111–120 of 410 posts
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Getting them more customers is incredibly valuable! I've heard this as a need from literally every service provider I've ever used. They relish referrals.
Only if the customer base is growing. Otherwise, it is just taking revenue from another provider.
For a house with 4 roommates, this service worked great as a solution to the "tragedy of the common [space]" problem. We've been using them for a year or more now and I'll be sad to see them go. I hope they follow through on putting people in touch with the actual cleaners.
How are you not in touch with the person who cleaned your house for a year?
I used Homejoy and I liked it's ease of use. But after the cleaning lady they sent me was done, she offered me her direct phone # and told me I could contact her directly for any future cleaning needs. I always wondered how this business model was going to work if Homejoy's contractors could just give out their phone # at the end of their first service and the customer could just contact them directly for any future…
I've had the exact same experience with Vint ( https://www.joinvint.com/ ) - Go through personal trainers until you find one you like and then move off the app. The hourly cost will be lower but the personal trainer will still make more money. I've also had Uber Black drivers give me their personal limo service business cards. The difference is that a cab is a commodity while a personal trainer is something that need…
As a former customer (have not used in years), I actually felt uncomfortable with the cleaners. Not because of anything they did, but because you could just tell they were low income and being paid very little by Homejoy (I think less than $15/hr). It didn't feel right, and I stopped using them in part because of that.
You felt uncomfortable that they made less than $15/hr and solved that by making sure they never got any business from you again?
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I think you have it wrong here. The fact that HomeJoy was actually playing in a market which required skill labor was responsible for their downfall. Think about it - if there is an HomeJoy operator who's actually good and did her job very well (and thus is skilled), next time I will want to deal with her directly (to save on cost) and not deal with HomeJoy at all. I certainly did this. In fact, many HomeJoy operator…
You think cleaning is skilled labor and driving isn't? Uber drivers better not be unskilled. You're putting your life in someone's hands every time you ride in an Uber (as with any car). There's almost no skill to scrubbing toilets and vacuuming rugs, and if you mess it up you get fired but no one dies. The only skill required is attention to detail and caring enough to do a good job.
> The only skill required is attention to detail and caring enough to do a good job.
Thought experiment: imagine yourself cleaning 100 houses professionally for two hours. My bet is that the last house would be 2X - 3X more clean than the first.
I used Homejoy and I liked it's ease of use. But after the cleaning lady they sent me was done, she offered me her direct phone # and told me I could contact her directly for any future cleaning needs. I always wondered how this business model was going to work if Homejoy's contractors could just give out their phone # at the end of their first service and the customer could just contact them directly for any future…
FWIW Thumbtack and many other companies have the same problem, and it can be solved by just charging the cleaners more money for the initial introduction. Instead of charging 20% of the first cleaning, charge 50% or 100% or 200% and let them own the customer (Thumbtack charges fixed amounts but it is the same principle).
Which inherently reduces the degree to which the service is attractive to contractors compared to other marketing channels (which is really what it is for them), which reduces the contractors on the service, which reduces the value to consumers.
That it works in some industries doesn't mean that its an easy solution which works profitably in all industries.
This serves as a strong counterpoint to the infamous "Dear Future Homejoy Engineer" HN job posting: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8794956 Working as a family on a holiday may not be enough to save a startup.
I get the sense that many of the people involved in Homejoy are well-intentioned and hardworking. But I can't say that I think it's a bad thing that tech startups are finding it difficult to monetize unskilled labor. The technology that most companies like these offer (with the possible exception of Uber) is a commodity. The real asset they have is the network effect. Which makes the balance of power between the tech…
It appears from this article that recent worker classification lawsuits also had a part to play - http://recode.net/2015/07/17/cleaning-services-startup-homej...