Even if you haven\u2019t heard of a lead generation service, you\u2019ve probably heard of Angie\u2019s List. It\u2019s the Goliath of the lead-generation industry, and supposedly, there\u2019s good reason for that. Angie\u2019s List prides itself on being transparent with its audience, because its system differs so much from other similar sites. But is Angie\u2019s List as great as it claims to be? Let\u2019s take a closer look to see whether it fully deserves its place in the spotlight.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Angie\u2019s List\u2014which is a source for all kinds of services, not just home projects\u2014is different from other lead-generation sites in that it charges customers, not professionals, to use the service. Angie\u2019s List also employs a stringent rating system so that customers can see exactly which professionals are the best. This method is meant to show how Angie\u2019s List is consumer-driven and more transparent than other sites, since competing services charge businesses instead of customers to use their websites.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Angie\u2019s List has three different tiers of customer profiles. The first, the free Green membership, allows for basic needs to find and connect with professionals and rate them. The next, the Silver option, costs $24.99 per year and allows customers to access Angie\u2019s List support via email as well as receive Angie\u2019s List Magazine. The third, the Gold membership, is $99.99 per year and comes with all the benefits of the Silver membership with an extra connection to customer support via phone. Additionally, only Gold members will receive help from Angie\u2019s List in a service provider dispute.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Once customers have chosen a membership plan, they will need to answer some basic questions about their project. Customers are then presented with a huge list of providers for their chosen category. The rest is straightforward\u2014once a provider is chosen and the project is completed, customers can then leave a review.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Nothing about the customer\u2019s side of Angie\u2019s List immediately stands out as being inferior to other sites; in fact, the appeal to it being a consumer-driven site seems better than other services. However, if you\u2019re a customer who signs up for the Green or Silver plan, you\u2019d better hope you never have any issues with a project you complete through Angie\u2019s List. In addition to that, the huge list of providers that\u2019s presented to customers can be extremely overwhelming. (There\u2019s a bigger issue with it, too, but we\u2019ll get to that in a minute.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For these reasons, it\u2019s better to choose a service, like Pro In Your Pocket, that narrows down the options by having the provider reach out to the customer. And while the idea of having customers pay instead of professionals is intriguing, it\u2019s not very well executed due to the lack of customer support.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Lots of professionals are drawn to Angie\u2019s List because of its big name and absence of subscription or lead fees. After all, that could potentially lead to a lot of customers for a lot less money than you\u2019d pay on a site like Porch<\/a> or HomeAdvisor<\/a>. But here\u2019s the drawback with Angie\u2019s List: while businesses don\u2019t pay to have an account, they can pay to advertise, and that payment is on a contractual basis. Only businesses with an A- or B-rating are allowed to advertise. This actually doesn\u2019t sound too bad at first\u2014except that it only takes two good reviews to achieve that rating, and the advertised companies are the first several options to show up when a customer searches in a service category. The majority of customers won\u2019t scroll past the first page of results, so the professionals that advertise with Angie\u2019s List see far more business than those that don\u2019t advertise or can\u2019t afford to do so.<\/p>\n\n\n\n What\u2019s more, Angie\u2019s List encourages businesses to solicit reviews on the Angie\u2019s List website, and this can create an untrue view of businesses. Larger businesses with more overhead funds are the ones who can create incentives for customers to leave reviews. Smaller businesses don\u2019t have these funds, and are therefore less able to garner reviews. When customers are given incentives to leave a review, they\u2019re most often going to give a review that\u2019s skewed away from the negative and more towards the positive. While this isn\u2019t exactly a false-positive review, it\u2019s not completely transparent\u2014which, ironically, is the very thing Angie\u2019s List claims to be. In this sense, Angie\u2019s List is no different than other services<\/a> that, whether intentionally or not, cater to big businesses with more money and stifle the smaller ones.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Even with the rating and advertising system, Angie\u2019s List is purportedly consumer-driven and more trustworthy than other sites, right? Unfortunately, that\u2019s not true: <\/strong>70% of Angie\u2019s List\u2019s revenue<\/a> comes from paid advertising from professionals. So, if their advertising system weren\u2019t bad enough for smaller businesses, this proves that Angie\u2019s List doesn\u2019t have the consumer in mind as much as they claim to do. <\/p>\n\n\n\n It\u2019s clear that despite its well-known status, Angie\u2019s List is definitely not the best place for businesses to turn for leads. Instead, it\u2019s much better to go to a service that levels the playing field for all sizes of businesses and doesn\u2019t utilize paid advertising. <\/p>\n\n\n\n After looking at the facts of how Angie\u2019s List operates, it\u2019s difficult to see why either consumers or businesses use it. Customers need to pay a rate of $99.99 a year in order to receive the full benefits of Angie\u2019s List. If a customer doesn\u2019t want to pay for a Gold membership and has an issue with one of the services performed, there\u2019s no way to dispute it with customer service. If a business doesn\u2019t have the means to pay for advertising with Angie\u2019s List, they\u2019ll be crowded out by the ones who can buy their way to the top of every search list.<\/p>\n\n\n\n For both customers and professionals, Angie\u2019s List is not the way to go. Instead, invest your time in a lead generation service that is low-cost, easy for both parties to use, and won\u2019t favor one business over another. Check out Pro In Your Pocket<\/a>: it\u2019s free for customers and businesses come to them instead of the other way around. For Pros, it\u2019s only $24 a month for unlimited bids, and it\u2019s the perfect place for startups to get off the ground and businesses of all sizes to grow.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Angie’s List is the Goliath of the lead-generation industry, but is it as great as it claims to be?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":440,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"off","_et_pb_old_content":"\n Even if you haven\u2019t heard of a lead-generation service, you\u2019ve probably heard of Angie\u2019s List. It\u2019s the Goliath of the lead-generation industry, and supposedly, there\u2019s good reason for that. Angie\u2019s List prides itself on being transparent with its audience, because its system differs so much from other similar sites. But is Angie\u2019s List as great as it claims to be? Let\u2019s take a closer look to see whether it fully deserves its place in the spotlight.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Angie\u2019s List\u2014which is a source for all kinds of services, not just home projects\u2014is different from other lead-generation sites in that it charges customers, not professionals, to use the service. Angie\u2019s List also employs a stringent rating system so that customers can see exactly which professionals are the best. This method is meant to show how Angie\u2019s List is consumer-driven and more transparent than other sites, since competing services charge businesses instead of customers to use their websites.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Angie\u2019s List has three different tiers of customer profiles. The first, the free Green membership, allows for basic needs to find and connect with professionals and rate them. The next, the Silver option, costs $24.99 per year and allows customers to access Angie\u2019s List support via email as well as receive Angie\u2019s List Magazine. The third, the Gold membership, is $99.99 per year and comes with all the benefits of the Silver membership with an extra connection to customer support via phone. Additionally, only Gold members will receive help from Angie\u2019s List in a service provider dispute.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Once customers have chosen a membership plan, they will need to answer some basic questions about their project. Customers are then presented with a huge list of providers for their chosen category. The rest is straightforward\u2014once a provider is chosen and the project is completed, customers can then leave a review.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Nothing about the customer\u2019s side of Angie\u2019s List immediately stands out as being inferior to other sites; in fact, the appeal to it being a consumer-driven site seems better than other services. However, if you\u2019re a customer who signs up for the Green or Silver plan, you\u2019d better hope you never have any issues with a project you complete through Angie\u2019s List. In addition to that, the huge list of providers that\u2019s presented to customers can be extremely overwhelming. (There\u2019s a bigger issue with it, too, but we\u2019ll get to that in a minute.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n For these reasons, it\u2019s better to choose a service, like Pro In Your Pocket, that narrows down the options by having the provider reach out to the customer. And while the idea of having customers pay instead of professionals is intriguing, it\u2019s not very well executed due to the lack of customer support.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Lots of professionals are drawn to Angie\u2019s List because of its big name and absence of subscription or lead fees. After all, that could potentially lead to a lot of customers for a lot less money than you\u2019d pay on a site like Porch<\/a> or HomeAdvisor<\/a>. But here\u2019s the drawback with Angie\u2019s List: while businesses don\u2019t pay to have an account, they can pay to advertise, and that payment is on a contractual basis. Only businesses with an A- or B-rating are allowed to advertise. This actually doesn\u2019t sound too bad at first\u2014except that it only takes two good reviews to achieve that rating, and the advertised companies are the first several options to show up when a customer searches in a service category. The majority of customers won\u2019t scroll past the first page of results, so the professionals that advertise with Angie\u2019s List see far more business than those that don\u2019t advertise or can\u2019t afford to do so.<\/p>\n\n\n\n What\u2019s more, Angie\u2019s List encourages businesses to solicit reviews on the Angie\u2019s List website, and this can create an untrue view of businesses. Larger businesses with more overhead funds are the ones who can create incentives for customers to leave reviews. Smaller businesses don\u2019t have these funds, and are therefore less able to garner reviews. When customers are given incentives to leave a review, they\u2019re most often going to give a review that\u2019s skewed away from the negative and more towards the positive. While this isn\u2019t exactly a false-positive review, it\u2019s not completely transparent\u2014which, ironically, is the very thing Angie\u2019s List claims to be. In this sense, Angie\u2019s List is no different than other services<\/a> that, whether intentionally or not, cater to big businesses with more money and stifle the smaller ones.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Even with the rating and advertising system, Angie\u2019s List is purportedly consumer-driven and more trustworthy than other sites, right? Unfortunately, that\u2019s not true: <\/strong>70% of Angie\u2019s List\u2019s revenue<\/a> comes from paid advertising from professionals. So, if their advertising system weren\u2019t bad enough for smaller businesses, this proves that Angie\u2019s List doesn\u2019t have the consumer in mind as much as they claim to do. <\/p>\n\n\n\n It\u2019s clear that despite its well-known status, Angie\u2019s List is definitely not the best place for businesses to turn for leads. Instead, it\u2019s much better to go to a service that levels the playing field for all sizes of businesses and doesn\u2019t utilize paid advertising. <\/p>\n\n\n\n After looking at the facts of how Angie\u2019s List operates, it\u2019s difficult to see why either consumers or businesses use it. Customers need to pay a rate of $99.99 a year in order to receive the full benefits of Angie\u2019s List. If a customer doesn\u2019t want to pay for a Gold membership and has an issue with one of the services performed, there\u2019s no way to dispute it with customer service. If a business doesn\u2019t have the means to pay for advertising with Angie\u2019s List, they\u2019ll be crowded out by the ones who can buy their way to the top of every search list.<\/p>\n\n\n\n For both customers and professionals, Angie\u2019s List is not the way to go. Instead, invest your time in a lead-generation service that is low-cost, easy for both parties to use, and won\u2019t favor one business over another. Check out Pro In Your Pocket<\/a>: it\u2019s free for customers and businesses come to them instead of the other way around. For Pros, it\u2019s only $24 a month for unlimited bids, and it\u2019s the perfect place for startups to get off the ground and businesses of all sizes to grow.<\/p>\n","_et_gb_content_width":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/support.proinyourpocket.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/319"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/support.proinyourpocket.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/support.proinyourpocket.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/support.proinyourpocket.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/support.proinyourpocket.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=319"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/support.proinyourpocket.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/319\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":441,"href":"https:\/\/support.proinyourpocket.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/319\/revisions\/441"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/support.proinyourpocket.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/440"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/support.proinyourpocket.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=319"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/support.proinyourpocket.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=319"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/support.proinyourpocket.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=319"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Consumer-Driven? Not So Much<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
The Bottom Line<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
A Brief Overview<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
The Customer\u2019s Perspective<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
The Pro\u2019s Perspective<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Consumer-Driven? Not So Much<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
The Bottom Line<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n