Thanks for your message. I'm in the same boat, doing landscaping and for a bid to be $25-$75 just to reply is outrageous to me. And if a customer reposts the same job under a different category, the job could be a completely different price to bid. It's so inconsistent. I have never (and will never) bid $75 for a landscaping job. It's not even a guarentee they will contact me to come out for an estimate, let alone a guarentee I'll get the job! That's what a big company may pay, but for a one-man operation, that's way out of my budget. I also used to speak really highly of Thumbtack, but it's gotten to the point where I feel like they aren't taking care of their pros and there are LOT more similar sites that are better to the pros. I don't know if increased competition will lead to a change or not. I think if the bidding costs were lower and customers actually got pros reponding, in the end, TT would benefit, the customers would have choices, and the pros would benefit too. As of now, yes, I see many landscaping jobs with really high bid prices where they reach out to several pros and no one responds. ... View more

I have found more and more customers are using social media as ways to find help for various jobs. I think having a good social media prescence helps, espeically if you can get reviews. I use social media to post photos of my work; I think apps like Facebook and Instagram are popular places for scrolling so having some good, clear photos of before and after shots has been really helpful. A simple photo editor can allow you to put photos side-by-side and potential clients can quickly see the difference as a result of my work. I've found that longer posts and a lot of text aren't as effective. So my social media advice is use images and highlight what a difference you can make! I do landscaping, so I look for both big and small changes so that potential clients can see what they can do based on their budget. ... View more

I have a similar concern with the rating required and the lack of using cummulative reviews. I had a potential client reach out to me and then followed up with a text. When I did not agree to complete the services for his terms, he left me a 1 star review when I was never hired nor did I even agree to a job (or even a consultation). This one one star review dropped my rating and is impacting my top pro status. I repeatedly reached out to thumbtack support asking them to remove the review, sharing my side of the story, and yet I can't even get a follow up phone call or a courtesy message about their review process. I have been using thumbtack for over two years and they know they've gotten a lot of money from my quotes but they don't seem to actually support their pros. This is my livelihood and I take my work very seriously and it's really frustrating they don't have a process to support pros or remove reviews. And then they don't even use cummulative review rating for top pro! As a small business owner and the sole worker, I can only work with so many clients (and therefore get so many reviews) in a 6 month window. It would be nice to feel like thumbtack had my back with this client and the top pro process.  ... View more