TaskRabbit Switches Business Models

culled from:successvalues.com
It’s interesting how we’ve decentralized so many services. No longer do we have to hire a taxi to take us to the airport, punch buttons trying to schedule a repairman to come fix a hole in the wall, or shell out what a moving service charges.
TaskRabbit is one of the companies leveraging this crowdsourcing trend. Essentially, the site connects people willing to do things like help people move, clean houses, repair things, or help with other personal tasks people need to get done. While the company has been in business since 2008 and expanded to 19 cities globally, the model wasn’t perfect.
A Work in Progress
Up until recently, the site operated on a bidding system:
1. You visit the site and post a job.
2. You wait and receive bids from service providers.
3. You choose the one that best fits what you want.
Apparently, that model wasn’t working for the brand, which is on track to bring in 2.5 million new clients this year. After in-depth research and analysis of its London operations — as well as ample feedback from users — TaskRabbit decided to tweak its service to offer one-click hiring that takes the waiting for bids out of the equation.
Taskers (those taking on the jobs) now post their hourly rate so that Clients can easily see how much a task will cost and how long it will take to complete.
Too Many Projects, Not Enough Time
Additionally, TaskRabbit realized that there were simply too many tasks for its Taskers to handle, so it came up with an innovative algorithm that matches users on both sides of the platform for the best fit. In an email interview Johnny Brackett, PR Lead at TaskRabbit told Small Business Trends:
“We had to change the product because demand (task posting) was outpacing what we could efficiently match with our supply (i.e., our Taskers). We saw that our Taskers were spending up to two hours a week just browsing through tasks to bid on. In recent months, it became evident that the current product was not efficiently matching Clients who needed something done with the most appropriate Tasker for the job.”
Other Improvements
Given that there are over 25,000 Taskers using the platform, with 10 percent doing it as a full-time job and 75 percent relying on the brand to pay their bills, it was smart of TaskRabbit to listen to both Taskers and clients in its brand pivot. Taskers now have better communication and scheduling tools, as well as user-friendly mobile apps.
TaskRabbit is also providing peace of mind to both sides of the equation with $1 million in insurance coverage.
While there has been some initial frustration from long-time users with the new system, which launched last week, here’s hoping the new platform is a success.