Jon Gibs, Nielsen Online
At this point it is well documented that the halcyon days of the yellow pages are pretty much done. A mix of eBay, Craigslist and local search have removed the need for this type of service from most people’s lives. The need for a big, bright, yellow local directory in paper form or online with some advertising thrown in, seems to be a hopelessly out-dated concept. If you’re SuperPages, what do you do? What services can you add that will make your offering useful to consumers and, therefore, a better place to advertise?
Well, you start with the concept that there are too many options online, too much information available, too many comments that might be from a user of a specific plumber or mover or accountant, or they might just be from the plumber, mover or accountant themselves. You start with the idea that in this complex, fragmented world of ours, you can’t trust most of what you see from crowd sourced platforms because you just don’t know anything about the crowd being sourced. Then you say to yourself, “Well, I guess the only thing people care about when they get a service is that they get their money’s worth.” The mover moves your belongings without breaking them, the plumber fixes your pipes correctly the first time and the accountant doesn’t get you audited (sorry, tax day…).
Ah ha! What if a yellow pages provider guaranteed the services of some of the businesses who advertised with them? Well it seems that Superpages.com has gone that direction with SuperGuarantee.
