Better data and openness were the two core guiding lights for platform development over the past 4+ months. We’ve shipped a lot and we’re excited to highlight a few things for you now.
Ready? Let’s dive in.
Signing up to any online service requires a bit of a time investment and we're fully aware of the balance between too little and too much in the application process for each of our customer constituents.
For new Expert account applicants, we launched a simpler, step-by-step onboarding process; it distinguishes between service providers that are agencies, consultancies and systems integrators versus solopreneur consultants (a.k.a. freelancers).
Note: The application process continues to screen out all FTEs looking for side gigs during evening and weekend hours.
It's a small addition to remove friction in the application process.
A growing number of service providers are agencies, consultancies and systems integrators, so we've improved how these organizations can feature their skills, services, their relationships with technology vendors and more.
For startups to large enterprises, MeasureMatch is the marketplace platform connecting business leaders with amazing consulting and professional services partners.
The data is in. Clients clearly prefer to book pros with profiles that they can see and share with colleagues. So, Expert account profiles are now shareable off-platform.
Not only can service providers showcase their profiles, their star ratings and reviews, and their technology vendor verifications, but Service Packages as well. Below are a few examples of publicly viewable service providers' profiles:
Helen T (founder of a 15-person data consultancy)
Tom M (a solo consultant in the US)
Justin B (a digital nomad with mad SaaS and data/analytics skills)
This one's for the technology vendors participating via Partner Hubs. Technology Vendors can now see and click the "Direct message" button to selectively encourage service providers in our network to consider their partnership programmes.
Partner Hubs, for those not in the know, is a value-added (i.e. free) element supporting technology vendors' channel partner growth ambitions, for sales & services.
Note: Technology Vendor accounts will soon be called Partner accounts. It turns out there are several other types of organizations interested in our Partner Hubs model!
Creating a new profile for a marketplace is easy, but we know it's hard to land that first - and second - contract without a demonstration of capabilities that ratings and reviews succinctly and powerfully communicate. So, we've released something to solve for that.
Expert account holders can now ask former clients to submit star ratings and reviews. We've set this up as best as we can to prevent a gaming of the system, but - like how much of the MeasureMatch marketplace operates - trust is pretty important here.
Importantly, clients are not required to apply for an account to submit a review, we will never use client contact details for sales/marketing communications and we will never transfer client contact details to another party. We’ve also built in a way for clients to easily submit a data deletion request, which we'll action immediately.
Also, we do recognize the possibility that clients coming in to provide reviews might indeed sign up (we certainly hope so) and book a contract with another service provider. Our hope is that many/most service providers will use this functionality anyway, with the view and understanding that the potential for revenue opportunities works the other way, too. And profiles will get much-needed, valued and valuable client endorsements.
Submitting the request looks like this...
We're releasing new features, functionality and fixes into the live environment of our platform as much as three times each week.
And we'll do more and faster as we grow our software development team, but also off the back of what we learn from each of our customers: buyers of services, providers of services and partner organizations, like technology vendors, using our Partner Hubs infrastructure to scale and deepen important business relationships.
So, what do you think? We'd love to know.
Plenty more exciting developments are on the way, so eyes peeled!
In this blog post I share a few thoughts on a decision we made to place a limit on the kinds of experts we welcome into the MeasureMatch marketplace network of service providers.
I’m writing this blog post to address a concern expressed by a small, but valuable number of independent consultants and consultancies. The concern I hear is often phrased in a question like this: “Why would I want to...
