Safety and hygiene have emerged as the top priorities for startups in the services space as they seek to win the trust of consumers and partners.
Ola, Urban Company, Grofers, Flipkart, Zomato, Swiggy, Amazon and Uber, among others, are investing significant capital in such measures, at a time when the fight against the Covid-19 pandemic has shaken the confidence of workers and consumers in the shared economy.
These businesses face a two-pronged problem – getting partners, many of whom are migrant workers, back to work, as well as generating demand from consumers.
Urban Company plans to invest Rs 20-25 crore this year to buy and distribute personal protective equipment kits alone, while Grofers is infusing Rs 90 lakh monthly on hygiene measures.
Zomato is covering out-patient charges of up to Rs 5,000 for its delivery partners, while Ola has committed an investment of Rs 500 crore in building over 500 fumigation centres across the country, and training drivers.
Amazon is making nearly 100 process changes in operations to adapt to the pandemic.
These startups are deploying measures including equipping partners with PPE like medical masks, gloves, face shields and sanitizers, minimal contact processes, daily temperature checks, and sanitization of tools and equipment.
“Safety is our single biggest priority for 2020,” Abhiraj Bhal, CEO of Urban Company told ET. “Before the start of each job, the partner is supposed to take a selfie of themselves wearing the mask, and of their hands with gloves on…We have repurposed our facial detection software,” he added.
Early indications are that these initiatives are also resonating with customers.
Up to 70% of consumers consider assurance and transparency in restaurant hygiene ratings before placing an order, data shared by Swiggy showed.
“The majority of the active users are more particular about the hygiene practices …compared to aspects such as discounts or charges for delivery,” a Swiggy spokesperson told ET.
Food delivery apps’ business plummeted to less than 10% (of levels seen before the pandemic) in the first phase of the lockdown, but order volumes for both Zomato and Swiggy gradually inched up to about 35% last week.
Setting up safety teams
Startups like Swiggy, Flipkart, Ola and Amazon have also set up dedicated teams to focus on these initiatives.
“We have organized more than 3,000 awareness sessions covering 100k+ people across our facilities on how to minimize their exposure to Covid-19 by following simple precautions,” a Flipkart spokesperson told ET.
These measures, however, come with added costs.
Some like Urban Company are passing on the cost of hygiene measures to their consumers, while others are choosing to absorb these overheads.
“The implementation of safety and hygiene initiatives have increased the cost of order fulfilment. However, we are still working round-the-clock to minimize operational costs,” said Albinder Dhindsa, CEO of Grofers.
Technology companies say attrition among the workforce is lower compared to the initial phase of the lockdown due to these initiatives, which have made the system more reliable.
“Our service partner NPS was the highest ever in April and May, despite business activity being the lowest ever, in part because of the safety processes we have institutionalized,” Bhal of Urban Company told ET.
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