Why I'm I not given a specific reason for denying my request for refund?

jdinsmoor

It is not fair to be charged when a person that request my services never looks at my quote or does not respond to texts and will not answer the phone. This was not done in good faith and I should not be charged for it.

SME

I completely agree and thumbtack should respond to this.

DustiO

I know this can be extremely frustrating. Thumbtack is working on and testing various ways to increase customer commitment and verification as well as making the customer experience more clear — which should definitely help with the issue of unresponsive customers. In the meantime, we recently discussed the issue of unresponsive customers in a CommuniTEA session and pros had a lot of great suggestions that have worked well 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 had 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 (suggested by @SOUNIQUE007 and recently tried by @SarzozaPhoto with success!)
• 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!

SME

@DustiO

I only started on Thumbtack four days ago, however, here are my thoughts on these ideas so far:

• 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) — Not yet applicable to me.
• 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) — I have done this with every single lead now.
• 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 had multiple customers hire them at later dates) — Not yet applicable to me.
• 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 (suggested by @SOUNIQUE007 and recently tried by @SarzozaPhoto with success!) — Done this and offered on-board cruise credits and embarkation gifts, and/or promos that my suppliers have offered.
• Leave on a positive note, leave all of your contact info if they come back later (from @ShaquealThomas) — Always, and would never do differently. I am all about customer service first!
• 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) — I will try this tactic this evening and this coming weekend.
• 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) — I have mentioned in all of my initial lead responses that we are a full-service agency and can provide you with ideas, quotes, bookings, and a curated itinerary, but I will follow up with more detailed notes about all of the services we offer.

Some suggestions for Thumbtack regarding Travel Agent lead referrals:

• Vett clients better by having a question about when they are looking to book (now, within a week, a month, etc.)
• Ask clients if they are willing to pay a booking or planning fee and up to how much. I don't mind spending hours on a very customized itinerary if they actually will book it with me — but otherwise, I'll need to charge a planning fee. Most of our commissions come from hotel and cruise bookings, or business/first airfare.
• Get rid of the 'transportation type' checkboxes and ask the client for better descriptions of what they are looking for in the message section. Check with other travel agent Pros about how to improve the client questionnaire for travel on Thumbtack.

SarzozaPhoto

Since I cover a big area, I have played with using the 'travel fee' as an incentive in the message. "If you call/message me back, I can deduct the $25 travel fee." It's worked.

I agree with the OP especially as 7 of my last 10 leads in the past 6 weeks have been 'no response' leads costing me about $450 for literally nothing. But as Laura mentioned, I went back and looked and the amount I've taken in outweighs the amount I've spent in leads this year. Perspective matters when you're feeling the pain of a nothing $70 lead.

I do wish TT would limit the no-response leads. I'd gladly pay TT 20%-30% of booked work as they say they limit competition but have me compete against 5 people per lead.

What 5 people going for the same $300-$400 dollars is 5 people blowing up the client's phone within the first 3 minutes and the client feeling like they gave their number to a telemarketer. I get that TT says they don't want to tell customers that we pay for the lead, but they are fine with the customer getting bombarded with phone calls and text messages. Leaving a bad taste in their mouth because they don't know why they're getting 10 calls an hour. I've done over 40 gigs this past year and I have never had a customer say they REGULARLY use TT. It seems like it's a one time platform for customers as they get annoyed by the phone calls.

DustiO

@SME if you haven't done this already, I would recommend sending this category specific feedback (the requests about what to ask customers, etc) to support@thumbtack.com so that it gets logged and tracked. I will also share with our category management team. Thank you!