Help resources: Community, Help Center, and Support
Hi everyone!
I wanted to do a quick re-intro, since many of you are new to the Community. I am Dusti, and I have been at Thumbtack for about 6 1/2 years (crazy how time flies). Before coming to Thumbtack I was a business owner myself for over a decade. I am very passionate about what we do here at Thumbtack, and here in the Pro Community. I oversee our pro programs - like this Community, Thumbtack Pro Rewards, and our newly launched Pro Advisory Board.
If you need industry specific help - ie you are new to owning a business in your industry - please post your questions and I will tag in pros in your industry to see if they can offer advice and insight. This Community is such a great resource to connect you with other professionals.
If you have Thumbtack specific questions, please refer first to the Thumbtack Help Center, as there are a TON of really great resource there. If you don't find what you are looking for there, you can reach out to Thumbtack support in the following ways:
- Support hours are Monday - Friday 6 am to 6 pm MST
- Phone support is available by calling 866-501-5809.
- Text support is available by texting 415-299-6398.
- Chat support is available to you when you login to your Thumbtack account
- Email support is available by emailing support@thumbtack.com
If you can't get through to support, please feel free to post your questions here in the Community. Keep in mind that we are unable to help with refunds here. However, we are happy to answer Thumbtack related questions and will help and advise where we can.
It's best to post and tag me (@DustiO) instead of sending me a DM, as my inbox gets very full and it's difficult to keep up with 😅 (see screenshot below). If I see your post and need follow up info I will comment or send you a DM. Looking forward to continuing to build this Community together in 2024!
Comments
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Thank you for always getting involved. I know that 2024 will be a challenging yet rewarding year for all of us.
One of the dangers to a huge app like this with over 400,000 users is that sometimes those people believe they're only a simple number in the system and they don't matter.
You constantly throw yourself out there to aid people I try to do the same thing on my end and sometimes it's just taking that moment to help somebody else during the time of stress that we can all remember that we're just trying to survive in these difficult times. The one thing I'll pray for in 2024 is that we get great communication on everybody's side that we all feel like we are a team and we're working towards a common goal. I see great things ahead for Thumbtack and for all of our pros and small families. Thank you for being such an integral part of our success
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I keep getting charged for leads that aren’t even In the same state as my business and leads that aren’t a service we provide and they keep denying my refund request. I have called so many times to talk to support and nobody has answered.
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Hello this is Brett a top pro advisor from the central Florida area. Have you ever tried the texting feature sometimes I'm in a weird time zone so I can never get a hold of the help desk or support but it's pretty amazing when I text them that whatever time it is somebody will always respond back it's helped me in the past it might be a good attempt for you. Let me know if it works
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@Smcgough13 can you send me the names of the customers who were outside your service area or service type? Thanks!
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Thanks, Dustio, for your reply. I was able to reach a Thumbtack Cust. Svc. Repr. via phone who explained the process thoroughly and stated how the Printer repair tech for my area had not replied yet due to other svc. contracts. Additionally, rechecking the Thumbtack website for another printer Tech that services my area only lead back to the same "now busy" Tech. Oh, well....
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@SDCB I am sorry that you had this experience, but I am glad you were able to get through to support for some help! I hope you'll keep using Thumbtack - I have hired Thumbtack pros to do literally dozens of projects in my home and my mom's home! And, I was a long time Thumbtack pro before joining the team. So obviously I am a big fan haha! Hopefully whatever you need done in the future will yield more available pros!
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I need help. My family is being bled out financially for $100+ instant bookings that are completely unresponsive to a single communication and no-shows on the day of the service. Thumbtack won't refund our hard earned money for the completely bogus and insanely high priced booking. You say you're here to help, I need help, your company is screwing my family over. SOS...
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Sherlock
Are all of the leads coming in like this ? I am confused. Have you tried to text or call the phone number also?
We get leads in Florida where they won't answer on the platform like they forgot where they posted for help but most of the time we get a response by texting or calling
I am a pro also. I don't work fir thumbtack but we all should lift each other up
I can be reached at 386 500 8217
Bret. Would love to talk about thumbtack and see how I can help you to get succeeding with the platform
God bless.
Warm regards
Bret
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@Sherlock have you tried adjusting your max lead prices to a range that makes more sense for you? And to echo @Bretdouglas are you reaching out via phone/text too? I'm sorry that this has been your experience, but hopefully with some adjustments things will look up. I took a few moments to look at your profile and everything looks really great - the one thing I did see that might really help is to get your response time a bit faster - it looks like the top pro in your area responds within 13 minutes, where your average response time is over 2 hours. Since we sort of live in an "instant gratification" society I think that is a pretty big factor for a lot of customers. You can utilize your "quick replies" to help with that when you are on a job, too (if you are already doing these things then just ignore me).
In a recent CommuniTEA session a pro brought up the topic of unresponsive customers and a lot of pros chimed in with some really great tactics that have worked for them:
- Refresh your profile intro once a month using chatgpt, to mix it up and test what resonates more with customers (from @1_gold_hands, a handyman who has grown to 7 locations using Thumbtack)
- Reach out via the Thumbtack messenger, and then text and call - different pros suggested different timing that works for them like text immediately, call after 1 hr or 2 hrs, etc (several pros suggested this one)
- Leave the message on a positive note and follow up with "nurture campaigns" - reaching out to customers every 30 days/60 days/etc with a refresher message (both @ShaquealThomas and @SOUNIQUE007 use this tactic and have multiple customers hire them at later dates)
- Try a contest/sweepstakes - tell them even if they have used another pro and don’t need your services they can gift it to someone else! But put a deadline on it to add some urgency
- Leave on a positive note, leave all of your contact info if they come back later (from @ShaquealThomas)
- Message people during off time like evenings and weekends, when they will have time to respond to the message right when they see the notification, vs if they are at work) (from @AR2i, who has had a lot of success using this tactic)
- Send them a note with all of the services you offer, in case they have already figured out that job, they can return later to hire you for other things (also from @1_gold_hands)
Hopefully some of this will help you. If you are able to try any of it, let us know how it works and if it helps!
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I always respond in minutes. People instant book late at night when I am sleeping and your platform figures that into my average response time. Which is ridiculous.
Bret as I mentioned in my post I contact them via every method possibly. Including texting and calling their phone number. Customers that never respond to a SINGLE communication on an instant booking that costs over $100 is a bad product. Unethical to charge service pros for that. Simple...
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Your response time is not calculated outside business hours - it's calculated between 8am-8pm. Any leads or bookings that come in during those hours, your response time does not begin until 8am.
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Well then that's absurd. I respond to everone within minutes, literally everyone each and every time. Besides I often wake up at 6am to bogus instant bookings and Thumbtack has a message that such and such is waiting for my response.
Maybe it is because I call and text people directly when the phone numbers are immediately available rather than messaging on the Thumbtack app. It screws up my "response" times in your system.
If you think me getting raked over the coals by your company for fake and fraudulent instant bookings is because of a delayed response on my end then you're hopeless. I respond to every single customer almost instantly to the point that it sr startles them lady. Sounds like you nor anyone within your company have any interest in owning your filthy and disingenuous business practices. What a pathetic joke.
Go on Reddit and see how many pros there are that endorse your company. Maybe you should reflect on your operation rather than make up nonsense to feel better about screwing small businesses over with insanely overpriced bad products of fraudulent instant bookings.
Seems like I'm pissing away my energy here. You don't give a damn.
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@Sherlock Please refer to our Community Code of Conduct and keep it respectful, I am just trying to help. Yes, for response time you'll need to respond within the app, since Thumbtack isn't able to track at what moment you text or call a customer.
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@Sherlock I am and have been experiencing the same issue. FAKE LEADS costing me hundreds of dollars and maxing out my budget I set for actual clients who book. I gave the site the benefit of the doubt at first but it is CLEAR that the only explanation is the site being liable and the failure on their end regardless of what explanation they attempt to use. I am almost leery to continue making complaints in fear it will cause further damage than it already has. As a result of their neglect with proper refund requests and handling of lead account charges I have lost more money than I have made using this site and the potential customers I could have lost due to no longer being in search results once my budget gets maxed out is a huge devastation to me and my independently owned business.
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Guys. As a pro. Lashing out at dustio is the wrong move.
She is actually someone who cares about the top pros. She has worked countless hours to help everybody.
We should all abide by the code of conduct and by the language that you guys are using you pretty much have decide you're no longer going to be a part of the Thumbtack system. And that's okay I'm sure HomeAdvisor porch and some of the other people are looking for great contractors too
It's kind of like on Facebook group and people say they're going to leave the group instead of just doing it.
If you've already made up your decision the thumbtack's not for you then let's not at least beat up the good people on the way out. I don't know what has led to so much animosity but lashing out at her is not acceptable by any means
We have respect and decency as human beings
I wish you guys well on your journey and maybe finding a platform that works for you
With respect
Bret Douglas
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I would just like some accountability from the site. We are Pros paying them for leads, which in my short experience has cost me a couple of hundred dollars, and not one of six has become a client (yet). I have wasted more time responding and giving out free information and quotes for travel than what my time is worth that I’ve spent for these leads. It’s a bummer that they’re not better prequalified somehow for some services by TT. These 'clients' that are checking 'don't know my travel dates' and 'don't know my destination' and leave no message with details are a joke — and paying for that "lead" is unethical, IMO.
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Resources
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