Gadgetwood brings mobile repair services at your doorstep

When Jayant Jha accidently broke his smartphone and faced trouble in getting it fixed, he had a conversation with his friend, who is the co-founder now, and felt the need to create a professional support services for mobile repairing. From here, the idea of starting Gadgetwood came into being. Jha and his friends started Gadgetwood in April 2013 with a seed capital Rs 15 lakh.

“After doing a comprehensive analysis, we found that mobile or smartphones is the most growing industry and has the maximum bandwidth of customers and all of them struggle whenever the devices stop working. We spent months talking to customers in the local market and service stations. Finally, we decided to create a professional service and organise this unorganised market,” says Jayant Jha, Co-founder and CEO, Gadgetwood eServices Pvt. Ltd.

The genesis

Claimed to be India’s first professionally managed multi brand repair and support services for mobiles, smart phones and tablets, Gadgetwood’s state-of-art in house repair lab and after repair delivery services help customers save time and money. With its omni-channel approach of enabling its quality services online, in store and at home, Gadgetwood is transforming the way gadgets get fixed at the customer’s convenience. “Special knowledge about the domain, certified technicians, authentic spare parts and servicing onsite has helped establish Gadgetwood as a category leader in its space,” Jha tells proudly.

Gadgetwood reduces the pain of conventional processes of mobile repair, when people had to find technicians, visit the shop and wait for their turn, experience repair delays and revisit. Instead, at Gadgetwood, one can even avail pick-up and after repair warranty. Apart from this, it also offers online/offline tracking system and delivers to the location preferred by the customer. It promises easy access, code of conduct, 100 per cent resolution for any kind of gadget, guaranteed and prompt service and privacy protection. With an industry leading CSAT (Customer Satisfaction) rating of over 97.5 per cent, trained experts and integrated support service management system, Gadgetwood ensures fast and time bound service to its customers.

Pre-entrepreneurship

Jha comes with a rich experience of around seven years in remote tech support, after sales service and operational activities. In his current role, he is responsible for determining the company’s strategic objectives and policies and monitoring progress towards achieving the same.

Prior to Gadgetwood, he has contributed immensely in the dynamic growth of many startups, right from the age of 22. His strong affiliation towards IT led him to start off his career as a resolution expert for technological grievances at Wipro. Reputed companies like Quatrro further helped him groom his analytical and negotiation skills besides refining his focus on quality and integrity. As Head of Operations at e-Techies, he has contributed towards the company’s expansion in 6 major metros in the country within a short span of 2.5 years along with handling a team size of over 200 employees.

Hurdles in the path of progress

During the initial days of setting up his venture, Jha had to go through many hurdles in terms of generating proper cashflow, getting right talent, resources, ability to manage the business operations, scaling the business and other unforeseen circumstances. But Jha was not a person to give up on situations, rather he and his co-founder worked on strategists to deal with different problems and implemented them well.

“I am grateful to be able to do what I truly love. However, being an entrepreneur isn't easy, carefree career path that many believe it to be; it's actually quite the opposite, you will make less than normal wages or no wages for quiet sometime. Though I am fortunate enough to have a great support system - my co-founder, mentors, my parents, friends and our investors from IAN have really helped us grow,” asserts Jha.

Gadget Services market in India at a glance

At present, the market is highly unorganised and is majorly catered by OEM (Other Equipment Manufacturers) service outlets and mom-and-pop stores. About 30 per cent of the market is organised in the form of OEM service stations and 70 per cent of the market is unorganised. The market is currently $8 billion in size and the same is expected to grow consistently for the next 5 years due to the fact that people are now completely dependent on smartphones and every business is going mobile. Hence, the dependency has highly increased. Users need less time consuming and easily accessible service for the repair of their device.

“At Gadgetwood, we have built an excellent service delivery platform keeping all the requirements and pain points in mind. Technology changes at a rapid pace, hence we have to keep ourselves updated as per the technology and we need a robust procurement channel to cater the requirements,” shares Jha.

Focus on SMEs

Gadgetwood has its service model as per the customer requirements – be it an end user or a SME. At present, the firm is working with over 25 SMEs and provide them services as per their requirements. The services for SMEs are categorised under three models: Pay as you Go – one time service in store or onsite; Repair factory – for SMEs with high volume of devices for repair; and Extended warranty for 6 months – 12 months.

“We service all major brands independently. Most of the devices we repair are not covered under OEM warranties. Our service offerings include onetime service where you can pay a nominal service charge and enjoy door step service at your convenience. We also provide annual maintenance service, where we will provide unlimited support and service for a year. All our repairs come with a 30 days guarantee,” says Jha.

Roadmap ahead

As a part of the expansion plans, Gadgetwood is likely to start their geographical expansion in the first quarter of 2015 with a target of five metro cities. Strengthened by a team size of more than 40 people, Gadgetwood aims at offering complete customer satisfaction by becoming the most preferred service in its domain. The Delhi-NCR based company envisions expanding its geographical reach to three major cities by the end of the next fiscal year. It also plans to start a PAN-India service via remote technology and is in the process of innovating services for SMEs and OEMs.