Vetted Contractor Program
Role
Lead the research and design effort from concept to final product. Worked with the VP of product and project managers to identify and measure key success metrics
Skills
User Research
UX/UI Design
Prototyping
User Testing
Tools
Survey Monkey
Sketch & InVision
Usertesting.com
The Problem
Homeowner’s don’t exactly know what makes a contractor trustworthy, and contractors want desperately to show new customers they can be trusted.
Trust is a frequent tension point for homeowners when looking for a contractor to work on their largest investment. Homeowners want a pro they can trust, and contractors want to show them just how trustworthy they are. Contractor companies go out of their way to emphasize background checked employees , display valid licensing and other credentials relevant to the project.
The Process
We needed to define what exactly this new product should do for contractors, so we set out to collect data from our customers.
Several surveys were created using the Jobs To Be Done (JTBD) framework and sent to active contractors on the platform, collecting feedback around Trust, Finances, Control, Lead Quality, and Automation. From these surveys we learned that contractors were fine with a subscription model for a vetting program, as long as the vetting went both ways, meaning that the leads a contractor would receive would also go through some type of vetting before they were sent to the contractor.
This made sense to us, as the sole defining characteristic for what contractors defined as a high quality lead was homeowner intent by a large margin. With that in mind, another initiative was made to create a pipeline for a small subset of leads to be run through a verification process with Porch support staff.
From there, we set out to build a vetting program that incorporated feedback from both Contractors and Homeowners on what makes a contractor seem trustworthy, the largest factors being background checks and up-to-date licensing. Once we had this information, we started creating a plan to bring this new product to life.
The Solution
There are three major steps to becoming a Vetted Contractor on Porch. The first step is signing up for a subscription, next there is a background check, and finally trade licensing validation.
A summary screen was necessary to allow contractors the ability to review the status of the three components that make up a membership. From here, the contractor can quickly take action on any issue (i.e. expired credit card or failed background check) that would invalidate their membership.
The next step in the process was to collect all the information required by Evident to perform the necessary background check. Based on Evident’s technology, we built a simple three step flow that includes agreeing to the background check, collecting the individual’s SSN, and asking for additional identifying information (ex: name, address, etc.).
Two methods were offered to enter the additional identifying information. A contractor could manually enter the information or they could upload photos of a valid state issued ID, which Evident’s technology would pull the relevant information from.
Uploading photos proved to be the most frequently chosen path, but it had a significant failure rate due to the low quality of photos being uploaded.
The first part of a Vetted Contractor’s journey starts with the subscription set-up. For this component, we created several A/B tests to try out different promotions and subscription plans, which focused on varied price-point and trial periods.
Then, customers who successfully completed A/B tests were either sent a survey or interviewed. From this process, we learned that price-point isn’t as important, most contractors being more interested in a shorter trial period. The promotion with the highest success rate was the six month trial period, which is still used on the site today.
Licensing validation was the final step, which utilized Evident’s technology to validate and update trade licensing information for the contractor. This allows contractors to request updates, add new licenses and deactivate expired ones.
With the help of Evident, Porch can now easily and automatically maintain the status of a contractor’s licensing on Porch, taking some of the tedium out of maintaining their profile.
The Result
This product has been live and successful for almost three years and we have seen:
3300+ Vetted Contractors across all major markets.
50-75 new sign ups per month and growing.
2-3% Attrition rate of Vetted Contractors across major trade verticals.
200% increase in the life time value of each Vetted Contractor
In summary, Contractors who joined the Vetted Network are more successful and used Porch longer than Contractors who had not joined the Vetted Network