Urban Company and the trust-first playbook for services

Before organised platforms emerged, India’s home services market operated almost entirely through informal labour.

Customers routinely allowed unknown service providers into their homes without background checks, fixed pricing, or accountability. Price negotiations happened inside the home, disputes were common, and incidents of theft or impersonation were not rare.

This made home services a high-fraud category. One poor experience could permanently stop repeat usage. The core barrier was not discovery or convenience. It was fear. Trust was not an add-on feature. It had to be the product itself.

Why early marketplaces failed

Most early platforms followed a thin marketplace model. They listed professionals, facilitated bookings, and relied on ratings to manage quality. This scaled supply quickly but left trust largely unmanaged. Ratings were easy to game, onboarding checks were superficial, and impersonation at the doorstep remained a major risk.

Urban Company took a different route. Instead of maximising listings, it focused on controlling quality end to end. The company moved from being a simple intermediary to a full-stack operator, owning onboarding, training, verification, and post-service accountability.

This slowed growth and increased costs, but it directly addressed the trust deficit in the category.

Turning vetting into a trust signal

Urban CompanyUrban Company treated onboarding as a filtration process, not a signup funnel. Applicants went through government ID checks, police verification, in-person interviews, skill assessments, and reference checks. Only about 25 to 30% of applicants were accepted.

This high rejection rate became a trust signal for customers. Slower supply growth was a deliberate trade-off to ensure safety, predictability, and confidence at the point of service.

Solving fraud at the doorstep

Urban Companyidentified service delivery as the highest-risk moment. Even with background checks, impersonation remained a serious concern. To address this, the platform introduced real-time on-arrival verification.

Professionals were required to take a selfie at the customer’s location, which was matched against their profile using facial recognition. This ensured that the person booked was the person who showed up. Technology was used not just for matching, but for identity verification at the moment of truth.

Eliminating pricing anxiety

Trust also breaks down when pricing feels unfair. Traditional home services relied on post-inspection negotiations inside the home, leaving customers feeling trapped. Urban Company removed this friction by standardising services and locking prices upfront.

Customers saw the final price before booking, inclusions were clearly defined, and digital payments reduced disputes. This shifted control back to the customer and removed one of the biggest sources of anxiety in the category.

Absorbing risk instead of denying it

Letting a stranger into one’s home carries inherent risk. Urban Company chose to absorb that risk rather than push it onto customers. The platform introduced insurance for service-related damage, guaranteed refunds and re-services, a Trust and Safety team, and an SOS helpline with location tracking.

These measures signalled confidence in the system. By underwriting risk, the company reduced hesitation and increased repeat usage.

Building trust through the supply side

Urban Company invested heavily in training and partner development, spending over Rs 250 crore on training infrastructure. Professionals were trained not just in technical skills, but also in hygiene, grooming, customer interaction, and brand conduct.

In some categories, such as beauty, professionals were directly employed rather than freelanced. This made service quality repeatable instead of variable and increased partner retention. Over time, trained partners became brand ambassadors rather than anonymous gig workers.

The moat created by slower scaling

Urban Company sacrificed fast expansion, thin margins, and early profitability. In return, it built a defensible moat in a category where trust determines adoption. Ratings were used as a signal, not the system. Governance came from verification, training, pricing control, and accountability.

The larger lesson is clear. In high-fraud markets, trust cannot be outsourced to reviews. It must be designed, owned, and enforced across the entire value chain.

If you want the full breakdown, you can read the complete case study here.