'Marketplaces' build online customer trust by oversight

Seekster is a platform that brings the service industry online and into the pockets of Thai people. The service industry in Thailand is one of the most disorganised and fragmented industries in the nation. Jobs are not properly documented and lot of problems can occur due to miscommunication between parties. As an independent contractor, I don't want to have to worry about the acquisition of customers every day, week and month. I want to be able to focus on providing the best service I can. As a customer, I want quality service providers who can get the job done right, at the right price.
Marketplaces have become one of the biggest game changers in the online business industry over the past few years. I came across this quote: "Uber, the world's largest taxi company, owns no vehicles. Facebook, the world's most popular media owner, owns no content. Alibaba, the most valuable retailer, has no inventory. Airbnb, the world's largest accommodation provider, owns no real estate. Something interesting is happening."
Yes. And these platforms are mainly marketplaces that aggregate data together to provide users with the best selections available from the underlying providers, whether it be a business or an individual. Marketplaces create a bridge that unites customers with providers, but that's not all a marketplace does. They must do much more than that to become the leader in their industry.
We at Seekster have experienced the many challenges that come with building a marketplace. We're going to share some of our experiences building a service marketplace, which we've actually pivoted away from since the beginning of our start-up.
1. Marketplaces require trust to function. Just because you can bring both sides of the equation together does not mean that you are building the next "unicorn start-up" of the world. Especially in the industry of services, trustworthiness is the biggest decision factor for a paying customer. We realised this in the very early stages of our business and pivoted away from the typical marketplace to what we call the "end-to-end solution", where we not only curate the service providers, we also provide training and set the Seekster standard.
2. Marketplaces need to optimise the process, or the marketplace is no better than finding a provider via Google or Facebook. Online payments, record keeping, status updates and user ratings create a better experience for both the customer and the provider. We securely collect your data and provide you with an even better experience every time you come back to book a service with us again. Job history for providers allows them to accumulate their data and make predictive forecasts regarding financial income and time allocation.
3. Marketplaces outperform competition by providing support. Marketplaces bring the parties together, next they must also take care of them. If a dispute occurs under the marketplace's watch, the customer expects support from the marketplace. We have a team in place to handle disputes by investigating the issue and fault, providing a plan of action to both parties, and making sure everyone settles on good terms.
Under dtac Accelerate's wings, Seekster is pushing boundaries and making big changes in the service industry in Thailand. We are connecting the remaining missing dots and making sure we're the leader in this industry with support from the dtac Accelerate team and the start-up family. Service marketplaces are a delicate business, but we're making steps towards the future.

We want to make everyone's life easier, so you can spend your time with the things that really matter to you. To learn more about us, drop by our website at https://seekster.co.
Daniel Dye is co-founder and CTO of Seekster and dtac Accelerate batch 5.