Opportunities

Rvpto

I'm sure it can't just be me, but no "opportunities" lead (ever) for all of 2022 has not even "read" my message to them. I get that I will not be hired 100% of the time, but I don't see a "read' checkmark on any of them, nor have any responded. It's sad that Thumbtack is not addressing this.

I reached out to support and their answer was: "In the customer's point of view, opportunity leads are presented in a way as suggestions, not as another option. Most likely, this is why customers don't bother to reach out to "suggested" pros, since they do not match their requirement.".

That response is incredibly disheartening to hear and makes me lose all interest in pursuing "Opportunities" (in quotes because it's not an opportunity at all).

DustiO

@Rvpto thanks for posting! I have heard this a few times in the Community, so you are not alone! Unfortunately, what the support team told you is correct - opportunities are not going to be exact matches - meaning they have already reached out to a pro who matched what they were searching for. So, I think many customers don't look at those as they have already reached out to a pro directly. On the bright side, you don't pay for those unless the customer engages. But, I understand your concern being that you just want to get more leads!

How has your luck been with targeted/exact match leads? Are you relying mostly on opportunities vs leads? I wish I had a better answer, but I am happy to help you look over your preferences to see if there is anything there that can be tweaked to help you get more exact match leads!

FullProofEdit

I too am having the same experience as @Rvpto with Opportunities. I receive some Opportunities where I am the first responder, even over any Pros that they may have reached out to & I never hear back from anyone. I never even see the check mark to indicate that they have read my message. I realize what Opportunities are - that they're not exact matches but I am hoping that Thumbtack will look into this & change it so that the Opportunities contacts may have more visibility into messages that they receive from Pros that they might not necessarily match with but who offer their services. Otherwise, I find it's a waste of time to reach out to these Opportunities who might not even be seeing my message. What's the point in even having Opportunities then?? Thanks for letting me vent!! :)

WDodson

What I would like to see is the Job Status visible on the Opportunities details page.

(Pending, Confirmed, Done)

This would give a tiny clue as to the viability of an Opportunity, right? Or are they presented as Opportunities because they are all Pending?

DustiO

Hi @WDodson opportunities would all be pending jobs, as they are customers who have reached out to other pros, but have not yet marked that they have hired anyone for the job. It definitely could happen that a customer already hired someone, but didn't indicate that in the app though, unfortunately!

The best bet will always be to have your targeting preferences dialed in and your budget to where you want it, so that you can get those direct leads. But, opportunities are good to dive into when things are slower, or if you see interesting jobs there that don't exactly match your preferences, but you might still want to do!

In your regular "messages" tab you are able to sort those by pending, job confirmed, job done, not hired, as well. Hope this helps!

WDodson

This is very helpful to have explained -- thanks!

DustiO

@WDodson You are very welcome!

DeeDee

why is it that once you bid on an opportunity, all the information goes away? You can never see it again, I guess unless they response?

DustiO

@DeeDee Once you bid on an opportunity it goes to your "Messages" tab. You'll just need to go to the "Sent Quotes" there in the messages tab. Let me know if you found what you were looking for!