BOOK UR WASH, the Modern approach of Professional Deep Cleaning

BookUrWash offers a promising franchise opportunity to the ambitious and enthusiastic entrepreneurs. If you yearn for a self-sustained, fully-supported and a remunerative business entity, then Book ur Wash is the right place for you. They offer a low investment model. The franchisers are required to hire service staff and invest in mobile cleaning squads and equipments. Thereafter complete training program is helmed by BookUrWash team. Once trained, the franchisers can operate from their preferred location and offer services in and around the city.In an interview with the Director of the Company Mr. Neeraj Pant he discussed about the journey and the challenges of the business. 

  Tell us about the journey of your business? What were the challenges that you faced?

  We realized that there is a huge requirement of car and home cleaning services and the industry is currently very unorganized with small hyper local service providers operating with very less expertise and knowledge of the business. Knowing the potential in the sector and understanding the expected growth of cleaning industry in the coming years we planned to establish a brand that would give customers the confidence of taking services from a highly professional and trained cleaners equipped with latest marines & cleaning agents.

We started in Oct 2016, offering car cleaning services with a small team  through our society campaigns. We were overwhelmed with the response of the customers. Very soon we started getting inquires for other services as well, like – sofa cleaning, carpet cleaning, kitchen / bathroom cleaning etc. we worked on those services, developed & trained new teams and got the latest equipment, cleaning agents and started offering the rest of the home cleaning services. After a span of time we realized there is a very big customer base that creates a very huge demand of these professional services in the market. In May 2017, we registered our company (Pvt Ltd) and started our operations in full flow.We also tied up with some big aggregators in the market and because of that we started getting regular leads on daily basis. Starting our commercial cleaning services 

Challenges we faced :We started serving both B2B and B2C markets.

The industry is very unorganized and with different customer requirements it was not easy to fulfil customer needs. Customer expectations were high compared to the services offered as local vendors don’t have the expertise required. We had to develop / train teams to meet those requirements and expectations. We had to customize our services and scope of work customer to customer.

Customers were not willing to pay much as they were getting same services from local vendors at lesser rates. We had to educate customers about the difference between the professional services and services from the local vendors.

Competition from local vendors made it difficult as they were operating in small areas and could reach easily on time and offer series in less rates. Reason for that was they were using local machines and inventory and cheaper manpower with less expertise.

Another important thing was logistics. Teams had to travel with all the equipments and inventory and reach on time at customer’s door. Travelling also included cost and traffic also was a force that was delaying things. We had to come up with ideas for cheaper transportation. Scooties for smaller jobs and CNG Van for bigger jobs were used to reduce the transportation time and cost. Over usage of inventory by the cleaners was also increasing the operational cost. We planted containers with diluted chemicals for easy usage of the cleaners and also planned the inventory management to avoid over usage of inventory.

Another challenge was to give customer’s the confidence to allow unknown men to enter their house and work there for whole day. With the increasing crime in big cities its not easy for customers also we trust anyone. We made sure we hire police verified cleaners through reliable manpower agencies and trained them how to handle customers professionally. It’s very important to gain trust of the customers first and assure them complete safety.

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  Tell us about an accomplishment you are most proud of?

  Biggest accomplishment would be that- Without any financial support and big association we created and developed a brand that investors showed their trust and interest on and we could sell our franchise which are now operational and profitable from the very first month.

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  What is unique about your business and where do you see yourself in next 5 years?

  The USP of our franchise model is – Very low Set Up Cost, NO Rental (Franchise can run the unit from home / premises only), Operations can be started in a small period of time and the Ticket Size is very BIG .. Have offered single cleaning service for big farmhouse / villa etc. upto 50k also and even more.In the next 5 years we see BUW operating in all metro and big cities with approx 80-100 operational franchises. We plan to expand BUW Pan India and develop a platform for lead generation and management of Franchises. Creating a brand which is most trusted and valued for its professional cleaning services.

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  What do you look for in an employee, and what are your responsibilities as an business owner?

  Someone who is smart, proactive and very positive. Who is willing to go beyond the line to win customer’s trust and work in order to offer the satisfaction a customer deserves.As a business owner our responsibility is to create an atmosphere where an employee can think himself or herself not just as an employee but as an important asset to the company who contributes to the growth and credibility of the company.

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  How much do you think that social media helps you to work more effectively in knowing your audience or knowing what’s new in the market?

  Social Media these days play a very important role in expressing yourself as an individual or as an organization. Everyone is addicted to social media nowadays and therefore using these platforms to connect with people and to create the awareness in the market is very very crucial. It helps us interact with the customers directly and understand their needs and expectations. Also through different social media platforms we can connect with people and understand what’s their pain points and work on it accordingly. It also keeps you updated with the latest technology, equiments and innovations in the market. As a company its very important to keep innovating & improving and work as per customer’s requirement in order to sustain and grow regularly.

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  What would be your suggestion to the budding entrepreneurs?

  The only thing we can suggest to the budding entrepreneurs for any business model they are working on, is that  –  “First understand the requirement /  pain points of the customers, then accordingly work on the possible solutions that are good in quality, cost effective and time saving. Never give up, have patience, stay positive, stay focused & motivated. Have faith in yourself, as it will never be easy, as they say –“ if it would be easy, anyone would be an entrepreneur “. Also be prepared for making changes, don’t push yourself for something where you see there is no possibility going ahead . If you feel there is a change required to open the box of new opportunities, do that, change your way slightly it can bring new possibilities. But keep working hard and there will be a day when you will definitely reach there.”