To Serve…

The idea is simple: You need help now. You don’t want to wait to receive a call back. You don’t want to wait for an email response. You don’t want to create an account or provide demographic data. You want to talk to a service provider in your area right NOW!

That is the concept behind ServiceGuy, it is essentially a referral website, you plug in your needs and are giving a phone number. Let’s say you need a painter. You are given a number by ServiceGuy and when you dial it as you listen to a message, the system rings up to 25 different painters simultaneously for you. The first one to answer their phone and say they are available gets connected to you. Pretty convenient if you don’t have a whole lot of time on your hand to find a painter or a personal assistant to find one for you.

On the flip side there is no evaluation of who you are being connected to, though they are working on it (”We plan to ‘call back’ consumers who successfully connect to service providers and ask for feedback. Check back soon for more information on our rating system.”). You have no idea if Big Al’s Painting is a reputable painter or some guy operating out of his mom’s basement who used to be really good with his paint-by-numbers sets. While it might save you some time, keep in mind it is a crap shoot of the type of service you might get.