We need your insights!

Hi PAB and PPC members! 👋

We’ve welcomed a lot of new Pros to the Community recently (a record number, in fact!), and one thing we’re hearing consistently is that they want to learn what actually works from Pros who have been there and done that.

A few months ago, we sent some of you a similar set of questions, and your answers helped us create posts like this one about what new Pros often overlook in their profiles.

Now that we have the PAB & PPC Corner and even more of you here, we’d love to do it again! 😊

The questions below come directly from things newer Pros have been asking in their introductions. We’d love for you to share your real experiences, advice, and expertise. Some responses may be featured in future Pro-Led Expertise & Insights posts in the Community, with credit to you and your business.

These posts are public, so it’s also a chance to highlight your expertise and establish yourself as a Top Voice in the Community. If your insight is featured, you’re welcome to share the finished post with your own network and showcase your expertise and contributions to the Thumbtack Pro Community. We’ll also keep contributors in mind when looking for Pros for future Community spotlights and features.

A few things to keep in mind

• Only answer the questions you genuinely have experience with or an opinion on. You definitely don’t need to answer everything. Three specific answers are much more helpful than ten general ones.
• The more specific, the better. Share the wording you use, the steps you take, something you changed, or a lesson you learned. Those are the details newer Pros can actually put into practice.
• You can reply directly in the comments or send your answers to us privately if you’d prefer.
• If you’d like to participate, please share your answers by Friday, September 18, 2026.

Thank you all for continuing to share what you’ve learned. This is exactly the kind of Pro-to-Pro knowledge that can make this space really valuable. 😊

1. Walk us through your exact first response to a new lead. What do you send, how fast, and do you call or message first?
(This might be the most-asked question in the Community right now. Pros understand that speed matters, but many are still unsure what to actually say in that first message.)

2. How do you turn a one-time customer into a repeat or recurring client?
(Many newer pros are focused on landing the next job. The ones asking this have started thinking about how to stop starting from scratch each time, and would love to hear how you've approached it.)

3. How do you protect your response time when you are on a job and  unreachable?
(This comes up across a lot of trades. When you're spending hours in a crawl space, on a roof, or somewhere without signal, a lead can go cold before you ever see it. Any approach that's worked for you would be helpful here.)

4. How do you get clients to leave reviews, especially when they praise you privately but never post it?
(A really common frustration. Happy customers often say wonderful things in a message and then never leave a review, while unhappy ones tend to post right away. We'd love to hear how you handle this.)

5. As your business grew through Thumbtack, how did you scale your team to keep up with demand while keeping your service quality consistent?
(Quite a few pros have reached the point where they can't take on more work alone, and aren't sure what the next step looks like. If you've made that jump, how did you know it was time, and how do you hand off a job without losing the personal touch that won it?)

6. How do you plan your Thumbtack budget across the month or your busy season, and how do you adjust as things change?
(Newer pros often set a budget once and never revisit it. Pros who have been at this a while seem to manage it more actively around their season, capacity, and goals. Your approach would be really useful to share.)

7. When you're booked out mid-month, what do you do? Hide your business, keep quoting and book out further, or something else?
(There's no obvious right answer here, which is exactly why it would be great to hear from several of you. How do you handle being full without losing momentum?)

8. Are you using AI anywhere in your business, and where has it actually helped?
(This is coming up more and more. Some pros are experimenting, some are skeptical, and a few have found real uses. Honest experiences, including the things that didn't work out, would be genuinely valuable.)

9. How do you use your Thumbtack profile, photos, and quotes to show your value so the right customers choose you?
(Plenty of pros want to win work without being the cheapest option. Anything you include in your profile or your quotes that helps a customer understand your pricing would be great to hear about.)

10. What other tools do you use to run your business, and do you use an agency for paid ads or social media?
(Think QuickBooks, Jobber, Housecall Pro, a website builder, Google Business Profile, or whatever your setup happens to be. Newer pros are trying to work out what they actually need versus what can wait. And if there's anything missing from your stack that you wish existed, we'd love to hear that too.)

11. Why would you recommend Thumbtack over another lead generation tool?
(Or put another way: what do you prefer about using Thumbtack compared to the other marketing tools you use? Honest answers are welcome, tradeoffs included.)