Hi Jason, I realize you asked CMartinez2018, not me, but I would like to weigh in on your question, because I used to work as an organizational consultant in the areas of employee engagement and change management, before returning to full-time music (and becoming a pro violin teacher on TT). You guys are a classic case of how not to do changes. First, trust depends not on what you say, but what you do. It's not clear what you mean by "response" - are you asking us what we want to hear you say, or what we want you to do differently? Second, the common complaints I keep seeing are transparency of pricing and a flood of competition. There are probably other issues that matter a lot, but those are the two I am most aware of. And I think it would be really simple to solve those problems - no "there's still a lot of work to do" needed. Here's what I would do if I were TT: 1. Get good information from service seekers. I see a lot of input from pros in various industries about what that means in their area. For violin teachers, the information is sort of OK. A couple tweaks would make it much better.* 2. Instantly send service seekers 10 pros who look like they match. Just 10. Service seekers then look over the 10 profiles and decide who looks like the best fit. If they want to see more pros' profiles, charge them a fee based on how many more pros there are to choose from. If you have industries and markets that have a lot more than 10 pros, then have pros list their services in order of importance. And then ask service seekers enough information to match their specific request to the top 10 pros who prioritize that service. 3. Allow them to pick up to 3 pros to contact directly. Charge those pros a flat fee for being the first choice. THIS FEE SHOULD BE VERY SIMILAR TO WHAT PROS USED TO PAY TO SEND A QUOTE. All the pros should know exactly what that fee will be. Back in the credit days, I used 0 to 2 credits to quote on a potential violin student. So it seems reasonable to me to pay $5 or $10 if a potential student picks me out of the list and contacts me. If the service seeker wants to contact more pros, maybe have a second tier pricing - just charge those pros 50% of the full fee. Or something like that. 4. When a service seeker contacts me, give me all of their information so I can take it from there. Phone number, email address, location, and what exactly they are looking for. 5. When setting a budget, if I know that any potential students will cost exactly $6.50 (or whatever) if they contact me, THEN I know how to set my budget. As it is now, I have to set a dollar amount, not knowing how many potential students that will cover. And that amount is really, really high compared to what I used to spend sending quotes. This is why these changes feel really greedy to me and broke my trust. *Btw, I am now on Bark. And they let me draw a custom service area on a map. Genius! *I also wish TT would have a calendar with time slots that potential students see when they look at my profile. That way, they can see when I actually have openings, and won't contact me if they need Monday afternoon lessons and I am already booked on Monday afternoons. Right now, I am only able to set M-F 10-5. Thank you for considering these suggestions.
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