Checkatrade/Rated People, etc. - worth it?
Discussion
Personallly I am a big fan of these sites but a friend who is an electrician is just starting out on his own and I am helping him with some business building. Nothing complex, just all the basics that he needs to get going. He asked me about these sites and I understand it costs about £600 to join. I can see the benefits but my concern is that people just pick the highest rated and with the most jobs. As a start up he could well have high ratings for service etc. but could still end up with very little because he hasn't done many jobs. Thoughts?
One view of it is think that if it gets him a job worth £600 he's broken even and anything else is a profit. But I can't say what his chances of getting that £600 job are versus what he'd get from a leaflet drop etc.
On balance I think I revert to my usual stance that all advertising is a gamble, and if he'd prefer not to risk losing £600 then the leaflet drop etc is probably better.
On balance I think I revert to my usual stance that all advertising is a gamble, and if he'd prefer not to risk losing £600 then the leaflet drop etc is probably better.
Around 4 years ago I joined Rated People . I have around 50 reviews now and around 80% of my work comes through the site.
My jobs are usually worth 2k , it costs me around £20 for each lead , with a £40 per quarter membership fee.
Last year roughly I spent around 2/3k on job fees but turned over around 90k worth of work from Rated People alone.
I've done well enough that I gave up my job and became self employed with little advertising and using only really Rated People and now My Builder.
I retuned from holiday on the 14th of January , since then I have priced around 30k worth of work and won roughly 15k worth.
Other sparks claim the sites are crap etc , but for me they are working really well . I get a lot of repeat custom from people whom I met through the site , and it generates word of mouth .
Downsides are ( in my opinion ) you absolutely must please the customer , I have 5 stars for every job I've done but I have had to go that extra mile a few times for complete idiots . In my opinion this should be fundamental in good business anyway , but be prepared to go back to jobs more than a few times if customer not happy..
My advice is start with the small jobs to build up ratings , I now really only do domestic rewires but my company is expanding and theres big jobs on there too. I have a mate who ended up on multimillion pound renovation through the site .
My jobs are usually worth 2k , it costs me around £20 for each lead , with a £40 per quarter membership fee.
Last year roughly I spent around 2/3k on job fees but turned over around 90k worth of work from Rated People alone.
I've done well enough that I gave up my job and became self employed with little advertising and using only really Rated People and now My Builder.
I retuned from holiday on the 14th of January , since then I have priced around 30k worth of work and won roughly 15k worth.
Other sparks claim the sites are crap etc , but for me they are working really well . I get a lot of repeat custom from people whom I met through the site , and it generates word of mouth .
Downsides are ( in my opinion ) you absolutely must please the customer , I have 5 stars for every job I've done but I have had to go that extra mile a few times for complete idiots . In my opinion this should be fundamental in good business anyway , but be prepared to go back to jobs more than a few times if customer not happy..
My advice is start with the small jobs to build up ratings , I now really only do domestic rewires but my company is expanding and theres big jobs on there too. I have a mate who ended up on multimillion pound renovation through the site .
I found mybuilder whilst searching for someone local to do a dampproofing job.
I contacted two trademen and had one contact me.
One didn't turn up to quote and the other two said they'd post quotes to me and didn't.
I've since found a friend of a friend to do the job, so won't actually be using mybuilder but do think from a customer point of view it's very good. It seems very much like you'll get out what you put in from the tradesmen side..
I contacted two trademen and had one contact me.
One didn't turn up to quote and the other two said they'd post quotes to me and didn't.
I've since found a friend of a friend to do the job, so won't actually be using mybuilder but do think from a customer point of view it's very good. It seems very much like you'll get out what you put in from the tradesmen side..
many tradesmen have opted to advertise through sites like rate people and my builder however the price can be high.
my builder charges a membership fee and a 'short list' fee
rated people charge a standard membership fee and also for leads
now there is also ratedjack.com, heard of them? they charge a membership fee but not charge for leads. if you are considering online sites to get more work, you may want to check them out too!
my builder charges a membership fee and a 'short list' fee
rated people charge a standard membership fee and also for leads
now there is also ratedjack.com, heard of them? they charge a membership fee but not charge for leads. if you are considering online sites to get more work, you may want to check them out too!
hedgefinder said:
all these types of sites will eventually end up badly for the trades... in much the same way ebay has for sellers.
I'm noticing the price of jobs going down as more people compete and become desperate for work. Going rate for 3bed rewire up this way used to be around 2.5k ...now more like 2k. I'm not really sure if this is due to the format of the site or just sign of the times we are in . I'm still doing good but I have a lot of good feedback ..I'm building up a lot of word of mouth that's originated from my first job through the site , so all good.In the topic of which customers you attract ...mostly all ok but today I've had one customer ask to see all my certificates , grade cards , asking if I was part-p( not applicable in Scotland) , asking of I was registered with nic , registered with SELECT , asking if I was corgi registered (WTF - I'm a spark not plumber) .....
She asked me who she could complain to if the job was not right and then to top it off has asked for 2 references from previous jobs ....and the funny part ? She asked if she can save any money by doing "cash" lol.
Complete pain in the arse , I would usually just fire in a high quote or tell her to do one but I have a stag do next week and would be nice to squeeze another job in beforehand. I've jumped through all these hoops ...if I don't get the job ill be pretty pissed an angry email might even be called for.
Cannot be arsed with cretins like this !!
bristolbaron said:
I found mybuilder whilst searching for someone local to do a dampproofing job.
I contacted two trademen and had one contact me.
One didn't turn up to quote and the other two said they'd post quotes to me and didn't.
I've since found a friend of a friend to do the job, so won't actually be using mybuilder but do think from a customer point of view it's very good. It seems very much like you'll get out what you put in from the tradesmen side..
I've used MyBuilder a couple of times recently - in each case got someone to do the job quickly and at a fair, but not bargain basement, price. Each has been relatively small job (e.g. slight mods to gas pipes to install new cooker, hang doors)I contacted two trademen and had one contact me.
One didn't turn up to quote and the other two said they'd post quotes to me and didn't.
I've since found a friend of a friend to do the job, so won't actually be using mybuilder but do think from a customer point of view it's very good. It seems very much like you'll get out what you put in from the tradesmen side..
Each job that I posted had 2-3 people interested but in every case it was the chap who'd bothered to provide the specific information (price and availability to do the work) who got the work (even if they weren't cheapest). The ones who didn't provide the requested info didn't make the shortlist.
Like Jamster suggests, although I went via MyBuilder to find these chaps in the first place, any future work that needs the same trade has been offered to them first.
The hardest part is actually assessing work before you commit. For what I needed it wasn't going to be the end of the world if it wasn't a 100% job, but for a bigger job I'd probably want a more solid recommendation.
fesuvious - admittedly I've never been to checkatrade (for some reason I always forget about them) but are you sure the lack of leads isn't down to poor fit with your service? Tbh, that type of sites isn't where I'd look for removals... I'd be on google instead.
fesuvious said:
Truthfully I've no idea - maybe!
Its a free trial and the girls here wanted to give it a go......
In truth though I think these sites are only trying to create a niche market following the demise of Yell.
Put it this way - I wouldn't invest in one of them.
I would. One of them will become the market leader and they will become the new yellow pages. Which one though is the million pound question. Why YP didn't do this is totally beyond me!Its a free trial and the girls here wanted to give it a go......
In truth though I think these sites are only trying to create a niche market following the demise of Yell.
Put it this way - I wouldn't invest in one of them.
I used Checkatrade a lot for my business and find it excellent. What I like is the fact that you remain in control of your details and can chose who you wish to approach unlike Rated People where you are just giving our personal information which is then passed onto people you don't know and you are dependent on them coming back to you.
Funnily enough, Mrs FTR and I have used Checkatrade a couple of times recently - even once for removals! 
Carpet Cleaning was the other one. We found it really helpful from a punter's point of view. It was great to be able to see some feedback that at least looked genuine and get a bit of a feel for the sort of trades that people don't necessarily use that much. (Meaning that "word of mouth" recommendations might not be the easiest to come by.)
As with one of the earlier posters, we weren't necessarily looking for the absolute cheapest, just for a decent job at a fair price and we're happy with the results on both counts!
Interestingly, a joiner friend of ours told us that these services are overrated and that they don't do any checks themselves - apparently his information is out of date!
Good to know!
Carpet Cleaning was the other one. We found it really helpful from a punter's point of view. It was great to be able to see some feedback that at least looked genuine and get a bit of a feel for the sort of trades that people don't necessarily use that much. (Meaning that "word of mouth" recommendations might not be the easiest to come by.)
As with one of the earlier posters, we weren't necessarily looking for the absolute cheapest, just for a decent job at a fair price and we're happy with the results on both counts!
Interestingly, a joiner friend of ours told us that these services are overrated and that they don't do any checks themselves - apparently his information is out of date!
Good to know!
Point scoring is the only way the general public see the local traders they look/filter in the site.
The problem is that Checkatrade actively discourages negative feedback, so the traders there is based on innaccurate (and invalid) statistics.
Plenty here to show it's crystal clear business for the site owners, but murky waters for the consumer.
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/search.php?sea...
As the above poster said, it's eBay for traders.
The problem is that Checkatrade actively discourages negative feedback, so the traders there is based on innaccurate (and invalid) statistics.
Plenty here to show it's crystal clear business for the site owners, but murky waters for the consumer.
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/search.php?sea...
As the above poster said, it's eBay for traders.
I too am interested with the mybuilder/ rated people type sites, we were considering it along with our leaflets and local advertising (doing a push at the moment) but it seemed like it could be very expensive if we got nothing back. Although I suppose 2 good jobs would cover the cost of a years subscription.
I have heard a few trades locally say they were only contacted by other tradesmen wanting to know if the site ( rated people) was worth being on!
I certainly echo the fact that with so many online suppliers of materials etc and the current climate that the margins on jobs are getting much, much tighter even when your quoting very reasonable prices! sign of the times I guess.
I have heard a few trades locally say they were only contacted by other tradesmen wanting to know if the site ( rated people) was worth being on!
I certainly echo the fact that with so many online suppliers of materials etc and the current climate that the margins on jobs are getting much, much tighter even when your quoting very reasonable prices! sign of the times I guess.
The best form of advertising is word of mouth and recommendations.
I've just got a new website designed, hopefully this will help increase
my work load as i know people tend to search online these days.
I've also listed my business in the free local online directories as i'm trying to keep my over heads down and pass the savings to my customers. I've also registered with tradersshield.com for free too, they're a directory for tradesmen. I'm trying to get my business listed for free where i can and hopefully get them website visitors, without spending much. Fingers crossed.
I've just got a new website designed, hopefully this will help increase
my work load as i know people tend to search online these days.
I've also listed my business in the free local online directories as i'm trying to keep my over heads down and pass the savings to my customers. I've also registered with tradersshield.com for free too, they're a directory for tradesmen. I'm trying to get my business listed for free where i can and hopefully get them website visitors, without spending much. Fingers crossed.
The best form of advertising is word of mouth and recommendations.
I've just got a new website designed, hopefully this will help increase
my work load as i know people tend to search online these days.
I've also listed my business in the free local online directories as i'm trying to keep my over heads down and pass the savings to my customers. I've also registered with tradersshield.com for free too, they're a directory for tradesmen. I'm trying to get my business listed for free where i can and hopefully get them website visitors, without spending much. Fingers crossed.
I've just got a new website designed, hopefully this will help increase
my work load as i know people tend to search online these days.
I've also listed my business in the free local online directories as i'm trying to keep my over heads down and pass the savings to my customers. I've also registered with tradersshield.com for free too, they're a directory for tradesmen. I'm trying to get my business listed for free where i can and hopefully get them website visitors, without spending much. Fingers crossed.
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