Contacting a Tradesman be it a Locksmith, Plumber, Electrician, Plasterer, Roofer, Joiner or a number of only niches, for either emergency or non emergency work should be relatively straight forward these days, in fact in these modern times thanks to the internet, Google search, Local Business Directories etc this task should be even easier than it used to be say, 15 or 30 years ago when people had to go and dig out their copy of the Phonebook, Thomson Local Directory or The Yellow pages.
People and businesses call on the services of a Tradesman for many different reasons, for example you may call out a plumber because you have a burst pipe and water is cascading through your ceiling into your kitchen or living room, you may need an electrician because all your light are out and you’re elderly and no so good on your feet or you may need a roofer because strong winds have ripped the tiles off your roof and it’s just started to rain. These are emergencies and you need the plumber, electrician or roofer to come out to you immediately whether its three o’clock in the afternoon or three o’clock in the morning.
Both residential homeowners and local businesses also call on the humble independent tradesman for a range of other services, other services that are not emergencies but still require someone trustworthy and professional, for example you may need a builder or bricklayer to give you a quote for a new extension or you might want a plasterer to quote you for re-skimming your interior walls so you can ditch the old fashioned wallpaper and go for that modern painted plaster look that’s so appealing nowadays.
Returning to the main subject of this article, shouldn’t finding a professional tradesman for either emergency or non emergency work be way easier than it was before the internet and Google came along? Well It should be, but for some reason it isn’t and here’s why.
It might be easy nowadays to go online and search Google or browse Facebook to find a Plumber, Electrician, Plasterer, Roofer, Joiner or any other tradesman for that matter to come out to and either fix your emergency or quote you for that new project, but finding a professional, fully trained and trustworthy tradesman who knows what they are doing and are in fact skilled and experienced and isn’t simply a rogue trader trying his or her luck isn’t so easy because these days anyone can create a cheap website, typically using some online DIY system such as WIX, Weebly or GoDaddy site builder, and/or place free ads on Facebook and other social media platforms and tout for business, and because of this the local tradesman is getting a bad reputation, a reputation where 8 out of 10 tradesman seem to be unskilled rogues out to take their victims for every penny, and these rogue “have a go” tradesmen are even illegally operating in industries where training, and certification is a legal requirement such as heating engineers who should be gas safe registered and electricians who should be at least ecs qualified, this needs to change.
Contrary to what people might think it’s not the tradesmen who need to make changes, they are simply offering their services online and hoping potential customers choose them. It’s the customers themselves who need to be careful when choosing tradesman online, they need to make sure that they are not choosing a rogue trader.
When doing a search for a tradesman on Google people tend the search more locally than they would do when searching for other services or products such as consumables or insurance where distance doesn’t matter in the slightest, So someone needing a builder in Bolton would usually search for “Builder Bolton” or “Bolton Builder” to get the desired results.
To check whether a tradesman is in fact genuine or not it’s a good idea to check out their website, does it look professional? Does it contain feedback from real customers? Remember! Feedback and reviews on a company web site can’t always be trusted as the feedback is added and controlled by the site owner so check for a Google business page, if a website is genuine and well made it will have an outbound link to a Google account where you can see real customer reviews and feedback that are much harder to fake or check our independent review websites such as tradersreview.co.uk.
Something else you will want to check is the location and office address, remember you are looking for a local address and local telephone number if possible, although some independent tradesmen may only list a mobile number as the landline is dying out. If a company website has no address then they are more than likely an unskilled amateur and don’t want their customers to know where they are based.
People using local tradesmen can help cut the number of rogue traders out there by being more careful when selecting who they use, if these unskilled amateurs stop getting calls and work then most of them will pack in and try a different profession, or get the training they need to do the job properly.
People and businesses call on the services of a Tradesman for many different reasons, for example you may call out a plumber because you have a burst pipe and water is cascading through your ceiling into your kitchen or living room, you may need an electrician because all your light are out and you’re elderly and no so good on your feet or you may need a roofer because strong winds have ripped the tiles off your roof and it’s just started to rain. These are emergencies and you need the plumber, electrician or roofer to come out to you immediately whether its three o’clock in the afternoon or three o’clock in the morning.
Both residential homeowners and local businesses also call on the humble independent tradesman for a range of other services, other services that are not emergencies but still require someone trustworthy and professional, for example you may need a builder or bricklayer to give you a quote for a new extension or you might want a plasterer to quote you for re-skimming your interior walls so you can ditch the old fashioned wallpaper and go for that modern painted plaster look that’s so appealing nowadays.
Returning to the main subject of this article, shouldn’t finding a professional tradesman for either emergency or non emergency work be way easier than it was before the internet and Google came along? Well It should be, but for some reason it isn’t and here’s why.
It might be easy nowadays to go online and search Google or browse Facebook to find a Plumber, Electrician, Plasterer, Roofer, Joiner or any other tradesman for that matter to come out to and either fix your emergency or quote you for that new project, but finding a professional, fully trained and trustworthy tradesman who knows what they are doing and are in fact skilled and experienced and isn’t simply a rogue trader trying his or her luck isn’t so easy because these days anyone can create a cheap website, typically using some online DIY system such as WIX, Weebly or GoDaddy site builder, and/or place free ads on Facebook and other social media platforms and tout for business, and because of this the local tradesman is getting a bad reputation, a reputation where 8 out of 10 tradesman seem to be unskilled rogues out to take their victims for every penny, and these rogue “have a go” tradesmen are even illegally operating in industries where training, and certification is a legal requirement such as heating engineers who should be gas safe registered and electricians who should be at least ecs qualified, this needs to change.
Contrary to what people might think it’s not the tradesmen who need to make changes, they are simply offering their services online and hoping potential customers choose them. It’s the customers themselves who need to be careful when choosing tradesman online, they need to make sure that they are not choosing a rogue trader.
When doing a search for a tradesman on Google people tend the search more locally than they would do when searching for other services or products such as consumables or insurance where distance doesn’t matter in the slightest, So someone needing a builder in Bolton would usually search for “Builder Bolton” or “Bolton Builder” to get the desired results.
To check whether a tradesman is in fact genuine or not it’s a good idea to check out their website, does it look professional? Does it contain feedback from real customers? Remember! Feedback and reviews on a company web site can’t always be trusted as the feedback is added and controlled by the site owner so check for a Google business page, if a website is genuine and well made it will have an outbound link to a Google account where you can see real customer reviews and feedback that are much harder to fake or check our independent review websites such as tradersreview.co.uk.
Something else you will want to check is the location and office address, remember you are looking for a local address and local telephone number if possible, although some independent tradesmen may only list a mobile number as the landline is dying out. If a company website has no address then they are more than likely an unskilled amateur and don’t want their customers to know where they are based.
People using local tradesmen can help cut the number of rogue traders out there by being more careful when selecting who they use, if these unskilled amateurs stop getting calls and work then most of them will pack in and try a different profession, or get the training they need to do the job properly.
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