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This sounds very attractive to me as someone who just discovered my lawnmower won't start, a tree died over the winter, and 3 sprinklers are busted. I don't hav

by vyrotek 13y ago

This sounds very attractive to me as someone who just discovered my lawnmower won't start, a tree died over the winter, and 3 sprinklers are busted. I don't have time currently to deal with it. Could it operate like Uber in a way? This service would attract a lot of handy/service men looking for work. It definitely would need a review system.

avalaunch 13y ago
Maybe, but there would need to be some way of initially vetting them so that you don't devalue the service by regularly sending unqualified handymen to your customers homes. It's probably not too bad if the person you send to mow the lawn is only so-so, but the person you send to fix the electrical issue better know his stuff. Also, you need some way to ensure that they actually show up when they say they will which, from my experience, is a 50-50 proposition with most handymen. It's definitely an interesting approach though and there are probably ways to circumvent the obstacles.
lawncheer 13y ago
As a customer, do you want to take the time to dig through reviews, or would you rather the service "just work". I am in the finishing stages of developing lawncheer, which is a service for lawn and garden work; one of the areas I struggled with, was the trade-off on transparency and the contractor development cycle; ie, lawncheer, handles everything, and there is little interaction between the contractor/customer and we have a big stake in making sure the contractors perform perfectly, or the site just facilitates a transaction, where contractors go through a basic vetting process, but the reviews are what will count. One is obviously much more easily scaled (review functionality is easy to program, onboarding and training is hard).
- vyrotek 13y ago
  I guess it depends. Are we talking about a flat fee or is there an opportunity for the contractors to bid for my job? The more involved I am in the process, the less I expect to pay. But I might be fine with accepting individuals who have less experience/reviews if they will accept a lower rate. I do think the goal should be to find a specific contractor who will consistently service my yard. Meaning, I don't think I would be a fan of a new person showing up every week. That sort of thing works fine for a taxi service but I think the trust relationship changes because they're coming to my home.
  - lawncheer 13y ago
    Interesting; for the time being, my goal is actually the opposite. My goal (at least until data starts coming in more reliably), is to provide you the user w/ repeatable, affordable, and reliable lawn care. If I am doing my job right, the contractors from my customers perspective should be interchangeable; you build a trust relationship with lawncheer, my job is to shield you from any potential disasters. Plan is to do a flat percentage fee, for each mowing, and I will be setting the prices.

by vyrotek 13y ago

avalaunch 13y ago

Maybe, but there would need to be some way of initially vetting them so that you don't devalue the service by regularly sending unqualified handymen to your customers homes. It's probably not too bad if the person you send to mow the lawn is only so-so, but the person you send to fix the electrical issue better know his stuff. Also, you need some way to ensure that they actually show up when they say they will which, from my experience, is a 50-50 proposition with most handymen. It's definitely an interesting approach though and there are probably ways to circumvent the obstacles.

lawncheer 13y ago

As a customer, do you want to take the time to dig through reviews, or would you rather the service "just work". I am in the finishing stages of developing lawncheer, which is a service for lawn and garden work; one of the areas I struggled with, was the trade-off on transparency and the contractor development cycle; ie, lawncheer, handles everything, and there is little interaction between the contractor/customer and we have a big stake in making sure the contractors perform perfectly, or the site just facilitates a transaction, where contractors go through a basic vetting process, but the reviews are what will count. One is obviously much more easily scaled (review functionality is easy to program, onboarding and training is hard).

vyrotek 13y ago
I guess it depends. Are we talking about a flat fee or is there an opportunity for the contractors to bid for my job? The more involved I am in the process, the less I expect to pay. But I might be fine with accepting individuals who have less experience/reviews if they will accept a lower rate. I do think the goal should be to find a specific contractor who will consistently service my yard. Meaning, I don't think I would be a fan of a new person showing up every week. That sort of thing works fine for a taxi service but I think the trust relationship changes because they're coming to my home.
- lawncheer 13y ago
  Interesting; for the time being, my goal is actually the opposite. My goal (at least until data starts coming in more reliably), is to provide you the user w/ repeatable, affordable, and reliable lawn care. If I am doing my job right, the contractors from my customers perspective should be interchangeable; you build a trust relationship with lawncheer, my job is to shield you from any potential disasters. Plan is to do a flat percentage fee, for each mowing, and I will be setting the prices.