How we recommend
When you choose Recommend firms for me, we list the top three to five firms that cover the trade, your postcode and the card that job needs. The order is a score. You can untick anyone before you send.
What goes into the score
- Distance (weight 20). Closer is higher. A firm we cannot place is treated as average, not as next door.
- Verified rating for that trade (weight 25). We smooth a small number of reviews towards 4.0 so one glowing review does not beat many steady ones. The line you read still shows the real average and how many verified customers it came from.
- Google score (weight 10). Used only when the firm has recorded a number from their own Google listing. We do not fetch Google. A blank score does not help or hurt.
- Qualifications in date (weight 15). Cards the firm typed in, such as Gas Safe or 18th Edition. An expired card lowers this part. We do not check the card with the scheme.
- Reply time (weight 10). The typical time from a quote request to that firm’s quote. No history is treated as average.
- Quotes customers accept (weight 10). How often their bids are chosen, smoothed so a new firm is not punished.
- Can start soon (weight 5). The firm has said they are available soon.
- Recent complaints (weight 5). Open reports from the last six months lower this part. A clean record scores higher.
- Every trade on the job. If you need more than one trade, a firm that covers all of them is listed first and badged Covers all trades. You can still split the job so each firm only receives the trades they do.
What does not
Paying us does not move a firm up this list. Lead fees and paid boosts are switched off. If a paid place is ever shown, it will be labelled Sponsored and it still will not change this order. The weights above are set in the platform console and are the same for every firm.