Hello, Marco (please hang in there with me, I know this is rather long but SO important, and my questions are at the bottom): First off, I just want to thank you for revving up the Thumbtack community, as well as hosting this live Q&A. I shall preface saying that, in my opinion, I feel the Legal Category has to be one of your hardest to please because there are rules and limitations for law firms/attorneys to abide by in a forum like this; there's actually a very fine line. With that said, I would like to explain a couple of things and then ask my question (sorry for the story, but really wanted to share it with you - you can scroll down for the questions!). I started with TT in 2014, hesitant at first because of some bad reviews and people saying it's a "scam", etc. Here's a true story: When I approached my attorneys with the idea of using Thumbtack for leads, after explaining the service, they all said, "No, that's not how we get clients, Tana...it will be a waste of time and money." Luckily for me, my husband owns the law firm so I was able to do as I pleased, thinking, it's our money, I'm going to try it; and at the time, Thumbtack showed up on the 10th page of Google Search, literally. About six months later, I was laughing all the way to the bank - Thumbtack had literally tripled our clientele! Not only clientele, but it also placed us on the map of Google (we didn't even have a website up). As you may see from our profile, we've been hired 296 times, and that's actually inaccurate because, from being so busy those first almost three years of using TT, I would forget to mark MANY clients "Hired". Once I realized Thumbtack was a legit leads service, and after speaking to many of the nicest and most caring customer service-oriented people I had ever spoken to (when you guys were in Utah), I went around the Internet and condemned all the negative comments and then posted our experience and success along with it, right under their negative comments. I called every business owner I knew and told them about Thumbtack, even setting it up for a few of them. Thumbtack also Spotlighted us back in the day, which was truly an honor, as well as Thumbtack asking me to be a supporter for other Pro's (can't remember what you called it back then). So, for all of this aforementioned statement, we thank you for the best leads serve we ever had and we still only use Thumbtack for leads. However, now, ever since the new pricing changed, and evidently other things that changed - starting late 2018, I'm lucky to get anywhere from 1 to 4 leads a day, and sometimes none at all. I was used to getting SO many leads, which I answered ALL of them (as long as it was in our categories of practice and 98% of them were), even all thru the weekend. Please allow me to show you our numbers from 2017 to now; these are leads that have been entered into our legal software, meaning, leads that they or I have reached out to from/on Thumbtack only (PLEASE, PLEASE look at this graph because I really want/need to understand!!): January 2017 - 22-TT Leads February 2017 - 32-TT Leads March 2017 - 34-TT Leads April 2017 - 31-TT Leads May 2017 - 37-TT Leads June 2017 - 34-TT Leads July 2017 - 37-TT Leads August 2017 - 31-TT Leads September 2017 - 63-TT Leads October 2017 - 57-TT Leads November 2017 - 49-TT Leads December 2017 - 26-TT Leads _______________________________________ January 2018 - 37-TT Leads February 2018 - 31-TT Leads March 2018 - 33-TT Leads April 2018 - 36-TT Leads May 2018 - 27-TT Leads June 2018 - 45-TT Leads July 2018 - 33-TT Leads August 2018 - 20-TT Leads September 2018 - 10-TT Leads October 2018 - 10-TT Leads November 2018 - 13-TT Leads December 2018 - 3-TT Leads ________________________________________________ January 2019 - 8-TT Leads February 2019 - 4-TT Leads March 2019 - 7-TT Leads As you can see from 2019 thus far, I am not getting leads! We are so confused and worried. What happened? I'm not sure if this is happening to other categories on Thumbtack, but it surely is in ours. We're Top Pros, have been 2 or 3 times - I do forget to mark Hired and in our field it's very hard to get clients to leave reviews because oftentimes, their case is anywhere from 1 - 5 years long; they're done, they're exhausted, their angry for all the money they've spent, even if they've won their case (we do A LOT of family law), they just don't want to think about it any longer. And, if they didn't win, then of course, no matter how hard we worked and did what they asked, etc., they blame the attorney. And, that's hard because we get judged by Thumbtack for reviews...we HAVE to have x-amount of reviews so we can make Top Pro. So, here are some questions; questions for you, Thumbtack, hoping you can help us understand, and questions for the call tomorrow evening that might hopefully help others in my category, and if I'm so lucky enough to have it read. For Thumbtack: 1. Is there any way someone in Marketing, like a supervisor, or maybe even the owner, someone who CAN make a difference in this category, to give me a call so I can discuss with them SO many things that are wrong with this category vs other lead places that are for legal customers? I don't want to not use Thumbtack - I LOVE Thumbtack and continue to support Thumbtack and tell everyone I meet, even just standing in line at the market 🙂 2. We have to follow strict guidelines and rules governing what we can do with places that have client leads. There have been several times that I've received a request from both sides of a pending divorce/custody matter. It's stressful because we can't see the whole name so if I've spoken, say, to the wife (which we have to take notes) and say she hires us (but even if she didn't hire us, this next sentence can be problematic); and then I get a request from the husband, and since I can't see the name and I get the lead, I'm reading whatever it is he writes - he could have written about personal details about himself or even his wife - if he does this, this could become a conflict of interest. We would have to tell the new client/wife what happened, which then violates the husbands right to privacy, give her money back, but we would still be charged for the lead - I'm hoping this makes sense. There are LOTS of these scenarios, and they've happened to us. And, remember, each state has different rules. I'm wondering if Thumbtack speaks to attorneys in different states to ask these important questions? 3. Why do you think, upon looking at our Thumbtack numbers from our software, we are no longer being pursued? For the Conference Call: 1. Our category, the legal category, is very different from all the other categories - we have to follow strict guidelines and rules governing what we can do with sites that provide client leads. Will Thumbtack consider a change in this category for proper vetting so we, the Pro, won't end up with leads from both sides of the parties involved (and this can be, really, from any practice area)? 2. Again, for the legal category - I noticed when looking at our profile as from a possible new client point of view, I see that ours and other businesses say "In high demand". At first sight, it's really nice to see, but then I started thinking, "What if people are bypassing us thinking we are too busy, or since we're popular, maybe are prices are higher." Do you feel this statement could deter possible clients from reaching out to us? Thank you so very much for your time in reading this, and for all your efforts in helping all of us Pro's succeed and strengthen our businesses! Very truly yours, Tana Corporon Director of Administration & Marketing Law Offices of Randy B Corporon PC 303-749-0062 inquiry@corporonlaw.com
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