Instant Booking
There has been a lot of discussion surrounding instant booking if we together as pros can share our thoughts on instant booking we may be able to submit this to thumbtack as a community.
Instant Booking 103 votes
Comments
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Hi, I just received a message saying that I am being forced to use the instant booking feature on July 31st. Is there any way that I can stop this from happening? I cover cities that are well over 3 - 4 hours apart on a good day and I don't really need people from different cities booking me instantly when they see a free hour and I'm 180 miles away. Someone else please weigh in on this. I'm also a "platinum" service provider, yet I can't opt out of this.
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That’s strange I was requested to enroll in instant booking. However, I could easily opt out of it as my work would never allow for an instant booking without an on-site estimate or a virtual estimate. None of my jobs are consistently the same price or the same amount of work, so it makes it very challenging to even consider an instant booking. If they offered more features or ask more questions of the client, an instant booking could be utilized, but I agree instant booking should never be forced when there is no one-size-fits-all
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When instant booking was first introduced, you were able to opt out of it but it seems like instant book is now rolling out to all users and there's no way to get out of it. Not that I've seen anyways.
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I opted out this last week, maybe it’s dependent on the industry ?
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@DustiO Tagging you here to see if you can help with this issue. This is already a nightmare. There's no way for me to opt out of this process. I called support and they told me as much. My business covers cities that are over 180 miles apart. Just because I have an opening on a single day doesn't mean I'm in the city that people are booking. There's also zero protection on my end through this process. If people decide to cancel, I'm out of luck because I can't charge them a cancellation fee. A 2 hr drive just to get told not to do the project is something I do not wish to experience again. I have trusted people before and have been let down many times which is why I have a cancellation fee. Also, if people decide to book days that I'm already at a different city, I have to cancel those bookings and STILL get charged for that lead. How's that fair?
Instant booking is not for everyone, STOP FORCING THIS ON ME!!
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If anyone finds a way around this PLEASE let me know. It is impossible to sustain my business with this new "instant booking" feature. I used to be charged about $10.00 for a TV Mounting lead which I would charge around $100 to the customer and this allows a healthy margin for my business. Today was the first day that this feature was forced and I was charge $56.00 for an "instant book" lead on an item I priced out to be $75 . . . You do the math. My business is currently made up of 60% from Thumbtack leads so I'll have to figure out another method of advertising unless they choose to drop this insanely terrible idea. Sad to work so hard for 124 five start reviews and then not be able to use the app anymore. Guess in should have just used google for reviews. Oh well, you live and you learn. INSTANT BOOKING IS NOT A HELPFUL FEATURE.
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Can someone please explain to me how forcing instant booking on us (the pro's) is actually helping? I use a variety of apps to keep my company busy 7 days of the week including my own scheduling platform on Acuity. Thumbtack alone does not generate enough leads currently to sustain my companies needs so there is no reason for it to be a "one stop shop" by including/forcing a booking service. So at any given moment I may have new or past client booking my services on Acuity and it would be incredibly time consuming to manually block out times that new thumbtack customers can now "instant book" for. It creates so much potential for double booking.
It is also very annoying that "instant book" leads or so much more expensive. Why are the pro's being punished for a service they didn't want or ask for in the first place? I really thought we had a mutually beneficial thing going here but it seems like thumbtack wants to just turn into Angi Leads which I quit using 1 year ago because I couldn't sustain a profit using their platform. It seems like Thumbtack preaches about the importance of hiring licensed, insured and highly rated pro's but all of those thing cost money. You cannot expect to take a bigger piece of the pie and think that your pro's will stick around.
I've really loved using thumbtack and their platform has played a huge role in putting my name out there and allowing me to work with so many great clients. It would be a huge bummer to see them continue to push "instant booking". Forcing me to pay upwards of $40 more a lead for "service tool" I didn't ask for, doesn't sit well with me.
If this continues I will take my 5 star business elsewhere and spend my advertising dollars on a more fruitful venture.
It seems fairly easy to see how this is hurting more that helping, right?
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Same here, this 1 lead that just instant booked me for $134....
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@Move_In_Mechanix_00 So far the best thing I've found to do is set the amount of notice for the job to 7 days. At least this way no one can insta book you immediately and most people don't plan that far out ahead most of the time.
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Here is what I see in the app, not sure if yours looks the same. But here is where I can turn it on or off.
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Interesting, it also may be that what I do on Thumbtack may not be a part of the rollout. I don’t even know how it could even work when all of my jobs are so varied that it could range from 3k-20k all depending on so many variables. If they do in fact implement it on my end, that’s the end of Thumbtack for me.
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PLEASE HELP!!!!
I have 189 5-star reviews I feel like I wasted my time my money and my reviews with this app!!!! My business was about 60% thumbtack as well!!!
$35.00 for a $60.00 lead? They show the prices for instant booking, force you to pay the prices with no way to opt out, and it’s a cheap barely working chat-bot! This thing scheduled me up a job that I never do! Thank god I got a refund the price was ridiculous! The quote was hilarious!!!! why thumbtack!!!!! What the hell!!!
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oh crazy that you Guys just got in that future. Well I been in it since around novenmber or December the worst thing they could ever done . Furniture leads prices is worst. It’s their way of getting your money without you making any money. Paying $56 to make 85 for fans installation. They not going to change until everyone decide the next step with this app
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It doesn’t at all not only do you lose your money for rejecting the leads you just can’t get a refund
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There are several partner integrations that can help connect your other booking software/apps to your Thumbtack account so that you don't need to manually block time off. You can see them all here. Also just want you to know that I share all of these comments with the team and improvements are being made to Instant Book thanks to this type of feedback. That being said, I do always recommend also sending feedback to support@thumbtack.com so that it gets logged directly under your business/account. Hope this helps even just a little!
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@JpAssembly I know exactly what you mean. Don't forget the fact that you won't get other direct leads because that resource went to an "assured" project. I've already gotten multiple instant bookings and only 1 has actually panned out. Rest assured I told that 1 client never to use instant booking again.
I don't really see any hope of this going away. I'm a 5* rated pro, with over 500 5* reviews and they don't even bat an eye when I call and ask for the option to be removed from this feature.
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There has been a lot of discussion surrounding instant booking if we together as pros can vote on yes to instant booking or no to instant booking we may be able to submit this to thumbtack as a community.
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If you're answer is "no", I would love to hear what could turn your "no" into a "yes"?
There are several improvements to this feature rolling out — but tell us what could improve to make Instant Book something you're excited about!
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@DustiO the main reason why I said no, is the implementation has been terrible for what I do (murals). The first thing I see when setting up instant book is an estimate charge but the prompt to do instant booking says “set your price”. For what exactly? My work is so varied and dependent on too many things to even begin to put a price down. I charge by the square foot plus materials. What does instant booking do for that? I don’t charge for estimates, but I also don’t go on site for most jobs before I paint.
Does the feature allow for I depth questions from the pro to the client so that both are on the same page? Can the client book more than one Pro for the same job using instant book? Why is it more expensive?
The feature seems half baked, and poorly executed to really provide what seems to be touted by it. (This is all based on the pros that were forced into instant book).
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Please understand the nature of the business. For painters, it just DOES NOT work.
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i don’t like that there hasn’t been one of my leads that instant booked that followed through. I called and messaged and nothing and I’m paying extra for the service?? I already feel the prices are to high and unpredictable which has had me pause my account a few times. I currently have all instant booking turned off and I go to opportunities page, view job details and price and then make my decision.
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@Portergirl this is great feedback, thank you.
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I don't know if anybody else has had problems with the instant bookings but I have had a couple of bookings where when I call to confirm the appointment they tell me they have gone with somebody else. I ask them to please go back and cancel the appointment but they never do. We are charged a lot for these leads and unless they cancel the appointment we are stuck paying for them.
I think they need to have to sign some type of agreement when they book to notify them that if they fail to cancel the appointment they will have to pay for the services. Just like any other agreement with a client, you work with.
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@Swebbinteriors I seen your feedback on instant book are you able to leave it here with a vote?
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@Swebbinteriors this is great feedback, thank you!
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Another thing that could be really big and making instant book a success would be to guarantee that when a client reaches out, the job is the pros and no one else’s (maybe for a set period of time?). That could be done by taking a nonrefundable deposit, but this would mean a very in-depth question form asking all of the questions before the job begins.
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@Swebbinteriors @ShaquealThomas I merged those two so that her feedback is showing here. Thank you both.
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Hi all! I have recently merged a few threads relating to Instant Book. I would really love if each of you could take Shaqueal's poll and then leave any more thoughts that you may have since you last posted so that I can share this with our teams. Thank you, and have a wonderful weekend!
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