Service Seeking
 | |
|
Screenshot of ServiceSeeking.com.au | |
| Type of business | Private |
|---|---|
| Founded | 2007 |
| Headquarters | Sydney, Australia |
| Area served | Worldwide |
| Founder(s) |
Jeremy Levitt, Oliver Pennington, Daniel Sabados |
| Chairman | Anthony Klok |
| Industry |
Online marketplace, Price comparison service |
| Products |
ServiceSeeking.com.au ServiceSeeking.com |
| Services |
Pricing guides Market surveys |
| Employees | Over 50[1] |
| Slogan(s) | Compare Quotes & Prices from Local Businesses |
| Website |
serviceseeking |
| Alexa rank |
 47,963 (August 2013)[2] |
| Registration | Required |
| Users | Over 1 million |
| Current status | Active |
ServiceSeeking is an online marketplace that offers quotes and price comparison services to consumers and businesses.[1][3][4][5][6][7]
History
Jeremy Levitt, Oliver Pennington and Daniel Sabados co-founded Service Seeking in 2007, with the launch of ServiceSeeking.com.au.[3][5][6] Levitt and Pennington are joint chief executive officers of Service Seeking, and Sabados is the company's chief technology officer.[5][7] The company's chairman is Anthony Klok, a former chief executive and director of Betfair Australia and former head of business development for James Packer's Crown.[3][5]
While working as a property lawyer at Allens Arthur Robinson, Levitt noticed that firms were constantly quoting to win work through competitive tenders, and at his first business, PodProperty, an online legal service provider which specializes in co-ownership agreement, Levitt got frustrated when trying to organize tradespeople for jobs.[3][4] This gave him the idea to start ServiceSeeking.com.au with Pennington and Sabados.[3][4] It was reported that Levitt says "We thought there was a real opportunity to create a paradigm shift in the way people researched and hired service businesses."[3]
It was reported that when Service Seeking was first launched in 2007 in Australia, it concentrated on building customers, utilising online marketing and search engine optimisation; it avoided major advertising campaign and heavy brand building until July 2012.[1][4] Service Seeking was reported to be growing during the global financial crisis of 2007–08, but with increasing costs.[3][8]
Services and products
Service Seeking provides online services market platform for consumers and businesses to trade.[4][7] The websites of Service Seeking enable consumers to list their jobs and allow businesses to quote on the jobs.[3] Their popular job categories include accounting, building, graphic design, photography and furniture removal.[1][3] As at September 2012, Service Seeking has a staff of about 50 and it has plans to hire about 30 more staff.[1][5][9] Its customer support desk with 35 staff members runs for 12 hours everyday.[4] It has over a million users as at September 2014, with more than AUD200 million worth of jobs completed through its website in 2012, and over 42,000 jobs a month were being posted as at September 2014, equalling $46 million worth of work.[10][11][12][13] More than 100,000 businesses are aligned to the site, submitting more than 60,000 quotes a month.[1][3][5][9][13] In 2014, ServiceSeeking.com.au released an iPhone app where you can submit your job, receive quotes and read reviews about the local business before making a decision.[10] Each business that works with Service Seeking needs to be certified by the site which involves the business taking a free online training course that shows them how to quote and respond to customers meaning all businesses on the site are licensed and reputable.[10] If they have two or more serious complaints against them, their accounts with Service Seeking will be terminated.[10]
ServiceSeeking.com.au
ServiceSeeking.com.au was launched in October 2007.[5][8] It is a tendering website, primarily for jobs in building, construction and household trades, including plumbing, electrical services and concreting.[4] It permits only local traders with an Australian Business Number to register. To explain why it registers only local traders, the co-founder Jeremy Levitt was reported to have said that "We have taken the view that we don't want overseas businesses on our site, because we don't want to drive prices down."[1] Levitt explained to A Current Affair why the online market is changing the way tradesman compete for work, "You’re comparing not only price but you’re looking at reviews, business license details, and you can compare them not just on the price but on the scope of work".[14] "It takes you about 30 seconds to post your job, and only businesses that have the capacity to do the job today will send you a quote".
Data collection, pricing guides and market surveys
Service Seeking collects pricing data from the quotes submitted on its websites and uses it to provide pricing guides.[15][16] From the data that Service Seeking collects, it also conducts surveys of industries and markets. Some reported pricing guides and industry or market surveys initiated by Service Seeking include:
- [August 2014] The Renovation Consumer Price Index for Q4 2014 published by ServiceSeeking.com.au compares the change in price of ten renovation industries from Q4 of 2013 to Q4 of 2014. The prices are reflective of the average bid price tradesmen placed on jobs posted by thousands of customers in Australia. The report reveals that prices have only increased by 0.33% year on year, which is well under the 2.9% rate of inflation. Victoria and New South Wales are still the best markets for consumers after recording year-on-year price decreases.[17]
- [March 2014] The Renovation Consumer Price Index for Q3 2014 published by ServiceSeeking.com.au compared the change in price of ten renovation industries from Q3 of 2013 to Q3 of 2014. The prices are reflective of the average bid price tradesmen placed on jobs posted by thousands of customers in Australia. The figures revealed that prices in 8 of 10 renovation industries fell compared to annual inflation. Victoria and New South Wales recorded the biggest falls in renovation prices with average rates down by 6.4% and 4.6% respectively.[18][19]
- [November 2012] The Australian Services Buyers Guide 2012 published by ServiceSeeking.com.au gives customers an idea of how much money home renovation costs to possibly avoid overpriced quotes from tradespeople.[15]
- [July 2011] Survey of 1100 quotes found that renovating costs were lowest in the north and highest in the east of Melbourne.[20]
- [November 2010] Survey of more than 70,000 business service quotes covering the average costs for a range of business services showed that clients may be paying too much.[21]
- [September 2010] Survey of the names of over 28,000 small businesses to see if those with the most unusual names were winning the most tenders found that humorously named businesses that quote well and follow up with clients are more successful.[22]
- [May 2010] Trade and Household Services Pricing Guide produced from the survey of more than 70,000 quotes submitted between October 2007 and March 2010 on ServiceSeeking.com.au showed that the average hourly prices of tradesmen in Victoria were 4.6 per cent cheaper than in New South Wales and 5.2 per cent friendlier than Queensland, making the cost of building and renovating to be most expensive in Queensland and cheapest in Victoria.[16][23]
- [March 2009] A research by Service Seeking found that haggling activity on ServiceSeeking.com.au had increased by 42 per cent in the first quarter of the year, compared with the last quarter of 2008.[8]
Financing
In its first year of operations, Service Seeking did not charge for its services.[3] It now earns revenue from membership fees paid by businesses.[1] The capital for starting the business came from the co-founders and their families and friends; a venture capital fund that had committed to the business went under, and to keep Service Seeking from going under, they applied for a Research and Development grant and negotiated extended payment terms with suppliers.[3][6] They later raised enough money from their current chairman, Anthony Klok to grow the business, develop their revenue model and eventually break even.[3][5]
Affiliations
In 2009, Service Seeking partnered with TrueLocal to power TrueLocal's Get Quotes feature which allows consumers to post details of a job or service they need, with businesses competing for the work.[5][24] Service seeking has alliance partnerships with Ninemsn, Yahoo!7, NRMA, eBay, TrueLocal, Realestate.com.au, 1Form and RP Data.[5][9][25]
See also
References
- 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Shelley Dempsey (11 September 2012). "ServiceSeeking's Jeremy Levitt". INTHEBLACK Magazine. CPA Australia.
- ↑ "ServiceSeeking.com.au Site Info". Alexa Internet. Retrieved 2013-08-21.
- 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 Max Mason (3 September 2012). "Site drives a turnabout in job seeking". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 27 August 2013.
- 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 "Crowdsourcing: an online success story". Business View by the National Australia Bank. 30 October 2011. Retrieved 27 August 2013.
- 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Amelie Mills (26 March 2012). "ServiceSeeking.com.au". StartupSmart. Retrieved 27 August 2013.
- 1 2 3 "ServiceSeeking.com.au". SmartCompany. 10 September 2012. Retrieved 27 August 2013.
- 1 2 3 "Service Seeking: Private Company Information". Bloomberg Businessweek. Retrieved 27 August 2013.
- 1 2 3 Caroline Marcus (29 March 2009). "Hagglers flourish as times get tough". The Age. Retrieved 27 August 2013.
- 1 2 3 "Meet Service Seeking, Anthill 2011 Cool Company Award Finalist [Online Business Category]". Australian Anthill. 24 November 2011. Retrieved 27 August 2013.
- 1 2 3 4 Fenech, Stephen (24 September 2014). "Service Seeking app makes it easy to get businesses bidding on your job". TechGuide. Retrieved 17 November 2014.
- ↑ Jones, Kate (10 September 2014). "Meet the businesses disrupting online directories". BRW. Retrieved 17 November 2014.
- ↑ Jones, Kate (10 September 2014). "The businesses biting Yellow Pages". Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 17 November 2014.
- 1 2 Levitt, Jeremy (9 August 2013). "From the corporate rat race to entrepreneur". Retrieved 17 November 2014.
- ↑ "The hefty price tag consumers are being charged for a tradie". 9News. 22 January 2015. Retrieved 23 February 2015.
- 1 2 Nicola Trotman (29 November 2012). "For that lick of paint: Cost guide to give your investment property a makeover". Property Observer. pp. 1 & 2. Retrieved 27 August 2013.
- 1 2 Nathan Mawby (31 May 2010). "Vic tradies the cheapest". Herald Sun. Retrieved 27 August 2013.
- ↑ Stephens, Kim (3 December 2014). "Queensland tradies are Australia's most expensive". Brisbane Times. Retrieved 25 February 2015.
- ↑ Hele, Michelle (30 June 2014). "After hitting decade lows spending on home renovations is preparing to surge again". news.com.au. Retrieved 25 February 2015.
- ↑ Hele, Michelle (7 April 2014). "Cost of renovating on the way up". news.com.au. Retrieved 25 February 2015.
- ↑ John Dagge (31 July 2011). "Renovators cash up in Melbourne's northern suburbs". Sunday Herald Sun. Retrieved 27 August 2013.
- ↑ Nina Hendy (18 November 2010). "Are you paying too much for business services?". SmartCompany. pp. 1 & 2. Retrieved 27 August 2013.
- ↑ Nina Hendy (6 September 2010). "The Name Game". StartupSmart. Retrieved 27 August 2013.
- ↑ Rebecca Marshall (22 June 2010). "Maroon tradies charge top dollar". Sunshine Coast Daily. Retrieved 27 August 2013.
- ↑ "TrueLocal launches GetQuotes". B&T Magazine. 17 August 2009. Retrieved 27 August 2013.
- ↑ Tian Yang (24 November 2009). "Jeremy Levitt, 2009 Anthill 30under30 winner". Australian Anthill. Retrieved 27 August 2013.