[steve cardy]

HI, last year i joined checkatrade and had 70 new customers from it. It took 2 months to get my money back from the listing, this year 3 weeks from renewel
i had paid this years subscription. For me its the best advertising i have ever done and it works for me.

[Russ Chadd]

They contacted me the other day, offered me the TACCA discount etc...
I was curious to know why they thought their service would benefit me when the lady trying to sell me the service listed all the other carpet cleaners in my area using Check a trade?
So why would someone choose to book me on their website with little to no feedback and not an already established carpet cleaner on Check a trade?

So when people are looking for a carpet cleaner, the first thing they think of is Check a trade...? no... they go to Google and work their way down the page.

[Simon Gerrard]

And come to a checkatrade site which ranks on p1

[Russ Chadd]

Not in my area Simon...

[Max Campbell]

So why would someone choose to book me on their website with little to no feedback and not an already established carpet cleaner on Check a trade?

So when people are looking for a carpet cleaner, the first thing they think of is Check a trade...? no... they go to Google and work their way down the page.

That's not the way we expect it to work, or how Checkatrade tell you it works. People find your website, however - from referral, advertising, whatever, then find the Checkatrade link. Either the fact that you've registered, or your good reports, make it more likely that they call you to quote, and when you have quoted, make it more likely that they book. This is all hope, at the moment - I'll report back when we've got some results.

[Jamie Pearson]

Is that not how they all work. Woolsafe, NCCA, IICRC, Clean Trust, Checkatrade etc

[peter maybury]

I am new to checkatrade and have been a member since feb. I did not join for the short term as I saw it as something that you have to market to your customers. So Far I have only had 1 job directly from their site that I know of. I have gambled on their increase in popularity and see it as a tool, up to now we still have a lot of stock of leaflets and business cards and as we replace these then we will introduce the checkatrade logo.
I feel the it will be a powerful validation of service as there is so much scepticism about what people say about themselves. We have some bad operators in our area but their sites have all the made up testimonials and bullpoop and it is very difficult to get over to new customers that you are any different.
 Like any advertising it is a gamble and I have treated it as such, we will see in the future whether it has paid off. In terms of cost I do not see it as a large outlay compared to many of the campaigns we have run in the past. At one time I was spending £1000 per month to yell. A small weekly ad in the local rag was over £2000 per year. Advertising has changed and is very hard to make pay. I thing checkatrade as a tool will work. Untill it becomes well known in out area it is only going to be a valdation tool for people that we come into contact with, hopefully it will eventually bring business to us.

Peter
www.carpetcleanercardiff.comhttp://

[Russ Chadd]

All i know is i look on the Checkatrade website at all the cleaners in my area and it is saturated with scores of 9.8 and 9.9! if i were a customer looking for a carpet cleaner all the scores look about the same and no one stands out above anyone else.
I am sure that Check a trade would work well in areas where you may not have huge competition, if you are only going to be competing with a handful of other rivals.
It just seems to me to be another advertising company who are eager to sign you up regardless of whether their advertising actually works or not.
Yell were the biggest waste of time for me and i ended up getting back every penny because of their poor service... so far Facebook has actually generated quite a lot of business and thats totally FREE.

[JandS]

Nail on the head Russ.
Approved by someone who has never met
them or seen their standard of work.
Wonder what happens when someone phones
and says the person they approved was crap.

[peter maybury]

If people are on the checkatrade website they are hardly going to go off the website to book you just because everyone on the site has high scores. And they do print bad feed back, this is what makes the whole membership issue credible..
Many people who are making comments are talking from a position of ignorance as they do not understand how checkatrde work. They do meet you they come to your premises. They do check your insurance and you do have to prove any credentials before thay allow you to advertise them on the site. They also do check your report cards with the customer before they publish the results on the site. Any edits that you do on your profile are checked by checkatrade before they become visable to  the public.
To be honest if you are in an area where checkatrade have a high profile then you probably cant afford, not to be a member. I have just taken a gamble on them increasing the awareness is my area.
Checkatrade is totally diferent to rated people or any of the other organisations as they do put a lot of effort into vetting the trades. Once the public understand this they will have confidence in using the members, knowing the way that members are vetted would give me confidence in using its members above the bull that people write about themselves.
Peter
www.carpetcleanercardiff.comhttp://

[bennymon]

Top of google company in my area have a great website and are on checkatrade and charge £20 lounge £17 dinning room £15 bedroom £60 three piece suite

[Craigp]

Bennymon, I have noticed that company has sprang up all over the country, they seemed to be based in Portsmouth, can only guess they farm out the work, can't be much left for the tech at them prices.

Are we seeing a '50% off' epidemic?

[bennymon]

I've noticed a lot of the top of Adwords in my area are checkatrade and low prices . Im the next add below the addwords but to join them in the top three it costs over £2.50 per click  but its wasting your money .The Internet for me is useless nowadays my work is all from leaflets and repeats  .   Del

[Craigp]

Yeah the cheapies ruin it.

In my area first there was one 'half price' then loads came along copying but at even lower prices, honestly they are in a zero sum game.

I bet that one we mentioned is no longer on adwords in a few months, he's going to have one seriously big bill from google. He been at position 1 most of the day in my area and thats about £3.50 or more per click.

[bennymon]

He has been there for about a year and a half probably sending people out on £7 per hour . Should we all do the same Del