We got a wonderful opportunity to talk with a talented designer and UX Architect, Hashim Basheer. He is the Founder & CEO of YelloChat. This unique platform is an innovative concept; a one-stop shop to complete your daily chores and personal needs. Yellochat is unique from the rest because it allows you to book services directly from the app and provides the option to live chat with professional vendors nearby for all custom job queries.
Their philosophy is to free up people from mundane tasks, so they get time to enjoy life and provide their partners with the opportunity for growth. Their distinctive 2-in-1 goal is genuinely inspirational, and we are excited to see how this philosophy can shape culture.
Let’s take a closer look at this innovative app- Yellochat from Hashim himself.
Explain the background of you and the company in detail.
Hi, I’m Hashim, Founder of YelloChat. I am a UX Architect and a passionate design thinker/problem solver. After completing my Engineering degree, I pursued a Masters in Design(M.Des) from IIT Bombay.
As a designer, I am better equipped to solve problems with creative and analytical thinking. I have architectured end-to-end product experience in various domains of e-commerce, travel and tourism, telecommunication etc., for reputed companies like carrefour, accelya, cisco and Verizon in the past.
YelloChat was founded in 2020 with a mission to make our lives easier and stress-free by getting away from the struggles of daily chores and maintenance tasks. By doing so, we also wanted to provide job opportunities for skilled professionals and pave a growth path for them to become specialists in their respective fields.
What are your goals?
My goals are twofold. One is to build up Yellochat as a job ecosystem where anybody who is eager to work will find the opportunity to develop a skill, become a specialist and earn a dignified life. The other is to make people’s lives easier by taking care of their mundane daily tasks and free up time for themselves, where they enjoy life and have the time and opportunity to pursue the things they love.
My personal goal is to have the means to explore my creativity while having the space and time to do life and create memories with those I love. I want to be an example for my kids both as a good human being, unafraid to pursue my dreams and a father who is present and involved in their lives.
What do you feel is the biggest strength of yourself/company right now?
I believe our biggest strength is our team. Each one of us – founding team, team members and mentors share the same goal and vision to make “work” enjoyable.
Each of us is committed to bringing our best to the table and endeavours to pass the same motivation to our partners and their staff.
What was the path you/your company took to get to where you are today?
We know building a brand is not a simple task. First and foremost, we have to ensure our customers love our solutions. We strongly believe that we can only grow when our partners grow. Furthermore we analyze all aspects of our customer-partner experience and constantly try to improve our product to best suit their needs. We followed a method of learning from other fellow entrepreneurs, mapping all the problems we were likely to encounter and then preparing to address those using our strengths – creativity and technology.
Why did you start (or want to be the head of) this company?
I worked briefly in Muscat, Oman, in my wife’s family industrial catering business. During that time, I was able to help some people with job opportunities like supplier staff or supervisors.
However, when I moved to Dubai to work with corporates, the scenario was very different. By then, we had our second child, and personally, I was getting stressed out managing so many daily chores, home tasks, and my regular job along with parenthood. I wished for affordable professional help in exchange for time and relaxation.
Along with my friend Pratheep and Manjula (now my co-founders), we validated this problem with other similar families through user surveys and arrived at this two-sided problem.
On one side, people cannot get reliable and affordable homes and personal services, which leads to stress and inconvenience. On the other side, many talented and skilled people cannot start or establish a career.
To address this, we set out on this journey and YelloChat was born.
What have been the biggest challenges you’ve had to overcome?
We started during COVID with a novel idea to create a true marketplace; where people can connect with nearby vendors for services like cake making, furniture making or any other custom jobs. Customers can chat and avail services directly from them.
We faced issues with growing with this model as a true marketplace works better with larger databases. Initially, things weren’t looking up, but we quickly realized that we needed to focus and prioritize customer satisfaction and give end-to-end solutions to build a brand. Within a limited time and budget, we were agile enough to change our focus to make YelloChat into a “managed marketplace” with a quick booking of homes and personal services like cleaning, PCR test, Salon, car wash and more.
We currently offer 14 live services that can be booked directly, and we have seen a 35% growth month on month. The challenge we are facing now is the time to establish our differentiation, which will truly allow us to stand out from our competitors.
Give us one word that describes you the best.
Empathizer
What makes you excited about Mondays?
There is much to learn and improve every day, and I get so excited to see these ideas take shape. Every positive change in customer experience helps us to capture more of the market, and this hunger makes me eager every Monday morning to get on with my team and be on the frontline.
What do you value most about your culture and vision?
We are not just monetarily driven, but our primary vision is to create a positive impact in people’s lives. We aim to remain optimistic and willing to learn and adapt.
Tell us about a project that forced you to be innovative and creative.
When we moved our focus to making YelloChat into an online home service booking portal, we began directly competing with other big players. We applied design thinking and spent our time on the drawing board to figure out the gaps in this industry and how we could solve them efficiently.
We came up with innovative ideas to bridge those gaps, and these solutions will surely delight our customers and motivate our partners to continue to trust in our vision for service excellence.
What are your company’s strategies, and how do they stand unique from your competitors?
Our strategies are derived by carefully and holistically considering all aspects that bring positive experiences to our partners and customers. These include all social, functional, economic, emotional and personal aspects for our customers and partners.
At Yellochat, we offer two models for our customers. The first is the lean booking model that allows our customers to quickly book frequently needed home and personal services like maid cleaners, salons, car wash, gardeners, pest control etc. The second one is to get a customized service by posting an enquiry into the relevant group of vendors where they can directly chat with vendors via our app and avail of the best service after weighing their options.
More than business model differentiation, we know our growth will happen only when our partners are driven by motivation for growth. Good service quality and customer relationships will be assured with this motivation rather than measures like fines and checklists, which is what our competitors are following.
What are the key values which helped you to overcome the roadblocks/challenges in your career? Tell us something about your memorable incident in your leadership?
I believe my ability to listen, learn and think rationally helps me to make better decisions. I like to approach mistakes as improvement opportunities, which race with time and money. Memorable incidents would be when my co-founders joined, believing in the cause and that we could achieve success together.
How do you see the company changing in two years, and how do you see yourself creating that change?
Yellochat’s roadmap for the next two years is very exciting and promising. Our technology will help people to get any service job done quicker and cheaper with the best-suited vendor. The same technology will also enable the service sector SMEs to have better customer relationships and provide better service quality. Our north star is community living solutions where people’s social and behavioural patterns play a key role in buying services. We are starting a wide range of unique services that will further help people. By enabling people with all these right opportunities, I am confident YelloChat will bring positive change in people’s lives.
Where is your leadership going? What benefits do your clients get from your company in this competitive world?
I aim to make YelloChat a happy ecosystem that empowers our customers, partners and employees alike to do greater things in life. It can only be achieved by working hard and smart.
YelloChat is currently targeted at UAE residents who are struggling to achieve a healthy Work-life balance. Yellochat offers you the time and convenience like never before at an affordable price by leaving your tasks in the hands of our skilled professional teams and freeing up time to pursue your dreams.
What are the services/solutions or products offered by your company on par with the current industry standards? Tell us something about your upcoming products or services?
Our personal service offerings like beauty, spa, salon, medical health tests and wellness are gaining popularity as it offers convenience like never before from the comfort of your home. It avoids going out in traffic, finding parking and waiting.
YelloChat offers home cleaning services by professionally trained maids charged hourly and other home cleaning services like deep cleaning, furniture cleaning, car wash, and AC cleaning done by experienced professional teams. Apart from this, we undertake bookings for Home maintenance services like pest control, move in, move out, painting, sanitization etc.
We have lined up more service offerings in the health and pet sector based on demand from our customers.
Connect with Hashim Basheer on LinkedIn.
Find YelloChat on Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram and Twitter.