Yelp Announces New Hiring Experience for Home and Local Services
August 18 2020 - 9:00AM
Business Wire
Users can seamlessly request quotes with
detailed project descriptions and schedule consultations, while
Nearby Jobs lets professionals pick the projects they want
Yelp Inc. (NYSE: YELP), the company that connects people with
great local businesses, is building on the success of its
Request-A-Quote product by evolving it into a seamless end-to-end
hiring experience for home, local, automotive and professional
services. As part of the new hiring experience, Yelp is expanding
and revamping new guided questionnaires for Request-A-Quote to an
additional 100 business categories in the coming months to help
better match the right professionals with the most relevant
projects, as well as giving consumers and businesses an easy way to
schedule appointments right from the Yelp platform. Yelp is also
introducing Nearby Jobs, a new paid product that gives
professionals an effective way to proactively grow their business
and get in front of more people looking to hire pros like them. The
new experience is part of Yelp’s modernized new design, which makes
connecting people with the right provider easier than ever.
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the full release here:
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Yelp's Nearby Jobs is a new paid product
that gives professionals an effective way to proactively grow their
business and get in front of more people looking to hire pros like
them. (Graphic: Business Wire)
First introduced in 2016, Yelp’s Request-A-Quote was initially
built to facilitate direct communication between consumers and
business owners. Since then, Request-A-Quote has helped hundreds of
thousands of businesses generate more leads, while giving consumers
a way to get things done quickly and efficiently. Within the last
year*, an average of 45,000 new businesses adopted Request-A-Quote
each month. In 2019, more than nine million projects were created
by consumers and more recently, in June 2020, Yelp saw more than
900,000 projects generated. The new hiring experience is a
reflection of Yelp’s investment and commitment to the services
industry, with home and local services the company’s largest and
often fastest-growing segment.
“Even in the midst of a pandemic, home and local services have
proven to be resilient and an essential part of the local economy
with more than four million projects created on Yelp in the first
half of 2020,” said Vivek Patel, chief product officer at Yelp. “As
service professionals look to gain greater control over their
business, perhaps now more than ever, Yelp's reinvented hiring
experience digitizes an industry that typically relies on
antiquated tools. We are focused on creating a platform where
established and newer businesses can succeed and proactively grow
their business. Today is a significant step toward our long term
strategy of doubling down on and innovating the home and local
services industry.”
A New Hiring Experience for Home and Local Services
Yelp is reinventing the hiring experience with new functionality
to better match jobs with the right pros, and make messaging
between a consumer and business a seamless and effortless part of
the experience — while bringing it to more categories across the
Yelp platform. Building on the success of Request-A-Quote, Yelp is
introducing:
- Updated questionnaires rolling out across 100
categories: When a consumer begins the hiring process by
requesting a quote, appointment or consultation, Yelp will ask a
handful of tailored questions to help better describe their project
or task. Oftentimes, people are unsure of the type of information
service providers need to evaluate their job. This new feature
takes the guesswork out of the equation and ensures business owners
are armed with the right information they need to respond with
accurate pricing or timing estimates. These improved questionnaires
are now live across nearly 60 additional business categories and
will be rolling out to 100 total categories in the coming months.
New categories available today include: auto repair, child care and
day care, contractors, hair salons, session photography, pet
groomers, real estate agents, and more.
- Scheduling with ease: To save consumers and businesses
time and make scheduling more efficient, businesses can now easily
share the days and times they are available for a consultation or
appointment. With a tap of a button, consumers can then quickly
confirm the option that works best for them. Users can easily add
their upcoming appointment to their mobile device’s calendar.
Giving Businesses More Control and a New Way to Proactively
Secure Leads
As part of the revamped experience for business owners, Yelp is
launching a new way for businesses to proactively connect with
potential customers by sharing a feed of relevant jobs in their
area. Nearby Jobs gives both established and newer Yelp businesses
access to more available jobs, as well as greater control over the
kinds of projects they choose to take. When a consumer elects to
submit their project request to other businesses to get competing
quotes, best-matching businesses will be alerted of a Nearby Job
they can respond to. Currently, more than half of Yelp
Request-A-Quote users opt into receiving additional quotes from
other businesses.
"As a company new to Yelp, Nearby Jobs has been a highly
beneficial tool for us. Within only five months, Nearby Jobs has
brought us 180 jobs and, as a result, 27 reviews. Prior to adopting
Nearby Jobs our business page had zero reviews – now we’re rated at
4.5 stars,” said Orlando Johnson, owner of Mid-Atlantic Movers,
which was among the first businesses to pilot Nearby Jobs. “The new
product helps us to proactively get in touch with people that are
looking for our specific skill set and allows us to approach them
with competitive quotes and ideas for their project. As an
unreviewed business, Nearby Jobs really helped us to get more work.
I've gotten so many leads that I've now turned off my spend on
other platforms like Thumbtack, Angie's List and Google Ads. Not
only that but I like the customers that I interact with on Yelp.
I’ve noticed they have higher intent and the conversations I have
with consumers on Yelp are more likely to convert to real
jobs."
Tying it All Together with a Modernized Yelp
Yelp’s reinvented hiring experience for home and local services
is being rolled out as part of a new, modernized design. This
platform-wide redesign was created to highlight how Yelp has become
a one-stop local platform where people connect with local
businesses in more ways than ever — going beyond discovery and
reviews to communicate and transact. With the ability to request a
quote, book an appointment or order takeout and delivery today, the
company is integrating these actions into a modern and cohesive
consumer experience. The new design has been rolled out across
search results and business pages on web, as well as business pages
on mobile. A new home screen and search experience is coming to
mobile devices soon.
Availability and Pricing
As part of the new hiring experience, Request-A-Quote’s guided
questionnaires and scheduling features are now available to
millions of Yelp users across web and mobile. Nearby Jobs is
rolling out to eligible businesses nationwide and will be fully
available in the next few weeks with the ability to subscribe to
this new experience for about $8 a day, or less. Business owners
can also find these new features through their Yelp for Business
account.
Download images here. Embed and view a video of this new
experience here. For more information and Yelp’s latest company
metrics, visit:
https://www.yelp-press.com/company/fast-facts/default.aspx
About Yelp Inc.
Yelp Inc. (www.yelp.com) connects people with great local
businesses. With unmatched local business information, photos and
review content, Yelp provides a one-stop local platform for
consumers to discover, connect and transact with local businesses
of all sizes by making it easy to request a quote, join a waitlist,
and make a reservation, appointment or purchase. Yelp was founded
in San Francisco in July 2004. Since then, Yelp has taken root in
major metros in more than 30 countries.
*July 2019 to July 2020
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version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200818005246/en/
Yelp Inc. Julianne Rowe jrowe@yelp.com
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