The home services market is seeing more demand than ever, but creativity is still king for this hands-on segment.
Words by Kieran McLoone, deputy editor for Global Franchise
Unlike many sectors this year, the services and home maintenance industry has been partially unscathed by the unforgiving wave of problems caused by the pandemic.
That’s not to say that changes haven’t been needed, and many of the social distancing and safeguarding practices seen in other industries are just as prevalent in this hands-on market. The general trend, however, is that global lockdown orders and work-from-home mandates have pushed consumers to take more care of the places where they live.
As Mike Bidwell, president and CEO of services franchisor Neighborly, put it in a recent feature penned for Global Franchise: “We’re all using our homes more than ever due to shelter-in-place mandates. Our A/C is running on full-blast. We’re utilizing our home plumbing during times when we’d normally be at the office or in public. And, our appliances – dishwashers, microwaves, ovens – are being practically worn out by constant use. As we continue to rely on these essentials for the foreseeable future, it’s not an option to ignore their performance.”
Automating mowing
One concept that’s seen modest growth this year, even in the face of the global pandemic, is Mowbot: a lawn care franchise brand looking to disrupt the $99.5bn lawn industry, by bringing robots and automation into a sector that’s seen little technological change in decades.
Founded in 2017, Mowbot currently has 18 locations throughout the U.S. and is developing nationwide as entrepreneurs begin to recognize the disruptive and eco-friendly potential of its unique offering.
Essentially, investors can choose to go down one of two avenues; either a bot-only franchise or a full-service lawn care model. The former only concerns the maintenance and servicing of the robot, while the latter includes all the additional landscaping tasks you’d expect from a brand in this field.
Either way, the crux of both options is the brand’s proprietary lawn-cutting robot, which slashes through personnel costs almost as easily as it does blades of grass. Alongside the mowbot, the brand uses battery-powered equipment and electric cars to keep harmful pollutants to a minimum. In the long-run, the goal is to eliminate the use of fossil fuels from the lawn care industry.
The fact of the matter is that this is the direction all industries will be heading, even if it takes a decade or so to realize it. In a 2019 Pew Research Center study, it was shown that 79 per cent of Americans want alternative sources of energy to be a priority development for researchers. Therefore, we’ll soon see investors heading toward businesses like Mowbot in droves, that not only innovate on long-established franchise structures but also target eco-friendliness alongside business development.
Aping Amazon
As well as thinking green, one thing consumers are interested in from every industry is convenience. Whether that’s countless delivery options from their favorite restaurants or streamlined booking processes for group workout classes, everybody values businesses that respect their time.
“The disruptors and frontrunners of the services and maintenance sectors are either creating new products or consolidating their previous offerings”
That could be why Neighborly, a home services franchisor, has been acquiring a multitude of different home services brands to ensure that their portfolio has all bases covered. After all, as CEO Mike Bidwell said to us on the Global Franchise Podcast earlier this year, his mission is to make Neighborly the “Amazon of the home service industry”.
In February, for example, Neighborly acquired vent cleaning brand Dryer Vent Wizard, and in July, it picked up HouseMaster, a home inspection franchise; both with established presences across the U.S. and Canada.
Then, in October, the parent company really doubled-down on development with both the acquisition of custom pull-out shelving brand ShelfGenie, and the announcement that it would open a second headquarters in Irving, to complement its current Waco site.
Behind all of these moves is the disruptive desire to ‘own the home’. To not just be an option for customers who are looking for some repairs, but the de facto partner and go-to resource to fulfill any kind of maintenance need.
Fantastic opportunity
Acquiring numerous brands is one way to present the customer with a conveniently packaged services offering, but another method is to create a proprietary app; similar to what ClassPass did for aggregating the fitness industry.
That’s been the approach taken by Fantastic Services, an all-in-one service provider that sees an annual turnover of around £40m (roughly $53m), and deals with upward of 15,000 clients a month.
“Lockdown orders have pushed consumers to take more care of the places where they live”
By creating two award-winning apps, the franchise has enabled customers to book a service in less than 30 seconds. When it comes to sheer speed, it doesn’t get much more disruptive than that.
An all-in-one package
Alongside completely new, innovative offerings like Mowbot, this year also saw some service franchises consolidate their efforts to stay ahead of the competition. My Home Watch, the brainchild of Australian entrepreneur Natasha Morgan, became My Home Services Group in May 2020 as the brand brought all of its various services under one franchising banner.
“We’re very proud that after three years of being the leaders in home watching services in Australia, we have been able to diversify, adapt and grow our My Home Watch brand into an essential multi-service brand, by developing the My Home Services Group,” said Morgan.
This move wasn’t surprising, considering that My Home Watch’s standard offering of watching a client’s home when they go on holiday no doubt saw a lack of demand this year, with fewer holidays than ever on account of the pandemic.
As with all industries, the disruptors and frontrunners of the services and maintenance sectors are either creating new products or consolidating their previous offerings. Whichever brand does this best could be the one-stop-shop that both consumers and franchisees turn to in the future.
