Pro Suggestions for living with instant book

Jason_Mayes

Ok I agree with most negative reviews of Instant Book

However sometimes if you can't beat em... join em

Who here is having success with instant book and how do you handle the over inflated price tag?

I'm curious if ANYONE is having success with this feature

DustiO

We had some questions about this during our pro panel at the Pro Summit yesterday! We'll be posting a recap soon, but I will also see if I can tag some of those pros (and some others from our Pro Advisory Board) in to see if they can offer some advice. @CodyRisner @AntilleanRestoration @Jack_Marquardt @Juliano_50 @Bretdouglas @ShaquealThomas

I'm not in your shoes (although I did used to be a Thumbtack pro), but from my vantage point as a Thumbtacker I can offer a few tips that you can take or leave in the meantime!

• Check your Max Lead Prices to ensure that the prices you are setting work for you and your business - as well as your weekly budget. Play around with those and see if changing them (up or down) makes a difference for you in lead volume and overall experience
• Check your calendar and availability settings to see that you have the right lead time as well as business hours and available days, etc (you can also sync with your Google calendar)
• Check out our newly launched personal performance page to see if any of those insights can help you - ie can your response time be quicker, are there areas near you that have more customer searches and less competition, etc
• And Jen B, one of our Pro Advisors from our Pro Advisory Board, who also has a house cleaning business talks a lot about tracking ROI over time, here is what she had to say:

At first we struggled with this. The upfront cost can seem daunting and paying for leads is a big risk. We knew starting out we wanted to reinvest all of our profits into marketing and lead generation so we were prepared to spend to get new clients. But we had a plan. We learned from our franchisor and other mentors to try something for 3 months and then if not working to try something else. The very first cleaning client we ever had came from an instant booking on Thumbtack and then 90% of our recurring customers have come from Thumbtack ever since. And some of those clients have gone on to refer us to others or have owner multiple properties and so it has just kind of snowballed from there.

The initial cost of any lead has been recouped and then some by having recurring clients for months and even years. And even the “lost” leads we didn’t win, we capture their info and reach out to them in our marketing efforts. So we definitely look at it for the long game knowing that if not today, at some point someone will need us and there have been many instances where someone went with another company to begin with and then came back to us because the other company or cleaner didn’t show up, didn’t do a great job, or we couldn’t do the cleaning when they needed or any number of other reasons and because we treated that prospect with great customer service and they had a pleasant experience with us while in discussion they remembered that and came back. This helps with the ROI as well because we know if not now, it will likely be at some point so always keep a positive and friendly attitude with every potential client and client interaction.

Hope this helps and feel free to ignore me if you're already doing all of these things!

Bretdouglas

I would be honored to work for free with any pros. I'm a simple man in Orlando Florida who's been a top pro his whole career. You can reach me at 386-500-8217, warm regards Brett Douglas

Jason_Mayes

We have been with Thimbtack for 10 years

We are a Top Pro off and on depending on what year you wanna discuss.

I am familiar with the advice given however the biggest issue is the cost of Thumbtack

IIf you notice your friends example had everything to do with repeat business

Well There is a huge request for 1 time cleanings... but it is becoming dumb to bid on them unless you are an individual with near zero overhead.... No established business with costs can argue to use it.

For example... Sally down the road just needs to buy a bottle of Pine Sol... her goals in life are to make better than $20 and hour.

She bids 300 for a 4 hour job... thumbtack charges 90 for the lead. She makes 210 on 4 hours... She is happy as hell because she just made 50 an hour

Take that same job from someone with staff, insurance, licensing, etc… That 210 gets cut by about 60%. So now your left with about 80 bucks... I don't know anyone who went into business to make $20 an hour.

Instant book pricing is out of market and if you were to compare it to traditional advertising that I aware of... If your getting jobs to the tune of 80 a job your marketing is terrible... however Thumbtack seems to think thats acceptable .. no its not its above market value

Now I have created game plans to thin out the competition and allow for me to get a greater percentage of sales but there has got to be a better way than what I have conceived.

So if anyone is actually having success with Instant Book I would gladly listen to advice