Website: NoCowboys.co.nz
Find, use and rate Kiwi businesses, Diana Clement continues our series on software and technology aids for property investors.
Monday, September 3rd 2007, 12:00AM
by The Landlord
Product: NoCowboys
Price: Free to use, $49 + GST to register a business
Overall rating: 4 out of 5.
Website: <a href="http://www.nocowboys.co.nz">www.nocowboys.co.nz</a>
Property investors need tradespeople. Sooner or later there’s a job they can’t do themselves. Having a reliable plumber, builder, and so on is something you need to sort out sooner or later.
But, as the people behind the website NoCowboys point out, how do you find the right person?
We all know that a listing in the phone book, small ads in the local newspaper or Internet listings don’t guarantee someone you can trust. “If you’re like most you’ll call the folks with the nicest-looking advertisement, cross your fingers and hope for the best,” says the site.
Personal recommendations are often the best way to find a good tradesperson or other business. It’s one reason why maintaining a network of like-minded property investors or belonging to the local property investors’ association makes sense.
Some investors who find good trades people will sometimes keep the names to themselves. Some I’ve interviewed more or less employ their tradespeople fulltime and want to make sure they’re always available when needed.
But if you still can’t find a reliable business, then that’s where NoCowboys comes in. The website is a directory of businesses that allows customers to provide feedback and rate them on their reliability, quality of work, value-for-money, honesty and integrity.
Companies listed on the site are divided into “registered businesses” and “unregistered businesses”. The difference is that the registered businesses have chosen to list themselves – one would hope because they’re proud of their service.
One thing I liked is that not only “registered businesses” are rated on the site. Anyone can list a business. Cowboy businesses wouldn’t of course list themselves. But disgruntled customers can and that means the reviews are there for anyone to read.
The site has a number of checks and balances, which help ensure that the businesses themselves don’t boost their own rating and unscrupulous people tarnish the name of good businesses – although neither can be ruled out. Once a customer has posted a rating, it is marked as “non authenticated”. The customer is then sent a confirmation email containing a link that must be clicked on to authenticate the rating.
“Authentication is important because it establishes that a particular rating has been left by someone with a functional email address and also enables us to more effectively monitor and prevent abuse of the ratings system.”
NoCowboys also tracks and records the IP (Internet) addresses of computers used to post ratings to flag anyone who is using the same computer to post reviews from different email addresses.
Should a business have reason to believe that the rating is not left by a genuine customer, NoCowboys sends an email to the individual, requesting evidence that they were a customer.
This is a very simple site to navigate and use. For example, I looked for concreting services. All I needed to do was click on the “Browse all categories” link, choose “Concrete Services” and then the geographical area I was looking for. There I found a long list of companies. One already had 24 authenticated reviews – which I guess came as a result of the company asking its clients to rate it on the site. Not a bad strategy if you want to rate highly on NoCowboys.
One aspect of the site that I particularly liked was that it’s not necessary to join or log in to view ratings. I’m sure I’m not the only person who can never remember my username and password when I go to a website that I use infrequently.
Another thing I liked was that the home page of the site had a section in the navigation panel that had a list of businesses I had viewed recently. This made it easy to go back to these firms’ listings without having to second-guess the navigation back to where I found them.
For a bit of fun it’s worth reading the Rants & Raves section, which can be found on the home page.
Anyone who uses tradespeople ought to consider using this site to help both themselves and others. It’s free, very simple to use, and by getting involved you’re actively helping to protect other potential victims from cowboy operators.
On the downside, there is always the possibility of abuse despite the checks ad balances. There’s nothing to stop a businessperson getting all of his staff, friends and family to post fictitious good ratings. It is also possible for someone with a grudge to tarnish the reputation of a firm.
At the moment, the numbers of businesses listed are only a fraction of those that exist. But over time this will grow. According to the site there were, when I reviewed the site in July, 5251 ratings covering an unspecified number of firms.
Another complaint is that nowhere could I find who was behind the site. Deep in the terms and conditions, was a suburban address in the Auckland suburb of Mairangi Bay and the In the Media section mentioned a spokesman Bruce Lindsay. When I contacted the company, pretending to be a user, I didn’t get a direct answer at all.
The Contact page had no contact phone number, address or email address for the company, only a feedback form. Such forms aren’t good, as they don’t allow the person contacting the firm to keep a copy of their email. What’s more they often don’t work, although this one did when I tried.
One thing that confused me was that I couldn’t find, anywhere, how much it actually costs to list a business. The site was offering three months registration free, and said that your listing would transfer automatically to unregistered status if you didn’t choose to pay. However it failed to list the cost. I used the feedback form and did in fact get a same day reply. It costs $49 plus GST every six months.
NoCowboys doesn’t have a direct competitor that I know of. In theory the NZPIF’s business directory at www.nzpif.org.nz should provide an alternative source for good trades people. But most of the links (and I’ve clicked on quite a few) have no businesses listed at all. For the record, the NZPIF’s website has a section for each local association each split into 17 sections under headings such as: accountants, builders, electrical, garden maintenance, plumbers, rental property managers and so on. Virtually every heading I clicked on (excluding the Otago ones that were populated) simply had a message that said: “Businesses Coming Soon…”
It would be useful for investors to be able to view businesses that are members of local property investment associations on that website.
Contact: No contact details listed.
System requirements: Internet access.
Verdict: A very useful site that will become more so as its popularity grows.
Pros: Ability to find respected businesses easily and to rate them
Cons: Open to some abuse even with the checks and balances.
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