Unknown Speaker 0:00
London property – home of super prime, where you can find informative educational and entertaining content, covering all aspects of property.

Farnaz Fazaipour 0:11
Hello, and welcome to London Property – home of super prime. I’m your host Farnaz Fazaipour. And today we’re in conversation with a co founder of the page, Thomas Benyon. And tell us a bit more about how you got here today, Thomas.

Unknown Speaker 0:26
Yes. So well, thank you very much for for having me on. And hopefully, we can give you a bit of an insight into what we’re looking to do what we’ve done today. So, yeah, how we got here, I came from a property background, having worked for five years in the estate agency world. And Henry, my co-founder at The Page came from a background working in the city. And I guess it was something born out of lockdown with quite a bit of thinking time. And then the decision to actually do something about it. And what we had sort of been thinking about was after a chat at the pub, comparing notes on how bad tradespeople we’d had to our own places had been. I think in my case, it was about three plumbers in as many months looking at the same issue. And Henry’s in a flat with, you know, a number of other flats, and he’s dealing with a managing agent who had had a terrible time through with a roofer. So we yeah, that gave us a push to think actually, let’s do something about this and create, you know, a really engaging platform that naive homeowners and other, you know, businesses and services can use to connect to tradespeople.

Farnaz Fazaipour 1:47
I love the name of your business. And how did you come up with it? Why is it called The Page London?

Unknown Speaker 1:54
I came up with it because I was thinking, I was on one of those platforms where I had to scroll through page of pay, you know, page after page looking for a suitable decorator. And then that made me think of yellow pages where maybe you know, the olden days, you would scroll through many pages to find the right contact. And I just thought no, I just want people to have one place to go to one port of call. So I thought The Page.

Farnaz Fazaipour 2:23
Brilliant. So you’ve experienced firsthand a problem both of you. Yeah. And then you decided to do something about it. So what would you say is unique about your platform? What what are you? What is what is the problem you’re trying to solve?

Unknown Speaker 2:37
Yeah, I guess first and foremost, if you know, the i demographic demographic of user has been someone who’s short on time, who may not have had to deal with, you know, ownership of property previously, or, you know, has had no multi properties. And they don’t have a black book to rely upon to connect to the best tradesperson for that job. And, number one, people like the fact that they are speaking to another human being. So they come through us, they give us their problems, their job, what that involves. And we then do the work behind the scenes to make sure that we connect them to the trades person or trades people most suitable for that job. Matching for us is the most important thing. So compare it to some well known mass market platforms out there for tradespeople to list their services on, you might fill 10 questions out, you’ll then be directed towards a page of 350 Plumbers for us, you let us know that you want a plumber, some basic information on that job, your details, we will then match you with one to three plumbers absolutely maximum. So the choice is much more focused. And you connect to those plumbers. So ease of use for us is very important. And the sort of the time that goes into making sure our matchmaking is as perfect as it can be between the customer and the tradesperson.

Farnaz Fazaipour 4:18
So what is that onboarding process for you? So what are you looking for when when you’re finding these tradespeople because obviously, you know your story is going to resonate with a lot of people who have all had bad experiences. So how is it that you are doing it differently?

Unknown Speaker 4:33
Yeah, so all of the trades people have been recommended to us. And then actually working closely with a number of these different trades people for now, over a year in some cases. They know the level that they have to work out and the standards that we’ve set, and based upon that they’ve also recommended us to a number of different trades. We then go meet them face to face. And I think we’ve both Henry and I’ve learned the hard way That, actually the word vetting doesn’t mean an awful lot to most of these companies. Not only have we joined most as decorators to test out the word vetting, but it doesn’t differentiate enough between the best at what they do. And the Cowboys, which for us is a big problem. So actually meeting face to face, taking the information and what jobs they’ve done to date, of course, taking on the certification that they need. So Gas Safe certificates, for example. And that’s been, and that’s been, for us the main exercise in onboarding our trades people, on top of that, it’s really down to them to make sure that they keep to a high standard. And look, it’s impossible for every single job to go, right. But what we want is, if something doesn’t go right, for lessons to be learned, for them to have done everything they could possibly do to rectify the situation. And if we see that there’s a trend of, you know, poor performance, and lessons have been learned, then we do something about it. So that’s, that’s what’s worked for us.

Farnaz Fazaipour 6:17
So geographically, your business is currently London focus London focus. Yeah. And what have you learned in the process, since you’ve launched about how to pick trades people? And how much does it matter where they are? Geographically?

Unknown Speaker 6:37
Yeah, mass is massively. So for all the trades, people we list, we actually like to know exactly where they live, because you won’t find that many are based in SW three, for instance, but if they’re coming from a certain area, on the outskirts of or outside of London, we need to know, okay, for that tradesperson, it’s actually very easy to get in that way. They can therefore cover East London or for a tradesperson, who lives, you know, towards slough and covers West London, it’s easy to cover those areas. And, you know, same same goes for South South London. And so that’s hugely important. And I think that’s another factor that we had issues with when we were connecting to tradespeople before this was I wanted a plumber, who I really thought was local was covering jobs in that area. And I found that they’re just driven, you know, miles across London, to get there for me. So not only are they most likely late, but they’re not that interested in connecting with me as a customer in the first instance, because they’re not local. So that has a big part to play in how we select tradespeople for customers.

Farnaz Fazaipour 7:50
So really, in a digital world that we’re living in you, you’re kind of bringing the human element back to this whole process. You’re giving the efficiency through a platform, but you’re really connecting with people as individuals having conversations and knowing Who are you and where do you live? And how can you help me and how can I help you?

Unknown Speaker 8:05
Yeah, I think massively understanding the demographic of a customer helps you know, which trades person is going to be best for that job. And I think at the end of the day, we we, the tradespeople industry has a bad reputation. And we want our level of service to be unlike any other platform out there that’s associated with this industry.

Farnaz Fazaipour 8:28
And so do we can’t wait for someone to come and bring reliability back to this. So what type of services are the most popular? Do you think from the services that you offer on your platform?

Unknown Speaker 8:39
very seasonal. So at the moment, we’re dealing with damp proof offers lots of plumbing, jobs, roofing jobs. Throughout the year, we’ve helped customers connect to kitchen installers, bathroom installers, flooring specialists. Then, as you move into the summer, you always see an increase in decorating jobs. And of course, your gardening work, too. So I, I’d say very seasonal, but there are those ones that continue throughout the year.

Farnaz Fazaipour 9:11
So basically, the more experience you get, the more we can tap into for insight in preparing for the seasons.

Unknown Speaker 9:17
Yeah, I think on top of that, we, you know, on top of just connecting customers to trays, people, we want to be advisory we want you know, to feel like the customer can come to us and actually say, you know, help me, I’m moving into a property in this many months. What should I be thinking of? Or I’ve just moved in, what should I be doing about my boiler or, you know, electrical checks? So we want people to think, okay, we can go to the page for just advice on home improvements. And you mentioned gardening so people think they don’t need to touch the garden throughout the winter, but actually, you do need to make sure it’s in good neck for them those times My months to do more serious works if that’s what you wanted to do, and keep it well maintained. So that’s absolutely something we’re looking to do.

Farnaz Fazaipour 10:09
So prevention is actually a really big part of maintenance, isn’t it? To stay ahead.

Unknown Speaker 10:14
To stay ahead, which, you know, is it’s a hard sell, because people think, okay, I want to do works, when the roof leaks, I don’t want to check on it once a year, or I’ll repair the boiler when it breaks down. But actually, you should be, you know, get out, obviously, your your annual checks and all of that. So, absolutely.

Farnaz Fazaipour 10:36
And also servicing these things in attending to these problems, prevents them from becoming more expensive problems later. But as you say, people don’t really think like that. They’re like, if it ain’t broke.

Unknown Speaker 10:45
Yeah, exactly. And that’s another problem that people will inevitably look to take shortcuts. And a lot of that has to do with, you know, how much something costs, and especially at the moment with the cost of materials going up. And so this is all very relevant. But what we’ve seen is, when you connect to the best trades person, when you pay for the right kind of work, inevitably, it’s going to save you money further down the line.

Farnaz Fazaipour 11:12
So you’ve touched a little bit about the fact that, you know, in the future, you want to be doing more, you know, some of this advisory services as well. But is there anything more you can share with us about what the future holds and what your plans are for the business?

Unknown Speaker 11:24
Yes, so very excited about where we’ve got to with virtually no marketing, I think power of word of mouth has got us to where we are today, which has been fantastic. And we love serving the customers who are new to the page, and we’ve loved connecting with all these new trades people have been amazing to work with. And I guess, much more excited to think where we can get to with a bit of marketing. And to continue to learn. So we’re, we’re trying to really, you know, take it right down to the coalface and actually learn what needs to be learned about these industries. What your plumber goes through on a daily basis, what your roofer needs to think about or builder needs to consider on certain jobs. I’m joining a plumber for a day next week, to really understand what works, what doesn’t, what they need to have to make their daily lives work more smoothly. So it’s it’s that side of the business I’ve really enjoyed doing. And I guess it’s all about learning and continuing to, to, you know, build, take the page forward and build from that.

Farnaz Fazaipour 12:32
Fantastic. Well, I’m putting my money where my mouth is, and I’m meeting one of your contractors after this interview. So Well, that was the spirit. Exactly.

Unknown Speaker 12:39
Very, very pleased to hear.

Farnaz Fazaipour 12:42
Brilliant. Well, thank you so much. And we would love to have you back on the show to share more insights in the future. And thank you for talking to us today. Definitely.

Unknown Speaker 12:49
Well, thank you very much Farnaz for having me.

Farnaz Fazaipour 12:51
So to connect to Thomas, you can head over to our experts directory where if you’re a member you can connect direct if you need to get in touch with him. Otherwise, send us an email ask@lndonproperty.co.uk and we will be able to put you in touch with Thomas who can put a bespoke service together for you and your needs.

Unknown Speaker 13:11
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