“How do I stack up against my competition?” It’s a question we all ask—and as a small business owner, there are few things more important than keeping an eye on how you measure up in your market. Because doing your best matters, but knowing who’s setting that bar means everything.
At Thumbtack, we’re making gauging your performance a little easier with our new pro Insights report. By tracking your weekly activity across job types—including how many quotes Thumbtack sent for you and how many customers responded—and comparing your reviews and quote price against other pros in your area, Thumbtack is able to give you a weekly assessment and help you get hired more.
Here are four things not to miss on your next Insights report.
#1: Quotes Sent
At the very top of your report, you’ll see a box telling you how many quotes were sent for your business on Thumbtack in the last seven days and how many customers have responded to those quotes. Now that Thumbtack instantly matches you with customers, it’s important to take time to review that those customers are the right ones.
If your quotes sent number is lower than you’d expect, it might be a sign that your availability and distance need to be adjusted. Setting your preferences helps Thumbtack match you with the pros who are most likely to hire you, based on the specifications you set. But if you’re too narrow—or your budget is too limited—it’s possible you’re missing out on jobs that are right for you.
But if your quotes sent number is higher than you might expect it might be time to narrow your specifications so you can focus in on only the jobs you most want.
#2: New Contacts
Slide one number over and you’ll see a figure telling you how many customers have responded to your quotes. Tracking the number of customers that reached out after receiving your quote helps you understand more than just your weekly success rate. When you’re just getting started with Instant Match, you can use the budget tool in your services tab to better control the number of customers you hear from and the amount of money you spend.
Simply adjust your weekly spending to see the number of interested customers that may reach out to you. Once you hit your budget, Thumbtack will stop sending quotes for the rest of the week. If a customer responds to a quote sent before that, you’ll still be charged for that response.
How much you hear from customers is also a clear indicator of whether or not your quote message is working. Sending a lot of quotes but not getting a lot of hits? It might be time to reconfigure how you’re selling your business.
#3: Cost Per Contact
Thumbtack only charges you when the customer reaches out for the first time. Each of these new connections is tracked in your weekly Insights report, along with the average price of a new connection.
Understanding how much you pay to connect with new customers is critical to setting a budget that makes sense for your business. Now that you can adjust your weekly spending based on the number of customers you aim to reach, Thumbtack does most of that work for you.
#4: Requests (Activity In Your Market)
Thumbtack also tells you the average number of quotes a customer request in your service area has received in the last 90 days, giving you an idea of market competition in your area.
If there are very few pros in your field and lots of customer requests, you might think about raising your budget to capture as much business as you can. If on the other hand, your market is particularly tight in one service (say, carpet cleaning) but very open in another (pressure washing), it might be time to shift more of your business’s time and energy to focus on the customers you are most likely to reach.
Keep an eye out for your pro Insights report, or log into Thumbtack and check it out. And then get ready to win more business.
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