Chicken feathers everywhere! Word-of-mouth "Defence War" of Internet Home Improvement Platform

Under the banner of solving the pain points of users' decoration, the Internet home improvement platform has become the hardest hit area for consumers' complaints, and the mode of focusing on marketing and neglecting operation may be worth rethinking.

At the end of 20 17, Liu Xue, who lives in Tianjin, chose Noah's Ark Decoration & Design Co., Ltd., which ranked first in the local area, and signed a turnkey agreement on Tuba Rabbit, an internet home improvement platform. But unexpectedly, this is the beginning of a "bad heart". In Liu Xue's words, "rough houses are not that bad."

For the vast majority of ordinary consumers, decoration is still a profound knowledge. From design, construction, materials to soft decoration, every step has certain knowledge barriers. Lack of professional knowledge and ignorance of the market, most ordinary consumers are often "completely blind" in the decoration process and are often in a weak position. Obviously, consumers who are "Party A" have spent a lot of money, but the effect and quality are really unsatisfactory.

The Internet home improvement platform represented by Tubatu and Qijia is precisely these pain points. Com, fancy. From the very beginning, they announced that they would provide better services through internet technology, solve a series of problems in the traditional home improvement industry, such as asymmetric information, uncontrollable supply quality and difficult to guarantee after-sales problems, and give consumers more voice.

Liu Xue first saw Chinese Tuba Rabbit because of its advantages as an Internet home improvement platform. From three-party signing, fund custody and node payment, Tuba Rabbit will also serve as an independent and impartial third party as a platform to help consumers supervise the quality of decoration companies and provide quality inspection services.

To her surprise, I had hoped Tuba Rabbit could save my mind in a short time and move in quickly, but the final result was just the opposite. More than two years have passed, and now the new house is still a chicken feather.

Decoration of "A Chicken Feather"

"We got married in May of 18, and we want to leave it vacant for a period of time in advance to dry the smell, and my requirement for decoration is that we can live there. At that time, I also told the merchants that the quality of the decoration was good, and nothing else was needed, and no tricks were needed. "

Liu Xue, who doesn't have high requirements for decoration, didn't expect that during the decoration period, a series of problems appeared in the unfinished house, such as bulging floor, bursting kitchen pipes and almost rotten cabinets. The renovation project originally expected to be completed around 20 18 and 1 was not completely completed until April, and the original plan was seriously delayed.

I thought that the twists and turns of the decoration project should end after the completion of the house inspection, and a happy marriage life can be opened in the new house, but after moving in, the decoration problem began to appear again. First of all, the water pipe joint is broken, which leads to the seepage of the whole wall of the living room, and then a series of hidden unfinished projects such as floor cracking and bulging.

Image 1.png wall skin seepage, provided by respondents.

Liu Xue told Time Finance that the third-party quality inspection service provided by Tuba Rabbit has actually detected many problems including abnormal water pipe suppression test, but after the foreman verbally promised the quality inspector that it would be repaired, the quality inspection still showed that it passed normally. "The last problem has not been solved, and the whole wall of the living room is leaking because of this."

With the further exposure of the decoration problem after occupancy, the decoration company ignored it, and Liu Xue decided to defend his rights through Tuba Rabbit. However, no matter through complaint phone, application customer service or business comments, the problem has not been properly solved. Tuba rabbit put the problem aside after simply understanding the situation, and did not play any role in communication and coordination of decoration disputes.

In June 5438+10, Liu Xue complained to Tuba Rabbit again through the Weibo platform, and then received a phone call from Tuba Rabbit. But after further communication, Tuba Rabbit gave a solution to let Liu Xue communicate with the decoration company according to renovation contract.

According to Time Finance, after renovation through Internet home improvement platforms such as Tuba Rabbit, consumers and decoration companies will sign renovation contract, and in order to further protect consumers' rights and interests, funds will be entrusted, and Tuba Rabbit, consumers and decoration companies will sign a tripartite agreement. It is clearly stipulated in the agreement that Party C (Tuba Rabbit) will perform its obligations after the escrow payment is paid. In other words, after the final payment is successfully completed after the renovation acceptance, if there is a quality problem, consumers can only protect their rights.

The internet platform is in a mess.

Liu Xue's experience is not a case. According to the consulting data of Ai Media, in the first half of 20 19, there were more than 5,000 complaints about house decoration related to the Internet home improvement platform.

Ding Lin, another Tuba rabbit user, is also suffering. She told Time Finance that at the last acceptance in June 5438+February last year, the decoration company promised to accept before decoration, but now the progress of the project has completely stopped and the decoration company has done nothing. Now the decoration project at home has been overdue for one and a half months, and the cracks on the wall have not been repaired; The bathroom and door are not installed, and the cupboard is only half done. Ding Lin hoped Tuba Rabbit could come forward to coordinate, but in the reply to the complaint, he was told that the contract had been terminated, the completion had been completed, and the tripartite agreement had ended, which could not play any role in communication and coordination.

For this kind of dispute, Zhao Hongsheng, director of Shanghai Zhao Hongsheng Law Firm, believes that in the case that Tuba Rabbit has confirmed to provide quality inspection services and has certain actual on-site acceptance standards, even if the owner himself confirms the acceptance, the platform should bear part of the responsibility under similar circumstances. According to Tuba Rabbit's promise in official website, the final acceptance is to pay the final payment to the decoration company after the wall paint is brushed and the hardware, switch panel, lamps and sanitary ware are installed.

On the complaint platforms such as black cat complaints and gathering complaints, there are not a few complaints about the audit mechanism of Internet home improvement platforms such as Tubatu and Qijiawang, the unreliable recommended decoration companies, poor decoration quality, excessive invisible additions and irresponsible after-sales service, and most of them have not been resolved so far.

As for the platform audit, Tubatu told Time Finance that the platform has strict access mechanism and assessment criteria for the selected decoration companies, and will audit the business licenses and operating conditions of the decoration companies. Only approved decoration companies can start taking orders on the Tubatu platform.

In addition, Tuba Rabbit has also established a word-of-mouth evaluation system to help consumers make decisions, forcing decoration companies to improve service quality and promote the healthy development of the whole industry. Tuba Rabbit, as a third-party platform, will help the owner to connect with the decoration company and push the two parties to negotiate the follow-up maintenance matters if there are problems in the project during the warranty period.

However, judging from the actual feedback from consumers such as Liu Xue, it is difficult to realize such a beautiful vision in the actual situation. The characteristics of high customer unit price and low consumption frequency in decoration industry make users more inclined to buy offline when choosing home improvement building materials, and hydropower construction must rely on a lot of manpower. The decoration industry is essentially a purely artificial industry, and it is difficult for the Internet to come to an end. The platform is better at "acting as an intermediary" and it is difficult to really touch the pain points of the industry.

At the beginning of its establishment, the Internet home improvement platform aimed at changing the chaos in the traditional home improvement industry has now become a part of the chaos in the industry.

Bloody marketing is unsustainable.

The rise of internet home improvement platform is not unrelated to the large-scale money-burning marketing in previous years, but its profit model is still weak.

Tuba Rabbit submitted listing application materials to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange on 20 18. According to the financial data, from 20 15 to the first half of 20 18, the sales and marketing expenses of Tuba Rabbit were 248 million yuan, 31kloc-0/000000 yuan, 279 million yuan and1230000 yuan respectively, while the income in the corresponding years was respectively.

Coincidentally, Qijia.com, which successfully listed on the Hong Kong stock market from 2065438 to July 2008, also showed the same appearance in its latest semi-annual report. In the first half of 20 19, Qijiawang's sales and marketing expenditure was about1880,000 yuan, accounting for 5 1.36% of its revenue, which was mainly caused by the increase in advertising and promotion expenditure and the expansion of sales and marketing team to support the platform business development.

The Internet home improvement platform, which grew up in Fengkou, has been attracting consumers into the "traffic pool" through large-scale and high-density marketing, and started a "traditional Internet business" with realized traffic. However, this business model has not effectively solved a series of problems in traditional home improvement, but will make consumers more helpless in the "kicking the ball" between decoration companies and platforms.

For platforms like Tubatu that do "traffic business", their most important asset is the consumers gathered in their ecosystem. The decline of users' word of mouth is bound to bite the value of the platform. Since Qijia.com, the first Internet home improvement stock, went public, its share price and market value have been shrinking, and Tuba Rabbit's road to listing has been full of twists and turns.

More importantly, with the listing of Qijia. The real financial situation of com was further disclosed. When the current situation of profit is in front of us, the enthusiasm and patience of the capital market gradually dissipate. Previously, the model of exchanging heavy money for scale expansion began to suffer the test of cash flow, and the model of emphasizing marketing and neglecting operation was unsustainable.

Ai Media Consulting analysts pointed out that the Internet home improvement industry should slowly return to the essence, focusing on home improvement products and services, rather than just pursuing ways and means to acquire users. (At the request of the interviewee, Liu Xue and Ding Lin are both pseudonyms.)

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