What’s the best way to get a plumber to fix a leaky pipe or a landscaper to beautify your yard? Traditionally, people have checked the phone book, called a business randomly and paid whatever bill they received.The Internet already has begun changing things, of course, but a group of CompUSA veterans hopes to go much further. They want to change the process from start to finish with a work-management system called ServiceLive.
ServiceLive users log on to the Web site, www.servicelive.com, and enter a specific job description, along with photos, preferred times and proposed prices.
To prevent unreasonable demands, the ServiceLive system walks customers through the job description and helps them estimate a fair cost. The photos let vendors see the jobs for themselves.
After customers have their say, ServiceLive e-mails their proposals to participating local service providers, who can ignore them, accept them or make a counteroffer. Once the responses come in, customers can check vendor ratings and choose the best offer.
The final two steps come after the work has been completed. The customer logs in to ServiceLive and releases payment. Finally, the customer and vendor rate each other.
Zenette Andrle, who tried ServiceLive for the first time this week, gives it high marks. The program helped her describe the problems she was having with her computer and – though she only got one response to her service call – it came from someone who could come to her Allen home just when she wanted.
“He was professional. He was knowledgeable. And he explained everything in language that I could understand,” said Andrle, who heard about ServiceLive from a relative. “It was a good experience, and I’d try it again.”
Setting up a call
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“There are several big advantages here from the customer’s point of view,” said ServiceLive president George Coll, who spent 11 years at Addison-based CompUSA before leaving for ServiceLive in 2007.
“First, the system helps you figure out fair price. Second, it lets you schedule a time that suits you. Third, the reviews give you an objective way to choose a service provider. Fourth, the service provider has an extra incentive to do good work because he knows the customer will review him.”
So what’s in it for service providers?
“They get an extra avenue for attracting new business. They get enough advance information about each job to plan their time. They get advance insight on the customer because other providers rate customers. And they get guaranteed payment instantly,” Coll said.
ServiceLive takes 10 percent of the payment as its charge for maintaining the system, performing background checks on service providers, marketing the service and paying the credit card fee.
In the future, ServiceLive may charge users for posting a proposed job, but it is currently offering that for free.
ServiceLive began as an in-house system to manage vendor relationships for Sears Holding Co. in Chicago. But the system worked so well that Sears decided to form a start-up company to sell it to other businesses and consumers.
Shortly after Coll came on board, he recruited former colleagues from CompUSA. A handful of people already have made the move from Addison to the tiny Chicago company which has only 14 people on its core business team.
The system has been open to all users since June. ServiceLive has signed up 25,000 service providers for its network and set up “tens of thousands” of jobs, mostly for property management companies and other businesses that need a lot of service.
ServiceLive covets the consumer market, though it sees plenty of competition, at least in the provider search part of its business.
Indeed, local search – as the industry is known – is crowded with powerful incumbents and rapidly growing newcomers.
Yellow Pages persevere
The Yellow Pages, for example, may seem like a relic to folks who search online, but it remains a mainstay for most Americans.
Scott W. Klein, the CEO of the Yellow Pages publisher Idearc Inc., loves to note that only 4 billion of the 17 billion local searches performed in 2008 were done online. The remaining 13 billion were done with telephone books.
“And it’s not like the Internet’s share is growing like gangbusters,” said Klein, whose company is based in Grapevine. “Those numbers were virtually unchanged from 2007.”
Eventually, when those searches do move online, Idearc and other publishers think they’ll be able to retain customers with brands they trust – SuperPages.com is Idearc’s main address – and innovative programs. Idearc guarantees the work done by businesses that advertise in its books or on its Web sites.
Further competition comes from Internet-only companies that range from giants such as Google and Yahoo to smaller firms such as CitySearch and Yelp.
All major search companies have lavished money and talented programmers on local search. Yelp and CitySearch have focused on building huge databases of reliable reviews.
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“We are building a community where people grow to trust particular reviewers who share their tastes and expectations,” said Stephanie Ichinose, director of communications for Yelp.
But the tiny company from Chicago thinks its unique job management system provides it with the ultimate advantage.
“The search sites are great for search, but once you get a couple names to call, you’re right back where you were with the Yellow Pages,” said Coll. “What we’re offering is completely different: a way for customers to get vendors to compete for them and a system that manages the whole process.”
By Andrew Smith
April 30, 2009
source: dallasnews.com