Our Mission
Intro
Zaarly is a place to hire home service providers who are proud to be held accountable for their work.
Accountability: (noun) a willingness to accept responsibility.
We believe homeowners should be able to hire service providers confidently:
- Without spending hours sifting through online reviews.
- Without the hassle of unreturned phone calls.
- Without worrying about no-shows to appointments.
- Without fear that a service provider will screw up the job.
We have built a company around this fundamental belief.
When we started this journey, we honestly thought it would be much easier than it has been. How hard is it to show up on time and do the job you said you would do?
In the home services industry, it turns out to be quite difficult for a lot of different and complex reasons.
And because of that, most web platforms in this space avoid accountability. They run from the problem.
Not us. We believe homeowners should be able to hire a home service provider without fear, uncertainty, or doubt.
It shouldn’t be this hard. But it is. Since no one else takes accountability, Zaarly does.
We don’t make excuses. We fix the problem. This is our story.
Chapter 1: The Problem
Whether you are replacing an outlet or replacing your entire kitchen, hiring a service provider is challenging.
Your home is unique, just like you. Finding “a guy” on the Internet or through a friend on Facebook isn’t good enough.
You need a guy (or gal, obviously) who will be accountable for the job they say they will do.
But…
- It’s hard to find someone who is available when you need them.
- It’s hard to find someone who has the right skills for your specific job.
- It’s hard to find someone who will show up and be on time.
- It’s hard to know which online reviews are trustworthy.
- It’s hard to know if a project estimate is a good value or not.
- It’s hard to find someone who will do the job right the first time.
Sometimes you’ll find someone, and everything will be fine.
But what happens when something goes wrong?
What recourse do you have?
You could write a bad review. Companies like Yelp have been sued multiple times for manipulating reviews. Or, the business owner could ask their friends to post positive reviews to overwrite your negative one.
You could go to small claims court. Talk about a colossal pain the @$$. Even if you win, you’ll likely spend more time and money than the potential damages are worth.
When things go wrong, most of the time the homeowner just gets burned.
Of course, you won’t get scammed every time you hire someone or even most of the time. It will probably be “fine.”
But you can never be certain…
Here’s the current state of hiring a service provider online:
- What the “Other Guys” promise — “Find Trusted Home Improvement Pros.”
- What the “Other Guys” deliver — (from their actual ToS) “We make no guarantees, warranties, or representations regarding the skills of Service Professionals or the quality of the job that they may perform for you. We do not validate any reviews. We do not guarantee any Service Professional’s performance on the job or the outcome or quality of the services performed.”
When evaluating web platform companies, always follow the money. Understanding how a company makes money reveals where their interests lie, and how that might disadvantage you.
Most other web platform companies make money by:
- Service Providers paying for Leads
- Service Providers paying for Ads
With Leads, a web platform company sells your name and phone number to 3-6 service providers. Providers then race to call, email, and text in order to “close you” because they have already spent money on your information.
With Ads, service providers pay to show up on top of a list, or be labeled “the best.” It is hard (or impossible) to distinguish who actually earned a top spot, and who just paid for it.
The problem with BOTH of these is web platform companies already made their money before you even connect with a service provider.
They DO NOT CARE whether you find a good service provider or a bad one. And they take no accountability for the quality of the work.
Once those web platform companies make their money, they’re on to their next target, and you are out of luck.
Chapter 2: The Promise
Zaarly is different. Zaarly is a company wholly focused on one word — accountability.
We hold service providers accountable for the work they say they will do. AND we hold ourselves accountable for your entire experience.
We do not promise perfection.
Sometimes your 1911 craftsman-style home gets finicky, or Mother Nature gets cranky. Sometimes a service provider’s equipment breaks down (true story) or his equipment is stolen off a job site (true story) or his daughter breaks her arm and needs emergency surgery (true story).
Life happens to real humans.
We do not promise perfection, but we do promise accountability. Because you should never have to worry about…
- Your guy showing up when he said he would.
- Getting charged extra just because of your zip code.
- Whether the job actually got done correctly.
- What to do when the job doesn’t meet your expectations.
Whether you are replacing an outlet or an entire kitchen, Zaarly holds service providers accountable for the job they say they will do – so you can hire with confidence.
You might be skeptical of such a promise.
You wouldn’t be human if you weren’t slightly skeptical. Even incredulous.
We get it. When you’ve been burned or disappointed before; it’s perfectly human to be suspicious.
Chapter 3: The Proof
Accountability: (noun) a willingness to accept responsibility.
We hold service providers accountable for the job they say they will do.
Here’s how we do it.
First, Zaarly is invitation-only for service providers.
No business can pay to join, pay to change a review, or pay to be promoted.
Ever.
Each business must complete a 9-step vetting process, including a phone interview, criminal background check, customer references check, and finally, a face-to-face interview with our team.
Yes, we interview every business owner face-to-face.
Second, we monitor every project on Zaarly.
Our customer service team checks in on every project to ensure every message gets a response and every project meets your expectations.
Yes, we actually have real humans in our office in Kansas City who monitor every project.
Third, we bring transparency to the opaque world of home services.
Everyone knows they should check licenses, insurance and do a background check before hiring a service provider. But who actually does that?
We do.
We keep those documents on file and accessible to homeowners looking to hire a service provider.
Fourth, we enforce real consequences.
If you “find a guy” and something goes wrong, there isn’t much you can do. Zaarly creates real accountability:
- $100 No Show, No Call Penalty – if a service provider doesn’t show up and doesn’t message at least an hour beforehand, we charge them $100 and give it to you. Talk about making lemonade from lemons.
- If a provider is slow or unresponsive, they are deactivated until they improve while they are coached by the team at Zaarly.
- If a provider does shoddy work, we ensure they pay your refund.
- If a provider is unprofessional, we suspend them from Zaarly.
- If a provider is repeatedly unreliable, we end our partnership with them.
Sometimes life happens. We get it. If your service provider has equipment break down or a sick child, we’ll find someone who can complete your project on your timeline. (And no, we don’t penalize providers for having sick kids.)
Fifth, we guarantee every job.
We know the word “guarantee” gets thrown around a lot these days. When we say “guaranteed” we mean it.
Because we have staked our reputation on accountability, we will go to the ends of the earth to make things right.
It’s our mission to make sure you can always hire confidently through Zaarly.
As one of our service providers, Rusty, said:
“I really respect that Zaarly would rather lose money on a job than lose a shred of reputation.”
Bonus, we provide free business coaching to our service providers.
This may sound like a small thing, but it’s something we value a lot. Twice a month, we host roundtable conversations at Zaarly to hear what’s going smoothly with our service providers and what’s not. We learn how to best help them sustainably grow, and new features to help them manage their businesses. In turn, this improves the overall experience for homeowners like you.
Chapter 4: The Principles
Our Principles guide every decision made by our whole team, from Software Developers to Customer Support.
Honesty: Transparent and forthcoming.
Reliability: Deliver on every promise.
Honor: Completely aligned interests.
Honesty
Being honest doesn’t mean “not currently lying.” Honesty is a mindset of proactively sharing useful information.
This means sometimes sharing bad news. Sometimes, a business makes a bad hire which leads to quality issues that must be addressed. Sometimes (rarely) you may even have unrealistic assumptions about a certain project.
We don’t try to sell you on “our guys.” — we do the dirty work of researching, evaluating, and monitoring companies, so you don’t have to.
Reliability
Reliability means doing what you said you’d do when you said you’d do it. It means consistently delivering on your promises.
We work hard to find reliable businesses run by reliable people. Then we build tools and systems to make them even more reliable. And we stand behind you, ready to ensure you get the results you are relying on.
Honor
Most companies don’t get to be honorable. We love that our company only works by maintaining a strong moral backbone.
Being honorable means our interests are always aligned with yours, so we only benefit if we meet your expectations. In no situation will you get burned.
Honor is a cultural pillar for us, and the reason why many of us choose to work here. We hold each other to ultimate standards of doing the right thing by homeowners.
You can count on Zaarly to improve along each of these principles over time. Everything we do is rooted in these principles because we believe honesty, reliability, and honorable behavior improve the lives of every community.
Sticking to these principles is how we created the first hiring platform with complete accountability for you.
