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Why is your displayed list of plumbers in alphabetical order?
We have not identified a more uniform order (see next question) and we provide selection details about each plumber for the user to compare plumbing contractors before calling.
We also choose this order, because this is the same listing format you see in a phone book.
Why not just have the user determine to show plumbers within X miles?
If we had a drop down list for the searcher to specify showing all plumbers within X miles of them, some of the plumber listings may be within X miles, but their service call area is not that big. We want to minimize searchers calling you if you can not service them.
There is also the possibility that a plumbing contractor could have technicians working out of a number of cities, so they are actually closer than their primary address indicates. We would not want you screened out due to distance when the customer does not know all the underlying details.
Can you display plumbers in increasing order of distance from searcher?
To some extent we already do this if there is no plumber found making service calls to the specified area. We then will find the closest, then display the plumbers found within the next 40 miles of the closest distance.
There is the possibility that a plumber could have technicians working out of a number of cities, so they are actually closer than their primary address indicates. We would not want you screened out due to distance when the customer does not know all the underlying details.
If the plumbing contractor serves a large area with many trucks, we do not want them being screened out because of distance. We would prefer they get selected based on the other criteria and characteristics about their business that they display.
This is under consideration for a future release. Currently a distance between each and every plumber is calculated based on each user's zip code (location) entry. The information between every U.S. zip code and every plumber is not stored.
Other things to think about:
Example: The closest plumbing contractor a customer might find is 30 miles south, but your service area is only 10 miles north and 40 miles south (near that big city). You do not want customers calling you from 30 miles north of you when you would prefer to go south where all your other calls come from.
If we provided a search for a plumber by distance (via zip code), this will tell your potential customers the closest physical location of where the plumbing contractor (you) operates out of, but it will not necessarily tell them if the contractor (you) will come the distance and/or direction to the customer that is inquiring.
Also if your potential customer searches by zip code distance, they will see many more choices to call versus if we just have them find you by the zip code area each plumber serves. This way they are only looking at plumbers who serve a specified zip code area versus all plumbers closest to furthest...less choices for them to choose from, more potential business for you!
If we displayed plumbers based on their closeness to a service location, the other plumber info which we display (to help users decide who to call) might be ignored.
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