At your service, just a click away

dubai - Matic was formed to fill a market gap for a one-stop-shop for all home cleaning services

Like many other successful startups, the idea of Matic was also conceived out of personal need. When Mohamed Samad, co-founder and chief executive, could not find a maid service in Dubai that was able to meet his expectations, he realised there was a huge gap in the market for a one-stop-shop for all home cleaning services.

From there, Matic's co-founders paved their own path to becoming Dubai's premier destination for home cleaning services by building a website and mobile app allowing people to book a maid in just a few clicks. While many companies provided housekeeping services, their knack for creating better systems led them to chart a new way for booking home services in Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Riyadh, Dammam and Beirut.

"We are currently operational in Dubai and Abu Dhabi in the UAE. We are the largest residential cleaning marketplace in the market. Our future plans include expanding to other emirates in the country as well as in the GCC," Samad says.

Describing his entrepreneurial journey, Samad says it was and still is a good run. "Starting off in Dubai in early 2016 and expanding to seven other cities within two years was exciting and challenging but we pride ourselves with the technology that we have built and customer satisfaction," he says.

Technology is the core of business
Working closely with its cleaning partners and customers allows Matic to develop a state-of-the-art technology that suppliers of the business rely on to run their businesses and customers to book cleaning sessions.

"Technology has definitely been more conducive for our partners and us. Technology and automation allowed us and our partners to scale rapidly and efficiently. Since deploying the technology in November 2016 in Saudi Arabia, Matic's cleaning partners grew their businesses ten-fold. It is enabling us to upgrade the cleaning industry and drive business growth," he says.

"The home services space is messy and complex," he says, adding: "Striking a balance between automation, technology and the human touch is valuable. Our goal is to use technology to empower the individuals providing home cleaning services."

Cleaners, drivers and dispatchers on the Matic platform are connected to a cloud-based solution, which provides customers a great service end to end; from immediate booking confirmation to forward scheduling and cleaner reviews. The free cloud-based platform also substantially enhances the productivity of cleaning companies with features such as driver route optimisation, scheduling, client and staff management, accounting and reporting to ensure the safety, security and productivity of cleaning professionals.

"The technology improves the working conditions of cleaners by providing transparency, allowing, for instance, additional compensation for any overtime work as well as rewarding the highest performing service providers based on user ratings of the cleaners," Samad explains.

He says that taking suppliers onboard and making them rely fully on Matic's technology was a challenge when he started.

"You need to prove to your partners that there's a more efficient way for running things. Change is definitely a hard process and people tend to resist it. Now, our supply grows organically," says the CEO.
He adds that delivering a consistent customer experience across all channels is a challenge "but remains our main goal, and we focus our efforts on making each and every experience equally good. Whether a customer is engaging with us through the application, through different social media platforms or over the phone, they should receive a consistently good experience."

At your service
Samad claims that Matic (short for khadamatic, in Arabic 'your services'), provides a comprehensive guide to obtain the ultimate home life for families, without any hassle or difficulty.

"We all have the same chores: Making sure our homes are spotless, our clothes clean, our appliances functional, that's why for every problem we have a solution that is just a few buttons away. Our quality control team works with clients to ensure they receive nothing but the promises we make," Samad claims.

Following a $3 million investment by Middle East Venture Partners (MEVP) earlier this year, Matic, plans to enhance its services and expand its business across the GCC.

Since its inception in 2016, Matic has facilitated more than 500,000 bookings, completed over two million hours of domestic cleaning and activated over 2,000 cleaning professionals.

Walid Mansour, partner and chief investment officer at MEVP, says: "After closely looking at the home cleaning space, we concluded that the Matic team is well-positioned to build a true brand across the region. They have grown very fast since establishment and continue to deliver a unique offering both to consumers and cleaning companies."

Samad claims that Matic is different from its competitors because its model was built around a key operational execution gap in the market.

"Unlike all our competitors, we are the sole player with an operational solution for our partners to execute and manage and smoothly scale their business. Over and above that, on the customer journey, our process is quicker, more user-friendly and more transparent," he argues.

- riaz@khaleejtimes.com