[Advice from Community members] Collecting reviews

DustiO

One of our new Community members, @pr660 recently posted this question in the Community about collecting reviews from past clients that were not found through Thumbtack.

I thought this would be a great opportunity to put our hive mind together and talk about the best ways to collect reviews from customers - past or present. For our more tenured pros (especially our pros with 100+ reviews) - do you have any tips/tricks that you use to ensure that customers leave you a review? Do you collect reviews on Thumbtack from clients that didn't hire you through Thumbtack?

Our Thumbtack Help Center article suggests that you 1) schedule review requests for clients you are working with, 2) share your review link with past clients, and 3) import your Google reviews.

What other review tips do you all have? Please share in the comments!

pr660

I just "auto paid $97 for a direct lead for life coaching...??? The reply was obviously a scammer and hasn't responded...This appears to be a bad thing. I'm discontented...

DustiO

@pr660 If you believe this to be a scam I would definitely report it as such and request a refund on the lead.

pr660

Thank you--Once again, I paid 87 for a lead that appears fishy. How do I delete this service? It is becoming quite frustrating!

I went into my account and I saw my tennis coaching service, which has been great - but I did not locate the life coaching service...???

DustiO

@pr660 it looks like you do have Life Coaching listed as a service that you offer - you can see your services here - you will see both Life Coaching and Private Tennis Instruction listed. If you want to delete the life coaching service you will just click on that service and then scroll to the bottom of the page and click "remove service" - I included a screenshot below:

Hope this helps! Also, please submit that lead for a refund, indicating in the comments that you do not offer this service. Let me know what the result is after you do that. In my above comment I linked to the article that shows you step-by-step how to do that!

pr660

Thank you! You are such an amazing administrator for our issues. So on top of it--- I realize I'm not the only one out there and I don't know how you continue in your professionalism and expeditiousness...

You are very gifted in your capacity and please keep up the AMAZING work!!!

DustiO

@pr660 You definitely just made my day - thank you! I don't always know the answers, but I do always try my best.

pr660

Hi DustiO-

I had to request refunds for my 2 and only "Life Coaching" replies, which ended up being deadbeat/perhaps scam related.

One was around $97, the other around $82. I will be removing this service today as it's simply causing too many problems and a waste of time and effort.

ON THE OTHER HAND, in my Tennis Coaching service, I paid around $5 for an exact match and got an

"A-1" tennis client/student whom I have seen 2x per week for the last 3 weeks. In addition, she will be continuing through the summer and fall.

Can you please explain why there's such a HUGE difference in cost?

Thanks again for your ongoing help!

DustiO

I can't speak to specific category/lead pricing, but you can look in your FAQs section on your targeting prices page to see generally how leads are priced, and what the lead prices will range in your category and area (make sure you're logged in when you click that link, as it will take you to your personal targeting page). Hope this helps!

pr660

Thanks. Although I've coached tennis since 1988, I quickly learned the new craze that's taking over America, Pickleball. As a tennis pro, I became tops very quickly and have been coaching pickleball since 2018.

However, there is no Pickleball Coaching/Instruction category on Thumbtack.

Is there a way to get this service up and running?

Thx!

pr660

Hi DustiO-

I'm a tennis coach and I keep getting charged for what is categorized as "Direct Leads," but many times, the prospect is simply out of the geographic range for tennis instruction/coaching. I have tried to get a refund from some past "leads" but they were rejected.

Is there a way to keep "direct leads" within the acceptable geographic range, say 8-10 miles radius or so?

Thanks for your help!

DustiO

@pr660 I would go and check that you have your travel area set to where you want it - it currently looks like it is set for a 25 mile radius. Here is a help center article on setting travel preferences as well, in case you need additional help! Hope this answers your question, but let me know if it doesn't. Happy Wednesday!

pr660

Thx., DustiO. Another inquiry:

I'm a longtime tennis coach, and I learned to play pickleball in 10 minutes back in 2016 and quickly became the #1 player in the pickleball group. After my recovery from a car crash in 2020, I decided to also teach/coach pickleball. After all, it's the fastest growing sport in North America...

I'm trying to list this service and am unable because it's not listed. What to do?

DustiO

@pr660 I don't know if that is something that is planned to be added as a category, but you could go here and submit that idea! Otherwise, I would say to put that in your intro so people can see that. If pricing is different from tennis you could mention that in your intro or in the FAQs section as well!