Making the most of joining Local Traders

To get the best out of joining Local Traders there are a number of steps you can take to maximise the possibility of getting positive results from customers and winning contracts to carry out their home improvement work or solve problems in emergencies.

Although some points may seem obvious, this advice is based on feedback from our customers when asked about their experiences with hiring local tradespeople, so we thought we would share this information to help you get the best out of being part of Local Traders.

1. Rapid response

When enquiries are submitted by customers, we forward them to tradespeople who are registered with our service. As soon as you receive enquiries from Local Traders with details of customers who require your services, responding to the job by phone or text is advisable in order to establish contact, and if necessary, arrange a home visit to provide a quote, consultation or assessment of the work to be completed. The faster you respond to a customer's request, the more likely you are to win their business.

2. No job too small

Even if a small enquiry comes through to you which may not yield as much money as a larger job, taking advantage of the smaller jobs can add up to pay for your service quicker than you might think. Furthermore, customers who hire you for a small job and are pleased with your quality workmanship and service are more likely to ring you direct than search for a new tradesperson if they need similar work doing in the future that you could assist with.

3. Stick to basics

Many customers won't know the jargon of your trade so keeping things easy to understand whilst laying out the main details a customer needs to know can be most effective. Customers can be turned off by too much trade jargon and think they're being primed for an expensive bill, even though a tradesperson may just be trying to explain the situation in more detail to demonstrate their knowledge and expertise.

4. Quote for the job

Feedback from customers enquiring through the service has told us that if a customer receives calls/texts from multiple tradespeople, one of the things that will stop them from choosing a particular tradesman is if they are quoted for additional work they didn't ask for. This is especially true if one trader tries to sell additional services but others don't, as they can feel they are being pushed to accept services they don't want/necessarily need. Obviously situations will arise where hidden problems can be discovered while work is in progress, and when asked, customers accepted this was the case and in the main advised that concern was limited to sales of additional services before work even began.

5. Leave a card

If you visit someone at their home, they may be planning work for a week or a month down the line, so to ensure customers can get back in touch with you easily when they are ready for work to commence, leave a business card or provide contact details. Alternatively, offering to ring the customer back at the time when they're scheduling the work could win you the job by providing customer service the customer may not receive from other tradespeople.

6. Stay in touch

Another area customers have told us influences their choice of tradesperson is contact. If somebody promises a call back or home visit and is late, fails to turn up at all, or has to be contacted back by the customer, this is often a fatal move that sees the customer looking elsewhere. Reliability is seen as a key trait that customers want to see in their tradespeople.