Angies List Audio Contractor Reviews

Angies List helped us find local contractor reviews during our recent process of selling and buying a house.  Our home inspector found things we needed to fix up before selling our old house and we wanted bids on some home improvement work for the new house so we checked Angies List for a number of handyman type jobs.

We’ve been busy moving into the new house so I hadn’t gotten around to giving feedback on the companies we worked with.  Since customer feedback is key to the value of the service Angies List reminds you to leave a review when you login but I hadn’t logged in during the moving process.  However, on the way to work yesterday I got an interesting phone call from a lady at Angies List inquiring about our experiences.

Apparently Angies List is launching a new feature where there will be audio reviews of contractors and she asked for my permission to record our discussion of the companies I had gotten bids from.  I think the new audio reviews will be an added benefit for customers for two reasons.

More Contractor Reviews

I imagine the new audio review format will increase the number of reviews in the system.  People are busy and not everyone remembers to leave feedback on the electricians, plumbers, handymen, etc that they’ve worked with.

The audio version allows Angies List to be proactive, they can call up people and ask them about their experiences with contractors and record their answers (with their permission).  For example, I had forgotten to leave feedback but was driving to work when they called and captured my experiences.

More In-Depth Reviews

Writing a review does take a few minutes and some people just don’t like to write or don’t have the time.  An audio version, on the other hand, is much faster and easier to create.  Most people are willing to talk about their experience with someone they worked with and are probably more likely to go into more detail.

For example, we got a bid from a company for foundation work but didn’t end up using them.  It wasn’t because we didn’t like what they offered, it turned out we didn’t have to do the work.  We scored them a NA for price and quality of work so people might have wondered why we didn’t hire them.  However, in our phone conversation I explained the reasons so other customers wouldn’t think it was because we didn’t like the company.

Overall, I think the audio reviews will be another tool to help people find qualified contractors so I’m glad they’re adding the feature.  The phone rep couldn’t say exactly when the audio reviews would be available other than pretty soon.  I’ll keep an eye out for them, in the meantime you can use an Angies List promo code for a discount if you want to try out the service.

Ben Edwards, the founder of Money Smart Life, saved up enough to buy a Nintendo back when he was 12 years old. When he used the money to buy shares of Wal-Mart stock instead, he knew he wasn't like the other kids... His addiction to personal finance has paid off for his family and now he's helping you to afford the life that you want. Check him out on the web at Google Plus, Twitter and Facebook.

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