OK BOSS: Your Personal Assistant and Errand Runner
“There are big market players in various sectors such as food delivery and housing facilities but there is no one step solution. We at Ok Boss– provide customised unique services, anyone can use the platform easily and get done any kind of work ranging from buying groceries,ordering home made food, to getting a form picked up from their child’s school can be done they can even ask for someone to accompany their parents to the airport or get their house tax checked”- said Shoba Alladi, founder of the company, OK BOSS in an exclusive interview with Startup Story.
Shoba is a Chartered accountant who has worked in many companies in India and abroad, she has also done MBA and PMP management, she used to work in management where her work was optimisation, and scaling. When she moved back to India, she noticed that her parents and her friend’s parents and other people of the age group were getting bothered by certain tasks such as picking up parcels, documentation work, and other things such as delivery services.
She thought about helping them and came up with the idea for OK BOSS– a platform which is always at the service of the customer.
Getting Started
They started in 2020, covid was at peak, they started pick up and delivery services, their initial customers were those who required healthcare products, they helped many covid patients supplying them with medicines. When restrictions eased up they opened up other services such as electricians, plumbers and governmental services and have been expanding their operations ever since.
Maintaining a Transparent and Friendly Work environment
Their operational team consists of 8 people including her, they take care of day to day operations like ensuring quality service and remaining in contact with customers. They have a very employ friendly and transparent organisation, they don’t use conventional cubicles and instead work in a large open room, everybody’s free to talk to others and share ideas, other than that they have a network of about 50 people- electrician , plumber, delivery boy, and many other profile people such as drivers and housekeeping.
They have helped people by providing stable livelihood by making them more proficient and valuable as a human resource than they already were, allowing service providers to earn to their maximum potential, for example delivery boys are not only delivery boys, they do government work too, it makes them feel empowered, and dignified. Not only this, all their employees are background verified,they have their address copy and aadhar card, not only this, an entrusted person also goes to their house and ensures that they are actually living there.
Working for Customer Satisfaction
“NRIs and seniors are not comfortable with different apps but with OK BOSS- In addition to a fully functional website and App they have 24/7 support, they can either call or send a whatsapp message, they can report a voice message to get their work done.”- Shoba further added.
Customer satisfaction is top priority, in terms of improving and enhancing the customer experience their entire team works closely with their customers to constantly enrich and refine their processes and services. Their repeat customers are more than 70 to 80 percent. They are providing services which have not been done in India before, now they are also meeting up with apartment associations and senior care homes and trying to be their one stop consolidated PA.
Challenges along the Way
The first challenge for any startup is finding the right people, they find people and then train them to be personal assistants. For example they train their employees on how to deal with customers and work efficiently. As a small startup they want to expand to other cities and advertise more but they are limited by financial constraints.They had been bootstrapping till now but now they are looking for equity based investments to take the company forward.
Valuable Advice for Youngsters
“The entrepreneurial ecosystem in India is very vibrant right now, it is very challenging and yet there are great opportunities for youngsters, anyone with an entrepreneurial spirit should definitely try it out, they should sweat it out instead of going for a stable job, they will live to reap the benefits of their decisions, they should keep going and take risks, at the least they would gather an immense amount of experience and get exposure.”- she replied when asked to give a message for budding entrepreneurs.
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