He started his aircon servicing business in January 2020 after he faced a problem all Singaporeans would have at some point \u2013 when his aircon was not cold enough.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cOne day, I had to have my aircon fixed. The guys came down pretty fast, and on the spot, they were demanding $250 to fix a bunch of things I didn\u2019t really understand. So, I told them to just go ahead with it. I wasn\u2019t really left with a choice. Either I pay the assessment fee or I get someone else to come, and there\u2019s no guarantee that (the new) guy is going to quote something less.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This helplessness spurred him to think about a better way that the industry could function. When he was trying to learn more about the industry, \u201cI found out that the price I was quoted was five times inflated to what you would pay on ServiceBack today.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Hakeem even went back to speak to the guy who initially serviced his aircon, not to pick a quarrel but to continue his learning journey, and realised that \u201che was just trying to hit his sales quota.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Read Also: How Sogurt Downsized From 15 Physical Stores To Just A Flagship Cafe, And Scaled Up Its e-Commerce Business<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n As a victim of unethical practices in the industry, Hakeem sees that a matching platform relying on positive reviews would naturally do a better job in being transparent in the industry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Another major problem all vendors in the industry were facing is very high customer acquisition cost. Hakeem shares that \u201cthe vendors have to fork out 30% to 40% of (their price) just to acquire (a) user\u201d. He says that this is not sustainable and \u201cit\u2019s not fair, the technicians do all the work, but they only walk away with (about) 60% of the whole amount (that they charge customers)\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n While this is the case, Hakeem also explains that customers would always be the ones ultimately forking out for the higher customer acquisition costs. As different vendors bid up online ad prices, marketing and customer acquisition costs go up, and this would have to be reflected in higher charges.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This was the light-bulb moment for Hakeem and his co-founders: \u201cwhat if we created a bypass, where people would come to (our) platform and be matched to a service provider. What (the service providers) would have spent on customer acquisition would be shared with the customers as cashback\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It isn\u2019t just theory. Just surpassing its one-year mark in, ServiceBack\u2019s revenue has already grown to over $2 million today. Moreover, ServiceBack is also seeing 1 in 4 customers return for aircon servicing and a 10% cross-sell rate over the past six months. This has also translated into over 120 positive reviews online.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Armed with this traction, Hakeem is expanding ServiceBack into Hong Kong and Taiwan \u2013 explaining that they\u2019re quite similar to Singapore and one of the other co-founders also has huge experience in these two cities. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Read Also: 5 Questions With\u2026Karl Mak, CEO & Co-Founder of SGAG<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n In this edition of 5 Questions With\u2026<\/a>, we caught up with Hakeem to learn more about his entrepreneurship journey.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Dinesh Dayani (Dinesh):<\/strong> Why did you think it was a good idea to start your first business in the midst of a pandemic and what would become the worst economic recession in Singapore’s history!?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Hakeem SA (Hakeem):<\/strong> ServiceBack was only formalised in May 2020. But to be fair, we started the aircon servicing business in January 2020. So, we started first and then the first case of COVID-19 was reported. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Also, we were gaining good traction and the opportunity was there. If we had kicked off the aircon servicing business in January and it didn\u2019t pick up then I wouldn\u2019t have left my job to work on it full-time. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Some things also worked in our favour during COVID-19. Most people are working from home and just being at home a lot more. Naturally, they are using their aircon more, and this means it’s breaking down at twice the speed. They’re also buying more aircons and servicing their aircons more. Being stuck at home and staring at the same four walls every day, you may also start finding things problems that you never saw before or have a preference for change – maybe seeing that your walls need a fresh coat of paint.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Dinesh: You were side-hustling even while holding a full-time job. With the current economic climate and digitalisation of the world only making it easier, do you think every single employee should be thinking about a side-hustle?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Hakeem:<\/strong> Not everyone will want a side-hustle. <\/p>\n\n\n\n It really depends on your hunger for it and what you want to do. You can get satisfaction and fulfilment in different ways, and if you\u2019re a bit like me and you want to push yourself a lot more, then you can explore a bunch of other things. Learn a few new skills in entirely different fields. You would gain a certain understanding that you wouldn\u2019t have if you did it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n You could also be happy with just doing your job.<\/p>\n\n\n\nProblems Potentially Solved By A Cashback System<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/dollarsandsense.sg\/business\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/ServiceBack-Platform-1024x570.png\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\n