Hiring a service professional should be a seamless experience – whether you’re looking for a new house cleaner, a landscaper for your backyard project, or an emergency plumber to fix a leaking pipe. However, getting in touch with local services businesses is not always an easy process and often involves time-consuming games of phone tag.
Over the last few years, our teams have doubled down on differentiating the product experience on Yelp for services businesses, as well as for consumers looking to connect with them. As a part of this commitment, today, Yelp is launching Request a Call, a new feature that allows Yelp users to easily request a phone call directly from service businesses on Yelp to discuss a potential project or get a quote – removing the initial friction often experienced in the hiring process.
Request a Call builds on the success of Request a Quote, which enables Yelp users to easily message services businesses, request quotes and schedule appointments directly within the app. Request a Call also represents a new way for businesses to generate new leads and connect with more consumers. We’re also expanding existing features within the services experience, including Cost Guides and services search filters, to help consumers find the right pro for even more services jobs.
Helping Consumers Easily Connect with Local Businesses Through Request a Call
Many services jobs like home renovations or event planning can be complicated to describe and hard to quote via messaging due to the varying needs of consumers, as well as costs of materials, labor and time. In many instances calling the business directly might not be the best way to quickly schedule a service professional for your job, since service businesses, especially small independent pros, often can’t answer the phone at all times. In fact, internal Yelp research showed that 40% of consumer calls to services businesses are under 30 seconds long, which indicates that they either weren’t picked up or didn’t result in meaningful conversation. With Yelp’s new Request a Call feature, consumers can request phone calls at specific times, leading to quicker responses regarding upcoming projects and a seamless connection with the business.
Request a Call is now available on any Yelp business page that has already opted into receiving leads via Request a Quote on Yelp.com, with iOS and Android support coming later. When a user requests a call from a business, they will have the opportunity to enter their preferred call time. When a call is requested, business owners will receive a message in their Yelp for Business inbox asking them to call the potential customer at a requested time. Businesses can respond to these inquiries by selecting “Confirm call time” to schedule the call or responding to the consumer to reschedule a different call time.
As an added layer of privacy, when submitting a Request a Call, Yelp automatically hides their phone number from the business and creates a temporary phone number for the business to use to contact the consumer.
Helping Businesses Gain More Leads with Request a Call
We often hear from businesses that they’re losing potential leads due to missed phone calls. Request a Call aims to solve this pain point – in an early pilot program of the feature on Yelp.com, Request a Call saw significant use among consumers and business owners, with a 10% increase in total projects started on Yelp’s website.
“Getting a customer on the phone is mission critical for our business,” said Josh Campbell, owner of Rescue Air, an HVAC and plumbing business in Richardson, Texas. “For the typical job, there’s so much to explain and so many questions to ask. Being able to get connected with Yelpers over the phone would simplify the back and forth process substantially.”
Request a Call builds on the success businesses are already seeing through Request a Quote, which has seen significant adoption among businesses over the last year. In the first quarter of 2022 Request a Quote requests were more than 30% above 2019 levels.
“Request a Quote already plays a huge role in our marketing and drives a significant amount of business for us,” said Campbell. “When someone requests a quote from us on Yelp, I see it as an opportunity to show why our business is the best fit for them to help get their job done.”
Expanding Existing Features and Resources within the Services Category
In addition to Request a Call, we’re continuing to improve Yelp’s existing features within the services experience. Last fall, we announced new Cost Guides, which provide local pricing information and expert advice to help consumers kick off service projects, such as electrical panel and outlet repair and outdoor lighting installation. We’re continuing to improve on these Cost Guides, adding even more expert advice and valuable insights to help guide consumers through finding and hiring a services professional all the way through project completion.
We also recently announced new search filters for services businesses that make the search experience even faster and easier for people to find the right professional to hire, for example a search for plumbers will highlight unique filters based on the specific types of jobs or repairs for the category such as installations, sewers, faucets, etc. These new job specific filters are now available for over 80 search categories on Yelp, including new additions, such as landscaping, pest control, massage, auto repair, real estate agents, salons, junk removal and more.
We’re committed to providing consumers and businesses on Yelp with the tools and resources to connect seamlessly and complete projects – from home renovations to landscaping and more. Whether Yelp is helping consumers find the right business for their next project or enabling businesses to better manage their leads, we continue to look for new ways to connect people with great local businesses easily and efficiently.
