GoGetters can help restock your office pantry or pick up the groceries if you find yourself short of time.
GoGet is an app that matches you with someone who can run an errand for you — and it came about out of necessity.
GoGet founder Francesca Chia said the app was developed from the consumer’s perspective with the introduction of “sharing economy” in Malaysia.
“In 2104, sharing economy was in its infancy. Uber entered Malaysia the same year, so you can imagine the amount of education we had to do then,” she said.
Just as summoning strangers to your location and getting into their cars (via Uber service) needed some getting used to, the idea of engaging strangers to run errands, was, not surprisingly, something many did not understand at first.
But Francesca and her GoGetters, as they are called, soon discovered there is, indeed, a demand for an extra set of hands to go collect and drop off documents or get groceries when you’re stuck at work, or hand out fliers without actually hiring your own odd-job workers and debating over contracts.
GoGet handles all that for you, creating a trust layer and verification, giving its GoGetters training to ensure your beautiful custom cake doesn’t get carelessly destroyed during delivery and that your healthy lunch box arrives on time.
Francesca admitted it caught them by surprise when a lunch-box merchant asked if it was possible for GoGet to make 20 deliveries in one go instead of separately.
“I built this for consumers but we do have businesses using it. We realise there’s a huge untapped market for SMEs, especially in the perishable items business such as flowers, lunch boxes, cake, juices, cupcakes and so on,” she said.
For example, home bakers will have to deal with both baking and delivering themselves — which is not ideal when their forte lies in the kitchen. That’s where GoGet comes in handy.
After making it through 2014, GoGet saw there was enough traction for it to carry on.
“In the first week, we already had 100 sign-ups. At three weeks, we had completed 100 tasks with a 5-star rating on average. That’s why I think we have some basis to keep going,” Francesca noted.
The way consumers get service has evolved from a raw online form to a native mobile app that connects you to a GoGetter nearby.
Earliest version
The earliest version of the service had the most basic questions attached — What did you want? Where were the pickup or drop off locations? And how much you had to pay for someone to do it?
Regardless, nearby GoGetters would simply claim the job and do it.
In 2015, GoGet started building the native app. A year later, the product was still in development but businesses were already coming onboard. The focus of GoGet’s development was on efficiency.
“It was initially free for people to post jobs and GoGetters to get jobs. Our main aim in the beginning was just to grow the community and ensure people were able to transact – plus getting people to believe in this new form of business and outsourcing,” Francesca explained.
When GoGet finally hit its milestone of RM1 million worth of jobs that have gone through its system, it started charging for the service. And it was definitely time!
Francesca said they had concerned GoGetters knocking on the door, wondering how the business survived when it was not taking a cut for anything.
“They were telling us if we don’t survive, they won’t have a job.”
GoGetters provide a variety of services like helping to decorate for a party and even washing cars.
Ideal arrangement
GoGet has turned into an ideal arrangement for people who find themselves with free time and want to make a bit of money.
“We want to empower people to earn in their free time,” Francesca said, adding that besides people on flexi-hours, full timers also came onboard to supplement their income.
There’s a reason why GoGet doesn’t label its GoGetters with something unglamorous- sounding like “dispatchers” or “runners.”
It wants the person requesting the task and the one doing it to be on equal footing rather than having the “requester” looking down on the “doer” because the former has paid to get something done.
“When people are on the same level, they are treated with respect. We find the service so much better this way,” she said.
Francesca pointed out that GoGetters come and go because the networking opportunities they get on the job can even get them other job offers.
“You can get hired beyond that — and that’s completely fine. We don’t own the workers.”
Delivering fresh lunches or other perishable food is an important service to merchants who need an extra hand.
Community feel
According to GoGet investor Stephanie Tiong, the app has a ‘community feel’ in that the GoGetters feel like they are part of an operation to really be proud of.
“We’ve had GoGetters putting us in their resume. You don’t see the same sense of ownership with a lot of other part-time services. That’s why they keep coming back. They feel almost like they are running their own business,” she said.
It’s not easy to be a GoGetter though. Only limited positions are available because supply must meet demand. GoGet releases open slots every Monday but these get snapped up within the hour.
“They are asking every week when are we going to accept more? But unlike other part-time apps, you have to undergo training before you become a GoGetter.
“A process of verification is needed. It’s important to let other SMEs know they can trust GoGet. You can’t just let anyone send your product. You got a reputation to keep,” Stephanie stressed.
The service that kicked off with only 12 GoGetters in 2014 had around 5,500 by the end of 2017 when it rolled out GoGet Business to cater to SMEs, offering same day delivery, flat rates and cashless transactions.
“The first thing we provide is 100 per cent guarantee that the job will get done — Monday to Friday, 8am to 5pm,” she said, adding that SMEs use them to scale their operations without scaling costs.
The future will not be limited to nine-to-five jobs. GoGet definitely believes there will be a huge growth on flexible terms.
“You already see large companies trying to scale and be more efficient. We can see them doing that by outsourcing some aspects of work.
“Companies are already moving in that direction. If that’s happening already, you can see a future where traditional jobs may not necessarily have to be there,”she noted.
But what relevance does GoGet have in Kuching when it operates mainly in Kuala Lumpur?
Francesca said they planned to follow the path taken by the likes of Grab and Uber, and head over to Kuching and perhaps, Kota Kinabalu, Sabah.
“In the future, we plan to go nationwide, to major cities where the biggest concentration of people is.”
GoGet can be accessed at their website goget.my, and its app is available from both the Google Store and App Store.
The ‘community’ feel of GoGetters has people knocking on the door.