OneNam – Your One-Stop Shop For Local Services

Being an adult requires you to have numbers of plumbers, gardeners and even construction workers, because life can get overwhelming at times.

You can’t always do everything yourself so you require certain services to make things easier. This is where the new app OneNam comes in. It’s designed to help you find labourers from a variety of fields including computer repairs, construction and repair works, event organising and even beauty services. No more riffling through the telephone directory or digging online for services – you’ll have all the details you need right at your fingertips. But let’s get into the app and how it works.

The signing up process takes less than five minutes. The moment you register, you’re sent a confirmation code and once you’ve completed this short process, you’re given a platform to enter some personal information. I had a bit of trouble with this because it refused to ‘confirm’ my bio, but after using my Facebook account to register, it worked like a dream. The home page exposes you to a great amount of services: Professionals for household appliances, computer repairs, transportation services and even training for Microsoft Office.

To test it out, I selected the gardening option, which further led me to more specific items. Did I need a gardener for soil digging and softening? Or maybe to cut grass? Or tend to any houseplants I might have? You’re spoiled for choice.

This is evident in the other sections too. Choosing ‘soil digging and softening’, I’m taken to another screen where I can be picky about what I need. Do I require soil digging for raw land or prepared soil? Once I’ve reached a decision, I can select my option, which already has a price tag attached – so you can’t negotiate fees. This is added to my virtual basket. Something worth mentioning is that there are minimum amounts and hours, so you can’t have a household assistant doing chores in your home for less than three hours, for example.

Up next, a form needs to be filled out which allows you to describe the job in detail and perhaps add a photograph to make it easier for who you’re about to hire. After this, you have to choose the place of work (which is why the app asks you to determine your location to make this process easier) and then you can enter the date and time you need them to be there. After this order, your selections are displayed on the screen and voila! You’re done and your order is quickly registered.

It’s worrisome that you won’t know who has been selected for the job until they show up at your doorstep, though.

There’s a lot to discover on the app. You can read the news (although it was last updated two weeks ago) and check your orders. The developers are still working on most of the features so you can’t find jobs, use the buy/sell service, get food or pay your bills, but hopefully these options will be accessible soon.

The app itself is easy to understand, adds some animation to make it even more appealing and the great thing about OneNam is that it’s also free for download.

Ready to support local service providers? OneNam is available for both Android and iOS, so head over to the Google Play and App stores.

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