Contractor Talk - Professional Construction and Remodeling Forum banner

Angies List

9K views 34 replies 24 participants last post by  A.Federico 
#1 ·
Hey Guys,

I am in the gutter business always looking for more leads.

I have been getting hounded by a angies list salesperson..wow they are ambitious!

My question is this:

I have a listing on there, and I do get business from it. I am wondering if moving up to there premier status is worth it. Its not cheap! They claim some pretty big returns.

Anyway, if you guys can give me some explanations of experiences that would be great.

Thanks a ton.
 
#2 ·
Ask them to provide how many Angies List members they have in your 100 mile radius and then asking them to provide how many of those members search for Gutters! I can promise you that number will be very small. You would be better served advertising on a FREE Directory. Consumers have to pay to view Angies List, thus they give a very small amount of traffic.
 
#4 ·
Put your money into an AL coupon promotion, I have some friends that use the coupon to dig up work when they are slow.

A garage door friend closed out 40 tuneups in a week, after a few weeks finished them, and are running another one soon.

A painter friend ran a coupon, for a week, and booked over a months worth of work from 10 different customers.

It only costs you a percentage of the coupons purchased, if no one buys a coupon you do not pay.

It is a rare situation where you get to test your message, and only pay if it is successful, not much to lose there.
 
#8 ·
I wouldn't bet a bucket of piss on the future of Angie's List. The company itself is pure crap in the investment community and that speaks volumes about it's service. It's gotten so bad and it's in the news so much now that consumers are starting not to trust them.

Do your own marketing.
 
#9 ·
Probably will go the way of "service magic" renaming itself "home advisor".

......Hey, sounds like what a lot of scurvy contractors do by going out of business and popping up the next week under a new name / phone #.....
 
#10 ·
Here's a new article on the topic of Angies List

Follow the Money - Is Angie’s List a public service provider or an online lead generator?

Angie Hicks no longer owns Angie’s List, but her story warms hearts. Her story is that she was “inspired by the frustrations her co-founder had trying to find reliable contractors in suburban Columbus,” and thereafter went door to door in that Ohio town signing up subscribers for a listing service where members could share their experiences — typically in the form of reviews — about contractors and other businesses they had used. That was in 1995.

Today Angie’s List has more than a million members in more than 170 local markets. Members post an average of 40,000 reviews each month. Angie is featured in advertising on TV, inviting homeowners to join the organization. Cost to homeowners varies by market but averages about $29 per year. Prominent among her claims is that “companies don’t pay to be on Angie’s List.”

Getting on vs. Being Seen

Technically, that’s true. Contractors don’t pay to belong. They do, however, pay to advertise. And being on Angie’s List, if you’re a contractor, and being seen on Angie’s List, are two different things. This is where the money comes in.How is it that home improvement companies spend $20,000, $30,000, or $40,000 on Angie’s List if the list is, as implied, a completely unbought and therefore unbiased online community of homeowners? Well, that’s why Angie is on TV. The more subscribers Angie has, the more the company can charge service providers for its services.

Full article here http://www.remodeling.hw.net/sales-leads/follow-the-money.aspx
 
#11 ·
I am happy I am no longer a part of their scheme. At first the advertising was barely $100. By the time my last contract expired, it was nearly $500 a month. Way too much money to reach a potential of 13k customers for my region of over 1.5 million people. Not only that, the question is, how many of those people are actually looking for roofs?

I am a paying member of Angieslist but only because I want to see other companies reviews. It is funny to always see the top 14 companies (the ones who pay to advertise although it used to be 10) changing. Only one or two have continually had the paid advertising since I started and those are the ones with the most reviews. There is even one company that advertises here that is from Illinois.

Their customers feel like they are entitled to perks and extras otherwise you get threatened with "we will write a bad review on Angieslist". I even had a bad review from someone who REFUSED to pay our signed contract because he thought it was too much (well then why did you sign it buddy?).

My point simply being, it is a huge waste of money for contractors.
 
#22 ·
Thanks for bringing that up. Most of us were not aware of the accident. Even if he did mention it in the past.

My opinion: Mavis, please feel free to post. Don't worry about how it appears, well sorta, we all need to strive to do better. But, you shouldn't feel afraid. Hopefully your posting will be therapeutic and help get you back into the swing of things.
 
#23 ·
Clueless

My experience with Angie's List is they are clueless. In 2012 I came across a company in MA using my trademarked name on Angie's list. I contacted Angie's list several times via email, fax, certified letter and an attorney. No response at all from Angie's list, apart from somebody signing for the return receipt mail letters. I ended up going an alternative route and having a cease and desist issued against the MA contractor using my companies name illegally.

To this day, it's been almost a year, no response at all from Angie's list.

:censored:
 
#24 ·
Brief synopsis of y Angies's list experience. Give them money, no phoone calls, cancel contract, charged double what the salesman quoted me for a cancellation, manager reviews phone records agrees that salesman lied insisted on payment anyway.

If they call you to get you to advertise or require a long contract with penalties to end the relationship it is always a rip off.
 
#27 ·
I saw a commercial recently stating people should get 3 estimates to save money. As if the price is the only concern. Then they say make sure you pay with a credit card. If you go on thier site they encourage your possible customers to call your supply yards to check pricing first so they can judge your mark up.

Thats crazy..if we are not battling enough challenges.
 
#29 ·
Not all suppliers give back much these days regardless. We have a company with multiple yards in the area. A while back I had a jack off customer call up the supplier. He was pretending to be an architect and told them he has an account but usually buys from another branch. Need I say more.
 
#30 ·
Tom M said:
Not all suppliers give back much these days regardless. We have a company with multiple yards in the area. A while back I had a jack off customer call up the supplier. He was pretending to be an architect and told them he has an account but usually buys from another branch. Need I say more.
That stinks.

My suppliers prices to anyone they don't have a relationship with are more than what I sell them for.
 
#31 ·
I find with low volume of demand and pressure from box stores, the local suppliers are working at very low margins and dont like to turn down sales. When I started out I opened up house accounts with everyone in the area so I could stop anywhere I was working. Certain vendors worked with you when you frequent them more sure.
 
#33 ·
Absolutely a few estimates is normal. I didnt like the emphasis on saving money rather than checking the details. Way to many people dont read the proposals to closely and scan right to the price. And....the whole point of Angies list, I thought was to find a quality contractor based on referral not so much price. They sell ratings at this point dont they...
 
#34 ·
You're absolutely right. There will always be those looking for the lowest price, those people just don't go away. Creating a customer that values quality really comes down to past experiences the customer has had. For me I learned the hard way with things like vacations, cheaper is never better and I never look for anything cheap anymore...also, whoever is generating the leads. Educating a customer about how to properly shop for contractors will ultimately make people on both sides happy. Nobody wants to deal with a customer that got a good deal on something that ultimately looks like crap and is cheap, and you wouldn't want to lose contractors because leads aren't paying out to industry standards.
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top