Views on checkatrade?

unwashed potato!

unwashed potato!

unwashed potato!

Soldato
Joined
12 Feb 2006
Posts
17,504
Location
Surrey
i'm considering paying to join up with them. Membership is some what costly at £850 p/a and i'm not convinced the oven/carpet cleaning industry is one people think to go to checkatrade as it's less risky in comparison to say a builders/plumber you might want to use a site that "checks" the trade men first.

i'm also concerned of something I found out from the sales rep today which was that to get higher up on the list we have to constantly have reviews sent in with the company that has the most recent reviews being at the top, and the recommended amount if 30 per month! that's a fair task given customers are reluctant to leave reviews now even with money incentives. i feel unless we really work to get customers to review us constantly on checkatrade we will drop down the list and waste the money.

do users on here use checkatrade to find trademen? would anyone consider checkatrade for a carpet cleaner or oven cleaner over a google search? anyone ever advertised with them? any views?

thanks
 
I can tell you 10 of my customers (tradespeople) who left checkatrade because unless youre a company with a large workforce able to get out in high numbers and then convince customers to leave reviews... it wont be worth the money.
 
If you type on what your company does do you get many results?

I'd say if not then it might be worth it to just get on their lists. Saying that it sounds like it might not quite be aimed at your area of sales.

Tough choice, maybe have a years punt. Can always advertise your self as being on checkatrade with xxx satisfied customers blah blah etc..
 
Everyone has a rating of 9.63636 except the honest ones who have ratings of 8.

For an oven cleaners I thought the most useful bit of kit was a text service reminding you of your oven and a text based booking.

Example of got a text saying bookings taken for Christmas clean ovens taken now. I text back yes and they replied with times and know my address from previous use. Job done.

I've used several companies and have no preference.
 
I think you'd be better off paying Google to bump you up the search results. It's not cheap but my mate did it to get him on page 1 and it helped (assuming you need custom). Then politely ask people to rate you on there (I've starred and rated a few tradesmen that way)
 
I wouldn't use checkatrade for oven/carpet cleaning, to be honest.

I'd be more likely to type in "Oven cleaning in $localarea".

I think with oven cleaning, it's clear to the customer that it's been done (they can see a clean oven).

I think the issue with builders is it's not always clear that they've done, I need to get someone for rebedding some roof tiles but there's no realistic way I can easily check it's been done.
 
RoboCod said:
I think you'd be better off paying Google to bump you up the search results. It's not cheap but my mate did it to get him on page 1 and it helped (assuming you need custom). Then politely ask people to rate you on there (I've starred and rated a few tradesmen that way)
Click to expand...

I'd 100% agree with this!

First thing I'd check for an oven / carpet cleaner is google! Wouldn't ever think to look on check a trade
 
nope, the ebay of tradesmen, were everyone thinks its ok to offer half the price for a job, until someone accepts it,

then the job is done badly and they leave a bad review.

word of mouth is still king, with feet on floor walking around offering services to landlord and estate agents who have a budget for this kind of thing,

that and a bit of local leaflet delivery.
 
Kuros said:
I wouldn't use checkatrade for oven/carpet cleaning, to be honest.

I'd be more likely to type in "Oven cleaning in $localarea".

I think with oven cleaning, it's clear to the customer that it's been done (they can see a clean oven).

I think the issue with builders is it's not always clear that they've done, I need to get someone for rebedding some roof tiles but there's no realistic way I can easily check it's been done.
Click to expand...

Pretty much my exact thoughts too.

Thanks all for the replies. Now I've got to decide what other advertising to spend this £850 on.
 
I agree that it'll be a waste of money for you. I find all the tradespeople I use through my local Facebook group (there is one for local Trades and the other is the local selling page). That way you get immediate recommendations. I've even been invited round to people's houses to check out the work they had done. It's brilliant.
Also, a friend of mine sourced a builder through Trust-a-Trader and the builder got back to him and said that he wished he hadn't accepted the TaT quote and he had to add on a hefty additional payment to meet the costs that TaT added. If he'd contacted him directly he'd have saved a considerable amount of money. Yet another reason to use Facebook.

FYI, I had my oven cleaned a month ago by a company that advertises on our local page. Due to the nature of FB they're able to keep up to date with offers to draw in customers.

HTH. :)
 
We've used checkatrade once since moving into our new build for some work to the garage. The guys came out to have a look at the work needed and gave a decent quote. 2 weeks later they were back, finished the work in a couple of hours to a high standard - so much so that the site manager has been around to get the details of the company a few times as others want the same work doing! It's not all bad. I would use both them and the website again to find other tradesmen.

I suspect it's only worth being on there if you're charging a high price which can adequately contribute the any yearly fee you need to pay to be on there.
 
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