor at
BIMTECH, who provided valuable suggestions, shared his rich corporate experience, and
helped me script the exact requisites.

Last but not the least, I would like to thank all the professors from the placement department,
my faculty in college, the support staff from BIMTECH and Urban Company who made
this journey so nurturing and one to remember.

Vaibhav Arora

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 TABLE OF CONTENTS

Executive Summary ...................................................................................................................... 7-8

Objective ........................................................................................................................................ 7-8
Chapter 1 Introduction
About the Industry ........................................................................................................................ 9
About the Company....................................................................................................................... 10-11
Competitor Analysis .................................................................................................................... 11-13
Indian Spa Industry ......................................................................................................................... 14-16
Chapter 2 Part A: Driving Category Growth
Optimizing Business Operations...................................................................................................... 17-22
Credit Experiment ........................................................................................................................... 23-26
Key Impact & Findings ................................................................................................................. 27
Conclusion ...................................................................................................................................... 28
Chapter 3 Part B: Evaluation of Customer Experience
Literature Review ............................................................................................................................ 29
Scope of study .................................................................................................................................. 30
Objective of study ............................................................................................................................ 30
Methodology ....................................................................................................................... 31
Findings & Data Analysis ................................................................................................... 32-37
Measuring Customer Satisfaction using NPS ..................................................................... 38-40
Key Learnings & Recommendations ............................................................................... 41
Limitations & Caveats ...................................................................................................... 42
Learnings from the Project .............................................................................................. 42
Annexures ......................................................................................................................... 43-46
References ......................................................................................................................... 47

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 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

The global spread of coronavirus has caused widespread financial worry, consumer hysteria, and
supply chain disruption, which has been disastrous in more ways than one. Regardless of the
company's size or industry, the focus remained on weathering the storm rather than expanding. There
were certain plans to launch new goods, expand into new areas, or raise extra funds for many emerging
start-ups in India but those plans were put on hold until the situation improves. Funding plans were put
on hold and investors also waited and even from the start-up perspective, it was better to show
resilience.

Growing a company means pumping in new resources inform of infrastructure and manpower etc. And
COVID applied the brakes on that very process in the company, this was exactly the scenario when I
joined Urban Company. It was the time to be resilient and focus on the already available resources in
hand to scale and grow the existing categories in the company. I interned in Spa for woman category
in Beauty & Wellness vertical during the times when the consumer was reluctant to use the at home
services of the same. Major revamp in terms of customer experience, partner education and category
growth were needed and two objectives were assigned.

OBJECTIVES

A. Category Growth with Existing Resources:

1. Two core levers are aligned to conduct the business operations in the category i.e., match making
process to attain an equilibrium between the market demand & supply and quality delivery to ensure
best in class customer experience.
2. Maximum deliveries with minimum bad customer experience incidences was the primary target
while revamping the operations. The same was achieved by applying on various problem-solving
approaches.
3. Escalation reception and resolution with the help of customer/partner experience, product teams for
a smooth reboarding on the platform.
4. Customer and partner location accuracy with correcting the geo tags, with delivering utmost safety
and hygiene experience was prioritized and executed.
5. Designed SOPs for a better and safe customer experience and ran awareness campaigns to increase
demand and improve partner utility in low demand areas.
6. A credit experiment was conducted with the help of a framework dividing Repeat to Category
(RTC) and First to Category (FTC) users.
7. Increasing the repeat delivery rates and improving the customer loyalty was the prime target in the
second phase of the internship.
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8. B2B Partnerships for campaigning and customer retention was done with the help of marketing and
growth planning.

B. Customer Experience Evaluation:

1. A study was conducted to build an in-depth understanding of Urban Company’s strength/focus areas
in the beauty & wellness vertical (Spa for women category).
2. The study included customer scan in Metro (Delhi, Faridabad, Noida, Ghaziabad, Gurugram) &
Non-Metro cities (Chandigarh)
 254 Customer respondent’s surveys in both the cities.
 In-depth interviews.
3. Assessed the demographics and usage pattern of customers drawn to at-home Spa services in order
to understand the overall satisfaction levels of customers in the last three months.
4. 27% of the customers are in the age group of 19-30 years & 31% are in 31-50 years of bracket who
are tech-savvy and prefer online services.
5. Customizable packages as per the customer’s needs, ease of booking, availability of timeslots are the
major satisfaction parameters
6. Inability to book slots with the same beautician is a big issue for the customers
7. Product availability with the spa professionals during services is a major concern area
8. Complaint resolution, compliance of timeslots are the major dissatisfaction parameters for metro
cities.
9. Measured Urban Company’s NPS against certain parameters & identified improvement areas.
10. 46% was the overall score in covering metro & non metro cities i.e., above the industry average of
45%.

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 ABOUT THE INDUSTRY

The Home Services Market was valued at USD 281.65 billion in 2018, and it is expected to grow by
18.91 percent between 2019 and 2026, to USD 1,133.40 billion.
As the number of services that can be provided by the home service market rises, so does the breadth,
and hence the sector of home services. The number of online and mobile booking services has
expanded as a result of the increased usage of technology. Professional services can now be purchased
and scheduled from the comfort of one's own home. The positive influence of smartphone use on the
online on-demand services industry has assisted the growth of the home service sector.

The present market size of the Indian home services business is expected to be $100 billion, according
to recent estimates by QuikrServices, with Indian households spending an average of INR 25,000 per
year on home services.

Shift in the Industry with a Single-Focus on the Customer

A more competitive climate looks to be causing the industry to undergo a transition. Most companies
in this industry are working hard to improve their product offerings in order to create a "one app for all
services under one roof," as well as to increase traffic to their website and market presence, in the
hopes of gaining global foothold.
Many considerations have been made on aspects such as the type of clients one wishes to serve and the
firm's capabilities in terms of delivering value to these customers.

Consumer Demands are Changing the Industry

Customers can access services anytime they want, thus having a presence through apps has only
proven to be more valuable. Customers want a consistent level of service satisfaction, which is why
being instantly accessible on mobile via apps is so important.
This has led to the creation of a 360-degree consumer experience programme, which includes
everything from app downloads, logins, service selection, and payment gateways on the front end to
technician skill and professional etiquette training, as well as telephoning to consumer grievance
redressed centres on the back end.

Long Term Game

The goal is to go beyond simply being a search and discovery platform by ensuring that users have
access to dependable, high-quality, and quick services. The country's shifting face of on-demand
services is owing to pricing transparency, a simple and intuitive offering, and a broad network of
service providers.

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 ABOUT THE COMPANY

Urban Company (formerly UrbanClap) is changing & shifting the world's perception of home and
personal services. UrbanClap was founded in November 2014 by a small group of service
professionals and rebranded itself as Urban Company in 2020. They've made ordering these services as
simple as ordering an Uber ride: select, schedule, and book, and a high-quality professional will arrive
at your place to provide a standardised, high-quality, and fixed-price service.

As on June 2021, Urban Company’s total funding stands at $ 437.8 million and company’s latest
funding size is $ 67 million with Prosus Ventures investing the same in series F funding. Accel
Partners, Bessemer Venture Partners, Wellington Management, Steadview Capital, Tiger Global
Management, SAIF Partners, Tiger Global, VY Capital, Kunal Bahl, Ratan Tata, Rohit Bansal, Mekin
Maheshwari, Dragoneer, Anjali Bansal, Udhyam Learning Foundation, SAB Holdings, Steadview
and DF International are other investors in this company.

The key business units that are run in form of categories are

 Urban Beauty: Beauty, salon, make up services at home

 Urban Spa: Wellness, massage therapy for men & women
 Urban Grooming: Haircut & grooming service for men and kids.
 Urban Repairs: Electricians, plumbers, AC & RO & repairs,
 Urban Painting: Home painting and interior designing.

In the last four years, UC has built a network of 250,000 plus trained service professionals and served
over 20 million customers across India, UAE, Singapore, and Australia.

Urban Company’s mission is to help at least one million service professionals become micro-
entrepreneurs. Before joining Urban Company, most of these professionals or freelancers, whether
beauticians, plumbers, or others used to earn meagrely in a month working in an unorganised sector,
aggregator, or as a freelancer. The Urban Company platform empowers these specialists to become
micro-entrepreneurs by aiding them with:
1. Customer Access and Branding: As an Urban Company partner, they become in charge of
customer access and branding.
2. Financial Access: Obtaining bank accounts, loans, and insurance, among other things.
3. Service Standardization Technology- Assisted service standardisation to help eliminate friction
from the service, create SKUs (Stock Keeping Units), fixed & transparent pricing, defined service
deliverables, established SOPs, delivery tracking, payment channels, reviews, and so on.
4. Soft and Core Competencies Training- That is available both at their training centres and through
the app.

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5. Consumables Supply Chain: Buying in bulk the consumables required for service delivery. This
aids the service providers in being more structured while also increasing their earnings. For example,
UC’s beauticians often make INR 40-50k per month with no upper limit (many earn > INR 100k per
month), whereas they would earn INR 8-15k per month in local salons.

Scale of Operations

Every month, Urban Company helps over 800,000 people with a variety of home maintenance issues.
It has recently expanded into UAE, Singapore & Australia and operates in all of India's major cities.
The company generates more than INR 600 crores in annual GMV and more than INR 100 crores in
revenue (80 % Plus contribution margin).

Business and organisation

 Salon at Home, Spa at Home, and Fitness Services are all part of the Beauty and Wellness
vertical, which accounts for 40-45 % of UC's income.
 Home Repairs & Maintenance: This vertical generates 40-45 % of UC's revenue and includes
services like Appliance Repair, Electricians, and Cleaning, among others.
 Large Home Projects: This sector provides for around 10% of UC's revenue, and includes
categories like Painters and Home Interiors. Given higher job booking values, customers tend
to be more invested in and sensitive to job quality. Fixing quality issues post job end is much
harder, and catching any problems as they develop during the job or right before it ends helps
save customer experience to a large extent.

Organization and Technology

The technology division of the Urban Company is divided into three primary verticals, each with its
own leadership and personnel.
 Growth can take several forms, including new user acquisition, repetition and loyalty,
partnership-led growth, price, and surge.
 Customer Experience with matchmaking, delivery, partner onboarding, partner success, and
inventory management.
 Monet & Platform (Product): Monetization, customer recovery, platform, infra, security,
data platform.

For warehouse administration and commodities being delivered to their service partners, Urban
Company employs Unicommerce, an e-commerce and supply chain enablement platform.
Returns, item-based picking, logistics management, and other workflows may all be managed using the
platform, which is easily adaptable by the entire warehouse crew.

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 COMPETITOR ANALYSIS

The top 10 competitors in Urban Company's competitive group include Housejoy, Helpr, Premend, Mr
Right, Bro4u, Homvery, UrbanPro, Timesaverz, HomeTriangle, SBricks, and Easy Fix. They have
raised over 36.8 million dollars between their estimated 1.4K employees. The Urban Company has the
largest revenue among its top 10 competitors.
Below table represents the consumer revenue cohort comparison w.r.t deliveries or transactions made
by each company. To calculate the Total Cohort Revenue, simply all of the monthly payments are
added together to get a total for each cohort.

Bookings Revenue Retention

Cohort Year 1 Year 2 Year 3 Year 4 Year 5
UrbanPro 2016 100% 39% 41%
2017 100% 36%
2018 100%

Consumer Revenue Retention

Mr Right Cohort Year 1 Year 2 Year 3 Year 4 Year 5

2016 100% 138% 139% 157%
2017 100% 148% 162%
2018 100% 165%

GTV (Gross Transaction Value) Retention

Housejoy
Cohort Year 1 Year 2 Year 3 Year 4 Year 5
2018 100% 130% 140%
2019 100% 140%

Consumer Revenue Retention

Cohort Year 1 Year 2 Year 3 Year 4 Year 5

Urban 2016 100% 90% 129% 144%

Company 2017 100% 67% 71%

2018 100% 54%
2019 100%

Source: finnovationz & UC inhouse Industry Report

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Cost of revenue includes payment processing costs, including merchant fees and chargebacks, costs
associated with third-party data centres used to host the platform, and amortization of internally
developed software and acquired technology.
Gross Transaction Value is the total value paid by consumers, excluding any discretionary tips. GTV
comprises the total delivery ticket size, net of any discounts and consumer fees, and is represented
including VAT and other sales-related taxes.

Key take away-

1. UC annual consumer revenue retention ahead of UrbanPro but significantly behind all other
peers.

2. All platforms see an improvement in revenue retention post Year 1.

3. Housejoy – newer cohorts performing better than old cohorts.

4. High repeat nature of the business could be driving better revenue retention in Housejoy.

Companies consider indirect competition when creating GTM (go to market) strategy today. In this
sort of rivalry, customers may regard businesses as alternatives rather than direct competitors. They
can provide a wide range of products or services and work in a variety of industries, but they can still
compete with each other.

Similar is the case with the start up ecosystem today where every service delivery company is
competing more or less offering best in class experience to the customers. Urban Company in this
regard faces competition from Amazon, Zomato, Swiggy & Flipkart etc., who are its Indirect
competitors. They continuously compete with each other while comparing NPS (Net Promoter Score),
CSAT (Customer Satisfaction Score) etc., and other relevant metrics to measure their perception in
consumer’s minds.

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SPA INDUSTRY - Global Market's Size

The global spa industry is expected to grow at a rate of 4.1 percent per year by 2027, reaching a market
size of around 133 billion dollars. Spas for men and women have gradually become popular not only in
rest of the world, but also in India.

Source: Statista

The face of the spa industry has altered globally as a result of shifting lifestyles and interests, as well as
increased disposable incomes. Because of the health benefits they bring, such as stress relief, reduced
body discomfort, and a sense of tranquilly, spa services have become a popular aspect of people's lives.
The spa industry is expanding globally due to the growing popularity of personal pampering and the
concept of a spa as a self-improvement investment.

Indian Market

India, on the other hand, contributes barely 2% of global spa revenues. The current success of the spa
business can be attributed to

1. Personal care products are becoming more well-known.

2. Increased disposable income

3. Shifts in consumer habits and lifestyles

4. Increased women's purchasing power

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 SPA Segment (India)

Source: Euromonitor

COVID Impact on user behaviour

After analysing the Indian consumer sentiment during the coronavirus outbreak to better understand
their behaviours, income, spending, and aspirations.

Four fundamental changes in consumer behaviour were observed as a result of the epidemic, some of
which will have a long-term impact.

1. Change of mindset to place a higher priority on the essentials- Consumers have stated that
they will cut back on discretionary spending by up to 30% (net).
2. Digital and omnichannel flight- There was a net gain of up to 25% in intent to purchase
online even after Covid 19.
3. A culture shock- 94 % of Indian buyers has changed merchants, brands, or buying habits.
4. New normal- According to 76 % of Indian consumers, "normal" out-of-home activities have
yet to resume.

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 Total Available Market

Company is targeting from many to focus cohorts of Working Professionals to Homemakers to Fitness
Enthusiasts. Note: Female gender is the targeted user for Spa category in UC

Working Professionals Home-Maker Fitness Enthusiasts

Demographics Age 25-45
Gender - Largely Male /
Female
Personality Is ambitious and always
Type pursue what he/she wants.
Purchase Seek services/brands that
Priority gives them value and
convenience, and are
technologically
advanced
Interests Gaming, Cricket, News &
Current Affairs, how to
videos, Travel &
Technology, sports,
Entrepreneurship
POP Culture Strong entrepreneurial
instinct, follows the
modern day entrepreneurs
religiously
Channels to News channel, YouTube &
OTT, Social –
reach them
Influencers, Instagram,
Music Apps
Age 25-45
Gender - Largely Female
Always inclined towards her
family and engaged with the
household tasks
Highly influenced by the
influencers, review rating
and word of mouth before
trying any new service or
brand
Serials, Music, Cooking,
Beauty and Fashion
Actively consuming video
for different genre
YouTube, OTT., Social –
Facebook
& Instagram, Short form
videos
Age 18 - 45 / 25-45
Gender Male Skewed /
Female
They believe in work hard
& travels even harder. They
love hitting the gym every
day, and are music junkie.
From their busy routine,
they are inclined towards
the services which are
easily available
Esports, Adventure &
extreme sports, news,
Reality shows, Sports
gaming, fitness, live
events, Travel
Highly active on social
media channels and share
his opinion online
YouTube, OTT, Social –
Facebook & Instagram,
News Apps, Music apps

Consumer’s perception towards the Spa & Massage services:

1. Spas are still considered a luxury in India, and while the upper middle class is beginning to use
them, they are still mostly used by the wealthy.
2. As a result of rising stress levels in daily life and a greater focus on health and wellness, spas have
grown in popularity in India.
3. Social media, entertainment, and news outlets have piqued people's attention.

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 PART A: DRIVING CATEGORY GROWTH

Urban Company Business Operations:

The two core levers are aligned to conduct the business operations in the category i.e., match making
process to attain an equilibrium between the market demand & supply and delivery to ensure best in
class customer experience via service delivery. Key problem statements along with the scope of work
are mentioned below. In order to meet the demand & supply and deliver safe and quality services,
analysis is also drawn upon the basis of mentioned two levers.

Match Making
The process is responsible for finding a professional who can serve customer’s requirements. Match
making process has two core problem statement:
1. Capacity Management - Ensuring that each customer gets a professional when they want it.
2. Allocation - Allocate a service professional who is best suited for the job so that each
professional gets a fair earning opportunity.

Key Problem Statement:

1. Improve partner utilization by using better job packing and reducing the distance travel
between jobs.
2. Identifying best partners by matching partner skills, rating with customer requirements
3. Reducing job acceptance time by understanding partner availability using his/her activity on
the platform.

Delivery
Delivery platform that is responsible for ensuring 100% delivery of jobs with best-in-class experience.
Repeat customers to be targeted to drive growth with important B2B campaigns.

Key Problem Statement

1. Smooth pre-delivery and delivery flow for the partner.
2. Customer and partner location accuracy, with utmost safety and hygiene experience.
3. B2B Partnerships for campaigning and customer retention.

Business Operations in Spa (for women) category

1. Ticket Size of each delivery ranged between INR 840-2300.

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 2. Home hubs and secondary hubs are allotted to the partners within specific radius ranging from
8-9 Kms. in cities to deliver the services with ease.
3. Average time to deliver one job ranged from anywhere between 1 hr to 2 hrs since the sessions
depended on different SKUs. Note: Female Professionals deliver services to female
customers alone in this category. As, for men there is a different category altogether in the
company
4. Different SKUs offered in the service:

5. Net requests were getting converted into deliveries without major default. Reason for a default
to occur is when a partner doesn’t show up for a delivery despite picking up the request.
6. 300+ service partners were available before the month of March on the platform. Only 40% of
the that base was active and delivering post lockdown.
7. The category was still witnessing request loss due to exponential rise in GR or demand post
lockdown.
8. The aim throughout the service delivery process is to deliver excellent experience and refrain
from FBCE (Functional bad customer experience) which occurs before availing service &
EBCE (Experimental bad customer experience) which occurs after service delivery.

Revenue Model
UC’s primary revenue is generated through commissions earned when Partner buys lead on the
platform to deliver a service. The other sources include sale of items/products that are used in
delivering a service such as essential oils for massage, tools and spares for repair and maintenance
services etc. & advertisements displayed on the application, website and other social media platforms.
Urban Company’s Commissions Methodology (%)
UC commission is charged on any request placed on the platform which has following attributes:

1. Base GSV (Gross Sales Value) = (SKUs selected) X (Price per SKU)

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  SKUs drive two additional parameters i.e., Labour component & Product component.
i. Labour component means manual effort (#mins X #intensity or skill) required
to deliver the service
ii. Product component means usage of actual products used in the service (paint
used, spare part replaced, facial used etc.)
 GSV is also an indicator of travel component, apart from distance the professional
needs to travel. A job with higher GSV i.e., multiple SKUs inherently is beneficial for
partner, because of lower time wasted in travel.
2. Time of day/week, when the request is placed
 Net GSV = Base GSV X (Surge multiplier). Surge multiplier is driven by demand and
supply balance e.g., 0.8x in happy hours, while 1.5-2x on weekend & peak hours

Apart from request attributes, they use some pro attributes to vary commission/ drive correct
behaviour:

3. No. of jobs done by the pro in subscription period

4. Net GSV delivered by the pro in subscription period

General outline of measures used to revamp operations post COVID lockdown

In order to enable growth and bring partners back to the platform after the first quarter of the year and
series of lockdowns due to COVID in Delhi NCR, the partner base was not aligned with the platform
and the request loss count grew ultimately driving bad customer experience to increase.
The availability of the service professional at requested time slot with best-in-class experience was to
be ensured to grow the category further in post covid period. Reactivation drive was performed with
the help of two key drivers to make the supply available on the platform in order to meet the projected
demand.
1. Follow up communication with the help of in application campaigning, questionnaire and
various other communication mediums.
2. Escalation reception and resolution with the help of customer/partner experience teams for a
smooth reboarding on the platform.

A process was set up with the medium being online forms to identify the vaccinated partners. Unique
IDs were analysed w.r.t to their last geo tagged location. Safety & hygiene protocols were maintained
with compulsory use of PPE kits by partners. Temperature checks were recorded each morning to
maintain transparency with the customer. Partner’s vaccination status was made visible on the
application in collaboration with the Product team.

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Optimizing Business Operations
Matchmaking: Demand (customer requests) & Supply (partner availability)
Demand Trend in the month of May 2021 in Delhi NCR (Spa)
Gross Request- Total no. of requests received on the application for Spa (for women) category.
Net Request- Total no. of requests for which service professional was aligned
Deliveries- Total no. of deliveries made w.r.t net requests
Request Loss- Requests for which partner couldn’t be assigned

# of Deliveries post lockdown

500
No. of Deliveries

400

300

200

100

0
1-May 2-May 3-May 4-May 5-May 6-May 7-May 8-May 9-May 10-May 11-May
Date

Gross Request Net Request Deliveries Request Loss No. Active Pros(delivered)

 Post ease in the restrictions in NCR, the platform saw increase in the demand.
 The weekends are the busiest days for the category since consumer wants the stress relief and
leisure treatments during the relaxing days of the week.
 The communication through various internal and external channels i.e., application, calls,
messaging proved successful in bringing the churned (dormant) partners to deliver back on the
platform.

Points of breakage:

1. Partner utility was still lower than ideal value i.e., average partner utility should lie between 2-
3 jobs in a day but was below 2 even during the peak demand period, i.e., Saturdays &
Sundays.
2. Supply deficit was high since present partner base was not enough to meet the demand.
3. High Request loss hubs (territory divided into deliverable radius for partners) were increasing.
Lajpat Nagar, Greater Noida & Saket were seeing major losses.
4. Partners were not marking their calendar (tool to present availability of working) for Saturday
Sunday in advance and slots were not getting assigned in time.

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Action Points:

1. Started with balancing hubs; assigned a particular radius nearby partner’s homes where high
demand was present.
2. Divided Delhi NCR further in small hubs to make slots available and visible to customer and
partner in time.
3. Regular communication on Fridays and Wednesdays was done as a form of reminder for the
partners to show availability by means of marking their calendar.
4. Aligned onboarding team after doing root cause analysis for the areas with high RL and low
availability of supply i.e., partners.
5. Designed SOPs for a better and safe customer experience and ran awareness campaigns to
increase demand and improve partner utility in low demand areas.

Out of 35 hubs in Delhi NCR, only 18 were balanced post reactivation of the partners.
The above action steps for the before mentioned problem points helped in improving the
business operations and again drive the category towards growth.

Snapshots are taken from UC Dashboard built on Looker (Tableau) platform to differentiate between
the hubs divided in the city. Util, NPS Score, Partner churn rate and new supply addition count is taken
from the master data (stored on Snowflake Data Warehouse) in order to execute operations and draw
conclusions.

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 # of deliveries post lockdown
800
700
600
500
400
300
200
100
0

Gross Request Net Request Deliveries Request Loss No. Active Pros(delivered)

Demand Trend in the month of May-June 2021 in Delhi NCR (Spa)

The match making and delivery verticals were improved on the platform due to the action steps:
 Improvement in partner utilization and reduction of distance travelled between jobs.
 Reduction in the job acceptance time by understanding partner availability using his/her
activity on the platform.
 Smooth pre-delivery and delivery flow for the partner.
 Customer and partner location accuracy, with utmost safety and hygiene experience.

Scaling Business through Customer Retention

Customer retention is the basic principle adopted by companies across the globe to drive growth on
their businesses. E-commerce is no different than any other business when it comes to customer
retention – company must invest in their customers' delight, pay attention to detail, and maintain
quality consistency. Put the methods and approaches described above into action, and the retention rate
of the e-commerce business will increase in no time.
Companies that scale, increase income faster than they increase costs. The current pandemic situation
has forced the businesses to adapt and adopt new strategies to drive growth. This is where customer
retention, the major growth driver comes into play. Regardless of the industry or type of business,
selling to existing clients is less expensive and more effective than pursuing new ones. Customer
service experience will continue to be prioritised by companies that seek to engage with customers in a
more meaningful way. It's a key point of differentiation, and it opens up a lot of possibilities for firms
that can expand their traditional definition of service to cover all of the conceivable interactions a
customer might have with their brand.

Page | 22
Credit Experiment

A credit experiment was conducted with the help of a framework dividing Repeat to Category (RTC)
and First to Category (FTC) users. Repeat to category are users that may or may not have been using
Urban Company for other services but have availed a Spa service again. First to category are the users
that have availed the Spa service for the first time and may or may not have been using Urban
Company services in the past. User’s preferences were studied with the help of a survey conducted on
208 respondents for what would be the single best offer that would make customer to try Spa
services again in order to gain repeat customers.

 57% users opted for 10% discount on next service.

 28% users opted for 10% discount on UC Plus membership (subscription plan for discounted
priced services and other benefits).
 10% users opted for INR 100 voucher from leading online beauty brand.
 5% users opted for freebies like complimentary head/foot/massage.

Key takeaways:
 Discount on next service was a clear winner.
 Other value addition ideas suggested in any other suggestion tabs were linked to Partner
quality and availability.
1. Fully vaccinated partner at any given time slot.
2. Assured access to more experienced and better rated partner.
3. No questions asked availability of customer’s favourite partner.

Planning Principle:

A. Divided the RTC Base into multiple clusters basis the number of transactions done on the
category & the time period before March 2021 when these users were active (Dormant &
Churned). This is done primarily to be sniper focussed on heavy repeat cohorts and identify the
cost of making single used transactors try UC Spa service again.
B. Additionally, I looked at the natural repeat rate & reactivation rate for Spa to establish a
baseline.
C. The result can be summarised in the following matrix attached below:

Page | 23
 D. Repeat rate of these different cohorts in May 2021:

E. These different cohorts were sent different amounts of credits depending on several factors
including the likeness of the particular cohort to convert. A summary of the framework along
with the incrementality targets can be found below:

Initial results of multiple tracks

Credits:

- Test Group: Dormant Loyalists

- Initial results with Credits were encouraging (3 weeks of Data) with INR 100 transferred to the
dormant user’s accounts.
- Cost per incremental Gross Requests: INR 57

Weekend Flash Sale: ‘Stress Free Saturdays’

- Ran a Saturday flash sale, for the last 2 weeks (11 am to 4 pm) to bump up the weekend
demand
- Results:
- Conversions during Stress Free Saturdays 22% for Spa.

Page | 24
FTP denotes First to Platform users, who are using the UC services for the first time, FTC denotes the
users who have used the Spa (category) for the first time, though, they have availed different services
in the past. RTC denotes the repeated user base who have been using Spa services in the past.

FTC & RTC Activation Tracks:

Big Bets tried for rest of the period till August 2021.

- Facebook re-engagement Campaign on FTC & RTC Users

- Stress Free Saturdays
- Automatic Coupon Transfer to Drop Off Users
- Masks Gifting Campaign
- On-boarded Paytm First, Cure-fit, Diner’s Club & Other Luxury Cards.

Key Impact:

Bounce back in repeat deliveries as of 9 August 2021:

The qualitative results showing a steady increase on a weekly basis for FTP, FTC, & RTC user base is
given below:

Page | 25
Graphical Representation of repeat delivery conversion for May 2021- Aug 2021.

Repeat Delivery Conversion

1,00,000 35%
90,000 30%
80,000
70,000 25%
60,000 20%
50,000
40,000 15%
30,000 10%
20,000
10,000 5%
- 0%

Base (Month Start) RR (Del Level) Del Traffic Conv

Developing Spa Category Playbook

A playbook was developed & used throughout the tenure in order to achieve growth & repeat customer
base:
RTC Playbook: To target RTC Users twice in a week with “Massage Tuesday & Weekend
Relaxation”
 Massage Tuesdays: The June month worked well (Average 15% higher deliveries) on the
drop offs & RTC Active Base.
 Weekend Relaxation + Offers: (Spread across Friday to Sunday) Team targeted dormant &
churned users with the weekend relaxation messaging (50% of the Repeat users transact on the
weekends) with the current running offers. This messaging had seen the best uptake.
 Personalisation: Name & SKU Level Personalization (giving Swedish Massage to Swedish
Massage customer) had yielded better conversions (+20%). Team continued to target users at
this front.
 Merch Changes: From 2nd to 4th (Long Weekend) in August, team created a section on the
Male cart with the messaging of ‘Weekend Relaxathon’, offering 2 key SKUs at Rs. 100
discounts. Led to an improvement in conversion by 1.5%.

FTC Playbook: Over the course of the week, team targeted recent Spa & Massage Transactors (Last
30 days) with a 2-step education journey:
 Way to do it & UC’s key value propositions (A video displaying the key steps - Safety, Set up,
Techniques etc)
 Getting these users through the Sale Messaging.
Page | 26
Practical Impact on Business Performance:

 The business saw healthy growth (30%) post Freedom Sale with a solid Super Saver Week and
the long weekend leading to peak post-COVID deliveries.
 Growth is led by the 30% average in increase in daily traffic fuelled by Repeat Base
Activation.
 Since 50% of Spa business comes from the weekend, I proactively messaged the entire base
once every week on Friday. Retargeted the drop off base afterwards on Tuesday with the
Massage Tuesday Offering. Therefore, building a frequency of two on some users in 7 days.
 Also targeted user base based on SKU (Pain v/s Stress) messaging on Tuesdays to ensure high
conversion rate. Along with this, I had experimented with targeting last 60-day users of other
categories and FTC Cashback Coupons to increase UC’s FTC Base.

Key Learnings & Findings:

A sale event or a property in general does following points for a consumer and an organisation driving:

1. In the short term:

a. Move users from consideration to purchase - fence sitters funnelling.
b. Increase cross category discovery.
c. Activate existing dormant user base – resurrection.

2. In the long term: (when done consistently for the longer period of time)
a. Supports Brand relevance and Strengthen relevance by building new attribute for
association.
b. Influences repeat behaviour in the long term.
c. Effective and Efficient tool to drive predictable Revenue uplifts at scale.

3. Coupons help consumers learn more about products and, in certain situations, inspire them to
take a risk and purchase a branded product for the first time at a lower price. The main
explanation for the reduction in coupon usage is assumed to be the poor distribution of
coupons among different groups.
4. In the short term, sales promotions impact consumer purchasing behaviour. The major purpose
of implementing such a marketing plan is to increase short-term sales. Sales promotions, on
the other hand, are regarded to have a significant impact on client retention. When a company
debuts a new product, sales promotion is used, as previously stated.
5. Customer satisfaction and possibly loyalty will occur if this new product meets or exceeds
customers' expectations.

Page | 27
Conclusion:

Repeat Customers are Profitable

 A repeat customer who returns to your store are more inclined to do so. Discounts are great for
recovering a customer's trust, but they almost always establish a negative expectation in the
eyes of your customers that you may not be able to meet.
 While selling to a returning customer is easier, conversion rates in ecommerce are
unpredictable.
 They spend a greater proportion of their earnings on each transaction. Customers who have
purchased from you before are more likely to convert, and their average order value is higher
than that of first-time buyers. This suggests that your regular customers are making
increasingly frequent purchases from your store.

They are important for scaling a business and one may be able to boost the profitability of your store
by starting with the clientele you already have. Customers who return to your store will not only spend
more money, but they will also help you market to new customers, making them a great customer
acquisition tool. Customer retention is critical if you want to get the most out of your regular clients.

Page | 28
 Part B: Customer Experience Evaluation

Literature Review:

 Dr. A. Nihat Tavsan (2017) conclude in his paper entitled “A study on factors influencing
customer expectations in service industry” that users are influenced by brand image, serice
delivery, safety, choice and convenience.

 Louis K Falk, and Kuanchin Chen (2005), suggests that when customers are upset with the
speed of technological development, their likelihood of making a choice is considerably
reduced. According to Prof. Chen (2005), the two most crucial deciding elements in retail
process were usage and convenience. It's also apparent that the respondents noticed a
significant variation in price, quality, and after sale benefits value among the many models on
the market.

 Prof. Manisha Jagtap & Dr. Anand Deshmukh (2018) shows that customers who are
dissatisfied with the rate of technological advancement are less likely to make a decision. The
two most important decision factors in the buy selection process.

 Prof. Pavel Korneta (2016) suggests, in E-Commerce space it's not about having a
dazzling website that ranks well in search engines, nor is it about the site's design. It's
about a lot more than just transmitting data. It's all about making money and creating
bonds.

 Prof. Martel W Krol M.Sc. (2014) shows, according to the findings, the NPS was marginally to
substantially related to the other three components. On the other hand, their distributions were
significantly diverse. Furthermore, the NPS demonstrated a lower correlation with buyer
experiences from the surveys than the total rating and score.

Page | 29
Background of Study:

Context
To build an in-depth understanding of Urban Company’s strength/focus areas in the beauty & wellness
vertical (Spa for women category) by
 Measuring the Platform’s impact on consumers.
 Assessing their first-hand feedback

Scope to be covered
This study includes customer scan in Metro (Delhi, Faridabad, Noida, Ghaziabad, Gurugram) & Non-
Metro cities (Chandigarh)
 254 Customer respondent’s surveys in both the cities.
 In-depth interviews.

Objectives:

Customer Scan & Usage Behaviour

 Profile respondents using Urban Company Spa services.
 Assess the demographics and usage pattern of customers drawn to at-home Spa services.

Satisfaction Levels
 Understanding the overall satisfaction levels of customers in the last three months.
 Measure Urban Company’s NPS against certain parameters & identify improvement areas.

Measuring Satisfaction

The Net Promoter Score methodology’s main purpose is to predict consumer loyalty to a product,
service, brand, or company (as indicated by repurchase and recommendation).

Focus areas and way ahead

Analyse the challenges faced by customers and what can be done to improve their experience.

Page | 30
Research Methodology:

Exploratory Research: The purpose of exploratory research is to acquire primary data from
respondents. Exploratory research is used to go further into a problem in order to gain new insights and
understanding. It's great for finding new ideas and insights, as well as collecting and analysing primary
data. Because formal research protocols and processes are not incorporated, it is flexible and varied in
terms of methodologies. It can be used to investigate consumer expectations and the elements that
consumers deem relevant when choosing a service.

Tools of Data Collection: The data was collected by using the following methods of data collection:
1. Survey Method- In this method a well-structured questionnaire was prepared for the customers who
used the Spa services in the past.
2. Observation Method- The information is gathered using the observation method, which relies on
the investigator's own direct observation rather than asking the respondent. Before, during, and after
the service delivery, several obstacles and issues in the process were observed.
3. Interview: Consumers were interviewed to know what their expectations are from the service,
problems faced by them in booking it and after it gets delivered.

Net Promotor Score:

The Net Promoter Score (NPS) is a metric that determines how satisfied, loyal, and enthusiastic a
company's customers are. It's measured by asking customers: "On a scale of 0 to 10, how likely are you
to suggest this service/company to a friend or colleague?" Organizations use aggregate NPS scores to
enhance service, customer support, delivery, and other aspects of their operations in order to promote
customer loyalty & improve customer experience.

The following formula is used to compute NPS:

Net Promoter Score = (Number of Promoter Scores/Total Number of Respondents) - (Number of
Detractor Scores/Total Number of Respondents)

NPS= % Promotors - % Detractors X 100

 Promotors: These users are loyal and likely to repurchase the service/product, they fuel viral
growth through word of mouth.
 Passives: Are susceptible to competitive offerings and are left out from NPS calculation.
 Detractors: Require proactive outreach to mitigate brand damage and are unsatisfied users.

Page | 31
 FINDINGS & DATA ANALYSIS:

Consumer’s Profile
Living Status Marital Status
<18 19-30 31-50 >50
100% 5 100%
7 90%
16% 80%
39 80%
26%
60% 70%
68
40% 60%
49 50%
20%
27% 40%
0% 30%
Status
20%
31% 32
Alone 10%
With Freinds-Sharing Basis 0%
Age Split With Family-Joint Status

With Family-Nuclear Single Married

68% of the user base availing the spa services is married women; most users 31% fall in 31-50 age
bracket, since the services are popular amongst middle aged to old aged women.

Household Income (INR) Staying with Kids Employment Type

100% 100% 2
2% 90% 10
17% 90%
18% 80%
80% 39
70%
70% 64 60%
60% 50%
50% 40%
40% 30% 67
30% 20%
10%
20% 36 0%
63% 10%
Type
0%
Status Employed House Maker
0-6 Lacs 6-12 Lacs 12-20 Lacs >20 Lacs
Yes No Unemployed Student

18% of the user base is from Upper middle-class population; people with kids generally don’t avail the
services and prefer at home services due to safety concerns.

Average income comes around to INR 9 Lacs per annum. Although, 46% of the respondents chose not
to disclose their household income.

Page | 32
 Duration of Residence # Local Spas, Wellness # Branded Spas, Wellness
Avg. duration = 12 Months Centres nearby Centres nearby
1% 100%
9% 100%
90% 19
90%
28 80%
80%
70%
22% 70%
60%
60%
50% 50%
40% 40% 81
72
68% 30% 30%
20% 20%
10% 10%
0% 0%
<3 Months 3-6 Months Spas nearby Spas nearby
6-12 Months >1 Years
<2 >2 <2 >2

68% of the customers have been living in the area for more than 12 months.

Usage Behaviour

No. of incidences per person in last 3 months

5.5

3.7

1.5 1.5 1.4

1 0.9 1
0.5 0.5 0.6
0.3

Overall Stress Relief Swedish Relaxing Pain Relief Deep Rejuvenation Therapy Detoxifying Therapy
Massage Aromatherapy Tissue Massage

I = 1037

Non Metro Metro

 Avg. no. of services consumed per user in metro & non metro cities for overall service and
their further service types are represented here with overall unique incidences (I) = 1037
 Demand for Rejuvenation & Detoxifying therapy is lesser as compared to other services across
Metro & Non-Metro cities.
 Avg. demand for services is highest in metro cities since working class book the services for
its stress relief & pampering factors.
 I or incidence is significantly low for rejuvenation & detoxifying therapy.

Page | 33
 No. of incidences per person in last 3 months

6.7

5.1

4
3.4
2.7
2.2
1.5 1.5 1.3 1.5
0.9 1.1 1 1
0.5 0.6 0.4 0.4 0.5 0.5
0.1 0 0.1 0

Overall Stress Relief Swedish Relaxing Pain Relief Deep Rejuvenation Therapy Detoxifying Therapy
Massage Aromatherapy Tissue Massage

I = 1037
Employed Housemaker Student Unemployed

Housemakers followed by employed women are the major customers for spa services from Urban
Company.

Stress Relief Swedish Massage

199
199 199
254 15
4
100% 20
36
90% 22
50
80% 21
70%
60%
50%
64 32 55
40% 78
30% 3
20%
10% Living Arrangement
Employment
0% Kids With Friends
Total Customers Employed
Yes No With Nuclear Family
Housemaker
Availed Non-Availed With Joint Family Unemployed
Alone

78% of the customers have availed Stress Relief Swedish Massage services at home in the last 3
months. The Swedish massage is the basic service with multiple massage strokes and is a balanced
service for any age group.

Page | 34
 Relaxing Aroma Therapy
183
254 183 183
17
100% 4
90%
28 31 38 23
80%
70%
60% 22
50%
40
40%
72
30% 69
5 51
20%
10% Living Arrangement
0%
With Friends Employment
Total Customers Kids
With Nuclear Family
Availed Non-Availed Employed
Yes No With Joint Family
Housemaker
Alone Unemployed

72% of the consumers availed Relaxing Aroma therapy followed by 68% of Pain Relief Deep Tissue
Massage service in the last three months, clearly showing customer’s experimenting approach within
the Spa category.

Pain Relief Deep Tissue Massage

254 173 173

173
100% 3
90% 17
32 24
80% 38
70%
38 21
60%
50%
40%
68
30% 62 52
42
20%
10%
3
0%
Total Customers Kids Living Arrangement Employment

Availed Non-Availed With Friends Employed

Yes No
Housemaker
With Nuclear Family Unemployed
With Joint Family
Alone

Page | 35
 79
Rejuvenation Therapy

254 79 16 79
3
100%
90% 39 24
37
80%
70% 22
69
60%
50% 44
40%
63 51
30% 1
20% Living Arrangement
31
10%
0% With Friends
Employment
Kids
Total Customers With Nuclear Family
With Joint Family Employed
Availed Non-Availed Yes No
Housemaker
Alone Unemployed

Rejuvenation Therapy & Detoxifying Therapy is often associated with it’s medical healing properties,
thus the incidences for the same are low in number.

Detoxifying Therapy
81

254 81 16 81
100% 0
90% 40 27
36
80%
70%
68 21
60%
50% 44
40%
62 52
30%
0
20%
32 Living Arrangement
10%
0% With Friends Employment
Total Customers Kids
With Nuclear Family Student
Unemployed
Availed Non-Availed Yes No With Joint Family
Housemaker
Alone Employed

Page | 36
Customer Preference

Consumers cited ‘Convenience’ as the major driving factor for using Urban Company whereas ‘Price’
was the least motivating factor.

Consumers were asked to rank the following reasons to use Urban Company services in order of their
preference.

100%
12
90% 16

80%

70% 27
52 71
60%

50%

40%

30% 57
20% 36 20
10%
9
0%
Convenience Quality Price
Rank 1 Rank 2 Rank 3

 Convenience of booking, timeslot, customizable packages are the most important parameters.
 Since Urban Company use standardized products across cities, quality assurance is the 2nd
most driving factor for this platform usage.

The purpose of convenience is to provide customers more control and involvement in their service.
Giving clients the tools to manage and engage more deeply in their experience may appear to provide
greater convenience when, in reality, you have increased the customer's labour, diminishing true
convenience.

Satisfaction

Any company's main purpose should be to satisfy its customers. Consumer satisfaction is a metric that
measures customer satisfaction with a company's products, services, and capabilities. Customer
satisfaction data, such as surveys and ratings, can help a company figure out how to improve or alter its
products and services.

Net Promotor Score (NPS) surveys are used to help the company generate useful, statistically
significant data that it could be utilised to improve retention and revenue.

The NPS for Spa category was determined using following parameters rated on a scale of 0-10. The
respondents were 200 in number for metro cities and 54 for non-metro cities.

Page | 37
Measuring Customer Satisfaction level using NPS

Colour scheme for the mentioned respondent group is denoted as following-

Detractor’s , Neutral’s  , & Promotor’s 
NPS calculated is mentioned in
Parameters Metro Cities Non-Metro Cities

User Interface 3% 40% 57% 54% 2% 44% 54% 52%

Cost of Service 18% 31% 51% 33% 20% 35% 45% 25%

Range of Services 8% 22% 70% 8% 27% 65% 57%

62%

Availability of Time
Slots
4% 35% 61% 57% 4% 29% 67% 63%

Ease of booking 3% 27% 70% 67% 2% 36% 62% 60%

Compliance of 2% 34% 64%

Timeslots 6% 43% 51% 45% 62%

Page | 38
 Parameters Metro Cities Non-Metro Cities

Service Professionals 15% 25% 60% 45% 18%13% 69% 51%

Quality of Service 17% 23% 60% 43% 16% 20% 64% 48%

Quality of Product 13% 25% 62% 49%

8% 21% 71% 63%

Ease of payment
4% 30% 66% 62% 0% 31% 69% 69%

Complaint 3% 27% 70% 2% 36% 62% 51%

67%
Resolution

Information about
5% 36% 59% 54% 2% 45% 53% 51%
offers

 Net Promotor Score in Metro and Non- Metro cities is similar with the most important parameter
being ‘Convenience of Use’.
 Customers find ‘Cost of Services’ as a major dissatisfaction factor across all cities with highest
detractor percentage of more than 20%.
 Ease of Payments and Information about Offers are the most liked parameters.

Page | 39
Urban Company SPA NPS

Overall:

Sample Size (N): 254 7% 41% 52%

NPS Score: 46%

Metro:

Sample Size (N): 200 7% 41% 52%

NPS Score: 46%

Non-Metro:

Sample Size (N): 54 9% 38% 52%

NPS Score: 44%

On an average, companies with higher NPS scores expand quicker and have greater success than those
with lower NPS scores.

The NPS score varies significantly by industry. With an average NPS of 47% for online entertainment
to 16% for internet providers. Customer internet, E-commerce companies like OYO, Flipkart,
Amazon, Swiggy & Zomato have 45% average industry score. Urban company scoring 46% is more
than the same, indicating above par customer satisfaction levels.

Although, in order to encourage growth & increase positive word of mouth along with repeating the
customers, the company must consider the following key take away from the study.

Positives:

 Attractive packages with frequent new SKU additions in form of therapies.

 Convenience of pre booking to the last stage of customer journey i.e., after service support.
 Trained professionals who are qualified therapists.
 High quality kits & equipment in form of essential oils and massage beds.

Negatives:

 Provider choosing flexibility i.e., non-availability of partners that delivered the same service in the
past.
 High cancellations of requests from the partners which leads to rescheduling of the request in some
cases hence causing delay from the previous booked slot.
 Low partner quality and their intent leading to poor quality services.

Page | 40
Key Learnings & Findings:

 Service Quality and Time Compliance are the top two parameters liked by the at-home spa
customers on Urban Company platform.
 Satisfaction on the services rendered and Quality of Products used are two main components of
service quality.
 Availability of Spa Professionals on required slots and their Punctuality are the two main
components comprising time compliance.
 Cost of service & extra charges levied in the post COVID era in form of health & safety charges
are the most disliked factors according to the users.
 According to the in-depth interactions quality of products used in form of essential oils and
massage equipment is again the most disliked factor amongst the users.
 Just due to a single negative experience in e-commerce may turn a potential Promoter into a
Detractor, business has learned to pay close attention to every customer interaction.
 Urban Company is doing par above than the average in the industry.
 Quantifying the worth of promoters is an important step in long-term NPS adoption, since it places
a monetary value on giving a fantastic experience,

Recommendations:

 UC must make professional of choice (high rated or professional that delivered in the past) to be
available for high rated/loyal customers in match making process.
 Customers must be educated about the extra charges levied (safety & hygiene charge) that is
creating a bad sentiment amongst them. SKUs that are charged for such as gloves, mask and PPE
kit must be explained through campaigns that can be run on the application, notifying them.
 In order to make quality supply available on the platform, low intent professionals must be
trained or dropped off from the platform to avoid EBCE (Experiential bad customer experience).
 An effective service recovery approach should be applied to recapture disgruntled or mistreated
clients and turn them into happy, enthusiastic Promoters.
 Company must pay special attention to Passives first. These are satisfied clients, if UC can
transform them into Promoters, that would lead to driving growth.
 UC must send a follow-up email or communication to these folks, asking what they can do to
improve their chances of recommending the services. Special deals, discounts, or enhancements
must be made accessible in order to entice individuals to spread the word.

Page | 41
Limitations & Caveats:

 The study was limited to the business operations in North cluster i.e., Delhi NCR & Chandigarh.
 Physical interaction with Partners was limited due to COVID 19 safety protocols.
 One major flaw of NPS survey is ignoring the passives entirely. These clients are equally valuable
since, they can be converted into a detractor or a promoter due to their semi-satisfied demeanour.
 Areas such as after sales service, branding could not be explored in depth due to time constraints.

Contribution & Learning from the project:

This 4-month long internship in an ownership driven role and one of the fastest-growing organisations
was very impactful. The project was given was relatable to my field and I had to put in a lot of effort to
do well in the project. My industry mentor was always guiding me and giving me idea teaching me
concepts that really helped me.

The key learnings from the project are as follows:

 I could implement the theory taught in class till now in real life world clearing my concepts.
 Active participation in ideation while working in a team.
 Ability to interact with stakeholders in a professional setting.
 Adapt to changes and incorporate changes into the working style according to the situation.
 How to add more value to my research by getting a real time experience of doing survey.
 Ability to take full ownership of a project and finding solutions for the problem on my own.
 Inter-departmental follow up of ongoing campaign, upcoming campaigns, monitoring the projects
etc. were the most engaging experiences among the day-to-day tasks.

Page | 42
 ANNEXURE

Questionnaire for UC SPA Users:

Age Group.
 0-18 years
 19-30 years
 31-50 years
 >50 years

Marital Status.
 Single
 Married

What is your Living Status?

 Alone
 With friends/ sharing basis
 With joint family
 With nuclear family

What is your household income (pa)?

 0-6 Lacs
 6-12 Lacs
 12-20 Lacs
 >20 Lacs

Are you staying with your kids?

 Yes
 No

Employment Type
 Employed
 House Maker
 Student
 Unemployed

Duration of Residence
 < 3 months
 3-6 months
 6-12 months
 >1 year

Page | 43
No. of Local Spa/Wellness centres nearby?
 0-2
 >2

No. of Branded Spa/Wellness centres nearby?

 0-2
 >2

Which all services have you availed at least once in the past three months (you can mark multiple if
applicable)?
 Stress Relief Swedish Massage
 Relaxing Aroma Therapy
 Pain Relief Deep Tissue Massage
 Rejuvenation Therapy
 Detoxifying Therapy

Please rank the following parameters of UC service with 10 being the highest and 0 being the lowest score.

User Interface of Application

Cost of Service

Range of Services

Availability of Time Slots

Ease of Booking

Compliance of Time slots

Service Professionals

Quality of Service

Ease of Payment

Quality of Product

Complaint Resolution

Information about Offers

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Rank the following parameters according to their degree of importance for you.
Convenience  1  2  3
Quality  1  2  3
Price  1  2  3

Suggestions/feedback if any.

Credit Experiment Questionnaire-

What would be the single best offer for your next service (select any one)?

 10% Discount on next service.

 10% discount on UC Plus membership (subscription plan for discounted priced services and other
benefits).
 INR 100 voucher from leading online beauty brand.
 Freebies like complimentary head/foot/massage.
Suggestions if any.

Customers/ Partners were reached out through application chatbots and company internal
communication platform ‘SLACK’.

Part research was conducted using ‘Polly Application’ plug in ‘SLACK’

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Customer Testimonials

“Very good service. The Spa Professional was on time and very
proficient in her job. I always prefer ordering service from Urban
Company.”

-UC customer from Malviya Nagar, Delhi

“I actually have a membership of Urban Company (UC Plus). There

is no option to choose the same person who provided services last
time””

-UC customer from Chandigarh

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 REFRENCES

 Philip Kotler, Marketing Management, 13th edition.

 Naresh Malhotra, Marketing Research, 6th edition.
 Hawkins D.I. Best, R.J. and Convey, K.A. Consumer Behaviour: Implications for
 Marketing Strategy.
 David R. Anderson et al. - Statistics for Business & Economics-Cengage (2014)
 https://www.urbancompany.com/delhi-ncr
 https://www.userinterviews.com/blog/customer-experience-research
 https://www.gartner.com/en/marketing/insights/customer-experience
 http://www.npscalculator.com/en
 https://blog.hubspot.com/service/what-is-nps

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