Week 1: Introductions and Initial Reactions to Booking Inquiries

Thumbtack_Research

Welcome to the Booking Inquiries Feedback Group!

Hi everyone,

Welcome to the Booking Inquiries Feedback Group! Thank you for taking the time to participate in this research. My name is Sebastian, and I'm a researcher at Thumbtack.

You have been recruited to this feedback group because you've recently been switched to booking inquiries from direct leads, and our team is interested in your feedback. Your insights are crucial to ensuring that the product experience works well for both pros and customers.

Study Details & Timeline

Over the next four weeks, we will be engaging in weekly discussions to gather your thoughts and experiences with the booking inquiries. Each week, we'll post a prompt on Tuesday–please respond by the following Tuesday at the latest for each discussion. 

If you have not already, please remember to review and complete your research participation agreement that should have been sent to you via email so you can be compensated for your involvement in this study. You can reach out to me via private message here on the community or to research ops at userresearch@thumbtack.com if you have any questions.

Note: We're getting a bit of a late start on our first week so please respond to this discussion prompt as soon as you get set up here on the community.

Discussion Guidelines

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

• Be respectful of others' opinions.
• Stay on topic.
• Be constructive and offer specific suggestions.
• Use language that is appropriate for a professional setting.
• Be patient as we work to improve the booking experience.

I encourage you to respond to others in the group. Please feel free to add screenshots or other visuals in each discussion if they're helpful in illustrating anything you found helpful or challenging.

First Prompt: Introductions and Reactions

To kick things off, let's introduce ourselves! Please share a bit about yourself, your business, and how you feel about booking inquiries replacing direct leads. We’d love to hear about…

• What were your first impressions upon hearing about the switch to the booking inquiries?
• Did you have any questions or concerns when you heard about the change? If so, what were they?
• Was there anything you felt like was missing or that would have been helpful in the initial communication about the switch?

Looking forward to hearing from you all!

Best,

Sebastian

AlexandraLohay

Hi Sebastian,

Looking forward to giving back feedback. Thank you for having me.

Thumbtack_Research

For folks who onboarded to the community this week, just a reminder to comment here with your intros and responses to the prompt above by the end of today cc @AlexandraLohay, @royalcleaning, @luke_n, @Teodoro22

We'll be sharing a new prompt at the end of today. Please feel free to private message me here if you have any questions about the research study or if you need any additional time to complete this first activity. Thanks!

royalcleaning

Hello, I have noticed that in my region, in all booking searches, the app shows a specific company in 1st place in searches. In the past, this ranking changed constantly, which gave the public the impression that there are several good companies available. When only 1 company is always in first place and shown in all searches in that region, it creates a large funnel directed towards it, as it will always be contacted, leaving the others at a certain “disadvantage”, as customers may imagine that the one that always appears first is much better than the others and will give preference to it. This is just my opinion as an observer. I believe that a rotation between companies in 1st place in searches would be healthier for the market. Thank you for your attention.

Thumbtack_Research

Thanks for sharing your feedback @royalcleaning on search results and customer perception—will definitely relay this concern to our product team and, if you have feedback outside of the switch to booking inquiries come up over the next few weeks, please share with support@thumbtack.com so it's tracked and logged. I wanted to refocus here on the introductory discussion prompt and the recent switch to booking inquiries:

If you could introduce yourself, your business, and how you feel about booking inquiries replacing direct leads. We’d love to hear about…

• What were your first impressions upon hearing about the switch to the booking inquiries?
• Did you have any questions or concerns when you heard about the change? If so, what were they?
• Was there anything you felt like was missing or that would have been helpful in the initial communication about the switch?

royalcleaning

Specifically regarding the change to booking inquiries, I find it very positive. The main point is that you can talk to customers and explain your services and costs without rushing or worrying too much about not being able to schedule the customer or having to provide a service that is well below the normal price. With direct leads, any refusal meant financial loss, which greatly hindered the dialogue and the decision to invest more money in Thumbtack. One point that I find negative is the value of leads related to non-recurring services, because high values ​​make hiring unfeasible. For example: if you have a cleaning service for a 4-bedroom house that costs ~$250, the leads cost around $150 ~ $180. This cleaning needs to be recurring to be worth the initial investment. When the service is just a single cleaning (non-recurring), the leads could not be so high because you will have a high cost to perform it. I don't know if I was able to describe the problem well, I hope you understood part of it. Thank you.

Thumbtack_Research

Definitely makes sense—it sounds like the ability to talk first with a lead before being charged is helpful. On the other hand, pricing for a non-recurring service in some cases might be too high for it to make sense for your business. Thanks for sharing your insight!