Customers Can’t See Our Rates Before Contacting Us — This Is Costing Pros Money

ArthurHandyman

I’d like to share some important feedback about the way pricing is currently displayed to customers.

Previously, customers could see a Pro’s hourly rate before contacting them. This was extremely helpful because customers could immediately determine whether a Pro’s pricing fit their budget before reaching out.

Now, customers appear to be contacting Pros without seeing the hourly rate upfront. This creates a serious problem for those of us who pay for leads.

Customers contact me, I pay for the lead, we start discussing the project, and only then do they ask about the price. Once I tell them my rate or provide an estimate, some stop responding or say that the price is outside their budget. If they had been able to see my rate before contacting me, many of these unnecessary leads could have been avoided.

This has had a real financial impact on me. Recently, I spent approximately $150 on Thumbtack leads and only completed one $120 job from that spending. I understand that not every lead will turn into a job — that is a normal part of doing business. But there is a big difference between a customer choosing not to hire you and a customer contacting you without knowing your basic pricing in the first place.

If Pros are required to pay for these leads, I believe customers should be shown our hourly rates before they contact us. This would help customers choose Pros who actually fit their budget, improve lead quality, save everyone time, and reduce unnecessary costs for Pros.

I would really like Thumbtack to consider bringing back visible hourly rates in customer search results and Pro profiles before a customer initiates contact.

I’d also appreciate it if this feedback could be shared with the product team. I’d be interested to hear whether other Pros have experienced the same issue.

ArvinC

Hi @ArthurHandyman , thanks for taking the time to share this and for including a specific example of what you've been experiencing. I can understand why you'd be concerned when you're investing in leads and then finding that pricing becomes a deciding factor after the customer has already reached out.

There have been some recent updates to how and when pricing appears throughout the customer experience. The intent is to give customers an opportunity to consider the overall fit of a Pro, including their experience, reviews, availability, and expertise, since the final cost of a project can depend on details that aren't always known while a customer is initially browsing.

At the same time, I hear the point you're making about wanting customers to have enough information to determine whether a Pro is within their budget before making contact. I appreciate you sharing the impact you're seeing with your own leads and spend, and I'll include that context when we're surfacing Community feedback around the pricing experience.

In the meantime, one option is to include general pricing information or a starting rate in the Business FAQs section of your profile, which customers can still see when viewing your profile.

Thanks again for laying out your perspective so clearly.

NewPathJunkRemoval

@ArvinC Thanks for the explanation. I understand the stated goal of having customers consider overall fit, but removing the option to show a starting price or minimum also removes an important screening tool. Customers can select up to three Pros without opening every profile, so pricing in Business FAQs is not an equivalent substitute. When a customer contacts a Pro whose minimum is outside their budget, both sides lose time, the Pro is charged, and a refund is generally unavailable because the request was technically in the correct category. Thumbtack therefore benefits financially from contacts that visible pricing might have filtered. Please restore the Pro’s option to display pricing in search results.

ArvinC

Thanks for adding this context, @NewPathJunkRemoval . I appreciate you sharing your perspective on how having pricing visible in search results can help customers make a more informed decision before reaching out. I’ll make sure to echo this feedback to the appropriate team as well. Thanks again for taking the time to share it!

adirondak135

This happens to me all the time. Please let us know what the appropriate team is doing about it. There is no reason not to show customers pricing up front, other than to milk billing for leads.

adirondak135

Further, it wastes both the customer and provider’s time.

MyCleanCharlotteMaid

I think pricing visibility would help both customers and pros.

For cleaning services, customers often ask for a price before they fully understand the scope. A standard cleaning, deep cleaning, move-out cleaning, post-construction cleaning, and recurring cleaning can all be priced very differently.

If customers could see a starting price or general price range before contacting a pro, it may help them decide whether the service fits their budget before creating a lead.

That would save customers time, and it would also help pros avoid paying for leads where the customer disappears after seeing the estimate.

I still think final pricing should depend on the details, but clearer pricing expectations upfront would make the process smoother for everyone.

korss0707

Thank you for raising this. We are seeing the same problem, and I believe the “Get Quotes From Top 3 Pros” button is a major contributor to declining lead quality.

For us, the issue goes beyond customers simply not seeing pricing. The bigger problem is pre-qualification. Customers can send a request to three Pros before meaningfully reviewing their profiles and deciding whether those businesses are actually a good match.

For example, a customer looking for a $100 individual cleaner can generate a paid lead for our established, fully insured cleaning company even though our profile clearly states that our pricing starts around $180. The reverse can happen too: a customer specifically requiring an established fully insured company may generate a paid lead for an individual cleaner who cannot meet those requirements.

In both cases, the Pro can be charged for a customer who likely would never have intentionally contacted them after reviewing the profile.

We have also seen a gradual decline in our conversion rate since this feature was introduced.

I just created a separate discussion specifically about the “Get Quotes From Top 3 Pros” button and its effect on conversion and lead quality:
https://community.thumbtack.com/discussion/2582/get-quotes-from-top-3-pros-button-damaging-conversion-and-lead-quality/p1?new=1

I’d be very interested to hear whether you and other Pros have noticed the same pattern.

ArvinC

Thanks for adding this perspective here too, @korss0707 . I can see how the concern you're raising around pre-qualification connects with the broader conversation happening in this thread about pricing visibility.

I just responded to your separate post as well, where you went into more detail about the “Get Quotes From Top 3 Pros” experience and the changes you've observed with lead quality and conversion. I appreciate you creating a dedicated discussion for that feedback and providing specific examples of how you're experiencing it in your business.

ella067

@ArvinC The solution to add pricing to Business FAQ doesn’t show knowledge of how the platform works. Business FAQs are pre-set. There is not one about pricing pre-loaded (at least for my service), and I cannot add a new one. A Band-Aid fix would be to add a pricing question to the FAQ for every service, but even that falls so far short. Both for basic UI principles and common decency.

The intent here is crystal clear, as this change was made after the refund policy was updated in Pros favor to refund if a Lead doesn’t engage. So by withholding basic information, Thumbtack incentivizes the Lead to engage at least once to determine if they can even afford the service, and that way you all owe less refunds.

The alternative reasoning where we all pretend to live in a perfect world where budget does not matter for elective services, simply does not align with reality. That it’s somehow more helpful to show nothing than show an estimate or a range that can be discussed later, which the platform did until very recently.

This is all unbelievably disappointing and needs to be corrected.

ArvinC

Hi @ella067 , thanks for calling that out. You're right that the available Business FAQ questions can vary by service, so if there isn't a pricing question available for your category, my earlier suggestion isn't a workable option for you. I appreciate you correcting that and sharing what you're actually seeing on your profile.

I also hear the broader concern you're raising about customers having enough pricing information to determine whether a Pro may fit their budget before they reach out. I can't speak to or speculate on the motivations behind the change or connect it to the refund policy, but I can make sure the specific concerns you've shared here are included with the broader pricing visibility feedback we're surfacing to the appropriate team.

There has been quite a bit of thoughtful feedback added to this thread from multiple Pros, and I appreciate you adding your experience to it as well.

EricGilletteDOTcom

I mirror the sentiments of what's been said here. What's the point if a customer "contacts 3 pros" when they can't efficiently evaluate whether the Pros they've chosen are even within their budget? Someone said they gave a lead a price, and the lead disappeared - I've had it even WORSE. I've had leads flat out tell me: "Oh, that's not within my budget, but thanks for calling", as soon as I mention my hourly rate, which USED to be a qualifier (those leads would not contact me unless I was within their budget).

NewPathJunkRemoval

I have not been able to get a consistent flow of decent, relevant leads since these changes were made. Too many leads are poor matches for the requested service or the customer’s budget, and the resulting bookings have not justified the lead costs.

Because of the decline in lead quality, I decided to reduce my weekly Thumbtack budget. These changes have not benefited Pros—they have made it harder for customers to evaluate fit before contacting us and have increased what Pros spend on leads that were unlikely to become viable jobs.

Sage

I agree with these comments. I think that is why I am now getting lots of leads who do not even call back or message back. Once they popped on a button and saw my price they decided it was not for them. That has always been the case, that some people shop strictly on a price basis.

The real problem is that we have to pay for these leads, which Thumbtack constantly pressures us to pay more. This whole pricing scam is not fair. The hourly fee I charge my clients stays the same from day to day. I only raised my prices two years ago. Yet, even though my fee to the customer stays constant, the fee for getting leads changes all the time. This is not fair or reasonable. And I hate it. Anyone can see my price by looking at my profile and if they think I am too expensive, they could just pick someone else instead.

But now, they click on a link and after they see my price, they never respond, yet I am being billed for this. It is not helpful at all. The old way of letting customers find us was better. And the price for leads was more stable.

I am not going to continue to budget for leads like this. I have disconnected from the AI search, and have deleted some of my services. If it does not get any better, I will delete my account. And I have been a Top Pro on Thumbtack since 2011. I would hate to leave after all this time, and all the past good experiences, but these new ways of billing us for leads is really not helpful and a waste of money. I used to encourage all my fellow professional to get on Thumbtack. I am not now.

I also hate these new fake phone numbers that record us. I will not have all my calls recorded. All these things are making me wonder if Thumbtack is still a place I want to be. From 2011 to the last year or two, it was a great place to be. I do not feel like that now. I am watching to see if our discussions lead to any changes to these systems.