Have you been waiting to unlock the power of the Recommended Contractors feature because you couldn't limit contractors by geographical area?
Well, the wait is over!
Now you can ensure your contractors won't be bothered about potential jobs that are outside their service areas. With Service Areas in place, your reports will display the right contractor for the right property--protecting your contractors' time and setting you up to make contractor recommendations a growth driver for your business.
Show your clients you make thoughtful recommendations that respect their time. Avoid handing them off to contractors who will de-prioritize them due to location.
Here's How Service Areas for Contractors Works:
Get yourself to the Recommended Contractors list page (brand spankin' new and looking great in the Contacts section).
Click on the new Manage Service Areas button at the top of the screen to pop open the two-step process.
First, you'll want to give your new Service Area a name (unique names are enforced so there's no confusion for your team). Then you'll use the mapping functionality to create a selection on the map. You can use the rectangular method or the freeform points (polygons) method--whichever one works best for your needs.
Don't forget to make use of the zoom (+ or -) to get to the right level of granularity. If you aren't happy with what is captured, use any of the four icons (Edit, Drag, Remove, Rotate) to make a change.
Next, you can assign contractors to the Service Area you just created. This isn't required at this step, but just know that a Service Area isn't valuable until you assign it to someone.
Things to note:
You can create as many service areas as you'd like.
A contractor can be assigned to multiple service areas or none.
Contractors without a service area assignment will not be limited by any geographic area. They're everywhere!
You can edit any previously created area by selecting from the dropdown and making any changes.
A service area can be deleted even if it has a contractor assigned to it; deleting the area does not delete the contractor--it just removes the assignment.
If you want to see all of your contractor service areas in one visual, we have that too! Just click on the "view all areas on the map" link.
Inspector-View Reports
Don't worry if you don't see one of your active contractors listed for a defect you'd expect! We'll let you know how many, and which ones by name, are not going to display in your client's report because their assigned service area didn't include the property in question.
Your clients won't have access to this "hidden" info, but you'll know all is working correctly.
We hope this new capability helps you make the most out of your contractor network!