The quick commerce mantra of ultra-fast deliveries is seeping into the services sector as well.
Urban Company is piloting 15-minute maid booking service. Called Insta Maids, the service will make maids available to users in 15 minutes. These maids will be able to do household chores such as cleaning utensils, brooming and mopping and cooking prep, among other tasks. The pilot is being tested out in Mumbai, and is still in the initial stages.
“Your maid left you hanging? We leave your home spotless,” Urban Company said it its promotional materials. The service would cost Rs. 245 per hour, but is being made available at an introductory price of Rs. 49 an hour.
Urban Company already offers similar at-home services like plumbing, carpentry and cleaning, but has chosen the instant route to go with its maids service, and is making them available in 15 minutes. Urban Company seems to be targeting users whose maids have unexpectedly failed to show up, and who’d want to have their services anyway. As such, a 15 minute maid service could make sense for users when their regular house helps are on leave.
It’s a pretty interesting idea, and shows how quick commerce is influencing areas outside its immediate ambit. Quick commerce had started off by delivering groceries in 10-15 minutes, but customers can now order everything from medicines to printouts to clothes — and even ambulances — in similar timeframes. Urban Company has taken this a step further, and is providing maid services in 15 minutes. Implementing it could be tricky — Urban Company will need to keep a collection of maids available in densely populated areas, and will likely have to compensate them for the time they spend waiting to get orders. The company will also likely have to train these workers so that they adhere to the company’s quality and safety standards. But if Urban Company can pull this off, and actually have maids arrive at your doorstep within 15 minutes of raising a request, it could open the doors for all kinds of service oriented business reaching users within quick-commerce’s timeframes.