TASKYOURNEIGHBOR
Case studies
About the project/client
TaskYourNeighbor is a fast-developing Canadian startup founded by talented marketer Paolo Spiluttini. The business model of its present project is based on the concept of the Crowdsourced Marketplace: a two-sided platform acts as an intermediary, bringing together people who need help with those who have the time and skills to complete the assigned task.
According to research, Canadians over the age of twenty-five spend about four hours per day on routine household tasks – since in general, hiring a professional to help with them is very expensive. But what if a neighbor, taking advantage of their proximity, were able to lend their assistance for a competitive rate? That’s the basic idea behind TaskYourNeighbor.
Conceived as a progressive online labor market, TaskYourNeighbor aims to sweep away the unsatisfactory situation that has long existed, allowing users to get simple household tasks out of the way for a reasonable cost, and providing convenient income streams for students, retired people, stay-at-home parents, and anyone looking to boost their income without leaving the local neighborhood.
For now the project’s focused on the Canadian market, where it aims not just to establish a strong business presence but also to do social good by improving quality of life and providing new work opportunities.
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CUSTOMER STORY
Creating an inspiring and intuitive user experience is a key to the development of any project – and when it comes to startups, where each user is critical, it becomes even more important.
After launching the first version of their site, TaskYourNeighbor turned to Roobykon Software to undertake the complex task of building a more reliable and flexible platform, while enhancing functionality at the same time. Equally important was that we were to improve the project for nativeness of interaction with the site, as well as introducing mechanisms for obtaining ‘live’ analytical data to enable improvements to the platform going forward.
From the start, we at Roobykon took a holistic view of this complex suite of tasks. In creating this new version, our project team completely reengineered the platform, providing transparency and convenience when working with the site, as well as giving an effective idea of the user's path.
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Third-party softwar
• For quick customer entry into the market, the client had used the Sharetribe Go SaaS solution, which provided a ready-made marketplace platform but didn’t allow for changes to the current site’s functionality – and so prevented the introduction of adjustments and product improvements • Our analysis showed that the registration process was too complex – this was the main reason for users leaving • Survey data from the first version of the project revealed that a lack of understanding of the differences between the roles of ‘Asker’ and ‘Tasker’ led to difficulties in beginning work with the platform, leading to an outflow of potential participants • Because the first version of the site could not provide analytical data, TaskYourNeighbor could not effectively track user behavior or gather other important information, and this became a barrier to understanding users and identifying next steps in developing the project
Email notifications weren’t doing a good enough job of giving users timely notice of activity on the platform – it was clear that the new version would need SMS notifications
To minimize cost and time spent we decided to keep going with Sharetribe but to move to the Open Source version, which provides a full range of customization options, letting us precisely track the customer’s needs.
• We completely revised and simplified the registration procedure, with a step-by-step algorithm making the process more transparent and also increasing the number of platform users in the process. • We advised the client to divide up users into those ‘Offering help’ and ‘Looking for help’ from the beginning of the joining process, as it was clear this would greatly simplify the experience. For extra clarity, we brought in different color notations for each role. • We added analytics codes to the resource pages, thus letting our client gather a wide range of information concerning behavioral factors on the site. To simplify the process of working with this data, we created an export facility from the admin panel, complete with a range of filters. • For sending out SMS alerts we chose the Twilio service API – one of the best platforms on the market, offering a comprehensive solution and supported across a large number of countries (an important factor for future up-scaling of the project).
On top of all this, the Roobykon Software team developed and implemented a solution for creating personal client accounts on the site, with an internal wallet allowing users to manage the withdrawal of their funds from the system, thus further streamlining the whole experience of using the platform.
Since the project is currently focused on the Canadian market, our business analysis indicated that we should also introduce an additional payment platform: E-Transfer. Because of the low rates charged by this platform for withdrawing funds, as well as its overall popularity among Canadians, it was clear that adding it to the offer would help attract more users.
Everyone at Roobykon Software is delighted at how we’ve been able to help our customer create a much more flexible version of their marketplace platform – one which offers almost unlimited possibilities for future development, letting the business cater to the growing and changing needs of its users.
Our work is already paying off, with more users coming on board and higher customer satisfaction with the service. Since the launch of the new version of the platform, there’s been a monthly increase in conversions, and in the first month the number of users increased by 79%, and the listings created by 50%. Similar rates of growth have been seen in the months since.
The introduction of analytics has made it possible to gain a much deeper understanding of the action that needs to be taken towards the further functional scalability of the project – and we at Roobykon Software continue to draw from these insights to keep TaskYourNeighbor at the cutting edge of its users’ needs.
What the customer
had to say
Roobykon has played a pivotal role in fine-tuning the starting MVP into a responsive marketplace. Their work has increased user interactions within the platform, generated more transactions, and drawn more feedback from users. Their professionalism and competence are second to no larger competitor, and yet they offer the flexibility of a small, agile team. They advise on the top solutions available for any new feature we need, and they provide continuing support for all concluded engagements. Customers can expect a partner that combines professionalism and capability with the versatility of a smaller firm.
Paolo Spiluttini CEO & Founder, TaskYourNeighbor
