March’s product roundup

[JasonB]

Last month, in an effort to increase transparency into what we’re working on, we posted our first monthly list of product changes.

Below is an updated list for the month of March. We’d love to hear what you think and we want your feedback!

Don’t see your idea on this list? That doesn’t mean we aren’t working on it. Some features are much more complicated than they seem and take time to implement. Have other ideas? Reply below to share your suggestion and you may see it in a future update!

Major updates for pros in March:

• Refund requests right from your account: After hearing your feedback, we’re now giving pros the ability to request refunds directly from your Thumbtack account. This means you no longer have to spend time calling our support team when there is a problem with a charge. Once you dispute your charge through the Help with a charge link, you can get back to running your business while we look into your case.  Then, we’ll email you in 2-3 business days to let you know if your charge qualifies for a refund under our policy.  Learn more about this update here.

Smaller changes for pros:

• Improved targeting: The best way to target the right customers is to set job preferences. You can get the exact kinds of jobs you want, while also getting a rank boost in search results. When you get a lead that matches your exact preferences, you’ll pay automatically and receive a 20% discount.  If you don’t set your preferences, you’ll still get leads, but they may not be exactly what you want (and you’ll pay full price). Learn more about this update here.
• Listing the number of pros who’ve responded: We’ve started listing the number of pros who have responded to a given job (in addition to the number of pros who have been contacted) in order to give you a more accurate picture of what’s going on. For example, if a customer contacts 5 pros and all 5 have responded, the chances of winning that job are lower than if a customer contacts 5 pros and only 1 has responded. We hope this will give you a better idea of which jobs you’re most likely to win.
• Be the first to reach out: We recently added a “Be the first!” label to jobs. This label means that the customer has not yet heard back from any of the pros she reached out to. Because none of those pros responded, you could likely to be the first pro to respond, which means you have a higher chance of winning the job — but don’t wait! Other pros can see this opportunity too.
• Promote lifecycle emails: We recently redid some of our email communications to help pros better understand our product and how they can be successful with Promote.
• ‘Check’ as an accepted payment method For those of you accepting checks, you can now make that clear to potential customers on your profile.

In case you’re curious, here are the major updates on the customer side:

• Review sorting: We added the ability for customers to sort the review section on a pro’s profile by date or rating.

• A “Responds Quickly” tag in results: In addition to “Great Value” and “In High Demand,” we’ve added a “Responds Quickly” tag next to some pros, which customers will see when they search on Thumbtack. These tags help customers find the right pro for their project based on what is most important to them. To increase your chances of achieving this tag, focus on responding to customers as quickly as possible. This includes accepting jobs you’re interested in and declining jobs when they’re not a good fit.

Again, we would love to hear your other ideas. Reply below and let us know what you’d like to see on this list next month.

[DJStevie]

@JasonB 

So, reviews being sorted is at the hands of the customer, and couldn't be fixed by Thumbtack software tech people? Customers rarely read an entire profile, (because we get conversation starters about estimates, etc,) so what makes Thumbtack think that they will take the time to sort reviews from newest-oldest? I know because a few potential customers asked me if previous customers posted reviews, and even after explaining to them that they are listed in my profile, then I don't hear from them again.

Why hasn't Customer Viewed been restored? That was very useful, and more Pros are expressing their concerns about not having that useful tool in your previous March thread. Again I ask, why take away a very useful tool? Please restore it ASAP.

Refunds. Even though I like the fact of submitting a request to avoice arguing with moderators, on line reps, etc, but why should it take 2-3 days to approve of a refund? Thumbtack should know immediately if a refund will be given.

The Job preferences is an ongoing discussion and argument. We set the travel preferences, we expect it to work for both when Promote is on or off. Not send us jobs to  pacify us that we are getting job requests.

Be The First label needs to be in a better place. I didn't see it until a fellow Pro pointed it out to me the other day. Why are these labels not in bold/larger font? Most Pros are just excited to get a lead, especially in the jobs tab if it's a local job, so we click view details to see what the cost is before we respond to the lead.

As for not seeing my idea or suggestion for improving Promote, It's been more than 4 months since I first gave my input, and there has been no acknowledgement of any kind to tell me, or other Pros for their suggestions. What about keeping us abreast with"We are still reviewing your suggestion", "Can you expand more on it because our support team needs more info",. At least something to keep us positive that our feedback, suggestions are being heard, addressed, not the typical "it's being forwarded". This way we know that Thumbtack cares about us

Here's a suggestion, that I hope gets addressed..When customer is filling out their preferences, how about having them put the city their event is taking place, NOT their home city? So many customers that I've worked with may be local at first, then I find out later that their venue is in a different city, sometimes an hour away.

Thank you for having me comment

Stephen

[revbrian]

@DJStevie - only an hour away? I had one on the "jobs" tab offered to me that is 170 miles (2 hours and 40 minutes) away this afternoon.

You can guess that it got declined pretty darn fast.

[Hankster]

Check your travel areas. Look in the Specfic areas tab. I was getting jobs well past my 50 mile radius that I set in the Distance tab for a one way trip for a DJ gig. I was getting gigs as far away 175 miles away. I know I wouldn't be wanting jobs that far away. Sure enough there were two additonal counties checked in the Specific area tab of my profile. I did not check those counties. Why would I? I know how far away those cities are from where I live. Obviously a TT update caused that to happen.

[Marylyn]

Happens to me every day at least 10-15 times. Clogs up my inbox. My preferences are perfect. It makes no difference. Have brought this complaint more times than I can say. 

[Morris-Jenkins]

Totally agree - how can you follow up if you don't know whether the customer has viewed it or not?! Makes no sense to take it away. Not a fan of the new way of promoting and quoting either. 

[MR]

@JasonB  Thank you for posting these. It is valuable to get insight as to what changes the dev team is working on.

[ReeseTee]

PROGRESS!!! Thank you. Long overdue.

[DJStevie]

@ReeseTee 

I guess it's somewhat of a progress, I still would have liked to see Thumbtack correct it on their end, not leave it up to customer to control it. Don't know how many customers will click that sorting tab, as I had one ask me if I had any recent customers post reviews.

[ReeseTee]

Giving job-posters the ability to sort reviews is progress.  The "Internet Using Public" has an expectation to sort reviews. That feature can be found on: Amazon, Home Depot, and many other large, heavily trafficked websites.

I do not do much hiring of service providers.  BUT; I do a lot of assembly jobs through TT.  If I know the product to be assembled ahead of time I can check the reviews.  Here is an example that just happened. 

A repeat customer hired me to assemble a couple of small shelving units from BB&B or someplace. The product had a fair number of bad reviews. I informed my customer that I would assemble the unit, but based on over 100 reviews with 20% being 1 star or 2 star, he had a 1 in 5 chance of having a bad outcome.  I suggested an equivalent IKEA product. Which he then went out and purchased. I assembled the IKEA product and he was happy. I saw the other product still in boxes, waiting to be shipped back.

Other customers have cancelled orders when I pointed out issues mentioned in multiple bad reviews.