Service Magic

MKECONTRACTOR

Does anyone use Service Magic to get jobs? Whats your experience with them and would you recommend going that route? I am just starting a garage building business.

Teetorbilt

Have you met Juanita? I assume not because she would be bugging you to death.

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You can't solve you're problems with the same level of thinking that created the problems.

Albert Einstein

katttfishh

Too expensive for me. I tried them for a couple months. They made a lot of money and I made none. Too many leads from people not real serious and too much competition for the ones that are serious. I was getting leads for kitchen and baths.

dfwhomeremodele

With Service Magic, if you don't accept the lead and call the customer within 30 minutes of submission, chances are they have already found someone and are not interested in another person coming out. That can cost you $25.00 to $75.00 per lead. I had a customer send in a Service Magic lead to extend his garage 3' because he could not fit his new truck in his garage. I accepted his lead and when I called him to set up an appointment, he said he found a way to fit his truck in his garage and did not need the work done. That phone call cost me $25.00.

I have paid as much as 900.00 in a months time for these leads and only landed about 25%.

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DFW Home Remodelers
Tim Bankes
Phone 214-288-4178
Fax 469-287-2373
www.dfwhomeremodelers.com

marc

We have been using them for 3 or 4 years now. No complains here. We pay them approx. $1200 to $1600 per month. We only close about 20% of the sales but the lead is so inexpensive that we don't care.
In 2004 our average lead cost was $310
In 2005 in went down to $287 per lead.

Service Magic Leads cost us $25.00
We can throw 9 out of 10 of them away and still be less than our average lead cost. Sounds like a no brainer to me.

Always Greener

We have looked into them, but for us it would be waste of money. There is already enough competition out there why would we want more. All the people that shop Service Magic are shopping and looking for the cheapest deal. Our time is worth money so if we signed up we would have to pay for the leads and then go give a bid and wait. If we did not get the job we just lost time and money. Seams to me Service Magic is making all the money. Not me…IMO

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www.alwaysgreenerlawn.com

HPS

ServiceMagic has grown to be a 300 million dollar a year Company and is still growing. I used their service a few years ago to get my business started. My Average lead cost went from $10 per lead to $25 plus. Their lead quality became about 90% garbage. ServiceMagic in my opinion lost who was their real customer the CONTRACTOR not the consumer posting their project for free. I found myself wasting time, money & effort until I became completely fed up.

I was Inspired to develope a better version of lead generation.......

ServiceProvide.com
Join for FREE no annual fees or dues!
Leads cost $10 each
Purchase one lead at a time, you control your lead volumn
Every lead is Quality Guaranteed!!!
Select Service Categories and coverage areas
Receive leads by e-mail, text message, fax, phone.

Anyone is welcome to offer any suggestions, ideas, or advice. I would appreciate any and all feedback at serviceprovide@gmail.com

I am also developing another website that will be a FREE contractor directory listing search engine.

JMGP

Marc,

what kind of business are you in that it cost you around $300 bucks for ONE lead...

This Service Magic thing dont make sense to me...

I have researched it and others like it and I think it is more of a waste of money than useful...

I can think of a other marketing ideas to spend $1200 to $1600 bucks a month on and get a much higher return...

Seems like the main complaint is that you have to be "Flash Gordon" to get a lead and If you except a lead and they already have someone...or its a bogus lead... you just gave away your money for nothing...you dont even get a chance to estimate the project or sell your services...

AND... if you do get a chance... you just spent $$ on that service... THEN you go and spend more money going to estimate the project...(it costs money to do a "free estimate") so it really costs you a lot more than the Service Magic fee... Right? So how much is it REALLY costing you? Is it REALLY worth it...

DIRECT marketing is the best form of marketing... YOUR COMPANY contacts the potential customer through YOUR advertising... you introduce yourself... provide a good selling point... and make it easy for them to contact you etc etc...

Having the customers jump through hoops to be contacted by a contractor I think is rediculous...AND I think MOST of the customers that fill out that form are price shopping, or not that serious, (probably just seeing if filling out the form would work and how long it would take for someone to contact them)

It costs you money for these people just messing around, not serious etc...

If they contacted you directly... then you could screen them over the phone (most of the time)... Having it the other way around... dont make sense... unless it was a REAL referral from a past customer....

I think most of us contractors dont put much thought into certain things we do to market ourselves.. I have done some "waste of money things"...in the begining...but I learn fast...

There is nothing anyone could say to me that would change my opinion on this subject... it may work for some... OR you may THINK it is working for you... maybe you dont keep track of anything...but I really think the majority should spend there money on REAL marketing...

It will cost me LESS than $30.00 per lead... per year....

I think that if you want your company to progress further each year you MUST have a REAL referral system (through your own customers) in place... IT WORKS! One customer could produce up to 4 new customers per year... with a good system.... this is the first year I am using my system...so I dont have any numbers yet...

This is ALL my opinion... and to me Marc... my opinion is a no brainer.....