Much has changed on the service providers list, I would like to know peoples opinion of the new Leak Referral & Recognition Program
My opinions so far:
1 I much prefered last years format, FREE, more info listed
2 The cost of the upgraded listing, VS the jobs generated by the free listing, in my case 1% of the "views" you have recorded actually resulted in paying leak repair jobs with the free listing, how much more will be generated by the enhanced paid add?
3 charging by area code, I am at the junction of 4 area codes with 2 more codes being overlaid in the coming year, the cost of paying for the area codes that I do work in would exceed the entire income generated from the jobs referred
I would like to know others experience and opinions
Thank you Bruce Underwater Pool Repair serving CT & NY

Bruce:

Thanks for your input on the LSRR program (http://www.leaktools.com/service_providers/sample/). I hope that others will also offer their opinions. This is a new program so we need as much feedback as we can get to make it something that is truly valuable to both service providers and consumers. I’ll try to address each of your concerns with some of our reasoning for why we did what we did. I am also very open to other ideas if anyone has suggestions.

Number 1. Since we introduced the free referral list last year it has become very popular. In some area codes over 10 service providers have signed up. While we limited the list to companies who had purchased from us in the past we did not feel that it was fair (or for that matter meaningful) for the ranking on the list to be the result of how much had been purchased. We also did not want to be the judges of who should be ranked where on the list. We established the LSRR program as a way of more objectively ranking the list based on indicators that would be meaningful to consumers. Those service providers who are willing to invest in their business and want to really focus on leak detection, we thought, would be willing to spend a small amount on separating themselves from others who just signed up for the listing because they do an occasional job. Additionally, the customer satisfaction survey component was meant to allow consumers to provide feedback that would also indicate a service provider’s professionalism and rank them accordingly. We found that the main source of jobs for most leak detectors was referrals from past customers. The customer satisfaction survey component is meant to allow this sort of consumer to consumer communication to happen within the growing “e-community.”

We have invested a great deal of “up-front” money and time into getting this lead generating mechanism in place. We have done so because we think that consumers are going to get more and more of their information from the internet at the expense of more conventional mediums such as the Yellow Pages. The best way to secure good “real estate” in the key word searches is to do so on a national scale. This is however expensive. In addition to heavily devoting one of my employees time to this effort we have been spending more than $750/month on pay per click advertising to establish this presence. We think the goal we are pursuing is worth it and we hope that service providers like your self will also recognize the value and help us with the costs. If not, the free listing is still available.

Number 2. We show that your listing has been displayed 84 times since July 1 2006. 1% of this is a pretty small number! I can understand why you would not see value in the list. Two explanations may be of value. First, 84 is the number of actual searches done, some of these may be from the same person, so the actual prospects who searched may be fewer than 84. We are changing the backend recordkeeping of the site so that we can better count how many searches are done by different computers. Second, most of your views have come from the 854 area code where you are currently listed behind four others who’s business locations are within that code. You are probably observing one of the drawbacks to a simple listing on an internet site . . . it’s impersonal. Hopefully, the LSRR program will make the information provided to the prospect more meaningful and thus increase call rates. In the mean time I have taken the liberty of capitalizing the first letters of your company name. Please let me know if you entered it with lower case on purpose. I think the new change will make a better presentation to prospects when your free listing is displayed.

Additionally, the number of searches you experienced should increase substantially as we spend more money on promoting the poolleak.info site and it increases in it’s ranking on the list. Based on data we have gathered regarding key word searches, we know that the number of searches done in your area codes should continue increasing to levels that could easily be 3 times what they were last year.

Number 3. We wrestled for a long time with how to handle service area definition. Our reasoning for using area codes has to do primarily with the fact that different leak companies are willing to cover very different amounts of territory. Some with multiple trucks cover large geographic areas. Defining these areas with zip codes would have required entry of many many zip codes. Area codes while imperfect, due in large part to the concerns you raised, still seemed the easiest way to define service areas. This is indeed something we may have to change in the future. However for now we are pretty committed to this method of service area definition. We have priced each of the area codes based upon the number of searches (by different computers) that have been done in each one. So the new area codes you discuss would be very cheap and probably not important to purchase in the near future. Maybe it would be worthwhile for you to try one of the four area codes with the LSRR listing leaving the rest with a free listing to see how they compare. Call me and I can help you determine which one would give you the best chance of returning the $150 investment you would make.

Thanks again for your feedback. Although I have defended some of what we have done with this I want you to know that your concerns are important to us and I will continue to consider how we can change the service to better fit the needs of leak professionals such as yourself.

Thanks again for your input.

Lance

Lance
Thank you for your responce and for your time at the Atlantic City show. Truely the products you sell and the great help you and your staff offer on the phone is superior to all. My dificulty is primarily the cost of the upgraded listing vs the increased money generated. I have determined how many jobs I get from each area code and I will give you a call to see what you can suggest. You mentioned that most of the searches had been in the 854 area code? perhaps you mistyped, I live in 860 and do some work in 845 but these two codes = less than 25% of my work, the largest is 203, second would be 914.
I'll call soon
Bruce

like i said

In the first year I got a handful of paying jobs from the "free listing", in the second year I got over 10 paid jobs from the reduced info free listing, clearly Leak Tools site seemed to be generating more exposure, this year I have chosen to pay for the enhanced listing (the price / area code is so reasonable it is less than the amount received from even one paid job) It is only April and I have already gotten 5 paid jobs which paid far more than the enhanced ad cost for the entire year.

Bruce