So, it’s week four for me here as a TalkLocal Intern (yes, that’s an official title). I started working just a bit after everyone else, but the arrival of others after me luckily took “the new one” label off my back fairly quickly. Although I wasn’t quite sure what my daily activities would be when I first showed up, I’m finding my days filled up with lots of different things! To name a few…

Blogs (like this one?) – In addition to looking through companies in TalkLocal’s specific industries, I get to write tip-and-trick-type articles involving said industries. Who would have thought there was so much about computers, locksmiths, and HVAC that I didn’t know? Okay, anyone could have called that one. But it’s actually been quite informative! Anyone need advice on choosing the best home security system? You could definitely hit me up now.

Videos – Although I didn’t think this was going to be a project of mine at the start, the other Interns have very graciously welcomed me in. Reading the scripts, filming, and editing these are probably the most fun parts of every day. I’ve never thought about it before, but perhaps breaking into the movie/television industry would be a great career move! Or maybe my acting skills in the videos prove otherwise… :S Hey, a girl can dream.

Lunch breaks – It’s lunch. And a break. What’s not to like? This is a great time to get to know the other Interns too. We come from different places and schools all over the country, and it’s fun to share stories with a new crowd. Working at TalkLocal is fun and social in itself, so the addition of pizza is definitely not hurting anyone’s feelings.

So, like I said, my days here are jam-packed with stuff to do. There are always new projects to think about, so I don’t see myself slowing down anytime soon! And I’m sure the office will only prove itself more entertaining as we go along, so stay tuned for more from the life of a TalkLocal Intern. Until next time!

#LovingTalkLocalInternship

Dear people of earth,

In the midst of all the confusion that constitutes now, I’m certain you’re wondering what it’s like to live a day as an intern at TalkLocal. Well, allow me to allay your curiosity.

I started my day with a fairly traffic-free ride in to work. This was a welcome change because for the past week my commute has been slowed by the mass of humanity that descended on Congressional Country Club to watch the Tiger Woodless US Open.

I arrived at work and engaged in some fairly run-of-the-mill small talk with my fellow interns. “How are you today?” “Good.” “Why are your feet in my chair?” Pause. “Why are your feet STILL in my chair?” And so on.

Then I got down to work. For past few weeks I’ve been working on making some videos to promote the awesome service that is TalkLocal. My fellow interns and I have worked tirelessly on writing, filming and acting in little skits that dramatize just how helpful TalkLocal is. We’re filming it in a mockumentary style – think The Office or Parks and Recreation meets YouTube…and product placement. Being the ground-breaking group of interns we are, we’ve boldly titled our web-series “The Interns.” That gives you a little taste of the creativity you’ll see on the show. Brace yourself, it’ll be gracing a computer screen near you in the very foreseeable future.

I shall write again soon, Internets.

That’s right, TalkLocal summer internships!

We’re getting ready for an important summer, and that means we need help. In a start-up like TalkLocal, there is a never ending list of small tasks to complete, and this list is much too large for GP, MP, and Aman to finish themselves. This means we need to get some interns. We have started posting internships on sites of some of the top schools in the country, and we hope to get some results. Here are the specific TalkLocal summer internships we are offering:

– Account Executive Internship

– Sales Associate Internship

– Customer Service Internship

– Market Analyst Internship

– Social Media Analyst Internship

– Writer & Blogger Internship

– Web Designer Internship

– Web Programmer Internship

– Graphic Designer Internship

We hope to get some talented, enthusiastic students to work with us over the summer! So, contact us and join us for our TalkLocal summer internship opportunities.

If you’re not a business, and just your everyday consumer, you may wonder how TalkLocal can help you.  Here’s how:

Imagine yourself in a situation where you need service professional, say a plumber. Whats steps do you take to find the plumber? You probably do one of the following:

– Search the yellow pages and call companies one by one, comparing each
– Search the internet and do the same thing
– Try to find the number of a plumber you’ve used in the past

Regardless of which one of these options you choose, the end result is still YOU calling plumbers to try to find the best one. The worst part about this process is when you call the plumber, you have no clue if he can fix your problem or is available at a time when you are. And even if there is mutual availability, you will be the one who accommodates his schedule, not the other way around.

This process is the standard in the service industries, and it is one which benefits the service providers much more than the consumers. Wouldn’t it be nice if the plumbers came to you and accommodated your schedule?

This is where TalkLocal comes in to save the day. With TalkLocal, you just go to our homepage, choose the industry and location, and fill out this easy form:

After you fill out this form, sit back and watch the action unfold on our live action page, and in just a minute or two, you’ll have a company call you. Better yet, the company already knows your problem, location, and the time you want to be serviced!

But let’s say the first plumber is asking for too much money. At the end of that call, you have the option of hearing from another plumber, or ending the search.

So, what would you rather do: take time calling different plumbers one by one, until you find one who’s needs you are able to accommodate, or have plumbers call you, and accommodate to YOUR needs like a personal concierge service?

That easy choice is what makes TalkLocal different.

We feel like TalkLocal has a lot to offer, not just for the average consumer, but also for service professionals and businesses. The idea for the website started because GP was frustrated with the lack of return on his advertising costs with his computer repair company Geeks-on-Site. He spent lots of money on ads and he had no clue how much money the ads were giving him. There was no way to advertise with a high ROI (Return on Investment). He assumed that many other SMB’s and service professionals shared his frustrations, so he decided that lots of them would be interested in using a website which reliably brought them customers for a small fee.

And thus the idea for TalkLocal was born. With TalkLocal, business only pay when they TALK to a consumer. Before deciding whether they want to talk to the customer, they can hear the location, problem, and time the customer wants to be service. It is only then when they decide if they want to talk to the customer and pay a fee. Best of all, they decide the fee that they pay. Looking at it from a Geeks-on-Site perspective, TalkLocal is a great deal for GP. He converts a very high percentage of his connections into sales, and he gets to decide the fee he pays.  If GP isn’t getting phone calls, he isn’t paying money. This is a big difference from his Cost per Click ads on Google, where he pays whenever a customer clicks on the ad, even if they don’t ever end up calling.

TalkLocal is a system that benefits consumers and service professionals. We are simply paving a dirt road. Customers waste time trying to find the right service provider, and service providers waste money trying to find customers. TalkLocal eliminates that waste and benefits everyone!

We want to incorporate local reviews and ratings into TalkLocal. Consumers spend a lot of time looking up online reviews to find out which service professional or business is best for them. If we’re in the business of saving time, then we should do that for them. We think the best option would be to display reviews for each company from every main review site on the status page. We’re going to put the changes up and see how consumers respond.

We also want to incorporate local reviews and ratings into the TalkLocal Quality scoring system called the Seva Score, which is the deciding factor into what companies get called first. If a company has good reviews, then it only makes sense that they get called earlier. With this, we can further ensure that we are connecting consumers to respected companies that will get the job done.

We have been thinking of changing the current TalkLocal four step process to three steps, and eliminating the step where consumers pick companies.  This is in the interest of saving time, having consumers pick which companies to call just doesn’t make sense in almost all cases. Another problem which has come up using the three step process is that once the consumers gets to the page where they view which companies they can pick, they started calling the companies themselves.

To a consumer who is used to using yellow pages and similar processes to find a service provider, they were too used to calling a company the second they saw a phone number. Getting rid of the process made it possible for us to complete the goal of our website, actually calling companies for consumers.

Since our goal is to connect consumers to companies as quickly as possible, we officially decided to change to the process to three steps. In the rare case that a consumer does want to specifically eliminate or choose companies, they will still have this option in the Advanced Search section.