[JCCarpentry]

Once again Check a trade biting the hand that feeds them. They haven’t listened for the last two years. Price articles and now being penalised for having too many enquiries. Feedback means nothing now. And as feedback means nothing the platform is now officially dead. Grounds here for cancellation of subs as this is not what was signed up for...

[Drain Catt]

I think that we should be able to scribe a map of the area we cover as per Which (trusted traders) and our reviews affect every postcode in the mapping area. Why CAT is wrong at present; answer I can do a 4x10 rated review for a customer in post code EN4 But her next door neighbour in N20 won't see me if I havn't done any jobs in N20. So Checkatrade are depriving this customer of my services. Is this legal? Would I be seen if the customer in N20 wanted to see a list of the most local or highest scorers??

[Electrikarl]

I agree with others on here in regards to pushing your business to be at the top of the search page in your area, hard work, politeness and being courteous to your customer, doing a great job for a fair price should reap it rewards but, I have worked hard at it and still do to to keep reviews going in order to stay at the top, it's hard getting the reviews never mind the job.

[D J Wagland]

Im glad It’s not just me that’s is pissed about being bumped to the bottom for succeeding and doing well and making sure that my customers are always 100% happy and getting positive reviews I pay almost £400 a month for my checkatrade membership so why should I be below a meme bet who pays a basic rate ? How’s that fair I think the more you invest and put it the better you do be positioned in the rankings where has this positive research come back from as by the comments you can quite clearly see that 90% of the comments Are members that aren’t happy about the changes where have you got this research from

[Malone]

To me, as a trader that's been grafting to get reviews in and keep standards high and customer's happy with expectations this seems like a ridiculous idea.

You are bypassing your hard working trades that have followed all the protocols and ensured high reputation has been maintained and ethics followed for the sake of new trades coming in.

If this affects the enquiries we receive resulting in lost income we will certainly not be renewing at all.

We will be looking at alternatives immediately.

[Katy]

Hey everyone - I wanted to post a message to say thank you for all your feedback shared here so far. This is really important to us, and we want all our trades to get value from their memberships. I want to let you know we've seen your replies now and we'll be able to reply to you individually tomorrow with more information around some of the points that have been raised.

Katy

[Pete293160]

I too would like to comment that I think this is a bad move again from cat, based on all the points made,getting reviews and now all the Seperate listing is getting silly now!
Would also like to question why you would encourage people to change there home postcode? Surely being "a local trader you can trust" would start by having the correct address and not a false one to get into search areas? So if I don't think my area is big enough I can just make a post code up so I can get into searches where I want to work and take work from people who are actually based there.? Is this why companies from 20 miles away are turning up on page one when we search our areas? Really?

[DaveJ]

I’ve just done a check of painter/decorator in both my local areas and companies from over 20 miles away are showing up above my company. I can’t imagine quoting to paint a kitchen when you are based over 40 miles away in Crawley would be financially viable for any company. My company is not showing until page 17. There aren’t even 17 painting companies in my local area. This new system is even more unfair than the system I complained about previously. I’ve been really pleased recently, when keeping my reviews up to date has kept me on page one. My customers do not want to see companies that are based all that distance away. They want companies in their own area. If I continue to be that low down this service will not work for me and I’m sure every other tradesmen will feel exactly the same. I do get frustrated with these changes constantly being made and being so detrimental to local businesses. Please reinstate the old way for everyone involved - both businesses and customers. These search algorithms may work for national companies, certainly not for local businesses

[Steve Milham]

I've just done a search using the postcode my company occupies, using the criteria I'm listed in and with the search set to 'Most Relevant'
I've then trawled through to page 14 (and even then, it's at the bottom) to find my company listing. I've gone past companies that are almost 70 miles away and some that don't even sound like they do the right things in order to find a company doing the very thing I asked for just yards from the Postcode entered.
I'm really not sure who thinks that the system Checkatrade are now adopting is fair and if we are all going to be crucified in this manner because we cannot get sufficient feedbacks quickly enough, I see absolutely no point in carrying on with the membership?

Given that the association with trading Standards is no longer there, the membership fees have increased substantially and there is not a chance in hell that any potential client is going to find my company on this site, all I would really like to know is how I cancel my membership and just how quickly I can stop paying into this scheme and start using the money to actually attempt to generate some leads for the people I employ.

Regardless of 'Feedbacks' etc. we ALL pay into this scheme and I really do not believe that we should be reliant on regular feedbacks in order to appear in a search on our doorstep - For what do we pay the ever rising monthly subscription fees for?

[Mirage Solutions]

Originally Posted by Katy

Your position in the search listings is important. The higher you appear in the listings, the more likely you are to be seen and chosen by a customer. However, weve listened to member feedback and agree that some of our members are getting a higher share of the visibility than others.

Following successful trials, were rolling out a further improvement which will ensure that the top positions in the search listings are spread more evenly amongst our members.

As a result of these modifications you may see changes in the search rankings and where you appear in the search results.

You already know that frequent and regular reviews are important to driving credibility and ranking, and this wont change.

Your search results position still requires you to have reviews in the areas and trade categories assigned to your profile, so it remains vital to continue to ask for a review for every job you do. Ask your customers for reviews regularly. You can also use the Remind your customer function in the Trade App or Member Area. Find our guide on how to collect customer feedback here.

You should also make sure that:

1. You're getting frequent and regular feedback every month.
2. Your reviews are in the areas you want to work in
3. Your reviews are for the trade category you have selected. If for example you have the Plumbing and Heating categories, you need frequent and regular reviews in both categories.

Alongside reviews, your profile is an important part of your search result position.

• Location: Pick the postcode thats closest to the areas you want to work in (you can change your home postcode free of charge).
• Trade category & sub category: Check you have the right main trade category - and that the subcategories within it reflect the services you offer
• Search Description & Profile Page: Make sure your profile is complete and regularly updated - it's your shop window.

Respond to any enquiries you receive quickly; we know that the quicker your response the more likely you are to win the work. If you cant respond straight away set up a voice mail or an email autoreply.

We recognise that some multi-van and multi-skilled business will require more visibility than a sole trade business and therefore members can choose to be visible in additional areas and for further services by buying extra post codes, additional trade categories, or paying to be included in your local paper directory (subject to availability). If you are interested in adding new categories to your membership, please give us a call on 02392 120 123 or email [email protected].

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More from the community:

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See the latest updates and news from Checkatrade here >>
Discuss work questions with other trades here >>

I would like to know what trials have been done. and what is the new search algorithm,
Does it shuffle all companies every time we hit the search button!!!
And are trades appearing from 30miles away?
Please share.
Thanks.