Fashionably Late to the Party

There is no shortage of local listing sites for a local business that markets to local customers. There are, however, a variety of drawbacks to most of them. Angie’s List requires consumers to pay a monthly subscription fee, CraigsList is huge, cumbersome to navigate and even harder to find legitimate information for local services. Other services give providers prominence in their listing by paying various fees. Properly used, Google Places is powerful,  but the algorithm for gaining a coveted top placement is a mystery to most business owners and competition is intense.

Enter Cinderella to the Ball

When I first saw the Thumbtack site, I was instantly intrigued. It felt like stepping from a smoke filled room to the cool breeze on the patio – where you can carry on a meaningful dialogue. As a local service provider myself, I thoroughly enjoyed the process of building out my profile and answering the questions I only wish my customers would ask.

Here’s Thumbtack’s introductory video:

Service vendors can add photos and video with ample opportunity to explain their services and qualifications in a very comfortable Q&A format. Thumbtack offer a higher priority in their search results to businesses who thoroughly explain their services and verify their business information.

Additional points are awarded for Social Security Number verification, physical address confirmation, a human review by their staff and voluntary online background checks. Another nice touch is they award points for adding a tasteful badge to your website or for writing a review like this one – though I would have written this as a service to my readers anyway.

From the point of view of a customer looking for a trustworthy vendor, it gets even better. The first thing you will notice is not having to register to gain full access to their listings – so it is faster. The listing are prioritized by distance and their own vendor point score, so services described thoroughly rank higher in results.

Real Humans in San Francisco

On two occasions when I needed help  in setting up my profile, my questions were answered quickly and professionally by their Community Manager Heather. That was what really won me over… real people! Their services don’t stop there – if you aren’t able to find a service in your area, their concierge service will personally locate several providers for you to check out.

One other item that was very attractive to me – as both a vendor and consumer – was the ability to negotiate, book and optionally pay online through a real-time scheduling function. Another very good step was to define quite strict community standards.

So, although less than a year out of the gate, I think Thumbtack is many things right when it comes to connecting consumers with local service needs and reliable vendors that can safely and reliably fulfill them.

You can click here to check out my Thumbtack profile, browse the site and get started for yourself. If you like what you find there, please click ‘like’ and leave a comment below.