Welcome to the Booking Inquiries Beta Testing Research Project!

Thumbtack_Research

Hi everyone!

My name is Sebastian, and I'm a UX researcher at Thumbtack. I'm excited to welcome you to the Booking Inquiries Beta Testing Research project!

Thank you so much for taking the time to participate in this study. Your feedback is invaluable to us as we work to improve the booking experience for both pros and customers.

Over the next six weeks, we'll be engaging in weekly discussions to gather your thoughts and experiences with booking inquiries. Each week, we'll post a prompt on Tuesday, and you'll have until Sunday at 5pm local time to respond.

To ensure a productive and respectful environment, please keep the following guidelines in mind:

• Be respectful of others' opinions, even if you disagree with them.
• Stay on topic and avoid discussing unrelated matters.
• Be constructive and offer specific suggestions for improvement.
• Use language that is appropriate for a professional setting.
• Be patient as we work to improve the booking experience.

You can find our full community guidelines here.

To kick things off, let's introduce ourselves! Please share a bit about yourself (name, where you're located), your business, and why you were interested in booking inquiries. We’d also love to hear about anything that's worked well for booking inquiries along with any of the challenges you've faced.

I encourage you to respond to others in the group. Please feel free to add screenshots or other visuals if it would be helpful for us to understand.

Also feel free to direct message me if you have any questions or concerns about participation 

I'm looking forward to hearing from you all!

Best,

Sebastian

ZEROREZTC

Hi, I’m Sierra, and I’m located on the Treasure Coast of Florida. My husband and I own and operate a carpet cleaning business where we specialize in cleaning carpets, tile, upholstery, area rugs, and more. What sets us apart is that we don’t use any harsh chemicals, shampoos, or detergents. Instead, we use Zrwater, a highly effective stain remover and degreaser that’s both safe and powerful. We were interested in booking inquiries to expand our reach, as well as have the opportunity to speak with customers before booking them. This helps us ensure they genuinely want to move forward with us, rather than just spending money on marketing without securing the job.

The issues I had included not knowing that I have to wait for the client to accept the booking and invite me before I can accept their inquiry. I think it should be that we accept the inquiry first, and then receive their information to book the appointment.

Thumbtack_Research

Welcome Sierra! Thanks for kicking us off and definitely appreciate you sharing your feedback here—throughout this discussion we'll be communicating your insights to the product team. Interested to see if others have encountered similar challenges?

ZEROREZTC

thanks! I just feel as if it should be more user friendly geared towards the business owner accepting the lead.

Cash

Cash

My name is cash i'm with retro repairs I have a small handyman Service in Somerset Kentucky

Cash

My experience with the instinct bookings has been a great one my productivity is increased and you being able to build a more close rapport with the customer before I actually do the job and go out to their house. i'm able to kind of get to know them a little bit better and I can get more specific details on what the job entitles, I can get pictures sent I can do a lot more with the instant bookings than I could have just to direct leads platform. I think the instant bookings platform is very important and it is definitely geared toward the pro in mind and also the customer because the customer gets an idea or a sense of who you are before you get there and if you work the instant booking messaging feature more you can definitely not feel so awkward coming to someones home or business

Cash

To give you A quick little story of what I mean is I've met a customer through the instinct booking feature and I had replaced H delta shower valve and it was about an 45 minute drive from my city to an outline city where I had to go do this service call app well along the way I found out the guy was from the same town I'm from he enjoys the same hobbies of fly fishing as I do and we had a lot in common as far as just before I got there I was able to do that well when I got there I felt more comfortable I would work my work with more smoothly and also he had an old pickup truck sitting in the in the driveway so I Asked about what was going on with the truck and did it run and he said no it had been sitting there for two or three years of you know all dirty and algae growing on it well he ended up giving me the truck and the truck with just a very minimal amount of work was able to be restored and is currently

good working order and I have to give that all to the instant bookings app or feature with untaxed and so I will post a picture of what it looks like

DPDJacob

Hello! My name's Jake and I run a one man handyman/remodel business in Cheyenne WY. I take care of small repairs and single room remodels (kitchens and baths mainly).

Thumbtack has been the best pay per lead service that I've used, and is now the only one I use. So trying out a new feature was a no brainier.

Been slow lately on Thumbtack, so only gotten 1 booking inquiry. But I think that might be due to my "availability" on Thumbtack. I only show one day available because I have luckily been scheduling 1-2 weeks out.

Overall booking inquiries seem like a slightly upgraded version of direct leads. So no real complaints about it. But I also haven't seen any super positive changes.

Thumbtack_Research

Thanks Jake, Cash, and Sierra for introducing yourselves! And appreciate once again thank you providing your feedback on booking inquiries! We'll have some more folks filter in over the next week, so stay tuned.

Josiah_RPP

Hi all, my name is Josiah and I run Ryan's Plumbing Pros here in NC. We take care of most everything involving pipes in homes and commercial buildings.

We just got started last Dec and Thumbtack has been pretty good for us so far. Liking what I am seeing with direct bookings. Hopefully it continues as such.

Jnsthilaire

Hey everyone, my name is Jermain and I'm owner-operator of J's Pest Solutions in Apopka Florida.

Thumbtack as a whole has been good for us. We've secured a good chunk of our early clients with Thumbtack leads. Direct booking has been good for us getting all the details before we accept a job. Knowing exactly what we're dealing with before accepting has been great for us.

bloodline

what’s up everybody! I’m Paul, my business is Bloodline Cleaning Solutions LLC. I have been officially in business for 3 years now in Cincinnati, OH but I service the entire tri-county area(southern IN& northern KY)

I definitely like direct bookings. I have seen an increase in business. It also helps getting more details and information before booking a job.

Jyhomerepair1234

My name is Jose Martinez and I own a handyman business named JY Home Repair and More. We service the Gilbert Arizona area and near by towns. The reason why I am interested in the booking inquiries option is because it allows you to have a chance to discuss the work needed with the customer knowing that if it’s not the best fit for you, you’re not instantly charged for the lead fee. This increases the trust and satisfaction of knowing that the leads will convert and if they don’t your money is not spent. As far as challenges go, not chowing the contact info before booking can be a bit of a challenge. A lot of the leads would prefer to have an over the phone conversation as opposed to texting through the app. So I had an incident where a lead had some disappointment that they weren’t able to get my contact info either. Besides that I’ve had a good experience with the new system thus far. Thank you