ServiceMagic? Should I Join? I am a professional Handyman!

Get informed with this review on
ServiceMagic

What can I expect if I enroll with ServiceMagic as a professional?
This article can answer that in complete detail.

I have joined ServiceMagic and can share my experience of how it went.
First of all I am not disgruntled or angry nor do I have it in for anyone or company.
These are reviews created with the purpose that if someone does a search for information on any company they are considering to work with, they can get
the reliable truth through actual experience from the review writer.



This is not a biography on ServiceMagic just a review. The concept is market the web for those who need things done and those who can do it, this is primarily in home improvement and construction. ServiceMagic has a large staff, these people will be needing to get paid every week and they would like that to be good pay. If you join ServiceMagic those staff members will get paid, but by you!!

Logged in page thumbnail of ServiceMagic pros

After you are approved (background check and confirmed insurance depending on your state laws) you will then give over your checking account number to ServiceMagic and they will then pull your enrollment fee of around $46, you'll set up a profile and put in all your information and will become a pre-screened ServiceMagic professional.

Service Magic controls top results for many related keywords to getting stuff done around the house, keywords used by everyday people on Google and other search engines. Their staff has expertly optimized their website and it's campaigns, with top search results plus ppc campaigning the company can produce quite a bit of traffic. They call their traffic "leads" and be aware of how it is buying leads from any company, you have no way of knowing that leads quality. How does leads marketed by ServiceMagic get to you the professional? You pay for them, anywhere from 12 to 50 dollars, the average being 17.50 per lead.

Here is a typical example and what actually happened while I was a member:
I would receive a call by the automated bot that informs me a customer has inquired my particular service (one by which I chose out of many) The bot basically says: "you have a new lead brought to you by service magic, for..." and then it goes into the category that was picked by the customer and the bot reads off some of the other information. Now you should call that customer right away and hope they wont waste your time, I say it like that because most of them will!! Then If the customer doesn't complain that their phone is ringing off the hook from all the ServiceMagic professionals in the area that just called them besides you; you set up a time to meet them to see their project. The ServiceMagic website tells these people to get at least 4 estimates so when you get to their house they do not intend to just give you the work, resulting in a waste of time, gas, and the cost of the lead. You may convince them that you are perfect for their project and with luck they may just call you back instead of all the others that they talked to. Yes, all the others that listed in the category same as you will pay also and be wanting that work from that customer! Another way to see this is: Someone wants a tile job done and uses the ServiceMagic website, the system will call out to all that match the criteria in that area charge them all the preset price per lead for tile flooring and a bunch of almost wild animals come running, the folks have all that to choose from and they will choose based on things that impress them but not determine who is actually best because impressions are crafted and made up.

Things from ServiceMagic to be aware of:

• I had a lead come in right after a lead just came in, there was no time to catch the second one, it had to wait resulting in someone else getting that job, I still payed for the lead though!
• I had a lead come in and when I called as soon as I got it the folks said: "We already got that done 11:00 this morning, the lead came in at 3:00pm, I had to call and complain to not get charged for that one! You can turn off your leads but that doesn't protect you from all that happens when they are on, It only lets you turn leads off for 2 weeks after that they come back on even if you are asleep.
• I had a lead come in as soon as the 2 weeks that I had them shut off expired, the lead came in as soon as it could based on it's timer and I could not deal with the lead at the time it came in resulting in someone else getting the work, I still had to pay for it though. This system has thrown leads at me at times where there was no way I could get to it yet. The schedule says I am open at 7:30am and I will receive the lead a 7:14 while I am in route to taking the wife to work, or still asleep, resulting in not getting the work.
• I have heard "Sorry we already have someone for that job" many times but I called as soon as the lead came in, they couldn't of had time to get someone else! Or did the lead just get to me late or pushed my number to the bottom of the list to be called? (Basically you will get charged for leads even after the people have already picked someone else!)
• I had a guy holler at me because he said that as soon as he inquired on the ServiceMagic website he got bombarded by hungry callers and he didn't like it and took it out on me and hung up! Left me in a bad feeling, and I still had to pay for that lead!!
• I had a lady tell me that she learned from the SM website that she was crazy if she did not check at least 3 other people...her words!
• I had a lady tell me that she had talked to another guy who would do it for 20 or 30 dollars ie for assembling, hanging cabinets and fixing the wall in the garage, 4 or 5 hours of work for $20, could I beat that? I still had to pay for that lead, $17.50!!
• I had a lead come in that when I got there after talking to the people from the lead phone call, another guy showed up to look at and bid the same lead that I was going to bid....we both turned around and left that job in disgust! I still had to pay for that lead!!
• I had many leads come in that no one answered the phone ever. I still had to pay for those leads!!
• I had leads come in that were out of my zone configuration, I had to call and complain to get credited back on those, it wasted my time and causes grief!!
• When being pitched to by a ServiceMagic sales rep I was told that there were only 2 or 3 other pros in my area doing exactly what I said I would be doing, the customers told me there were many others. SM even called me and asked if I knew anyone else to join? (They did say not in my profession so as not to compete, but I was listed as handyman, hello!)
• It is not in the best interest for ServiceMagic to care how many pros they have competing because the more members the more accounts they can dip from, they just wouldn't want you to think that they would add competition to you in your area, they so would!!
• I had leads come in that were people just posing as customers, asking me questions about what they wanted to do theirselves but didn't want me to know that, I had to pay for those leads!!

If you are thinking about joining ServiceMagic as a professional, it can work for you a little at a time as you learn to manipulate the system and out do others, but if you don't get savvy with that you can expect to pay dearly for leads weather you get the jobs or not you will be paying a sizable amount per month (taken every Friday) that may or may not be worth it to you. You can expect extreme competition as even if you are first to a lead the people are taught not to go with you until they talk to others. There is an average but that average comes with tons of grief and fierce competition, consider this, all the pros are paying the staff and CEO at ServiceMagic their wages just so they can go and almost literally fight over a given job and many are small with little money to be earned to begin with!!

The people at ServiceMagic were some nice and some not-so-much, I had one support member snide at me and tell me I needed to be more bold with the customers when I get a lead, she also made me feel bad by saying I am doing something wrong not to be getting more jobs from the leads. But I had nothing wrong with me and I am very professional, they just defend their system no matter what you tell them, and determine that there might be something wrong with you. In my expert opinion The Service Magic system is not good for the little guy starting a business, there are much better ways. For larger companies and contractors they may not mind the cost and use ServiceMagic to fish out other supplemental projects. I recommend using money you would pay to leads for doing your own advertising in the newspaper and direct marketing, this way you will get leads that your ad payed for and with no one else beating you to it, a much higher average of getting the work. You would be paying this anyway if joined to ServiceMagic but instead it is all for you and not a network!!

This review by: Jon Fox owner of www.thisaintwork.com and ArticleSpot

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