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Ask HN: Feedback on my project (QuoteFinch.com)

4 points by raydookie ↗ HN
The idea behind Quotefinch, is to allow users to request quotes from multiple companies with minimal effort.

Many times I've found myself on the phone calling all these different companies trying to find out if they offer what I need...and what is the price.

I wanted to create a service to make it easier for people and companies to find companies who are offering what they need.

So say you are looking for quotes for web design service, wedding services, seo consultancy service, janitorial services even insurance or quotes for landscaping. The idea is you use the site/service to make your request. Then we broadcast your request to the relevant companies for them to respond to you.

So this way, the companies come to you with their price/offer, rather than you go hunting around for them.

What do you guys think? All feedback is welcome.

URL: http://quotefinch.com

7 comments

[ 3.4 ms ] story [ 26.6 ms ] thread
coryl
Have you looked into the countless other "job/project" outsourcing sites? What do you do differently or better than them?
raydookie
To me these sites are great for project/IT work. But say I'm organizing a party, and I need sound equipment. I'd like to get quotes from different companies who rent sound equipment in my area.

Or say, I need some caterers for the event. I would like to find out if they can provide me with what I want, without calling each of them.

pedalpete
Nice clean looking site. You've done an ok job of explaining what you do, but for the b2b (or b2c) space, I think you need to provide more detail in how the service works.

Testimonials would be good, but it would be really beneficial to know that you have businesses in your contacts list.

As the example you gave coryl. If I needed sound equipment or a caterer and I am using your service, how do I know you have these contacts, and that you are the best source?

Are real people working with quotefinch to get my quotes together? or is it all done by a computer? What can I expect?

At the moment I think it's a bit light on those details.

As for using the little twitter bird in your logo, what is the purpose of that? Does your service do something with twitter? If not, i'd remove that just to get rid of any confusion.

raydookie
Thank you so very much for your feedback. Below are some response to the concerns your raised:

"Testimonials would be good, but it would be really beneficial to know that you have businesses in your contacts list." >>>>ANS: Honestly the site is in the very early stages. So I really don't have anybody using it as yet to be able to provide testimonials. Hopefully soon I could get something up and running and get some users to provide testimonials.

"As the example you gave coryl. If I needed sound equipment or a caterer and I am using your service, how do I know you have these contacts, and that you are the best source?" >>>>ANS: Users will select a category they want to make a request in eg: Sound Equipment Services. When they select a category, they will see all the companies who are providing that particular service. So even before they post their request, the could browse thru the list and know all the companies who will receive their request.

"Are real people working with quotefinch to get my quotes together? or is it all done by a computer? What can I expect?" >>>>ANS: All done by computer. I think my answer above should cover this. If not, let me know and I'll clarify more.

"As for using the little twitter bird in your logo, what is the purpose of that? Does your service do something with twitter? If not, i'd remove that just to get rid of any confusion." >>>>ANS: The bird was suppose to represent a Finch. I guess I can remove it if it's more misleading than relevant.

pedalpete
Thanks for the responses. Most of what you said was what I would have guessed, but wanted to give you the perspective of a customer that doesn't know.

These I see as road-blocks in getting people to use the service. It isn't as easy to understand as you may think. A quick 'this is how it works' demo with screenshots (video might not be as good for this) would probably be helpful.

I totally didn't get the Finch thing. I don't know what a finch looks like, but I know what the twitter bird looks like.

AmberShah
I've used sites like this before for my mortgage, auto insurance, home renovation and looking for a lawyer and I really don't like them. For one, almost no one will give you a real quote. Even if I describe, in detail, the work that will be required and request a range, I always get a generic email that says "Please call us". Well that was useless. I also don't generally get a lot of responses, just one or two. And those one or two like to spam me with generic emails. Overall it accomplished nothing that a quick Google search couldn't do.

I would say, if you really want to enter this space, make sure your service doesn't end up like this and then advertise it as such to prospective buyers.