Business Concept

EPPK6014 Theory, Process and Practise of Entrepreneurship

Azam Omar, P110838

Home Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul (MRO)

Online Marketplace

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1. What is my service?

Home maintenance is a necessity for homeowner. Well maintain houses will ensure the
safety, cleanliness and scenic environment for the home members and neighbourhood.
Effective home maintenance will ensure optimum condition for equipment/ machinery
thus preventing major breakdown and costly repair and restoration works.

Therefore, I plan to start a technology-based company that provides service to connect

homeowner with home maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) service provider
in Malaysia through online marketplace. The online marketplace will help every
homeowner to find every available service provider within his/ her locale, complete with
information and rating for them to choose and have the MRO work done according to
their schedule. This plan is also dedicated to help micro, small and medium enterprises
(MSMEs) in the home MRO businesses to expand their business through the online
marketplace platform.

Conventionally, most of homeowner may at least have one (1) or two (2) service
provider/s for the MRO job and most likely to have it through neighbours’
recommendation. This often leads to mismatch demand and offer situation where the
work/s need to be address quickly but the service provider may not able to adhere to the
request. Consequently, it leads to:

i. Damaging the scenic and the beauty of the property;

ii. Prolonged breakdown may cost machinery to sustained further faulty;
iii. Anxiety and annoyance to the homeowner as the problem cannot be fix timely; and
iv. Inconvenience for the whole household.

Home MRO service providers are diverse from micro, small and medium enterprise
(MSMEs) including informal. However, most of them struggle to survive with their
limited customer-based as their marketing rely on traditional word-of-mouth (WoM) and
physical advertisement. The plan is to connect these 2 groups. The homeowner can get
the service faster and according to their schedule while the MSMEs can take advantage
from this service to market their service/s and widen their customer-based. The
illustration of the concept is as Figure 1 below:
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 Figure 1: Home MRO Online Marketplace Concept

The propose service is an online marketplace for home MRO that can be access through
website or application (app). The online marketplace will feature only home MRO related
work such as electrical works, plumbing, handy work, lawn mowing and cleaning. In
doing so, the online marketplace will position itself as an exclusive site for home MRO
in Malaysia.

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2. What does my service do?

The use of online marketplace as a go-to virtual place for commerce has become a norm
in today’s society. People have become technology savvy and it leads to a digital society
at large. One of the silver lining in COVID-19 disastrous episode is the rise of e-
commerce. The plan is to have the online marketplace for home MRO to ride on the
momentum and becoming a user-friendly application that can be used by potential
customer of all ages.

There will be at least two (2) core processes which involved the homeowner side and the
service provider side. In the online marketplace ecosystem, the homeowner is the user.
Any user who wants to seek for a service provider through the online marketplace can
browse the application, key in essential information such as requested date and time,
locality, expected price range and type of work. Based on the filter result, user can choose
any of the available service provider, formalize the work day appointment and simply
wait for the service to be rendered. Once done, user can pay through the online payment
gateway and rate the service provider. User can also leave a testimony for themselves or
other user reference. The illustration of the process is as shown in Figure 2 below:

Figure 2: Process for User in Home MRO App

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 The other critical party in the online marketplace ecosystem is the service provider.
Service provider will have a different process compared to the user. Once the service
provider registered as a service provider in the system, the system will provide them with
a schedule for managing upcoming appointments. Any clear date and/ or time in the
schedule (no confirmed appointment) will become visible and appear in the user app. It
signifies that the service provider is open for appointment. When user send their request,
service provider can accept the request and render the service according to the agreed
work detail. Once done, user will rate and pay for the fee through online payment
gateway. Service provider portion will be credited into their bank account and later, the
service provider can access the user rating and testimony for further improvement. The
illustration for the service provider process is as shown in the Figure 3 below:

Figure 3: Process for Service Provider in Home MRO App

To ensure quality services, the online marketplace will also have these following
features:

i. For quality assurance, the payment by user will go to the company and will be
retained for 3 days after transaction. If there is no concerning matter arises from
user in those 3 days, then the service provider portion of the fee will be credited
into his/ her bank account. This is to ensure the service provider to provide service
at their finest.

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 ii. The company will provide training to registered service provider mainly on
technical aspect such as manual on using the app and also the ethical aspect on
company ethical and moral conduct. It is to ensure that all service providers to
familiarize with the online marketplace and its app and also adhere to company
ethical policy.

iii. To ensure the service providers are expert on its field, the registration will require
them to key-in several mandatory aspect like field of expertise, work experiences,
registration to any relevant bodies or associations and certification. The detail will
be made available to user to ensure transparency on registering service providers.

iv. As the marketplace and app are in digital world, the service will have its own 24
hours a day call centre to help user and service provider alike on any technical or
non-technical issue. This will ensure the users and service providers to have all
the necessity help for their experience in using the online marketplace.

v. To improve the commitment of service providers, the online marketplace will

implement a loyalty program where the honest and loyal service providers will
be awarded. The online marketplace will give significant commission cut to have
the service provider retained more of the fee. Furthermore, those of service
providers who completed lots of transaction will be promoted to expert service
provider and can get additional percentage of fee such as extra 3-5% from normal
fee.

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3. How is it different of better than other services?

There is a saying that nobody can invent any new invention today. As we head towards
technology defining era, one might believe that the saying is highly true. However, that
does not mean a product/ service have already reach its full potential. Improvement
happens every second and people celebrate the creativity and innovation to make
something better. In business, it’s common for entrepreneur to enter into perfect market
and start selling something that is already in the market. However, to ensure survival of
the venture, entrepreneur must know their own unique selling point and value proposition
to set them apart from their competitor. The business I’m planning to venture here offer
three value propositions to differentiate itself from the competitors.

The first value proposition is the option for user. To understand better, let us recall a
common scenario that usually happened in our lives. When A, a homeowner wants to
engage B who is a plumber to fix his kitchen drainage, A call B and ask him to come
immediately. However, B is not available at that time and ask for another 2 days. A has
to endure the problem in the kitchen for another 2 days. When the work day arrived, B
suddenly call A and said he can’t make it and request for another 2 days. A is frustrated.
However, A does not have any other service provider either from his personal record or
neighbourhood friends’ referral. Thus, A have to endure for another 2 days. This is a
common and repetitive situation. The power and bargaining chips is not in the
homeowner’s hand. With the home MRO online marketplace, it can help reduce the
problem and give the power back into the user’s hand. The service will provide all able
service provider to choose within user’s locality and requested work/s category. It gives
the prospect of having work/s done in user’s time. User can choose service provider that
can suit their time and have a proper appointment for the work day.

Secondly, the plan offers promptness and speed as its value proposition. People perceived
home MRO differently. Some people believe in good maintenance plan while other may
opt for corrective action if a machine, equipment or a system breaks down. Either way,
when there is a need for maintenance, repair and overhaul job, people will only then start
looking for a service provider. Some people have a record of service provider in their
handphone or book, others only looking for contact detail through friends or internet as
when needed. The home MRO app is here to solve the problem. No need to search your
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record. When the service is needed, grab your laptop/ phone and start searching and setup
your appointment. No more or searching through your records and asking for from your
friends and neighbours for service provider contact detail. This service makes it easy for
everybody. The service also can be access 24 hours a day. Anytime a homeowner wants
to look for a service provider, the online marketplace is there to entertain them.

Lastly, the online marketplace offers a reliable service provider. Hiring a service provider
especially a new one can sometimes be tricky. How does his end work? Is it good or bad?
Is he comfortable to approach or have an annoying presence? Is he only do bare minimum
or go extra mile for customer satisfaction? These are some questions that people ask
themselves whenever they want to engage a service provider. Would it be easy if with
one click, we can have access to the service provider credential and his past work
testimony? The home MRO online marketplace offers the answer. The online
marketplace implements rating system where user will rate the service provider and
allowed customer to post their testimony. This can help future user to have better
information about service provider they intend to engaged. The rating will also ensure
the service provider to assume any job at their highest best to secure a better rating.

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4. Who will buy the service?

Target market for this plan is the homeowner. According to Housing Census 2010, there
are 7.34 million housing unit in Malaysia. Then, it can be narrowed down to only
bungalow, semi-detached, terrace or town housing type that sum up to the total of 5.6
million housing unit. Higher-end housing like condominium, gate and guarded
community housing usually come with their own MRO company. Among the chosen
housing type, it can further be narrowed down to only T20 and M40 household income
family that makes up around 5.11 million household according to household income
survey report by the Department of Statistics Malaysia. Targeting both T20 and M40
group are a reasonable approach as they are willing to pay for convenience. Targeting
only 10% of market already constituted about 511,000 potential customers. Illustration
for target market is as shown in figure 4 below:

Figure 4: Target Market for Home MRO App

The target customer most likely to be working people that age about 30 years old and
above. This is because an adult is more likely to have stable income and already own or
at least rent a house. Both male and female are included as both have equal chances to
own/ rent a house. As for household income, the target group are from the M40 group to
the T20 group. Thus, the minimum salary is about RM4,851.00 and above. The property

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may reside in urban and suburban area. However, the suburban area more likely to
utilised the online marketplace because urban property may have already had a
maintenance and repair contract from the developer especially the gate and guarded
property. Psychologically, the target customers are the homeowners whom prefer a well
maintenance house, yet will engaged an expert to do all the MRO jobs than doing
themselves. As the plan involve using technology, the target customer should also an
individual that depend heavily on technology.

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5. Why will they buy the service?

One of the reasons why I choose this plan is because maintenance, repair and overhaul
works is not a one-time job. Once a house was sold by a developer, the future revenue
stops there. However, MRO works may will come from time to time and it is not affected
by economic downturn. When economy goes down, people don’t stop engaging service
provider to repair their kitchen or stop hiring people to trimmed their lawn. The prospect
of people searching and wanting for a home MRO service provider is exist. Next, we
have to see whether people will search for a home MRO service provider.

When we travel back about 50 years ago, it is common for the men to know the basic
knowledge and skill regarding the home MRO works. They can learn from their parent
or learn from an expert and all future works will be on him. However, the society is
changing. People are working as professional, and spending a longer time at work.
Female worker included. As people are getting busier with daily working life, learning
the home MRO related knowledge and skills becoming less important. Furthermore,
people have already raised their household income especially for working parents. People
nowadays have the ability to pay for services and they are willing to pay for convenient.

Next, the online marketplace agenda is not simply making money. The cardinal idea is
to help MSMEs to widen their customer based and increase their earning. All of the plan
promotion and events will be focusing on getting people to know and understand that
buy engaging service provider in the online marketplace, they are helping the MSMEs.
It’s a win-win situation because homeowner is willing to pay, they will get the service
done, and at the same time they a sharing their prosperity and helping the MSMEs.

Lastly, the service will give a better and secure service fee as the fee will be according to
the market price and is fixed on the system. Usually, a service provider will haggle their
fee and the MRO work will stall unless an agreement on the fee is achieved. When
accessing the platform, the online marketplace has detail out the market fee for every
available MRO works and will give the homeowner a comfortable feeling to decide
which service provider they want to choose.

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6. How will the service be promoted?

There will be two different promotional strategies for the service which are conventional
and digital promotion. Both are equally important especially in pre-launching and during
launching of the online marketplace and app. However, I’m only planning to do the
promotion locally as it only targets local market. The promotion will have two (2) main
target which are the user of the app and the service provider.

While digital promotion is set on bringing customer, conventional will be crucial to

recruit service providers. Conventional promotion will still be use to reach out potential
customer, but the bigger portion of the promotional content is about recruitment of
service provider. In that sense, promotional activities have to be carried out to
government agencies, NGOs and association related to service provider to encourage
registration. These parties’ connection like SME Corp and TEKUN is the key to access
all potential service providers. This promotion will use every advertisement channel in
the early stage for recruitment of service providers. Advertisement will go from one
locale to another like pilot project for proof of concept and since the scaling up
nationwide may cost a fortune. Other channel is by investing in an appropriate event that
can increase its physical visibility like soft-launch event, launching ceremony, social
event and more.

As the online marketplace and app can only be found in the digital world, it come with
no surprise that the digital promotion will be even bigger than the conventional
promotion. Digital promotion will be tailored uniquely to reach the potential customers.
The plan will invest in website development and will make full use of the website and
social media promotion. The promotion is centred in the prospect of connecting
homeowner with the MSMEs in the community. The promotion will make full use of the
sentiment. In digital promotion, the online marketplace website will have Call to Action
(CTA) with a separate landing page. On the landing page, it will include high-quality
images that highlighted key app features and will also be linked to app download sites.
To ensure any internet search for home MRO will referred to the home MRO online
marketplace website or app, the plan will invest in search engine optimization while using
social media advertisement to make potential customers drop by the app stores and
download the app. Simultaneously, it also hopes in bringing customer to visit the website.
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7. Who are my competitors?

There are three (3) group of competitors which are:

A. Home MRO Company

Example of companies are as follows:

Company services includes electrical, plumbing, air condition, general repair,

tiling, painting, locksmith, water heater and plaster ceiling. The service advantages
for this group of competitors are:

i. Emphasis on handymen technical expertise;

ii. Emphasis on handymen (employee) professionalism;
iii. Emphasis on customer satisfaction; and
iv. Focus on certain locality.

i. Online MRO Booking Company

Example of companies are as follows:

Company will setup the appointment for services includes electrical, plumbing, air
condition, general repair, tiling, painting, locksmith, water heater, plaster ceiling,
cleaning, security, mover and renovation. The service advantages for this group of
competitors are:
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 i. Emphasis on booking arrangement;
ii. Emphasis on large number of vendors;
iii. Wide area of services; and
iv. Wide type of maintenance works.

ii. Online Marketplace for Services

Example of company are as follows:

Company will show every service provider that match the desirable services. The
marketplace offer numerous services includes and not limited to home MRO. The
service advantages for this group of competitors are:

i. Emphasis on various type of services;

ii. Emphasis on large number of service provider; and
iii. Wide area of services.

Considering the existing competitors, this plan believed it can differentiate itself through
the differences in its unique selling point (USP) and strives for niche market. The
perceptual mapping to differentiate this venture from its competitors is as follow:

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 Figure 5: Perceptual Mapping for Home MRO App

The current competitors do not venture into this venture vision which are exclusivity for
home MRO and services in promptness and speed.

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