No service magic - Page 3 - Contractor Talk - Professional Construction and Remodeling Forum

mhillc · 05-02-2009, 08:02 PM

Hey sm support, I see you replied to some other post but not mine is it because i asked for my money back?

Stevelsc8721 · 05-02-2009, 08:15 PM

Shawn from SM can PM me any time

SMsupport · 05-04-2009, 10:15 AM

Scribbles – I’m glad to hear you’re having success. If you have time I’d like to contact you to review your account personally. I’d be glad to share any tips or best practices as well as look for any tweaks or enhancements that could bolster your success. Let me know if you’re interested in discussing your account and a good time to call and we’ll make it happen.

Mhillc – I understand you didn’t have success. To be honest, one week’s worth of results usually isn’t a good gauge of your potential return on your investment. I’d be more than willing to take a look at your account as well and see if there’s something we can do for you.

Steve - I’ve added you as a contact and will PM. Let me know when you’re available. I’d like to take a look at your account and see how I can assist you. Feel free to email me as well, my email address is listed in my contact information.

Thanks again,

Shawn

Mr. Mike · 05-04-2009, 10:27 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by SMsupport

DavidC and Mr. Mike, I’m sorry to hear you didn’t have a positive experience with us. I’d like to get some more specific feedback from you about the problems you encountered. Please feel free to e-mail me directly.

Thanks for your time,

Shawn

You guys really do suck, you could go and search notes that you all supposedly took while on the phone with me and look at the crappy leads you sent and also see how much money I never got leads for when replacement leads did not come in on your time frame... SM you all suck and the people that are happy with you only pay for leads they want suck suck suck...............

Mr. Mike · 05-04-2009, 10:28 AM

Can I go ahead and mark this whole thread now as spam and as for you sm I would care less if you were aloud back in here to spam these people that don't know better...

silvertree · 05-04-2009, 10:35 AM

Mr Mike, what if SM really did try to improve their model. What if the average contractor just didn't use the SM services the best way possible?

So the question is, What is the best way to assure a decent ROI with a lead gen company?
Anyone have a guidebook?

Just a thought, what's anybody got to lose?

SelfContract · 05-04-2009, 10:53 AM

I suspect "Shawn", or whoever behind this mask... might be a part of da SM "Owners" or SM management team... because of his very very..keen patient, lingering persuasion, clever reasonings, and playing-deaf-ear courage to the contractors here... till now that is...

Jason W · 05-04-2009, 10:59 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by silvertree

Mr Mike, what if SM really did try to improve their model. What if the average contractor just didn't use the SM services the best way possible?

So the question is, What is the best way to assure a decent ROI with a lead gen company?
Anyone have a guidebook?

Just a thought, what's anybody got to lose?

More time and money, that's all.

silvertree · 05-04-2009, 11:04 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jason W

More time and money, that's all.

Maybe, but these services won't go away unless someone comes up with a better model, you can be assured people are trying. But what if a LGS does come up with a working arrangement that your peers are happy with, that would start a rush to be signed up. It may not fit your business model or mine, but some people might do well with this.
To date the largest job I sold with a lead service was 150K for a 2 story addition. That was 5 years ago and the leads were real. A lot has happened since then.

Mr. Mike · 05-04-2009, 11:19 AM

I would like to have a look at the guide to turning Sm prospects to customers instead of thinking everyone that fills out the form there is a suspect.

Mr. Mike · 05-04-2009, 11:22 AM

I did a power washing estimate from Sm and the people wanted to spend $70.00 or less and when I asked them if they would sign today if I could do it for less than $70.00 they said they had to get a few more prices. I would not of signed them for $70.00 but I was curious to find out if they would buy...

That is the kind of people sm brought me more than anything and I think I signed up 2 people in a year from them a lot of people said that sm called them to see if they was curious to find out how much a paint job would be.

Jason W · 05-04-2009, 11:24 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by silvertree

Maybe, but these services won't go away unless someone comes up with a better model, you can be assured people are trying. But what if a LGS does come up with a working arrangement that your peers are happy with, that would start a rush to be signed up. It may not fit your business model or mine, but some people might do well with this.
To date the largest job I sold with a lead service was 150K for a 2 story addition. That was 5 years ago and the leads were real. A lot has happened since then.

Figuring out what that is shouldn't be to hard - Cooperate greed. They won't allow changes that might risk their salaries. The system needs a total re haul. Accountability for the quality of services/leads needs to come first. SM reps have told me that it would be impossible to call every requester back to see if they are legit.Somehow they feel more comfortable charging for these leads and letting us find out while they count the money. Even worse is trying to get the money back when things don't pan out; customer never returns calls, puts in no address on the form, heck I've even had someones kid fill out a lead form and got screwed on that one too!

Mike Finley · 05-04-2009, 11:39 AM

It's my opinion that what you all see in the online lead services is because the model itself no longer works and hasn't worked for a long time.

Simple dollars and sense tell me that they probably operate on about a 5-10% profit margin, if you take out all the bogus leads, those probably amount now to at least 30% of the leads.

Reduce their leads available to sell by 30% and they are now losing money.

Look at it different way if you like -- sell their leads to less contractors... and they are losing money.

They are all competing for the same sized pie, just different slices of it. They have the pie too sliced up now so their product suffers.

The only way to make a profit is to

#1 sell legitimate leads to more and more contractors
#2 lower their baseline for what a lead is and have enough leads to sell

DavidC · 05-04-2009, 11:51 AM

One of my pet peeves would have to be addressed, NO REFUNDS FOR BAD LEADS. Part of Wal-Marts success is that you can return a product for any reason and get a cash refund or replacement product. No question, no hassles.

With SM you first have to prove that the lead is bad. Submit a request and they will decide if it's legit and get back to you later. Make your initial request as best you can because it is the only time you will get any input on the matter.

Next you'll get their decision. If the lead is determined "bad" you get a replacement lead credit. If the lead is determined "good", end of story. SM has your money and you have no further reasonable recourse. Usually the lead turns out to be "good", so they will want to review your lead selection criteria to amp up your volume or add exact match which has another specific set of issues.

Your replacement lead can expire if not used within a time frame established by SM. If lead volume is low you may not get that replacement. My personal experience is 0 sales on a replacement lead anyway. Leads to suspicion concerning replacement leads.Voice your concerns and they will want to review your lead selection criteria.

Better filters would help reduce the number of bad leads received, but actual no hassle cash refunds would at least make the bogus leads more tolerable.

Good Luck
Dave

SMsupport · 05-04-2009, 12:07 PM

JasonW – I reviewed your account and noticed you had some great ratings and reviews from homeowners that we matched you with. Based on the numbers it looks like you had some level of success. I can understand if you don’t want to discuss the details of your account on this forum but maybe you can give me more insight as to why you cancelled your service.

A W Smith · 05-04-2009, 12:23 PM

So SM is basically just like Craigs list only YOU have to call THEM and for this privilege you pay per lead? is that correct?

SMSupport. How much to hijack my web site? Cuz I can get Russian hackers to do that for free.

Jason W · 05-04-2009, 12:37 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by SMsupport

JasonW – I reviewed your account and noticed you had some great ratings and reviews from homeowners that we matched you with. Based on the numbers it looks like you had some level of success. I can understand if you don’t want to discuss the details of your account on this forum but maybe you can give me more insight as to why you cancelled your service.

Thanks Shawn,

We were able to get the "certified rating" within our first three customers. I was pretty happy about that and it seemed that things were going well. The first bump in the road was when I was doing research about my web presence and found that service magic was using my company name in search engines to redirect customers to the SM site where I would have to pay you for the lead even though they may have been looking for me directly.

Secondly, the ROI just wasn't there. I had to get a lot of leads to sell a few very small jobs. You guys also need to consider the time spent on our parts running around to meet these people that sometimes seem like were are bothering them

.

Lastly, I got feed up with dealing with so many no call backs, no address in the form, and people shopping based on the lowest price. Call me crazy, but I see a big difference in the prospective customer that calls because of a news paper ad, phone book, or our web site. They seem to be much more genuine about there projects than someone hiding behind a computer screen. I have no idea how you could clean that up.

ADD: Oh, one more thing, your return policies suck! Way to much effort on our part to get the funds credited back to us. That's something that needs to change.

A W Smith · 05-04-2009, 12:41 PM

Service Magic is like looking for dimes and quarters under urinal cakes at a pay for public restroom.

Tell me SMSupport. what can I do to throw a monkey wrench into this level of success?

http://www.google.com/search?f=q&sou...ey&sa=N&tab=lw

Danno6102 · 05-04-2009, 12:57 PM

I just canceled my account with them Friday. Pretty sad when one of your main menu options is, "If you would like cancel your account, press 5".

Jason W · 05-04-2009, 01:10 PM

I guess it just boils down to what type of customer you're looking for. SM, in my opinion, led me down a road I want no part of. I had to work VERY hard with VERY cheap people to stay working. The last lead I got from you folks was for a sunroom addition. When I found the house to meet for our appointment I noticed how it hadn't been painted in over 20 years, siding was falling off, stairs were rotten, and slate shingles were missing from the roof. I had already spoke with them on the phone and they told me they were on a fixed income and although they knew the house needed a lot of work, they wanted to put on a small addition.

I never even bothered knocking on that door, I had enough of that type. To this day, no work has been done there. I saved myself some time and agravation that day. I believe I cam home and cancelled my account once and for all. I chaulked up the $75 or so that I paid for the lead as my final tuition payment for working with on line lead services. I focused on bigger and better things and guess what? It happened, several times. We are being asked to bid better projects and are now in the middle of a 1.2 mill job for a residential customer, 8 men working for us, and a brighter future for our company.

Sometimes it's not about the lure you use when fishing; sometimes it's about where you fish.