Service Magic/Contractor Talk

Darwin

Hmmm....heh..heh...heh...heh..heyyy..:pa rty:

PMI

Hey SMsupport,
I glanced at this and noticed that both Service Magic and cpadna where at the same conference. Still going to stand by that Service Magic has no idea who this company is? Come on... now let's talk and let's discuss what I said in reply #36 in this thread.

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Phil Tonks
For all your Remodeling & Home Improvement needs in South Florida visit www.pmi1call.com

SMsupport

Phil – The ad in question was not a SM ad, nor was it authorized by SM. We found the source and they were told to cease bidding on our trademark terms and the ad has since been removed. I noticed that cpadna.com and about 1500 other companies were registered attendees with the Affiliate Summit West 2008.

Nathan

Affiliates can be hard to control... this is not uncommon.

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Nathan

"He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain that which he cannot lose." - Jim Elliot

PMI

All ok with the clarification. How about further dialogue with some really innovative ideas to improve the lead service biz? I think it will be interesting dialogue, either in the forum or outside of it, whichever you want. Also, please reply with your name so I know who I am talking to each time. I have a bad relationship with one of your competitors (prefer to stick away from naming them) whose standard operating procedure is to not identify themselves and it has left a bad taste with me when dealing with companies who prefer to answer by a title rather than a person.

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Phil Tonks
For all your Remodeling & Home Improvement needs in South Florida visit www.pmi1call.com

SMsupport

Phil, we’re always interested in hearing ideas to improve our service. We can discuss your ideas on this forum and encourage others to provide feedback as well. I look forward to your response.

Thanks,

Shawn Trammell

silvertree

Shawn, everyone seems to have calmed down over here, I think for the most part the name calling is done.
LGS's are all grouped by the services they offer, same as contractors, we get judged the same way, one bad job and the news spreads, and 100 good jobs nothing.
That's fair actually, all jobs should go well because were pros.

Yesterday I changed credit cards to dump a lead service, couldn't contact them about getting credit for me calling the office, that's right, I got charged for calling my own office when I called the number they replaced my office number with. The number change must of been buried on one of the 7 pages of fine print for the service agreement. There's more, but not worth mentioning.

Yesterday I talked with a friend in California who told me how his SM experience is going. Yesterday, not a month or a year ago. He wasn't happy.

This exchange may produce some improvements, but when will they start? Will things change? Why would you guys want to change a business model that makes money? This doesn't make sense. Your a big company full of smart business people and must have these complaint costs built into your sales prices. Ford built the Pinto knowing they would spend less on lawsuits from exploding gas tanks than what they would spend on retooling the car. That's big business, and legal.
You guys, as smart as you are must have the drop out rates built into your customer acquisition costs.
Service Magic has a long way to go to gain back the trust of contractors. I had a friend call this morning who wanted to know if I ever heard of Best Contractor*com, I sent him here and told him to search, I never used them, and don't know what he'll find but I'm guessing he doesn't sign up.
That's the future for LGS's getting more business from us, unless we see change. But does it matter to you guys anyway?

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Vote for Pedro
Kitchen, bath, St Paul remodeling
Minneapolis Remodel Blog
203K Loan Consultant Minnesota

SelfContract

This thread will never ...die. It will be historical moment in momentum soon.

Handymanservice

Wouldn't it be funny if the time spent here with SM really could make a difference?

I like the direction Paul is taking this in, and it would be great if SM would stay with this and actually interact, publicly, on ways to improve LGS's. At this point, all I have read (for the most part) is how bad SM and others are, if I were SM, I would be fighting to right my image.

I have been contacted several times, it is not something I am interested in at this point. Many on this forum still seem to want a good LGS, maybe things can get better? If not, no big deal.

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"You can shear a sheep every year, but you can only skin him once!" Remember that when dealing with your customers and pricing.

http://www.yourhandymansite.com

SMsupport

Paul your ideas and suggested improvements do matter to us. Since I don’t want to over promise and under deliver let me make clear what I can do. I can help our members find success within SM. I am not making promises about changing our business model. We have many pros finding great success within the model we have. I appreciate that we are a disrupter in the marketplace and working with us can be more difficult than we would like it to be. We’re always looking for ways to improve our service and create a better experience for our customers.


If you would, give my contact information over to your friend in California and let him know I would be more than willing to review his account and offer assistance.
strammell@servicemagic.com

silvertree

Shawn, here's what my friend did, he turned off his leads (I remember this myself from years ago). He's thinking of calling the BBB but I think its for that other company he also uses. He has already made his move.

I am trying to put myself right in the middle of this, I have nothing to gain by posting and really would rather see an amiable solution.

Instead of knocking SM I say this: You/ SM gets a best practices manual onto your website in a PDF format. Make sure all your new clients click a button saying they downloaded it. Make it real and hold people to it.
If some of us can't sell, that's up to us to learn.
As for qualifying, I know you can't do that completely.

Here's a story.
I get a lead, ask all the questions and its a great neighborhood, guys been living there 6 years, and I ask him what he does, He says "You know that pizza restaurant on 123 Main st, that's mine, I work out of there". Yeah, I think, the guy owns this great restaurant.

I go meet him and its a nice home and I ask "What do you want done"?
He says, kitchen, deck, bathroom, hot tub and so I ask him some tougher questions now and find out, he's been renting to own for 6 years, and he delivers pizza for this very successful restaurant.
Now I ask "How long have you owned this home, and what do you do at work"?

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Vote for Pedro
Kitchen, bath, St Paul remodeling
Minneapolis Remodel Blog
203K Loan Consultant Minnesota

rbsremodeling

Paul

You should have put the guys name in your marketing data bank and followed up with him in 6 years.

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SMsupport

Paul, I like your best practices idea. While we have a training center that includes webinars, trade tip articles, and many other tools, the idea of compiling a best practices manual is worth looking into. Thanks.

Handyman, I intend to be here consistently offering to help any of our members. My goal is to make a difference one contractor at a time. I look forward to ongoing productive dialog.

Mike Finley

I think the perception by the majority of contractors is we all are very doubtful of a statement like that. Maybe it's justified or not, but I think in a survey of 100 contractors the majority of them would be doubtful.

One of the best things you could do to help mend you image in the contractor community would be to elaborate on that, use it as a case study and actually explain it in concrete details so that the contracting community can actually understand that your product can actually work for them.

Define many, define success, explain these successful contractors processes with your service.

I think that would go a long way.