Knowlarity Outage: How Mr. Homecare did the right thing.

From the day we started our house cleaning business as Mr. Homecare in February 2015, we have been grateful to receive a high volume of inbound phone calls from customers across Mumbai, Bangalore, Gurgaon and Delhi. It made sense to shift to a cloud based telephony system, since it allowed us to track phone calls, ensure none are missed and reached out to. Knowlarity was an obvious preference, since Hammer and Mop knew them as well, and we entered into a fruitful association. We worked with them for 15 months without a hiccup.

And then, the phone lines went down.

All hell broke loose last weekend when the phone lines of Knowlarity’s biggest clients – those above a certain billing – went down. It meant money down the drain for companies who were banking on incoming phone calls, either through an advertising campaign or purely because it’s the weekend. We lost a bunch of business, because our patrons kept trying our hotline number (9022070070) and it did not connect.
Some were amazingly sweet, and scouted around for other means of communication. While a few wrote in through the blog ‘contact us’ form, some called up Sushrut through the ‘Press’ number. Some called up the team members directly, since they had our numbers. But it was a major inconvenience to all, and we were left at our wit’s end.

Dilemma on the next steps

We spoke to the key team members at Knowlarity, and sought clarity on what has gone wrong. Since the chaos was unprecedented, their internal communication channels were haywire and not everyone knew how to communicate what. There was zero clarity on when the systems might start working again and since we were losing business every hour, our patience was wearing thin.
We were faced with two options – either to switch to Exotel (a competitor) immediately or to wait it out. The latter was not a decision one would take with a business sense in mind, it had to be an emotional call. We did call up the competition and procured rates, even compared plans and discussed the viability of switching. Knowlarity has an impressive customer base, and their competitors had been flooded with calls as well, so our conversations were pretty predictable. It was not a good feeling, contemplating abandoning a ship we had liked so much.

“Nope, we will not break faith today!”

 

We are deeply emotional people, at SILA and Mr. Homecare. This gives us the strength to serve you so well, and to understand each home and its requirements. It also helped us take a decision from our hearts, and we decided to wait it out. We have had an amazing work relationship with our partner for more than a year. In this hour of need, if their customers do not stand by them, who will?
We experienced relief from their end when they heard us say this, and their gratitude was genuine. With utmost transparency, the entire team has been receptive and worked towards making our lines go up immediately. We’re sure it was not child’s play, since Knowlarity is stuck in a regulatory issue (as explained by its CEO). However, they did go out of the way to ensure our convenience, and we’re glad they did. Though some issues persisted, they were cooperative and cleaned out the glitches. Thus, they won a customer for life.

And who inspired us to take this decision?

YOU DID! House Cleaning, Office Cleaning, Pest Control, AC Servicing and Car Cleaning is not an easy business to be in, because it’s people intensive and every space is different. We have had our share of goof ups – at Hammer and Mop and Mr. Homecare – and we could be where we stand only because our patrons supported us.
Your frank feedback, patience and constructive criticism has been invaluable. We are humbled to know that you believe in us, and have always given us an opportunity to pull up our socks and be better. Thank you for your love and support.
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Understanding Customer Behavior for Home Cleaning Services

SILA (parent company of Mr. Homecare) has diverse people in its fold. From Sahil and Rushabh Vora who led the way with facility management of commercial properties 5 years back, to Sonam Chadha who built Wash Club Laundry in Delhi and Sushrut Munje who built Hammer and Mop in Mumbai, the first professional Home Cleaning Services brand in the country. Being the first movers in the sector, we have effectively shaped it and led the trends.
The Indian customer is willing to pay for convenience, understands quality and seeks credible service providers. During the early days, the questions were probing, since the concept was new. they sought to know what we do and how we do it. They probed for relevance, and chose service providers who communicated the value proposition clearly. Fast forward to the present – they would like to book a service in a few taps, pay online and be done with it.

Booking home services on the phone

A bunch of people still like to talk on the phone and book a service. We do business with people we like and people we trust. As a result, when we talk to someone on the phone, the intention is to understand whether the company can be trusted or not. while the questions might be technical and about the service, the real intention is to understand the mindset of the organization offering the service. Till recently, phone calls was a dominant form of booking services. However now, thankfully, customers have started trusted these new age organizations more.
Book Now – https://www.mrhomecare.in/get-quote

Booking home services on chat applications

We recently served a super successful Indian entrepreneur, who has advised us on crucial strategies that has got us where we are. The ease of booking a service on chat applications was evident during one of our conversations for a deep cleaning service he booked for a residence.

 

While having a human being sit on the other side of the chat application is a no brainer, we are exploring ways to incorporate a predictive chat for booking services. Imagine a form that talks to you, subtly directs you with proactive questions and completes the booking without you having to visit pages and wait till they load. This interactive form would ask you type out your name, or ask you to tap amongst options to select your preferences. We do believe that our customers would lap this up.

Thank you, customers, you drive us onward.

Yes, you do! We have learned our biggest lessons through our customer interactions – on and off the field. Even Kunal Shah could advise us as a customer, thanks to his experience. We are grateful for your love and support.