“I have been using their platform for over a month now and I would like to highly recommend any tradesmen to try them out. Return is great as there is not contract and their account management is top level as your account manager is always there on WhatsApp, call or email to help you. Their platform is easy to use and once you get into the flow its super easy. Keep those hot leads rolling. 5 Star”
“I wish I had found this company sooner! The workload they supply is great, great detail on the jobs so you know exactly what your quoting for! The customer care is great they fully explain in detail how their system works and how to use it efficiently, always answer the phone to me when ever I need. I think this is a great and unique platform for getting more work flow! Would rate more then 5 stars if I could!”
“Service Start is a great platform to get your old out of date bathroom transformed into a new modern finish.
Vish is a true professional at his job and allocates great people for the job.
I do a lot of work for this company and great company to do work for.
Lee Rule
The bathroom renovators”
“Is a Zero star possible?
I purchased a lead for a potential client.
I phoned the client up who was clear to me that he was happy with the service provided by the current accountant but just wanted to make sure that he wasn't paying too much.
I was charged for this by Servicestart.
When I complained they said that the client was still looking for an accountant and the advert was still up. When I phoned they were completely disinterested to the point of rudeness.
I have read previously that my experience with Servicestart was not exceptional.”
“A waste of time and money!
I've used this site to purchase leads for new clients. Given the leads are not cheap to buy it's very annoying when the lead won't respond. Servicestart don't care either. You should get your money back if the lead is no good but they will try and get out of paying you back. In the end I gave up as it seemed pointless spending out with no benefit. I might as well throw my money away with something like Google Adwords. I might actually get some clients that way.”
“I have been registered on this site as a supplier of architectural services for a number of years, but have now decided to cancel my account. In all the time I have been registered very, very few of the buyer requests have appeared worth pursuing. Many are very obviously completely speculative, with little likelihood of a commission, or have totally unrealistic budgets. Of the five that I have paid for, only two were at all serious, and only one has resulted in a job. The others were a complete waste of my time. One of the 'buyers' wanted me to provide a quote, but wouldn't tell me what the job was, where it was, or what he wanted me to quote for. Utterly pointless. On that occasion Servicestart refunded the fee, but only after a lot of chasing. On a more recent occasion a similar thing has happened, but Servicestart have flatly refused to refund the fee of ยฃ70, even though the 'lead' was nonexistent. Buyers - please be aware that Sevicestart charge a very substantial fee to suppliers using the site. Please don't post requests unless you really do want serious quotes, and there is a realistic chance of a job arising. And suppliers, from my experience I suggest you don't waste your time or money using this site. Maybe for contractors doing small value jobs in some fields it may work out better. But for a consultant in a profession like mine, it's completely and utterly pointless, and you have little chance of being refunded for poor quality leads - which most are.”
“Avoid at all costs- Specially ACCOUNTANTS
Avoid at all costs. Specially ACCOUNTANTS. Do not trust them. Their only motto is to sell and sometimes sell aggressively. I have spent much money in buying leads and not small ones big ones with more than ยฃ100.00 and client do not respond to requests. Service Start does not want to give credits either as the client did respond once to say 'Call back when she is free'. I would be going to court against them and their policies. My money is not something which they can have without any services. Their customer service believes that I should by vigorously from them to retain one client. Instead of paying attention to the quality of leads they want us to just buy. Most of the leads which are attractive are from fraudsters. I have reported so many to them but no action. I am looking to report their website to HMRC now where there is no check on a lead coming through and big pitfall where accountants can find themselves advising wrong guys. It's against money laundering rules to advise anybody if you don't have his copy of ID or you haven't met a client in person. Servicestart defies all rules asking accountants to call themselves cloud accountant.”
“i have found them online and post a job to get quotes for Boiler Install , within minutes i had a call from one of their customer service representative to verify my details and asked me to give them few time slots to book a visit from an engineer to quote and both of them turned up at the time agreed , very impressed by this quick service Thank you”
“I have been using servicestart for a while now and initially the leads were good, but now more leads i purchase and contact, more the leads are poor quality.
the introduction emails are not answered and telephone no advertised, cannot get thru to them.
refunds are slow if repaid at all. customer support says they can't guarantee if the leads will respond. what are we paying for then?”
“I personally wouldn't bother with this company. The concept is quite good, you set your price for how much you want to pay for a lead, set you criteria and then they send you leads matching what you have specified.
Good concept but don't bother with this approach, make sure you make the choices because otherwise you get sent absolute crap and time wasters and you have to pay for this privilege.
When I first joined I wasn't quite familiar with the concept so emailed to clarify (mainly because I got a lead that was inappropriate and I didn't want to automatically pay for something I didn't want). They did improve slightly but it took weeks to reply to an email and the phone number on their site always went to 'mail box full.' Interestingly the phone number on this site works the best.
Anyway, when I finally got through to someone I asked for a refund on the leads, some were given but others surprise surprise, I had left too long- mainly because I was waiting for a response.
The leads I did get in contact with were poor quality and mainly people just looking for ideas and generally time wasters. It might work well with some professions but not mine.
Best bit about this company? Even though I had nothing but an average to bad experience with them they won't give you your money back. You just get credit that will now sit there.
Thankfully there are better sites in competition to this one that vet the leads properly, answer questions promptly and do give you your money back if you are unhappy. I personally would shop around a bit more and test some other sites.”
“When i first started using servicestart it worked well, but over time i found that more and more requests which i accepted, didn't lead anywhere. Customers either never answered phones or never replied to emails.
This began to happen more and more and it got to a stage where we were wasting money on leads which didn't even get off the starting block. It also became apparent that the customers were not made aware of the fact that as a trader i was getting charged to obtain their contact details. All customers that i spoke to said they didn't know anything about charges and as such i feel some people simple registered a job with no guarantee that they actually want to go ahead with it, not realising that they were costing businesses money. This is a major problem and one which i raised with servicestart bosses numerous times, only to be fobbed off.
Furthermore the fee's were getting more and more expensive (paying over ยฃ20 for contact details on a job maybe worth ยฃ300 is just not cost effective). In the end i went elsewhere and now use a much better site, which has much lower fee's and 95% of the leads end up successful.
Therefore on this basis I cannot recommend servicestart. It started out good and lead to some good leads, but it then declined and the customer service dissipated and was lacking, so i unfortunately had no other choice but to leave.”
Hi Paul,
Since you left a few years back we have introduced a new system through which you can set your own prices to pay for the leads you want. We figured that our clients know best the value of a new lead. So you can use either strict filter to take off all the leads you know you never want to respond to or adjust the price you are willing to pay for those that you are interested in but feel you cannot get the desired return on due to the cost to win a new job is too high for you.
Please feel free to contact us and we will introduce you to the new and improved tools. We really think this would make you change your mind. Also, as you probably know, unlike many other marketing channels you have no obligatory fixed costs or monthly minimums at all at on Servicestart. Hence we hope you would like to try the new service where you can set your own price.
“I was really excited when I discovered service start. Unfortunately because the leads aren't vetted and potential clients have nothing to lose by signing up the quality if the leads isn't great on my field (interior design). Also there is almost never enough detail given in the initial brief to establish whether it's an interesting prospect. I've stopped pursuing leads through this means. I did get one job through it that was pretty good but otherwise not great for me.”
Hi Chris,
We are happy we got you some good work but of course we want to provide you more (congrats to the 5-start rating you got on Servicestart from client you got there). Reading your comment we feel an urge to speed up all the improvements we are working on for service providers. Also, looking at your old account we feel you perhaps did not optimize your account to take full benefit of all the existing tools available to ensure get only the request you know you want. We are getting a lot of interior design request from both private individuals and commercial clients lately, of course we would like to convince you to restart with Servicestart. We would be happy to help you set up filters to make the requests you receive really targeted to your company.
“When I set up my business as a Book-Keeper & Payroller provider I found the website gave me great introductions. Some worked out and some did not - but after a while I learnt which leads were suitable to pursue and when not to approach. I was able to expand my contacts such as the Client's Accountants and this would lead to more introductions. Now I have more work than I can handle - and I am able to turn work away!”
Nikki, big congratulations to your successful business. We are proud that we could contribute to your success but for sure your success is based primarily on your skill in your profession (as shown by your high rating on Servicestart) and in your communication and sales skills.
Your experience is similar to what we hear from many other successful companies on Servicestart. There is often an introductory period of time when they learn how to best use the service, select the right jobs and sharpen their sales process to win more business. The sales process includes everything from being effective at contacting the prospective client at a good time, presenting your company and any relevant information while still listen to any specific need the client might have. Providing a clear quote is essential too of course. After winning a few jobs it can become easier if the service provider collects a few good reviews, it will help the success rate a lot.
There are 1000s of bookkeepers connected to our network, it increases the chance for the right match of course. Thanks for using our service and your posisitve comment!
