A great Thumbtack profile shows customers exactly what they want to see—and makes their decision to hire you that much easier. It’s also the number one thing you can do to improve your overall hire rate—by a lot.
From tracking hires to updating your Q&A, we’re focusing on the parts of your profile that matter most so you can get the jobs you want by winning over customers at first glance.
1. Count your stars (reviews, reviews, reviews).
Reviews are one of the most important elements of your Thumbtack profile, and these days they’re more visible than ever. “At the end of an appointment, I always ask my customer to leave me a Thumbtack review. I tell them honestly: leaving me a review is the best tip you can give me,” explains San Francisco-based massage therapist Alexander Rosan.
Once you’ve marked a project as ‘In progress’ or ‘Done,’ Thumbtack sends your customer a message confirming that you’ve been hired and asking them to write you a review. Some pros change the timeframe for when this automatic email is sent, so their customers get the request three days or even a week down the line. Wedding planners, for example, often set their review email to send once the happy couple has returned from their honeymoon—often weeks down the line.
If your customer is having trouble finding your page or leaving you a review, you can also share this helpful article from Thumbtack’s Help Center to help guide them through the process.
Once the review is in, consider responding to your customer. Take the time to thank them for writing a positive review, or take the opportunity to answer some of their concerns if the review was less than glowing.
2. Spell check your bio.
Customers really are looking at the content of your profile. So it’s worth taking the time to make sure you’re getting things right.
A strong Thumbtack bio should be short, clear and friendly. It should cover what your business does, your values and why you’re the best choice for the job. Just as important as what’s in the bio is how it’s written.
“If you’re not a great writer, hire someone who is. Your bio is how customers get to know who you are and making a good first impression is everything. It’s worth spending the time on,” explains Joel Scott, whose Thumbtack events company has doubled in size in the last year alone.
3. Keep track of your hires.
Customers can see how many times you’ve been hired when scanning through your Thumbtack profile. What’s more―many tell us it’s one of the the things they look for.
It’s easy for a customer to forget to mark you as “hired,” especially if their booking changes or was made a long time in advance. If your customer does forget, Thumbtack makes it easy for you to go in and do it yourself.
“If customers hire me through a booking request and don’t mark me as hired, I make sure to go back do it so my calendar stays updated and it’s counted on my profile,” says Serene Aandahl whose organic cleaning business is based in Austin, Texas.
Marking yourself as hired is as easy as going into your Thumbtack inbox, selecting a customer request and updating the job status to one of the following: I haven’t been hired yet, In progress, Done. Thumbtack even makes it possible to sort your inbox by these statuses, so your jobs are easy to scan and quick to update.
4. Complete your profile’s Q&A section.
Your bio is short and sweet. But once you’ve caught your customers’ attention, it’s a good idea to give them the option of reading on. Thumbtack’s Q&A section is the perfect place to talk about the more inspirational side of your business, including who you are, how you got to where you are and how your business reflects that journey.
If you’re a person who loves what you do but doesn’t love talking about it, take the Q&A space to talk about your qualifications and on the job experience instead. The more (high-quality) material you can provide on your Thumbtack profile, the more sure customers will feel in their decision to hire you.
If you’re not sure which questions to answer, see this Help Center article on how to craft a Q&A section that draws customers in.
5. Instant Match bonus tip: Pick your best pics.
Now using Instant Match, you have the option of telling Thumbtack what kinds of jobs you want—from the hours you want to work to the exact kinds of service you want to offer—and from that information, getting instantly connect you with customers who want what you offer.
The pros who are most successful on Instant Match (and on Thumbtack in general) think hard about which of their services are most in demand and tailor their profile to fit those specific jobs. House cleaner David Tello, changed his Thumbtack profile to focus mainly on move-in/move-out cleanings—by far his most popular service.
To show customers that he has experience with these types of jobs, David made the primary photos on his profile before-and-after images from move-in/move-out cleanings: shots of clean, empty apartments just waiting for new tenants.
Your photos give customers an idea of what their project will look like, whether that’s a photo booth display, an iPhone 5 screen repair or an organized closet. Make your display specific to what your customer base wants and make their decision to hire you that much easier.
For more on getting matched instantly with the customers you want, see these Top Pro tips on setting your job preferences.
