What types of rewards would be most valuable to you?

DustiO

As we plan for the future of Thumbtack Pro Rewards, we are always looking for the best ways to celebrate and recognize your contributions - particularly in ways that would help you grow your businesses. With that in mind, we would love to hear your thoughts - answer this poll and share your ideas in the comments.

PomeranzLaw

Other (tell us in the comments)

Backlinks to my website and/or featured spotlights

HBTCWed_Lakela

Credits (for leads)

The CREDITS would be welcomed for this solopreneur. Since we are immediately billed for a lead, even if they never respond to our quote and other pros are offered to them when they request a quote from us, a way to recoup some of these dead end leads would definitely help my bottom line!

Lakela

DavidStrand

Credits (for leads)

Thumbtack credits would be terrific. We are billed right away for any lead, but some of them are not good leads.

Mage

Classes/workshops/webinars

I actually really like the training here at Thumbtack. That Boot Camp stuff is great! 🎉

renee_dnwy

Elevated support

I agree abouts credits for leads. Direct leads are paid for automatically when some of them don't ever even respond or choose a pro before I even get a chance to talk.

SierraCne

Exclusive events

Im interested in the events you have to offer .

Would it be Networking Events ?

DustiO

@SierraCne we currently do things like workshops and webinars as part of Thumbtack Pro Rewards, but we also do things like virtual holiday celebrations or happy hours or networking events as well! We don't have any networking/celebratory events on the calendar at the moment, but we do hold weekly networking hours here in the Community every other Thursday - where you can meet and chat with other pros! There is one today, actually - see the details here. If you can't make it today, we have these every 2 weeks :) Thank you!!

PS also stay tuned here in the Community for when we do have other events - we will post about them in here!

Adele_Alexandre

Swag

How do I order my Swag?

Adele Alexandre

DustiO

@Adele_Alexandre You can read more details here in this post about swag, but the current swag reward is for pros celebrating their 1-year anniversary on Thumbtack - if you hit your anniversary before Thumbtack Pro Rewards was started (just last year), then you would not be eligible. You have been on Thumbtack for SO long! Incredible! We are working on ways to celebrate our more tenured pros, so stay tuned for that. And thank you for being with us for so long - I'm so happy to have you in the Community, too!

DistinguishDev

Credits (for leads)

Lead Credits based on volume for example 5% cash back after reaching a weekly threshold. With all things being equal once in the door but short lived if I'm one of 5 pros who maybe contacted by the client then happen to be the next to last through the door...the client at that point is probably acutely inundated with having to choose the best pro. I can understand getting 3 estimates but to schedule 5 is not in anyone's best interest. Simply put it doesn't take 5 pros to create a decorum of fair competition what it does do is lines the pockets of Thumbtacks executives who are banking on 1 of 5 pros to fail. Perhaps every category should have an option to charge an estimating fee should clients reach out to more than 3 yet while affording them and only them a shot at doing the work. Just last week I shared my concerns with a client on this very topic whereby I was never given the chance to submit an estimate much less an appointment despite having reached out within the first hour. His response was to take it up with Thumbtack then click, the call ended without so much as a thank you or good bye.

I want to be clear it's all good for those of us who can take the hit but for the newer pros who have a limited budget coupled with little experience it's comes at a huge price to their confidence and business model.

HBTCWed_Lakela

Credits (for leads)

@DistinguishDev I feel you as I have stated similar to this a year ago. It is free for the client but dearly costs the Pros when Thumbtack, intentionally, encourages clients to submit requests for more quotes by adding 3 Pro "suggestions" at the end of the client's request form. That is how easy it is for a client to ask five Pros for the same job, which I agree is overkill (overkilling the 4 Pros who will, absolutely, not get the job, if any).

Thumbtack has to make money, sure. But finding more ways to get that out of the Pros (think "set-your-own-rate-but-not-too-low-or-you-wont-be-seen), without considering, either how to mitigate that burden or bring the client's into the mix is truly hurting the sole proprietors. I am an Ordained Wedding Officiant. We are the lowest paid professionals of the Wedding Industry. I doubled what used to be the average cost of a lead and rarely get leads now because I have been moved further down the list. It's ok by me because my hope is that if a bride takes the time to read through all the other Pros now listed ahead of me then perhaps she truly is considering me :-)

@DustiO

~ What if client's are charged $1 ea if they want to request more than two Pros for the same job? Since they are looking for someone to spend money with then $1 is not unreasonable.

~ What if TT makes two tiers for clients?

1) HIRING NOW! - these would be regular priced leads. Client pays $1 ea over two Pro requests.

2)NEED QUOTE BUT DATE NOT SET - these leads would cost Pros MUCH less because clients are purely window shopping. Clients are not allowed to request more than three Pros, period.

~ Lastly, alert clients that they have already submitted a request to a particular Pro before. This way they will look back at their previous quotes instead of the Pro being charged a second time because the client is not taking the time to review their previous quotes. This happened to me again and TT will not refund me.

Have a blessed day :-)

Lakela

Heart Beyond the Canvas