Online service TaskEasy connects homeowners and property managers to qualified lawn maintenance contractors, all while simplifying the "business side of things."
Salt Lake City, Feb 2, 2015 — There's a segment of the consumer public that prefers to do its shopping online. That segment is growing. There's also a segment of the consumer public that wants to know it's getting good value for its dollar, without having to spend countless hours doing research. That segment is already huge. An online service that connects shoppers to qualified lawn maintenance providers is designed to meet both of those salient consumer needs, while also satisfying something on most contractors' wish lists: grow sales without having to spend more time working ON my business.
TaskEasy is the brainchild of Ken Davis, a former rental property manager who knows firsthand how tedious it can be to find, screen and evaluate service contractors. This becomes particularly cumbersome in industries like lawn care and landscaping where the number of contractors is plenty, estimating systems are all over the board, and both pricing and quality can fluctuate wildly.
TaskEasy allows consumers to shop for services in a given metro market. A consumer can then schedule a service—be it lawn mowing, snow removal or holiday lighting—at which time their credit card is charged. The funds are held in escrow until a contractor completes the service and provides photographic proof, and the consumer is satisfied and releases payment to the contractor. While TaskEasy doesn't charge contractors any membership fees, it does take a reasonable percentage of each sale as payment for its services, naturally.
TaskEasy works with a national network of local contractors. The company has "certified" more than 2,500 contractors in more than 1,600 cities from all 50 states. Consumers using TaskEasy can be confident that the contractor who'll be servicing their property is reliable, reputable and professional, TaskEasy assures.
The consumer can rest assured that they will be paying a fair price for the given services in their given market. This concept of fair market pricing, Davis says, it was really sets TaskEasy apart from other online lead-generation services.
"Using an algorithm that takes into account local averages for specific lawn services, as well as utilizing contractor feedback, we adjust pricing to make sure we're providing a fair market value specific to the location our customers and contractors are in," Davis explains. "Finding that sweet spot is our definition of market forces, which we're confident we can do to satisfy both the customer and the contractor. This has allowed us to mow 70,000 lawns nationally."
Regardless if it's a property manager or homeowner, the main benefit for lawn maintenance contractors is new customer acquisition.
"TaskEasy adds 3-4% to my sales, and those are profitable sales," says Robert Randolph of Carolina Pro Lawn Care in Fuquay Varina, NC. Plus, Randolph adds, they are typically customers he would never have acquired on his own. He says TaskEasy is making smart investments in search engine marketing (i.e. "Googling"). Customers searching online for lawn service providers will often end up finding and clicking on the TaskEasy website. "You can't ignore this," Randolph says. "I might as well work with TaskEasy so they're feeding me new work."
But aside from sales lead generation, TaskEasy says it does several other valuable things for the contractor. "Maintaining a strong and productive relationship with contractors is an extremely important part of what we do," Davis says. "Without contractors, TaskEasy can't take care of customers. Because of this we do everything we can to keep contractors happy and simplify their work so that they can spend more time servicing homes and getting paid, and less time worrying about the 'business' side of things."
Some of the value-added services TaskEasy provides to contractors include:
TaskEasy says it also makes every effort to ensure that its contractor partners are paid in a timely fashion. What happens, for instance, if a customer doesn't want to release payment to the contractor after a service has been completed?
"Our process requires that contractors take pictures of their work," Davis points out. "Then we have our contractor support team check the photos to verify quality, as well as use other audit data to understand what's going on. This helps us so that even if the customer isn't satisfied, we can see if our contractors have held up their side of completing the service. This system, as well as holding a customer deposit, allows us to make sure that the contractor is always taken care of—as long as they're doing the work. The few times that a customer has been completely unwilling to pay, we ourselves have taken care of the contractor's payment out of our own pocket.
About TaskEasy
TaskEasy, Inc. makes exterior maintenance as easy as shopping online. With the click of a button, TaskEasy delivers services like lawn mowing and snow removal to customers across all 50 states. As the first company to apply the services on-demand model nationwide for home exterior maintenance and multi-site property management, TaskEasy’s proprietary platform establishes a fair market price and supports guaranteed, quality service for homeowners, property managers, and contractors. For more information, visit TaskEasy.com.