How Does Thumbtack Work for Local Services
- What Thumbtack Is Used For
- How Thumbtack Matches Customers With Local Pros
- How Thumbtack Makes Money From Service Pros
- Thumbtack vs TaskRabbit and How They Differ
KNOWLEDGE BASE
Thumbtack
Thumbtack looks like a directory and behaves like a matchmaker. A customer describes a job, and Thumbtack decides which pros get the introduction. Everything a pro does on the platform, from targeting to response time, feeds that decision.
Thumbtack Guides
Each guide is split into a four-part series.
How Thumbtack for Pros Works
- How to Set Up a Thumbtack Pro Profile
- How Thumbtack Lead Charges Work for Pros
- How Thumbtack Awards Its Pro Status Badge
- Thumbtack Job Preferences and Service Area Settings
How Thumbtack Reviews and Ratings Work
- How Thumbtack Collects Customer Reviews
- Are Thumbtack Reviews Reliable for Hiring
- How to Respond to Thumbtack Reviews
- How Ratings Affect Thumbtack Search Placement
What Is Thumbtack?
Thumbtack is an online marketplace, on the web and in an app, for finding and hiring local professionals. It was founded in 2008 in San Francisco. It started as a directory of providers with photos, bios and services, built to fix what Craigslist lacked: verification and reviews.
It charges for the introduction, not the job.
Thumbtack does not take a cut of the work. Pros set a weekly budget and pay automatically when a request matches what they asked for. That is the opposite of TaskRabbit, which charges a service fee on each task.
Placement is a formula you feed.
Thumbtack says where a pro appears depends on how well a request matches their targeting, how much budget is left, how fast and how often they respond, and their reviews and rating. Reviews matter, but they are one input among four.
A badge says less than it looks.
A background check badge covers the account holder, not every worker sent to the job. A license badge means a license number was checked against a public database. Customers read both as general trust signals, which is exactly why it pays to know what they actually say.
Reference
Wikipedia: Thumbtack (company)
The reference article on Thumbtack: its founding, its marketplace model and its funding history.
Read the full article →Thumbtack began as a fix for Craigslist: the same local services, with verification and reviews attached.
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