Here are some ways to stand out from the pack. If I was a business on our site, I’d be following this customer’s recommendations to a tee!
We recently received some interesting feedback from a customer about their experience with the site. His comments were so insightful I wanted to share them with all of our businesses. This guy is a trade, too, which I thought made his remarks extra valuable.
DON’T
$0 quote and no follow-up
“When a subcontractor replies with a $0 amount, I don’t take any notice of the description laid out to the particulars of the works they are to quote on. I also disregard it if they don’t follow me up either by email or by phone (which has been approximately 30% of the referrals) because they’re either too busy or expecting me to chase them up. That’s not the idea, and that’s not how you get business from this site or anyone for that matter.”
Asking for cash
“50% of these subbies wanted to know if it was a cash job. I get sketchy when a tradesman you don't know asks the client that before even quoting on the job. To me, this shows they really only want cash-in-hand jobs, or they are dodgy or aren’t qualified tradesmen.”
No questions asked or measuring up
“Around 60% of those that actually turned up on site didn’t measure up or ask the pertinent questions for the job; these cubbies I dismissed instantly regardless of whether they had submitted a quote.”
Quoting a rate price instead of a total price
“Getting a square metre quote from subbies that have been on site and have either measured up or going off my calculation of m2, when I have specifically asked for a price for the whole job – not an m2 quote, they also go to the bottom of the pile. I’m a tradie myself, so I know the shortcuts when quoting, and this doesn’t go down well as it’s a good judge of their character and work ethic.”
No ABN & licence
“For those that followed up to quote, I made a spreadsheet with their particulars and then after their visit or quote, I did a background check on them through your site and then through ABN numbers or their business names – no records or not registered, NO JOB from me sorry.”
DO
Provide two different quotes & references
Those that offered in their quote inclusions or exclusions, & warranty of works or references went to the top of the pile. Only 5% of businesses did this.