Urban Company in the Post-COVID World

Urban Company, like many service marketplaces, faced a significant disruption during the COVID-19 pandemic. While the business has started recovering, the post-COVID environment demands a fundamental rethinking of user needs and product priorities. Safety, trust, and assurance have become critical decision factors for users, and marketing communications alone cannot satisfy these evolving expectations.

The actual job for product managers at Urban Company now is to innovate rapidly — to build product features and experiences that address these new priorities and to adjust the service discovery algorithms to surface the most relevant and trusted providers in the new normal.

User needs have fundamentally shifted after COVID-19

COVID-19 changed user behavior and expectations in ways that vary by service category and user segment. The most obvious shift is the heightened concern for safety and hygiene — a user booking a home cleaning or beauty service now expects explicit guarantees around sanitization protocols, protective equipment, and contactless interactions.

But the impact goes beyond safety checklists. Users want transparency about the service provider’s health status, their vaccination records, and the steps taken to minimize risk. They also want flexible cancellation policies in case of sudden health concerns. For some services, like plumbing or appliance repair, the urgency of the need remains high, but users prefer providers who can guarantee minimal contact or who follow strict safety guidelines.

Different user groups emphasize these needs differently. Urban Company’s premium customers in metros may expect digital verification badges and real-time safety updates, while price-sensitive users in tier-2/3 cities may prioritize affordability but still want visible safety assurances. Service categories such as beauty at home, cleaning, and wellness have seen the largest shifts in user concerns, while essential repair services have somewhat stable expectations but still require updated safety protocols.

The actual job of the product manager here is to map these nuanced user needs, segment by segment and service by service, and translate them into concrete product initiatives.

Product initiatives to address post-COVID user needs

Urban Company’s existing marketing efforts — blogs, emails, social media — are necessary but insufficient. Product innovations must embed safety and trust into the core user experience.

Here are key product initiatives to consider:

• Safety badges and certifications: Introduce visible badges on service provider profiles indicating verified COVID safety training, vaccination status, and sanitation compliance. This reduces user anxiety at the point of selection.

• Contactless service options: Offer users the ability to request contactless service delivery where possible, with clear instructions for both providers and customers on how to minimize contact.

• Real-time safety updates: Build features that allow providers to update their health status daily and notify users proactively if there are any risks or changes.

• Flexible cancellation and rescheduling: Implement easy and no-penalty cancellation or rescheduling policies for users who need to adjust due to health concerns, backed by clear communication.

• Safety-focused onboarding and training: Digitize and track the safety training of service providers, making this data visible to users and integrated into provider profiles.

• Safety feedback loops: Add post-service questions specifically about safety and hygiene practices, and use this feedback to enforce standards and reward compliant providers.

• Localized safety communication: Customize safety messaging and features to regional languages and cultural contexts, recognizing diverse user segments across India.

These initiatives recognize that safety is now a core dimension of user value, not a peripheral feature. Urban Company’s product must evolve to make safety and trust first-class citizens in the user journey, not just afterthoughts.

Adjusting the service listing algorithm for new priorities

The service listing algorithm is the linchpin of the user experience. It determines which providers users see first, shaping perceptions of quality and trust.

Post-COVID, the algorithm must be recalibrated to reflect the new realities:

• Elevate safety signals: Give higher weightage to providers with verified safety badges, consistent hygiene feedback, and up-to-date health status.

• Balance safety with traditional quality metrics: Ratings, reviews, completion rates, and responsiveness remain important. The algorithm must integrate safety without degrading overall service quality.

• Incorporate user preferences: Allow users to filter or prioritize providers based on safety features explicitly, such as “contactless service” or “vaccinated professional.”

• Dynamic weighting by service category: For high-touch services like beauty or wellness, safety attributes should carry more weight than for essential repairs where urgency and availability might dominate.

• Regional and demographic adjustments: Reflect local COVID risk levels and user segment sensitivities by adjusting algorithm parameters dynamically.

• Behavioral signals: Track user engagement with safety filters and badges to fine-tune the algorithm based on actual preferences, not assumptions.

• Penalty for safety complaints: Integrate safety-related negative feedback more heavily into ranking penalties to maintain high standards.

The challenge is prioritizing new safety needs without compromising the core factors that drive user satisfaction and business metrics. A naive approach that prioritizes safety alone could surface less capable providers, reducing overall experience quality.

The trade-offs and weightage decisions

Assigning weightages to algorithm parameters requires careful judgment grounded in data. Here is a conceptual prioritization approach:

The exact weights must be validated with A/B testing and user feedback. In practice, Urban Company may start with conservative safety weightage and gradually increase as user demand confirms its importance.

Example: Safety-first algorithm in beauty services

Beauty at home services saw the strongest shift in user concerns. Here, safety signals should arguably have the highest weight:

• Safety badges and hygiene feedback: 35%
• User ratings and reviews: 25%
• Completion and response: 15%
• Vaccination status: 15%
• Pricing: 10%

For essential repair services, the weights might skew differently, emphasizing availability and completion over safety badges but still factoring hygiene feedback.

Where Urban Company can learn from Indian market examples

Indian startups like Swiggy and Zomato adapted quickly during the pandemic by integrating safety protocols and communicating them clearly. Swiggy’s “Contactless Delivery” badge became a trust signal recognized by millions.

Urban Company’s product can similarly institutionalize safety as a core trust element — not just marketing fluff. Safety badges and real-time updates are features that users expect as a baseline now.

Test yourself: Prioritizing post-COVID features at Urban Company

Where to go next

• Learn how to conduct user segmentation and needs analysis: User Research Methods
• Explore trust and safety product design: Designing for Trust
• Master algorithmic fairness and ranking: Recommendation Algorithms
• Understand product strategy in crisis and recovery: Product Strategy
• Develop stakeholder communication skills: Stakeholder Management