Redbeacon Launch Event
March 10, 2010
Connecting consumers with the best
service providers to meet their needs
Agenda
Update on Redbeacon: The Past 6 Months
- Brief Overview of Redbeacon
- Some Early Learnings
- Recently Launched Features
What We’re Announcing Today: Redbeacon Goes Social
- Friendly Advice
- Organization Endorsements
Partnership Announcement
Q&A
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A Brief History of Redbeacon
Enabled service Redbeacon
requests in SF Social Launch
Milestone
Enabled service
Redbeacon 1,000 service requests throughout First Partner
Founded providers enrolled Bay Area Integration
Nov 08 Sep 09 Oct 09 Dec 09 Mar 10
Phase
Product Launch Register service Learn and iterate Scale
development providers
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How Redbeacon Works
Customers Service providers
1 Customer submits a 2 Matching engine finds
job request best service providers
5 The job is scheduled 4 Customer reviews 3 Selected service
quotes and selects a providers are invited to
service provider quote
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What Distinguishes Redbeacon
Sophisticated matching engine* alerts professionals best suited for job
(No search results, no public job posts)
Consumers see actual price quotes for their jobs
Detailed profiles help consumers decide who to pick
Appointments can be scheduled online
* Patent pending
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First Lesson Learned
1. There is no chicken and egg problem
Signing up service providers is easy.
Matches per Job Quotes per Job
Jobs receiving price quotes
Top 20 verticals
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Quote First / Register Later
Problem:
• Service providers don’t immediately see value in Redbeacon
• Redbeacon doesn’t have enough providers for some requests
Solution:
• Create system to email prospects with “carrot” of real job to quote on
Quote first page
Redesign Job Pages
Problem:
• Providers not seeing where to quote and putting quotes in Q&A
Solution:
• Redesigned the Provider Job page to highlight quote box
Old Provider Quote Page
Redesigned Provider Quote Page
Second Lesson Learned
2. Consumers and service providers need to communicate
Before, during, and after the job.
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Private Conversations
Problem:
• Consumers want to communicate with service providers to ask
questions about the quote and bargain
Solution:
• Enable private communication between consumer and providers
who quoted
Consumer View Private Conversation
Provider View Private Conversation
Adding Information to Existing Requests
Problem:
• Consumer want to add information and add images to their request after
they have submitted it
Solution:
• Enable consumers to add information to the description and upload
images after job is submitted
Third Lesson Learned
3. Consumers need lots of information to make a decision
Price, availability, descriptions, and ratings are not enough.
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Improved Ratings and Reviews
Problem:
• Consumers need more information about providers before selecting
Solution:
• Added Yelp, Google and Yahoo ratings to help with selection
Ratings from Yelp, Google and Yahoo
Promote Profile Completion
Problem:
• Service providers not completing entire profile
Solution:
• Engage service providers at the right times to get them to enhance
their profiles
Enhance profile after quoting
Improve description after quoting
Complete profile reminder on homepage
What We’re Announcing
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New Feature: Friendly Advice
Crowdsourcing recommendations and sharing
- In the real world, people ask their friends
for recommendations on local services
- We enable this on Redbeacon by allowing
your Facebook friends to vote and
comment on service provider options
- Your friends can also recommend
additional service providers for the job
- Successful experiences are posted to
Facebook to increase virality
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Screencast of Friendly Advice
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Friendly Advice
1. Redbeacon posts to consumer’s Facebook Wall
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Friendly Advice
2. Friends vote and comment on user’s choices
Offers to
choose from
Voting
buttons
Leave
comments
Other
people’s
opinions
Friendly Advice
2a. Friends can also recommend their own service providers
John Doe
555-555-5555
Redbeacon then notifies service
john@handyhands.com provider about the job!
I’ve used John for years. He
does top quality work.
Friendly Advice
3. Consumers can see their friends’ opinions
Friendly Advice
4. When friends vote, it’s shared to their Facebook too
Theoretical Example
Action Potential Exposure
Consumer posts job
(consumer has 500 FB friends) 500 people
5 friends give advice on the job
(each friend has 500 FB friends)
2500 people
Viral
Why We Think This Will Work
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Fluent: The Razorfish Social Influence Marketing Report
Full study at http://www.slideshare.net/razorfishmarketing/fluent-the-razorfish-social-influence-marketing-report
Why We Think This Will Work
What people ask and answer in their online social networks
(Survey of 624 people)
“ People often turn to their friends,
families, and colleagues when they
”
have questions
What Do People Ask Their Social Networks, and Why? A Survey Study of Status Message Q&A Behavior
Full study at http://people.csail.mit.edu/teevan/work/publications/papers/chi10-social.pdf
New Feature: Organization Memberships
Best recommendations outside of friends & family are endorsements
from trusted organizations
Organizations include
Displaying Membership Badges
- Dozens of organizations at launch
- 16,000 service professionals in SF
Bay Area alone
Redbeacon Distribution Strategy
Reach target consumers on websites they already visit
Leverage trusted ties for recommendations and endorsements
Many partnerships will be announced soon, but the first one is...
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Partnership Announcement
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Who is BigTent?
The leading platform for trusted parenting groups
across the country
Allows Redbeacon to reach the critical Moms demographic and
provides a valuable new service to BigTent members
BigTent is launching Redbeacon services to 100+ of its most
influential and trusted community groups in the Bay Area
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Redbeacon’s Integration Into BigTent
Group Buzz Page
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Redbeacon’s Integration Into BigTent
Within Reviews & Classifieds
Search
Results
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Redbeacon’s Integration Into BigTent
Triggered by keywords in group forums
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The BigTent Experience on Redbeacon
Cobranded Request Service Provider
Services Page Endorsements Page
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BigTent Experience on Redbeacon
We then show the number of endorsements given by
members of their group
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What it all Means
1. We provide all the information needed to choose the
best local service professional for the job
Recommendations of friends and family
Endorsements from web communities
Professional memberships
Price quotes
Appointment times
Ratings and reviews
2. We leverage the social web to
Build trust via our users’ social connections through Friendly Advice
Be present in our users’ online communities through partnerships
Questions and Discussion
THANK YOU!
Ethan Anderson
ethan@redbeacon.com
Laney Whitcanack
laney@bigtent.com
Redbeacon Press Center: http://redbeacon.com/about/press
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