How to find a tradie you trust

When something in your home fails, you need someone you can trust to fix it, fast.

hipages hero

hipages is an Australian platform designed to make hiring a trusted, qualified tradie as easy as possible. Homeowners can receive up to three quotes from local tradies for jobs posted to the platform, allowing negotiations on price and timings of jobs. All tradies listed on the platform are appropriately licensed for their category, verified regularly by hipages.

Despite having the world of information at our fingertips, we often still rely on old-fashioned ways to find a trustworthy tradesperson. But Australians need faster ways to find a tradie - especially when we need something fixed quickly.

Electricians are Australia’s most trustworthy tradespeople. That’s the result of new research released by hipages.

The Tradie Trust index found Australians are spending $73 billion on trade services annually, with $3.4 billion of that due directly to people hiring a qualified tradie to fix their botched DIY job.

The results also showed that both consumers and other tradies rate electricians as the most trustworthy trade.

“Consumers’ sense of trust is very closely tied to response rate and cost,” explained Stuart Tucker, Chief Customer Officer of hipages.“When hiring an electrician, it’s more often an emergency situation with your local sparky coming to the rescue.

Almost 50 per cent of an electrician’s jobs are emergency or ad hoc. It also doesn’t hurt that sparkies are some of the most commonly hired tradies in Australia with the fastest turnaround quote times in the industry” he added.

The hipages Tradie Trust Index found that the more money consumers hand over to tradies, the more wary they are, with more than 70 per cent of consumers less trusting of tradies when the jobs are worth over $2,500.

The Trust Trifecta

There are three simple steps hipages recommend all homeowners follow to ensure the tradie they hire has the appropriate qualifications for the task at hand.

1. Request the licence – Before a tradie commences any work, always request to see their licence (where required) and check it’s valid for the value of the planned project. Not all trades require a licence, and the rules vary from state to state, though trades like plumbers, electricians and builders always require formal qualifications. To make this process easier for consumers,  hipages not only checks the licences of all tradespeople listed on its platform, they also display all received licence numbers on its Tradie Profiles.
2. Ask for examples of work. Take a look at previous projects to get an idea of the standards you can expect and if the work aligns with your plans. You can check photos of tradies’ work when visiting their profile page on hipages.
3. Read online recommendations. On hipages, customers can leave ratings and recommendations, with tradies also given an average star rating based on client feedback. Stuart Tucker also suggests formalising all details of a job in writing. “The key to fostering a trusting two-way relationship is an honest and open line of communication” he said.

Who’s trusted the most?

Taking a look around the country;

• Respondents from regional areas are more trusting of tradies (57 per cent) compared to their suburban (54 per cent) and metro (50 per cent) counterparts
• Gen X are the least trusting of tradies (55 per cent) with Baby Boomers the most trusting (60 per cent)
• Women also trust tradies (57 per cent) much more than men (48 per cent)

hipages is an Australian platform designed to make hiring a trusted, qualified tradie as easy as possible. Homeowners can receive up to three quotes from local tradies for jobs posted to the platform, allowing negotiations on price and timings of jobs. All tradies listed on the platform are appropriately licensed for their category, verified regularly by hipages.

Originally published as How to find a tradie you trust