To mitigate the hassles associated with dry-cleaning and laundry services within the Nigerian market, Cleanagent, a cleaning service technology company launched an innovative online marketplace for dry-cleaning and laundry services, specifically designed for the Nigerian consumers in Lagos Nigeria.
Developed by the duo of Estonia-based young Nigerians, Cleanagent is a co-operation and marketing tool designed and developed to empower dry cleaners and laundry experts by connecting them with individuals and businesses that need their services in order to generate more businesses and scale profitably. In essence, Cleanagent is not a competitor in the laundry/dry-cleaning industry, but a marketplace for laundry and dry-cleaning services.
While disclosing the rationale behind the innovative cleaning technology, Thomas Olusola Ajayi, Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer for Cleanagent, explained that despite the disruption occasioned by technology, the cleaning industry, especially laundry/dry cleaning that account for over 60% of this industry in Africa, has witnessed slow penetration of technology. One of the numerous factors for these, he explained, is the thin income margin in the cleaning industry which leaves limited financial resources for the small and medium-sized enterprise laundry and dry-cleaning service providers to invest in service process improvements using technology.
“For the service users, access to quality cleaning services is costly in terms of time, money and energy required. The existing industry practice of consuming only from the providers next door by the consumers creates room for emotion driven decision-making. This creates social, environmental and economic problems; hence Cleanagent was born to provide the solutions,” he said.
He continued: “This product is to connect the laundry and dry-cleaning service providers and service users with the aid of mobile and web applications. Our target users are classified according to user type and their peculiar needs. The two main customer categories are the service users who are individuals, families and businesses in need of laundry and dry-cleaning offers, and the service providers who are laundry/dry cleaning service providers, including businesses offering quality laundry and dry-cleaning services.
“Our unique selling points for service users include providing quality and affordable laundry/dry-cleaning services for individuals and businesses alike. Again, one of the benefits for end users in Cleanagent is that end users can choose laundry/dry cleaning service providers by brands, prices and the quality of service at any time of the day at any environment as well as track the status of their transactions and provide post-transaction feedback for service quality improvement.”
While corroborating his partner, Sunday Ayanbode Ayandokun who is the Co-founder and Chief Technology Officer of CleanAgent explained that Cleanagent is not a laundromat/dry cleaner, and so is not in competition with the thriving industry.
“Laundry and dry-cleaning service providers retain their brand while on our network. This helps in creating more brand reach and awareness and thereby improving overall market positioning of our partners in the industry. We do understand that our service partners run for-profit companies. Therefore, we offer a competitive commission model on all transactions that they get through us so that they can actually do business leveraging on modern technologies with less investment.”
He added: “Our mission is to re-engineer laundry and dry-cleaning services (production, delivery and consumption) industry processes with modern technologies – thereby making the service processes less costly, more efficient, accessible, convenient and environmentally friendly. This is hinged on our vision to be the leading cleaning technology brand in Nigeria by 2025. We intend to bank on our core values of quality service delivery, transparency, environmentalism and resilience. Our value proposition will be reduced time and money of service production, increased production capacity, increased delivery efficiency and profit maximisation.”
Providing further insights, Ajayi noted that customers would enjoy reduced time and money of service consumption, adding that an ordering to delivery process is automated with clear and standardized turnaround time, reduced direct loss of laundry and dry cleaning, improved quality of service experience, win-win referral system and increased clothing items lifecycle, amongst others.
“Additionally, we will be creating employment opportunities for Nigerians while reducing environmental hazards caused by unused clothing items.”
For service providers, Ayandokun revealed that Cleanagent would access knowledge and resources on ethical and sustainable ways to do business.
“Also, we provide location based features that cover multiple locations where different target audiences can access services of providers easily through user-friendly mobile applications with in-app referral systems provided to create awareness and bridge suppliers visibility gap and enhance growth, automation of processes to reduce human error and effective delivery thereby improving the turnaround time, robust order tracking, payment and delivery features, reduced operational risks by connecting the suppliers with insurers to provide adequate professional cover and an in-app feedback system for adequate customer feedback documentation and subsequent service quality/product improvement.”
Cleanagent is available on android and iOS platforms.
