Illustrative scenario based on the founder’s observations, not a customer case study.
You need a plumber. You find a local business and call.
No answer. Perhaps a recorded message says they are busy. You leave a message and get on with your day.
Later, a reply arrives. Could you explain the problem? Could you send a photo?
You send what you can. Then the conversation goes quiet again.
A simple need becomes something to manage
This is the kind of experience I have been thinking about in the context of small service businesses in Sweden and the Nordics. It is not every customer’s experience, but the situation is easy to recognise.
The plumber is trying to understand the work before making a commitment. The customer is trying to find out whether someone can help.
Sometimes the problem needs a visit before anyone can estimate the job. Now two busy people have to find a time that works. One is between appointments. The other is arranging work, family or access to the property.
A few calls and messages later, neither person has a clear next step.
Both sides are trying
The customer may start asking friends for a recommendation, calling another company, or looking for a booking service that can coordinate the visit.
The original plumber may still intend to reply. They are simply occupied with someone else’s urgent problem.
It would be easy to call this poor service. But that misses the strain on a small team whose owner is doing the practical work and managing the conversations around it.
The customer needs clarity. The business needs room to respond. The difficulty sits between them.
Better working days reach beyond the business
Verkar is being developed for service businesses. The people contacting those businesses are not the intended users of the platform.
But they matter to the reason we are building it. When running a service business becomes easier, there is an opportunity for the experience of dealing with that business to become easier too.
That is an ambition worth exploring: less uncertainty for the customer, and less pressure on the person trying to help.
We welcome conversations with business owners and people who recognise either side of this experience.