Proactive tradespeople outperform traditional ads

Proactive tradespeople outperform those responding to queries from traditional advertising.

July 23, 2007

There is nothing to get the blood boiling like a bad experience with a tradesperson. However, when you think about how we tend to find tradespeople, it’s not surprising that the experience is often poor.

Most homeowners find tradespeople through the Yellow Pages, or newspapers. Advertising in these media allows builders, plumbers, roofers and other tradespeople to sit back and wait for calls to come in. Given that tradespeople with big ads can often pick and chose between jobs, they have less incentive to do a good job. New services allowing homeowners to submit their jobs to multiple tradespeople are changing that.

Keith Roberts, co-founder of one of the leading new services, Builderscrack.co.nz, believes that there are several reasons why homeowners have had such positive experiences with tradespeople sourced through Builderscrack. “Tradies who use our service want the work. When they contact the homeowner, they are keen to win the work, and thus will make more of an effort. That is a very different dynamic from when a busy tradesperson receives a call from a homeowner, which they may or may not want, or have time to deal with”

He also believes that technology helps screen out the bad Tradespeople. “Our web service encourages tradespeople to actively seek work, which means we tend to attract both motivated and well-organised tradespeople. These are also the tradespeople who tend to care more about customer service, about turning up on time and doing a good job. They understand the value of doing a good job to generate referrals”

This seems to be paying off for customers of Builderscrack. In 97% of cases, tradespeople completing jobs have received positive feedback.

ENDS

© Scoop Media