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I'm afraid I am a bit of a cynic regarding associations. I paid a fair bit to join a 'Guild' years ago, with the promise that the vetting was rigorous. It was only then that I noticed how many vans/trucks carried the sticker locally none of whom you would have called 'Craftsmen'. One year was enough for me - after all, surely it is in the salesman's interest to sign on as many as possible.
Ive been debating the same, there is so many out there. I'm Still unsure on check a trade as it is expensive and lots of other gardeners have it around here now, let me know how you get on with the meeting. Ive been looking into buy with confidence and which?
Suggest you need to think what you want out of joining schemes and then evaluate what each offers, the costs, effort required, public perception and finally what the 'Trade' says about each scheme.
Joining them is not an instant route to gaining more work, in fact you could end up chasing low value, web based 'window shoppers' where the main selection criteria is price. Fine if you are selling a commodity ?
Gary, can i ask, are you a member of any trade organisation? have you had any experience in the past?
even though check a trade give a good talk, its £619+vat for a year, just to be online.
I like the idea of buy with confidence, as it council/goverment run, i think more people would trust it. Also the cost is significantly lower. i think it could be used as a good marketing tool.
We're With BWC & SafeContractor & Exor.
BWC excellent for domestic work, ensuring you're all legal etc and cost is a no-brainer. Good website and many County BWC issue free trades directory and/or point towards website.No conflict of interests in my oppinon.
Last two are for commercial & housing associations. These are not referral type schemes.
The rest scrabble about under various schemes offering web presence, referral schemes, bought leads and are focused on making them money IMHO.
I would not touch some of them with a barge pole. I can post up some of the leads they were trying to entice us with last year to join two of the schemes.
Others report excellent results by using various other schemes, however if someone can show me their real ROI with these schemes, I'll listen again :)
It's more instant RSS feed linked to my website with testimonials
Customers can send testimonials to check a trade on a free post card as many customers are older don't have the Internet great to get round that
Obviously check a trade does a lot of advertising on tv
At any point people can ring check a trade to ask if I'm legit and my feedback from other customers
I'll have a look at the others
Have a look at Which? Trusted Trader, we were with various schemes for a number of years, and got work from it when we done a lot of Tesco sites etc. Tried selling it to Property Management Companies as a usp and got some odd looks, so we looked at other schemes. Which? Is the best known consumer checking brand out there imho and has brought us in more work from more of the areas that we now focus on and at only £40 + vat a month its reasonably priced.
Dont make the mistake of thinking getting an "accreditation", is just a case of filling in a form and paying your money, its not, not for a proper one anyway. Safecontractor and Which? Will run you ragged for paperwork, certifications and health & safety documentation and its exTrading Standards Office people who come to your work / office to vett you from Which?.
To my knowledge, Which? are the only accreditation service that actually physically vetts their applicants. When I went through mine, the Which? rep was in my home / office grilling our policies and proceedures, insurances, qualifications, licences..... the whole shooting match, took photo copies, references ( and actually checked them out) and then left me to supply a couple of small pieces of documentation that I didnt have to hand and forward on to him later.........then when all that had been double checked back at the Which? HQ we were accepted. Probably tougher than when we went through Safecontractor if Im honest. I like the fact they come out and actually inspect your company properly and grill your paperwork. And with Which? it is an instantly recognised consumer brand.
Would agree with Brian's comments. You need to know what you want out of it and the marketplace you want to be in.
However, I will comment that BWC ( ie Trading Standards ) visit to you to check your trading address, insurances, qualififcations, legalities of your T & Cs, your processes and documentation re various consumer acts and require DBS criminal checks if you work in or around clients homes ( those last two are unique ? )
This only works if they operate in your location, in your market and finally you do a ROI ( like Brian has ) to work out who's paying who ;)
I joined check a trade the back end of last year for it to start working for me this year, very through with the vetting procedure starting with the guy in my area calling at my house to meet me and ask a variety of questions, once you pass that initial check you pay your money and then proceed to stage 2 of the paperwork
they require a copy of your insurance, photo of your passport and a latest utility bill in your name which I uploaded to the check a trade web site and they check and confirm the details and check with your local trading standards office
to date I have had 3 lead all of which have been low quality but like I said its early days and I did not join just for the lead creation I joined to give me credibility via the customer testimonials
they can't discriminate with any business so anyone in your area can be accepted by check a trade so long as they have passed the criteria required