[Angelo]

Hi Everyone
 any of your Guys have tried  Checkatrade.com and what you think and know about them ? it works is worth having it for good leads generation ?

your thoughts much appreciated

[David Deer]

try the threads
here and
here

[John Kelly]

We have a few customers who are doing very well from it. However I think once you run with it, it would be hard to stop and they seem to put the price up every year.

[Craig A Moore]

up north its crap down south its ment to be better I thought it was poop for £1200 they wanted from me a year

[Kev Martin]

Someone has to pay for all that advertising and sponsorship they do on ITV, GMTV & Weather.  VERY VERY CLEVER actually.  The advertising and sponsorship lulls the public into believing they are a big company which in turn inspires confidence that all their traders must be brilliant because they are constantly in peoples minds. 

WHICH? tried the same thing trying to get traders to be a "Which Endorsed Company"  but unlike CT they just didn't spend the money on advertising.  A great pity because IMO more people would trust Which?

[John Kelly]

The Which one is still going Kev.
https://trustedtraders.which.co.uk

[John Kelly]

Personally I think Which are crap. They are a bunch of amateurs testing things they know nothing about.  Like when they tested carpet stain removers and said that washing up liquid was as good as anything. No thought behind causing residual re-soiling. Woolsafe took them to task and they conceded they got it wrong but damage was done.

[SimonW]

just joined checkatrade.com and will see how it works. Have few businesses around me who do carpet cleaning and are quite local but none in my town as carpet cleaner so I am keeping fingers crossed.

and valid point to add is that the founder of checkatrade.com is an ex-carpet cleaning business owner

[M Roberts]

just joined checkatrade.com and will see how it works. Have few businesses around me who do carpet cleaning and are quite local but none in my town as carpet cleaner so I am keeping fingers crossed.

and valid point to add is that the founder of checkatrade.com is an ex-carpet cleaning business owner

Good luck in the time we have been with them only had a hand full of enquiries for carpet cleaning ,
we are based in Dunstable

[Kev Martin]

The Which one is still going Kev.
https://trustedtraders.which.co.uk

You learn something new everyday.  They actually offered me to join for £200 about 2 or 3 years ago I think.  We declined  because I actually don't think people would go to them for Stone Restoration.  I did quite a few years ago join something called "MyHammer" they however offered a guarantee of work and we ended up with a refund of fees.  I think they were A German Company

[Doctor Carpet (Ret'd)]

Someone has to pay for all that advertising and sponsorship they do on ITV, GMTV & Weather.  VERY VERY CLEVER actually.  The advertising and sponsorship lulls the public into believing they are a big company which in turn inspires confidence that all their traders must be brilliant because they are constantly in peoples minds. 

WHICH? tried the same thing trying to get traders to be a "Which Endorsed Company"  but unlike CT they just didn't spend the money on advertising.  A great pity because IMO more people would trust Which?

Kev

We advertised in a local glossy magazine and on the back of one job the client said “I’m going to put a review about you on Which Local”. It meant nothing to us at the time.

We actually got a lot of work on the back of the original review posted. Back then this was a free service offered to Which members and as I said it worked really well for us.

Then Which started to charge for being “recommended” and the level of business went down @nd we decided the return on the spend wasn’t worth it.

Upon reflection Which readers don’t know it all but they are a loyal bunch to themselves.

(We retained many of those Which clients to this day.)

Rog

[Kev Martin]

Someone has to pay for all that advertising and sponsorship they do on ITV, GMTV & Weather.  VERY VERY CLEVER actually.  The advertising and sponsorship lulls the public into believing they are a big company which in turn inspires confidence that all their traders must be brilliant because they are constantly in peoples minds. 

WHICH? tried the same thing trying to get traders to be a "Which Endorsed Company"  but unlike CT they just didn't spend the money on advertising.  A great pity because IMO more people would trust Which?

Kev

We advertised in a local glossy magazine and on the back of one job the client said “I’m going to put a review about you on Which Local”. It meant nothing to us at the time.

We actually got a lot of work on the back of the original review posted. Back then this was a free service offered to Which members and as I said it worked really well for us.

Then Which started to charge for being “recommended” and the level of business went down @nd we decided the return on the spend wasn’t worth it.

Upon reflection Which readers don’t know it all but they are a loyal bunch to themselves.

(We retained many of those Which clients to this day.)

Rog

Roger

Now I think about it the first year was offered free but we still declined. Another rule I took on board from my old Dad
"Beware of Greeks Bearing Gifts"

[Tim Hersey]

Checkatrade works very well for me ,I have over 1200 feedbacks, of which 98% are done on line by the customer, I get a least  6 or more calls a week , if you are good at your job and charge what you are worth , you pay for it in 3 weeks , Next week I have two  large furniture jobs and it will nearly be paid for, the more feedback you get and with a good website the better your chances of  getting bookings Tim Clean&Bright

[md_cleaning]

Was rubbish for me, I’m in Harrogate

[SimonW]

just joined checkatrade.com and will see how it works. Have few businesses around me who do carpet cleaning and are quite local but none in my town as carpet cleaner so I am keeping fingers crossed.

and valid point to add is that the founder of checkatrade.com is an ex-carpet cleaning business owner

Good luck in the time we have been with them only had a hand full of enquiries for carpet cleaning ,
we are based in Dunstable

Thanks mate. It already paid off 70% of its annual membership.  Well worth it and it'll certainly improve within a time. Your personal sales skills play a key role here as well as what you input into your checkatrade profile.

Happy days!

[M Roberts]

just joined checkatrade.com and will see how it works. Have few businesses around me who do carpet cleaning and are quite local but none in my town as carpet cleaner so I am keeping fingers crossed.

and valid point to add is that the founder of checkatrade.com is an ex-carpet cleaning business owner

Good luck in the time we have been with them only had a hand full of enquiries for carpet cleaning ,
we are based in Dunstable

Thanks mate. It already paid off 70% of its annual membership.  Well worth it and it'll certainly improve within a time. Your personal sales skills play a key role here as well as what you input into your checkatrade profile.

Happy days!

Good to hear as it shows customers or potential customers must be reading the reviews. 

We are only  interested in exterior cleaning  work as you can see from our reviews,  get them reviews rolling in, for CC that should be easy. Speak to the person dealing with your account  and get one of your review titles amended as it was completed by yourself , so doesn't look very good

[SimonW]

just joined checkatrade.com and will see how it works. Have few businesses around me who do carpet cleaning and are quite local but none in my town as carpet cleaner so I am keeping fingers crossed.

and valid point to add is that the founder of checkatrade.com is an ex-carpet cleaning business owner

Good luck in the time we have been with them only had a hand full of enquiries for carpet cleaning ,
we are based in Dunstable

Thanks mate. It already paid off 70% of its annual membership.  Well worth it and it'll certainly improve within a time. Your personal sales skills play a key role here as well as what you input into your checkatrade profile.

Happy days!

Good to hear as it shows customers or potential customers must be reading the reviews. 

We are only  interested in exterior cleaning  work as you can see from our reviews,  get them reviews rolling in, for CC that should be easy. Speak to the person dealing with your account  and get one of your review titles amended as it was completed by yourself , so doesn't look very good

Spot on pal. Thank you :]

Have a good day!

[terry barnes]

just heard that Checkertrade has been sold to Homeserve