trickle down professionalism

Living in a small town, there are certain types of services that have not yet joined the world of modern professionalism. I guess word hasn't trickled down just yet. Whether I'm working with a home construction contractor, an arborist, or even an auto mechanic, I find that many of them don't have the customer service tools that I came to expect when living in larger metro areas. Few of them use computers, and some don't even want to give you an estimate in writing. In many cases, the "good ol' boy" system is alive and well, and you're supposed to just trust someone's word. Heck, I've been in situations where I wouldn't have been surprised if the guy spit into his palm and wanted to shake on it. Locals are always quick to plug their friends and relatives, so you never know if someone is going to do a good job or not based on recommendations. And the last thing you need is to get involved in a business dispute with a friend or a neighbor. You know what they say about mixing your business and personal lives...don't do it!

Fortunately, even the phone book exists in the "boonies" and most professions are still required to register with local government. There isn't a local Better Business Bureau for my town, so I often turn to the internet for details. Sometimes I can find business ratings and reviews online, and at other times I cannot. There are specialized sites that are cropping up all over the net to try and maintain some sort of service history for many industries, but few have listings in my area just yet. Some get on my nerves by trying to redirect me to some national company that would be happy to put me on a big waiting list until they can get out to my area for an estimate. Then they'll inflate their price to cover travel fees to my area. It's similar to when you're searching the phonebook for local businesses, and they list paid advertisements for non-local firms first.

Luckily, not all sites are this underhanded or spammy. I recently ran across one for finding an auto body shop. I searched by my zip code, and they didn't have any listings in my area. Rather than try to redirect me to a listing from another city that might be able to do the work, they simply admitted that they couldn't help me yet. They even used a fancy video of a woman in the lower right-hand corner to apologize. This was a very user-friendly, honest and personal way to respond, and I appreciate that. I also like that I didn't have to enter any contact information in before I could search. I once tried using another site to find a gutter installer in my area, and they sold my contact information to a bunch of spam lists. Not only did I not receive a response from a qualified gutter contractor, but I had to cancel the email address that I had provided them so as to avoid the relentless spam.