I want a plumber that is available RIGHT NOW!

It’s great to filter by zip code, and it’s fine to see the plumbers that pay the most show up at the top of the list, but man is it frustrating to call and get an answering machine!

You can’t assume a merchant is available just because you call during business hours. If you don’t believe me, start calling the list of plumbers in your zip code, as displayed in the local yellow page directory, and see how many voice mail recordings you encounter. For me it was 50%!

It’s right back to the frustrations of the print yellow pages! What ever happened to the power of the Internet? I should be able to filter my search so that it only returns those plumbers that are available RIGHT NOW! And not just plumbers, either – I’m just picking on them for the moment but the point is the same for any merchant that sells products or services which consumers research or lookup online but purchase offline. Surely I’m not the only consumer that, when doing a local search, wants the website to show me only those merchants with someone available to help me in my moment of need.

The “Local Search” market is exploding. Borrell Associates is predicting that local search revenues will grow ten-fold by 2010. Google, Yahoo, and the other general search players are trying to carve out their piece of the pie. Newspapers and other traditional local media companies are trying too. Startups have popped up like weeds over the past year, each with a unique niche or angle to exploit in order to get their piece. And of course the traditional yellow page publishers are deadly serious about protecting “their turf”. But…despite all of the innovation, improvements, and projections, none to my knowledge has yet addressed this peeve of mine.

If you’re a local search provider and you see my point – let’s talk. ContactAtOnce! can help you leapfrog the competition and deliver something truly useful for consumers and, in the process, truly valuable for your shareholders.