New Zealand home services franchise Green Acres has launched a mobile app called Green Acres GO that allows people to request on-demand home cleaning and lawn mowing services.
Partnering with Vodafone as its digital platform provider, Green Aces commissioned software developers Sandfield to build the app based on the essential characteristics of the Uber service.
The app is designed to provide opportunities for people wanting to supplement their incomes by providing home services in their spare time.
“Green Acres GO is a completely new business initiative,” says Logan Sears, Green Acres CEO. “It’s not about putting Green Acres on mobile. We’re looking at a different set of customers and a different group of service providers, reaching both with an app custom-designed to deliver a mobile-managed solution that seamlessly connects the two.”
Green Acres has undertaken a pilot of the service in Auckland’s North Shore before rolling it out into other centres.
“It’s a managed rollout,” says Sears. “Because we’re offering an on-demand service it’s imperative that we have enough operators to deliver that before we launch into individual markets. On-demand means when you want it. It doesn’t mean when I can find some free time in my calendar.”
The business model for Green Acres GO was developed following a research program which identified a substantial requirement for specific home services supplied on-demand; one that is not being currently being met by other service providers, including Green Acres’ traditional franchise model.
Green Acres also surveyed potential operators and found that there is a very large pool of people interested in providing home care services.
“Even though potential demand for the services is high, the supply of potential operators is even higher, so we’re confident that we will be able to deliver services as and when people want them,” says Sears.
Green Acres GO is now accepting applications from service providers on www.greenacresgo.co.nz and registering interest from potential customers.
