We’ve come a long way from the days of the big yellow book. With such vast technological advances and so many people able to locate a vast array of services and information online, this is not reserved exclusively to the likes of Twitter and Facebook.
For example, launched in 1966, a certain bright and sunny book began as a section in the Brighton telephone directory. The Yellow Pages eventually covered the whole of the UK with 104 editions now available.
While the sunny one is still thriving – with 26.3 million copies distributed to UK homes and businesses in 2009 – it looks like the online revolution is in full swing. Even the Yellow Pages has gone online with its Yell.com website. But it is by no means alone.
Enter the words “Find a plumber” in Google’s search engine and you won’t be short of websites claiming to do just that. And most of them go about this in much the same way.
Usually, a website will host a free outlet for customers to advertise for jobs that need doing around the house and for tradesmen to look for jobs to do. These jobs are then bid for, and the tradesman with the most compelling quote – whether in terms of price or service – wins the tender.
A significant portion of the website’s money usually comes from tradesmen – or businesses vying for jobs – but this is generally for jobs carried out and, by and large, there is never a fee just to register with them.
Gone fishing
FindaTrade.com launched in the UK in October 2009. With over 2,000 customers, it has more than 3,000 trade members. Users simply fill out a form with a detailed job description and location.
It is free for tradesmen to become members, provided they complete a form and submit details of their company, including customer references supported by photographs of previous work carried out; public liability insurance; limited company registration; the company they are insured with and value insured to, as well as any accreditations if applicable. There is a small fee to tradesmen who apply for jobs, which varies from £2 to £26 depending on the scale of the work. The application charge guarantees a genuine job is available.
The website’s founder, Steve Goodman, said of customer references: “We phone a random sample of references provided by the companies from previous customers.” So there is very little scope for fictitious testimonials.
The website then uses this information to source possible companies based on the type of job and geographical area.
The job is then advertised among relevant trade members who would like to put themselves forward for the work. FindaTrade then offers up to four of these applications as suggestions to the client, with no obligation to accept.
Goodman says assurance of an available job has been a topic of great contention among tradesmen.
More