Another on-line lead service calfinder - Contractor Talk - Professional Construction and Remodeling Forum

dougchips · 07-30-2007, 05:41 PM

I just got off the phone with Gabriel from www.calfinder.com . On the face it looks like they just service California but they are now in some other markets including mine. I was wondering if anyone has any feedback on their services.

Since I was nice enough to try WCV when they first started running ads someone else should try calfinder. BTW I found their ad on the DIYchatroom.

Grumpy · 07-31-2007, 10:02 AM

I think I am going to finish compiling my list of all the lead services that I know of and write a short review for each. God so many things to do and so little time.

AGS-gal · 07-31-2007, 01:06 PM

Our firm signed on with them. So far, 3 dead leads.

The problem I have with them, for us, is we are in the San Diego area and they are still marketing themselves for the Bay Area. So I am not sure how our customers would find or use them to find us...

**Nathan** · 07-31-2007, 03:19 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Grumpy

I think I am going to finish compiling my list of all the lead services that I know of and write a short review for each. God so many things to do and so little time.

If you do send it to me and I'll format it and put it in our articles section so we can point everyone to that resource.

Thanks.

CalFinder · 11-02-2007, 04:13 PM

Hi Dougchips, Nathan, Grumpy, and AGS,

My name is Dean and I am posting on behalf of CalFinder. I found this post via Google and wanted to answer any questions or concerns that you might have about our service and/or company. Had I seen this post earlier I would have replied sooner, so sorry for that.

Regarding AGS Builders out of San Diego. We sent you an average of 2 leads per week in the trades you specified. Estimates were made with the homeowners however thats where things were left.

I think it's important to mention that lead services like ours do their best to qualify homeowner leads, however it's another issue to book work from the homeowners. CalFinder scrubs leads to make sure that homeowners are serious about getting work done and what type of work needs to be completed. To do so, we have a phone conversation with each homeowner. We send our leads out moments after getting off the phone and in most instances it means homeowners are still by the phone when the contractors call. From the point we hand a lead to a contractor, we'll follow up with both the contractor as well as the homeowner to make sure appropriate steps are being made to book the work.

I would be more than happy to contribute content to this site about effective ways to close leads from lead companies. Aaron did a nice piece about, "Buying Internet Leads," maybe we could cover the next step of booking work? Let me know.

If any of the members and/or moderators of Contractor Talk would like to ask questions about us and our service, please don't hesitate to post them here and I'll do my best to answer them.

Kind regards,

Dean

Grumpy · 11-03-2007, 12:31 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nathan

If you do send it to me and I'll format it and put it in our articles section so we can point everyone to that resource.

Thanks.

Still workign on it actually. It's in rough draft stages. Every time I research another lead company more and more pop up. I might just send it as-is and let you finish it.

Grumpy · 11-03-2007, 12:38 PM

Dean, overall I think if you look through this forum you will find a ton of insightful information which will help you in your career as a lead service provider.

I think what you will find as the #1 gripe of most contractors is the very very poor quality of leads. We think that if we are paying the high price per lead there should be some form of quality control.

I personally feel that the lack of quality is due partially to the overselling of leads. Many, and I am not sure if you do this, lead service providers will send the same customer data to 4 contractors. If you are not one of the very first contractors to contact these customers almost immediately they are already so overwhelmed a day later they no longer want to talk to anyone.

I also know this may be due to the fact that the customer fills out one form, and then another form on another site. You have no control over this, other than to make it blatently obviosu that the buck stops here, there is no need to fill out any other online forms.

Understand that if we contractors provided the same service to our customers as many lead service providers provide to us, we would be in jail for all sorts of violations of consumer protection laws.

For god's sake, if the customer won't call or e-mail us back it's not a lead and we deserve our money back! That's all I'm saying.

(Just for a little back ground I have been using lead services since 2001, and have tried almost every leead service that covers my area and I am always looking for more. However I have also fired many of the lead services due to poor performance, I can do bad all on my own. I don't need to pay someone to help me.)

Do a little searching in this forum. Spend a day or four and then get back to us.

**Cole** · 11-03-2007, 01:07 PM

I could not agree more!

If a lead service provider would come in here and read old threads about the services they offer, they could improve and kill the market they are in.

Grumpy · 11-03-2007, 02:54 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cole

I could not agree more!

If a lead service provider would come in here and read old threads about the services they offer, they could improve and kill the market they are in.

Yes the market research one could gain by searching this forum for the various names of lead service providers would be worth thousands unpon thousands of dollars of market research, except this would be tons more accurate and FREE.

I hope the lead service that does do that and decides to build a lead service contractors want instead of what's already out there, contacts me because I am ready to do business.

Summerfield · 11-09-2007, 11:07 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Grumpy

(Just for a little back ground I have been using lead services since 2001, and have tried almost every leead service that covers my area and I am always looking for more.

Grumpy, if you could contact me and give me some information on which lead services are better than others, I would really appreciate it. It'd to great to hear your experience before I start testing them.

Mike Finley · 11-09-2007, 11:25 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cole

I could not agree more!

If a lead service provider would come in here and read old threads about the services they offer, they could improve and kill the market they are in.

If a lead provider did business like a contractor wanted them to they wouldn't be able to generate enough money to stay in business, let alone actually make a profit.

The whole internet lead service business operates like a bunch of rats running on treadmills chasing a piece of cheese. As long as the rats can never reach the cheese they keep on running after it. The worst thing is the cheese they are chasing isn't even real. That's these lead providers dirtly little secret!

Quote:

Originally Posted by CalFinder

We send our leads out moments after getting off the phone and in most instances it means homeowners are still by the phone when the contractors call.

You all think that is a selling feature? You are programming consumers to consider contractors services as a commodity like buying gas at the station across the street for a penny less.

"Hey Fred, I needed a porch repaired, so I went online and submitted my project. I had 30 different guys calling and emailing me for a week, this one guy called me 10 times in one day! "

silvertree · 11-09-2007, 12:53 PM

Grumpy, if you do unbiased reviews of lead services, that would be great. I tried many and found them to be a pain. I am a GC so my bids take a lot of time and I dont want to be 1 of 10 contractors talking to the people. In defense of the lead service companies(and I'm including the slimeballs), this is a free service to homeowners who sometimes fill out 2 or 3 forms from different lead service providers. This ends up in their getting 10 to 20 calls from contractors. This makes lawyers look shy in comparison. I dont think I will ever use an internet lead service again, but I have friends that use them and they are somewhat satisfied with the process. In my own experience my sales were from a couple of thousand dollars to my largest internet lead project sold of $150,000 for an addition. So it does work in my opinion, but it is not a good fit for me.

CalFinder · 11-09-2007, 01:19 PM

I understand all of yours frustration and am sorry you have been burned by other lead companies in the past. Personally I have been driving leads for over 8 years and seen lots of positive and negative things happen in our industry. When I would classify the state of internet lead companies as a feverish, congested mess. The problem with the internet is that anyone can start a company albeit a home improvement lead service, having no care in the world other then to make a buck. The industry has become congested with companies like this. As a result, you the contractors unfortunately are the ones being ripped off. I know this because I see it in this industry, I read it in these forums, and the fact of the matter, this issue carries over to many, many other service industries.

I would advise contractors to BE VERY CAUTIOUS when approaching internet lead companies. Get to know the companies. Make sure that their is a soul in the company, make sure they care and know the industry. How do they generate leads? Is their service any different then the one you just got burned on? What is their mission? Surely you can find all of this out by speaking with them. Just be curious and cautious.

However, with all this negativity about the internet, I can assure you that there are certainly positives. Like no other time before, we (contractors, lead providers, anyone...) are able to reach consumers on a grand scale. Homeowners are actively seeking contractors on the internet and abandoning traditional methods such as yellow pages and newspapers, that is a fact.

Internet leads can work for you. Homeowners are ditching traditional media and finding local service providers online. Lead providers can tap into these homeowners, but there are different ways of doing so. Depending on which way they develop leads you can guage at what rate they will convert for you. Get to know your lead company. Grumpy it seems like you need to make more time to build the big source of lead companies

Everyone, don't lose faith in internet leads just be cautious. The number of homeowners looking for your services are only going to grow in the future. I know you have been burned, but there are some good companies out there.

dougchips · 11-09-2007, 02:09 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by CalFinder

some good companies out there.

Some equals 1/10 or 1/100?

little_hammer · 11-09-2007, 02:26 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by CalFinder

Homeowners are ditching traditional media and finding local service providers online.

I think you have to be very careful about making blanket statements like this - especially when you use them to support your argument.

CalFinder · 11-09-2007, 03:02 PM

Quote:

I think you have to be very careful about making blanket statements like this - especially when you use them to support your argument.

My point being is consumers aren't completely abandoning traditional methods but are steadily moving towards the internet to find local services. As you can see below, the yellow pages are still popular, however search engines are more popular. Here are some statistics conducted from a poll of 2000 US adults conducted by Webvisible and Nielsen:

Finding Local Services

Quote:

Search engines were rated the number one resource for finding local business information. Here's how the responses broke down in terms of professed usage:
--Search engines: 74%
--Print yellow pages: 65%
--Internet yellow pages: 50%
--Traditional newspapers: 44%
--Print white pages: 33%
--Television: 29%
--Consumer review websites: 18 %

On Using Internet Yellow Pages rather than Print

Quote:

67% would prefer using an Internet yellow pages resource than the big yellow print book. Examples of Internet yellow pages given by the surveyor were yellowpages.com, judysbook.com, and superpages.com. Of this group, 84% say the Internet yellow pages is a much faster way of finding local businesses than the print version; 63% say the business listings are more current online; 45% prefer the search tools offered in the online version. Only 27% felt the online version was more comprehensive than the print book, suggesting that Internet yellow pages may have a decided weakness – lack of content. Some panelists selected more than one answer.

I'd paste the source but can't paste urls

Jude · 11-09-2007, 04:13 PM

Hey guys,

I used to be a contractor for 7 years and got sick and tired of paying for garbage leads. I too wanted to find a way to change the way lead sites work and luckily I have a buddy who is a mac-daddy programmer. We started a site called ************.com that works more like an open forum rather then a paid lead site. We do not charge for membership or for leads so Contractors are loving it and customers are getting quicker responses. We are trying to create more of a 'first-come-first-serve' system so that when a customer posts a job they can get immidiate results rather then waiting for their info to sell. We also give customers control of the communication so they can choose to be called, emailed or just deal directly through our site. They can also close their project at any time if they choose a contractor or don't care anymore.

In case you are wondering we make all of our money from google ads and luckily my buddy is also awesome at search engine optimization so we are getting some good traffic.

We have not gotten any complaints from our site yet...but I guess people can't complain when they don't have to pay for anything. Anyway, I just wanted to tell you to see if you guys had any other tips or ideas to making our site good. Check us out and let us know what else we can do to help you out.

dougchips · 11-09-2007, 04:21 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ************

Hey guys,

I used to be a contractor for 7 years and got sick and tired of paying for garbage leads. I too wanted to find a way to change the way lead sites work and luckily I have a buddy who is a mac-daddy programmer. We started a site called ************.com that works more like an open forum rather then a paid lead site. We do not charge for membership or for leads so Contractors are loving it and customers are getting quicker responses. We are trying to create more of a 'first-come-first-serve' system so that when a customer posts a job they can get immidiate results rather then waiting for their info to sell. We also give customers control of the communication so they can choose to be called, emailed or just deal directly through our site. They can also close their project at any time if they choose a contractor or don't care anymore.

In case you are wondering we make all of our money from google ads and luckily my buddy is also awesome at search engine optimization so we are getting some good traffic.

We have not gotten any complaints from our site yet...but I guess people can't complain when they don't have to pay for anything. Anyway, I just wanted to tell you to see if you guys had any other tips or ideas to making our site good. Check us out and let us know what else we can do to help you out.

I might as well reply to this before someone flags it as spam. I signed up at your site (not sure when) and you are correct it is free. Since you don't sell anything I doubt you are breaking the rules.

I have not received any traffic from your site but free listing are a good bargin and in volume they provide leads.

Jude · 11-09-2007, 04:27 PM

sorry, i wasn't trying to spam...just wanted to get your thoughts on our model.

dougchips · 11-09-2007, 04:33 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ************

sorry, i wasn't trying to spam...just wanted to get your thoughts on our model.

Not spam, a free resource for a chance at free leads. If more people used the web for free leads we would not have to spend time complaining about the paid sources.