Instant Booking

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Comments

  • @DustiO

    I’m not able to change this message. Didn’t you say we could? I don’t want to mislead the client and would like to reword the statement to something more accurate and educational.


  • DustiO
    DustiO Administrator, Moderator Posts: 1,853

    You can't change that one, but the message that comes from you when you confirm the booking is the one you can edit.

  • @DustiO Where can the client message us directly as a regular inquiry?

  • DustiO
    DustiO Administrator, Moderator Posts: 1,853

    If they go through the flow and don't want to book a time they can still choose to reach out directly.

  • Please show us the flow steps. Can you attach a picture where that is? Thank you

  • DustiO
    DustiO Administrator, Moderator Posts: 1,853

    I don't have a screenshot of it, but just did this with a window cleaner near me. If the customer gets to the available booking times and doesn't want to book any of those times they exit and see the option to message the pro directly.

  • My comment was deleted again @DustiO... ??


  • Instant booking is the single most horrible feature I’ve ever encountered. I don’t know if it was some bone headed not well thought cash grab thumbtack execs thought was a good idea but it wasn’t. I was just charged Almost half what I’d charge a client to instant book just for them to later cancel and the deduct it out your account immediately without giving us a money refund instead it’s credits we might not even get to use in this slow season. Please stop this or I’ll be forced to pause my account until is remedied.

  • Matt
    Matt Posts: 167

    Here is the main thing, I am totally fine with new features, as long as they are optional. The forcing of it all is the hardest part!

  • Fix_Fitness
    Fix_Fitness Posts: 18
    edited November 2023

    This is where all pros need to hide their accounts and place them on PAUSE until an action is taken on TT’s part to make this a instant booking BS an OPTION, worst case scenario. I tried instant booking in the past. It simply DOES NOT WORK! It makes scheduling extremely inefficient for any businesses unless the coverage area as reduced significantly to a small radius. Even at that, they are expecting that every job request fits within their ‘standard’ parameters. We all know that we can’t rely solely on TT leads to survive. Just too much blood sucking greed in this neck of the woods.


    Alert to Thumbtack!!: WE DO NOT WORK FOR YOU. When it comes down to it, instant booking quite literally removes the ability for Pros to set up their schedules with ALL their appointments efficiently. It also forces Pros into placing TT leads ahead of all their other customers because of being FORCED to abide to the schedule of some anonymous customers(with no guarantee that they’re even real), due to the intimidation that it’l negatively impact the image of their business from a bad review… Truth be told, what this really resembles is a Tech industry form of genocide, disguised by kind words on cpu screens and offering rations of keyboard strokes to communicate, while duct tape over your mouth is now referred to as algorithms. Shadow banning and locked accounts are now the new form of locked up isolation. This is communist methodology at its core.

    Once people come to realize what they’re being forced into and how much its going to negatively impact their livelihood, they’ll simply just leave. Common sense proves there is no way this is going to end well, because its simply not a sustainable format for a business to profit from. At the end of the day, TT keeps digging their grave deeper and deeper. A massive exodus of Pros is inevitable if changes aren’t made fast. I will end with this:

    GoodBye 👋🏼 and best of Luck to the rest of the hard working Pros!! The Grass is Always Greener….!

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  • Sad in in the same boat and this is the second transition thumbtack has done to make me not want to use them first was when they started sending leads to unlimited pros at once. Been a customer of thumbtack since the very beginning got me on a cold call. I havnt got a lead in over 3 weeks

  • Angie’s list used to charge the customer. I’ve called thumbtack over the past two years and asked them to at minimum add a check box for customers to acknowledge that they are costing hard working people money and to not proceed unless they are serious. And I always get the @DustiO response “ this is a great suggestion I’ll share it with the team” well two years later they have only managed to come up with a way to charge us more and still leave the customer in the dark about the charges that we incur

  • You guys are hilarious... moderating my comments in this forum... why? You are getting feedback from YOUR CUSTOMERS and because you don't like it, you delete it?

  • DustiO
    DustiO Administrator, Moderator Posts: 1,853
  • So I'll keep it simple and make it across several posts...

    TT ruined our housekeeping business with the instant booking "feature." We were closing 90% of our leads and now we are paying a lot more for lower quality leads. I worked before, but only if we got repeat business, which my GF was very good at doing.

    Dusti... there is no... hey, use the integration tools... or... we are making it better. You should immediately make this feature optional. TT has directly, in a money grab, effectively put us out of business.

  • DustiO
    DustiO Administrator, Moderator Posts: 1,853

    @AngelicHousekeeping this feedback is extremely helpful - specifically about closure/conversion rate. Do you have any numbers you could share around what your closure rate is now vs the 90% you were closing previously? If you don't feel comfortable sharing numbers in this thread, you are welcome to send them to me via DM and I will pass it along. Thank you for reframing your comment, appreciate it.

  • I'm having difficulty with the instant book rescheduling. Typically I am able to reschedule for an earlier date that the instant book, due to a cancellation. It won't let me pick an earlier date. The app also suggests 3 dates/times that are supposedly good for me and the client, but when I sent that off the client is still asking me what my availability is/what are the dates and times. Apparently they can't see what I am seeing.

  • Matt
    Matt Posts: 167
    edited November 2023

    Here is another example of why instant book is not working. I had a client reach out and schedule a time for an estimate, of course I don’t do in person estimates it’s always been virtual. I reach out to the client immediately and let them know I can do all of the work before I arrive remotely. Even though I already spoke with him and walked him through the process, the appointment remained.

    I am assuming the client received the same reminder email that I would be on site at the designated time. My client reached out asking if I was coming out, because they were confused since we already had spoken. This is another prime example of how Thumbtack is running our business how they want it to run.

    All of this could be avoided if we had the option of turning off instant book. It only makes us pros look bad on initial contact, when we say we only do virtual, even though they booked an “in person” appointment.

    Yes, I have already specified in my profile name that I do virtual appointments only, and I let the client know immediately when they book, but it only leads to more confusion when they receive the reminder email for the appointment.

    Thumbtack, please listen to the pros and what they need and don’t dictate how we should run our business.

  • The Dust and thumbtack doesn’t doing anything after hundreds of us complaining about the instant booking. It is Dead End chat with Dusti ..

  • Everyone paused now.. I already paused my

  • DustiO
    DustiO Administrator, Moderator Posts: 1,853

    @Fix_Fitness this is all really great feedback. On the calendar part — you are able to integrate some CRMs and calendars so that you don't need to be managing more than one calendar. You may already know this, but in case it might be helpful, here is more info on integrations, and here is more info on syncing calendars.

  • This is what the consumer sees now for our service area. The top 5 used to be dominated by businesses that had anywhere from 25 to 500+ hires... and had dozens of 5 star reviews. Look at #2... LOL... 2 hires and wow!!! 12 reivews... not sketchy at all...

    TT is shooting themselves in the foot here and they happen to have their foot on ours as pros. Wake up!