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I have a refinement to suggest if someone is looking for a business. How many contractors (lawn, roof, carpenter, whatever) have you ever dealt with that are w
by imglorp 8y ago
I have a refinement to suggest if someone is looking for a business.
How many contractors (lawn, roof, carpenter, whatever) have you ever dealt with that are wizards at what they do but don't have the cycles to return a phone call or keep you updated on your appointment to save their life? If you're lucky, their spouse/nephew/etc is a part time coordinator? Maybe they call you back at the end of the week when they do all their calls? Ick.
These guys need someone to keep track of their schedules and appointments and keep customers well communicated. THAT'S IT.
I've abandoned so many engagements because of not doing this one thing.
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- derefr 8y agoThat's usually called an agent. Honestly, I'm surprised "agents for sharing-economy freelancers" hasn't taken off yet.
- drivingmenuts 8y agoisn’t that basically a temp agency?
- notatoad 8y agoIsn't that essentially the role that all the apps powering the "sharing economy" are providing?
- mikepurvis 8y agoRight, but I think the idea would be something where the person providing the actual useful service enlists the help of the app/agent and is in control of the relationship, rather than the other way around.
- brianbreslin 8y ago^ this 1000%! I've had to change repair crews because they won't call me back. I've had so many not follow up either. It's like you WANT to give them money but they can't squeeze in the time to manage the customer service aspect.
- toomuchtodo 8y agoMost likely they're swamped with work. The problem isn't their time management, they're just crudely shedding jobs they don't need. You may want to give them money, they just don't need it. Another indicator would be a high outlier quote (which is less a quote and more a polite way to communicate they don't need the work). Disclaimer: I own properties in high growth geographies and face these issues with subcontractors.
- imglorp 8y agoAgreed, they're load shedding, but human nature says the first time you call them they'll say "yeah we'll fit you in next week." And THEN they string you along with phone tag for six months until you go away.
- reaperducer 8y agoSome people just don't have it in them to say "no." I don't mean that they feel bad about turning a customer away. I mean that culturally, they simply don't say "no" and would rather just not show up than deliver a negative response. I've experienced this in both Austria and Thailand. You'll get a lie before you get a "no." It's just a quirk of the culture, which is nice and all, but not helpful when you're at VIE looking for a ride that never shows.
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- reaperducer 8y agoHow many contractors (lawn, roof, carpenter, whatever) have you ever dealt with that are wizards at what they do but don't have the cycles to return a phone call or keep you updated on your appointment to save their life? All of them. Including the three guys currently laying a new floor in my sitting room as I type this who were supposed to get back to me two days ago to let me know when they were going to come to do the work, but just showed up this morning ready to start.
- ian0 8y agoA friend of mine was working on software for large building contractors that would assist with this, with the goals being to get the right contractors to the right project at the right time. Turns out the complexity is pretty daunting due to the difficulty of estimating when a job will be complete, unforeseen additional work, contractors working with an existing backlog of clients and interdependencies between teams. All in all it reminded me of exactly shy its so hard to get a specific date when a piece of software will launch!
- imglorp 8y agoYeah if you get into PM it's a big hole. I was suggesting stay within the narrow confines of customer comms. Just a shared calendar, some phone/sms/email integrations, and some kind of "den mother" supervisor to make sure comms are in sync with reality.
- dvtrn 8y agoThis comment nearly floored me. Let me tell you why. I nearly launched a startup to do exactly this because I realized the same thing you did. After leaving the US military, I started a handyman company with a friend and along with my GI Bill that paid for college, our little fix-it shop helped pay for other life expenses. Growing up, my dad was an electrician and carpenter, passed skills down to his boys, a high school friend I was in the marching band with was like me, except plumbing. He became my business partner. You're 100% right, scheduling and communication among the trades is something I noticed many of my competitors at the time struggling with mightily-even when I went to work for an electrician's shop and ended up getting promoted to "project management" scheduling, coordination and resource management was something that I spent a lot of cycles trying to improve-and as I went from company to company through my career I began to notice how widespread the symptoms were. This was a cultural challenge as much as it was a technical challenge just finding the right systems for scheduling, planning and ultimately billing. There's a lot of really powerful software out there that looks to at least solve the technical challenges behind scheduling and customer care, but in the handyman field-unless I've just overlooked it, there's a lot of room to bring some good practices regarding systems of work and flow from the tech world into scheduling, customer relations and project planning to the home services industry. The idea of launching some kind of service that 'outsourced' such backoffice tasks for handyman type companies has forever been in the back of my mind having been in that world. Your comment has motivated me to give it another look, so thanks for that.