One call to solve it all

Gagan Maini and Subrat Pani OneAssist

The frenetic pace of life is often too much to handle for many, and loss of personal belongings like wallets mobiles just becomes the beginning of a nightmare. And if such a situation occurs during a vacation the nightmare takes an all new direction. Enter OneAssist. “We are aspiring to become a one-stop assistance company. All our services can be activated on one call,” Subrat Pani. co-founder and director, OneAssist Consumer Service Solutions says. He further adds the idea came about with premise that Indians are not ‘do it yourself’ savvy but more ‘do it for me’ and they will be comfortable with helpline numbers.

Pani explains further, “We conducted a consumer research based on the criteria what worries a consumer the most. It was an anxiety mapping exercise.” The survey brought out six set of worries – commuting, household related, health and medical career progression, finance and wealth and loss or theft. OneAssist’s focus area is on the loss and theft aspect. The theft aspect spanned, documents, passport, bank cards, mobile, online fraud, etc. In their first phase of development, they have introduced four assistance products – WalletAssist, MobileAssist, EverydayAssist and TripAssist. Based on a subscription format, consumers can subscribe to any of the four products, which allows them to place just one call to OneAssist who will then deactivate, block, apply for renewal for any of the lost items.

For the Wallet Assist, the one call will block all bank cards, help in re-application and facilitation for PAN card and driving license. In case the client is travelling, there is provision to pay off the hotel bill and the return flight ticket; within India the company will also provide emergency cash with a payback in 28 days. “Post that one call that the client makes, he has no liability. We even offer a seven days pre reporting loss cover upto `two lakh, if the loss of the wallet hasn’t been detected and fraudulent activities have been noted on the cards,” says Pani. He guarantees that the information with OneAssist associates are limited. A customer with an OneAssist account has a digital vault – Docusafe – accessible only to him, where he can save copies of documents and data. “The data is encrypted and masked,” he adds. The data is stored in company’s own server and not on a cloud system which offers an additional back up.

If a customer is stranded in another city, OneAssist facilitates hotel check-out and return flight ticket. Within India, they also offer emergency cash with a payback in 28 days. “We have tried to plug all the gaps that might occur in a scenario of losing wallets and mobiles and, offer immediate relief,” says Pani. He adds that their speed and a one-stop approach is what differentiates them.

The MobileAssist activates at the loss of a mobile phone which often contains data of a more personal nature. “The loss of the handset is the least of the worries, the two important things which are more worrisome are the loss of contacts and networks and, access to personal information,” says Pani. With the MobileAssist, there are two apps which assure mobile security and data backup which is stored in the OneAssist’s digital vault. Apart from this, the SIM card is immediately blocked, there is also a SIM misuse insurance cover upto Rs 3000. The device is remotely locked, any data on the mobile – handset and the memory card – is erased. A temporary handset is provided for seven days. “This doorstep service is currently available in 25 cities and we are looking at increasing this to 40 cities,” he adds. Emergency SMSs is possible to near and dear ones and if necessary emergency calls can also be made. “We are looking at adding handset insurance,” Pani says.

TripAssist is a customised product offered for 30 days which covers wallet, mobile as well as passport and other trip essential. Apart from the combination of WalletAssist and MobileAssist, there is a language interpreter on demand with 200 languages. “In case of a lost passport we facilitate and guide the customer to the local embassy and required forms that need to be filled in,” explains Pani. The service only activates during the start of the travel.

“The value is in the holistic end-to-end services that we provide,” says Pani. Their model of growth currently is a B2B2C where OneAssist is tying up with B2B partners who offer these services to their clients as a value added services on a revenue sharing basis. Currently they are working with three banks as well as mobile retail stores in Mumbai, Delhi and Bengaluru. They have recently tied up with MakeMyTrip to sell and promote TripAssist. With 100,000 customers across different products, OneAssist plans to extend their services in financial assistance and theft protection.