Rate Clients

AngelicaVasquez
AngelicaVasquez Posts: 1
edited March 2021 in Thumbtack Resources

Why doesn't Thumbtack allow customers to be rated?

I've received an unwarranted review and now I live in fear of my clients. Uber figured this out years ago but if you don't allow both sides to rate each other, you create a lopsided relationship. Does Thumbtack have any plans or interest in balancing this?

Comments

  • Meckell
    Meckell Administrator Posts: 106

    Welcome to the Community @AngelicaVasquez we're happy you're here! This is a great piece of feedback and we're currently looking for the best ways to collect ideas here in the Community. Until then, if you have Thumbtack specific feedback, please send it to the Thumbtack Support team by logging into your Thumbtack account and going to the Contact Us page.

    @Danielle_Penn @BITBLeah @CurlyBartender @perrysto @patrykkg @PomeranzLaw do you have any tips that you can share when dealing with review situations like this one?

  • Meckell
    Meckell Administrator Posts: 106

    Welcome to the Community @AngelicaVasquez we're happy you're here! This is a great piece of feedback and we're currently looking for the best ways to collect ideas here in the Community. Until then, if you have Thumbtack specific feedback, please send it to the Thumbtack Support team by logging into your Thumbtack account and going to the Contact Us page.

    @Danielle_Penn @BITBLeah @CurlyBartender @perrysto @patrykkg @PomeranzLaw do you have any tips that you can share when dealing with review situations like this one?

  • Really! Depending on what your profession is this is important. I'm a massage therapist, I've had clients I wanted to call the police about. I think the client needs to be vetted. How long have they been on TT, how many hires, do they post a job and not follow through. I want TT to work and be safe for all of us.

  • perrysto
    perrysto Community Leader Posts: 3

    Hey @AngelicaVasquez,

    Thanks so much for this question. My apologies for the delayed response, "life" has had my full attention over the past few weeks and little time/energy for other important tasks.

    I am a fellow Pro and have had moments of frustration with this myself, thinking rating customers would be beneficial as well. I have since changed my perspective on the subject, let me explain why...

    Customers want...

    • quality
    • their need(s) met
    • value
    • affordability
    • to deal with a service that cares about their satisfaction


    Customers determine this by...

    • evaluating reviews
    • looking for referrals
    • evaluating how the business deals with other customers
    • evaluating the product/service


    The Uber example is a great one because passenger ratings provide a level of assurance to both the driver and the passenger. These ratings are particularly valuable because the average Uber passenger takes 5.7 trips per month and most customers remain active for years, meaning there are tens (even hundreds) of interactions to rate.

    This is not as cut and dry with Thumbtack as the overwhelming majority of customers will not return to the platform for a similar/repeat service (ex: if a Pro provides service that lends itself to repeat bookings - like a therapist, personal trainer, etc - the client will not return to the platform for subsequent bookings). So, the ability to produce the type of volume in ratings that makes the Uber system so valuable is not as easy on Thumbtack.

    The platform has evolved over time and it is clear that the focus is on making the customer experience as seamless and user-friendly as possible. The tradeoff is that the process may not weed out as many undesirable interactions as it could otherwise, but it should provide us Pros far more opportunities to put our services in front of new/potential customers. Ultimately, I believe this is a good thing for our businesses and it honestly took me quite some time to appreciate this perspective.

    As an example, many businesses on Yelp have expressed the same concerns, but I find Thumbtack far more advantageous for bringing in quality leads for my business. I think all systems have their pros and cons, so hopefully such undesirable interactions are a rarity and not the norm on the platform.

    It should also be noted that it is universally believed that ratings of 4.8 and 4.9 (for instance) serve to provide far more confidence in potential customers than a perfect 5-star rating. When customers "evaluate" ratings, they are not just looking at glowing feedback, but also looking at negative feedback and how the business addresses it. If you are anything like me, I tend to read negative reviews first when considering a product or service - the feasibility of the information provided in that review and the way the business responds tells me how confident I can be in my overall satisfaction. So as long as you continue to provide quality service and professionally address situations like this particular client you experienced - potential customers will know you are a real person who cares about delivering quality service - that will instill trust and they will be forgiving of a few undesirable reviews.

    Hope this helps and here if I can provide any further support.

  • DustiO
    DustiO Administrator, Moderator Posts: 1,582

    @perrysto This is so great, thank you for sharing.

  • DustiO
    DustiO Administrator, Moderator Posts: 1,582

    @COC_Ent_2013 Yes, you can still respond to a review - here is an article on how to do so in case you need a refresher! Thanks for sharing!

  • I am in agreement with OP. It would be nice if we could give the client a rating. Even if they do not return for our particular service it could let other TT Pros know if that customer was extremely difficult for example if you provided a service and the client was hard to get payment from or if they didn't pay at all.

    For example. I have a client at the moment who wants to pay half by check and the remainder when she gets the order ( i crocheted a blanket for her). I have not run into this as of yet and it would be nice to know if she had paid other pros in this manner and if they had any problems depositing said check.

    As stated in a previous post the customers do not pay for thumbtack services but we pay for leads and we provide services and I understand that customer care is important but if pros don't feel safe they could stop using the app.

  • That's not a bad idea to give customers a rating. Personally I love the idea, I can't tell you how many times I've had to calm down derelicts during an Uber ride because I didn't want a negative rating on my profile. On the other hand I can see the problems that this would give TT, if someone gets a negative hit on there profile they may not return to TT and I'm sure they would need to hire a big team of reps to answer the calls from customers who wanted to dispute any negative remarks. Interesting concept if the wrinkles were ironed out.