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VALUESTAR LAUNCHES NEW WEBSITE TO HELP BAY AREA CONSUMERS FIND RELIABLE LOCAL SERVICES
ValueStar.com Emphasizes Customer Ratings and Feedback on Quality-Driven Service Businesses, Rewards Consumers for Submitting Comments
September 30, 2005
OAKLAND, Calif. - (Sept. 30, 2005) - ValueStar, the Oakland-based publisher of ratings of local service businesses today announced it has launched a new website at www.ValueStar.com. The new site features numerous enhancements for consumers seeking reliable, quality-focused service businesses in the Bay Area while it also helps local service businesses distinguish themselves based on quality. The enhanced website is expected to place ValueStar at the forefront of local services directories, both print and online, in the Bay Area and eventually nationwide.
According to Lou Morsberger, President and CEO of ValueStar, the new site advances ValueStar's mission of providing consumers with more and better information on local service businesses. "ValueStar is already the most-recognized guide to local services in the Bay Area, and with this new site we also offer more benefits to consumers and service businesses than any other directory publisher or local search engine. With the ValueStar Customer-Rated program, consumers have an easy way—free of charge—to find a reliable local contractor, auto repair shop—or even dentist—that has met ValueStar's standards, including a high score on our customer surveys. And the website lists not only the satisfaction score, but provides a detailed profile of the business along with ratings and comments from recent real customers—comments that give further insight into the quality of service the business is likely to deliver."
Morsberger went on to describe the benefits to consumers of submitting feedback on ValueStar businesses: "When consumers use a ValueStar Customer-Rated service provider and submit feedback on that business, they gain additional peace of mind in the form of ValueStar's $1,000 Money-Back Satisfaction Guarantee. Using a ValueStar business and submitting feedback also earns points in the ValueStar Rewards program, available now at the new website. These points can be redeemed for cash cards with national retailers and for airline tickets. Bottom line: we've given Bay Area consumers every reason to use ValueStar, and even more importantly, every reason to use ValueStar Customer-Rated businesses."
Enhancements in the new ValueStar website, as outlined by the company, include:
- Keyword searching that permits consumers to spell out for themselves the category of service they're seeking. Keyword searching is in addition to selecting from a menu of service categories and the option to search for a service provider by name.
- Option to search for services by city and state, not just by zip code.
- Display of more customer comments from a business' recent customers, ensuring that all ValueStar Customer-Rated businesses not only have a survey-based satisfaction score, but a substantial list of customer remarks as well.
- Expanded search results that display ValueStar Customer-Rated service businesses followed by "Verified" businesses for which ValueStar has confirmed licensing or other positive aspects short of conducting a customer satisfaction survey.
- ValueStar Rewards can now be tracked online and redeemed for merchandise, gift cards with national retailers, and airline miles-the only program of its kind rewarding consumers for feedback while providing local service businesses with the benefits of a full-featured loyalty program.
- For ValueStar Customer-Rated businesses, expanded statistics regarding the number of times their business was viewed and researched at the ValueStar website, as well as the number of times users clicked through to the service business' own website and the number of emails to the business generated by ValueStar users.
Mike Kelly, ValueStar's Vice President of Operations, highlighted the usefulness to businesses of being ValueStar Customer-Rated. "We do publish a print directory, but our research says that 77% of Bay Area consumers prefer to research local services online rather than through printed directories. This website is designed to make it easier for service businesses to reach their market online accompanied by customer feedback that proves their high level of customer satisfaction, while also tracking how many people see each business listing. ValueStar is a far easier way to reach quality-focused consumers than 'pay-per-click' search engine advertising, and we offer a far better return to businesses than search engines, other online directories, or offline directories. Most service businesses can get these ValueStar benefits through our very low-risk pay-for-performance program whereby once they've satisfied ValueStar's quality requirements, they only pay for business we send their way."
ValueStar developed its new website over a 6-month period, relying primarily on its in-house technology team, with planning and design assistance from LeapUp Marketing Solutions of San Francisco and Arami Design of San Carlos, CA.
About ValueStar
ValueStar is a leading publisher of online and printed local service directories providing confirmed consumer ratings of service businesses and professionals. ValueStar evaluates local service companies on a range of factors and uses a proprietary system to gather feedback from actual consumers. The company is owned by Service Ratings, LLC and headquartered in the Washington, DC, area, with operations in Oakland, Calif., which service consumers and businesses throughout the Bay Area.
For more information, go to www.ValueStar.com.
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