Problem

Today, business providers market their service by placing ads with search engines, local listing services or in other advertisement venues. To find a service provider, a consumer typically uses a search engine or local business listing service to conduct searches, makes inquiries to potential providers and finally selects the provider. It could be a lengthy process and requires the consumer to disclose her contact information.
However, in the area of non-trivial transactions, providers based ads is illogical. Non-trivial transactions are the ones require tailored service without a set price. Examples include real estate agent, car buying, attorney, handy man etc. In these transactions, both the amount of transaction and the profit margin are high. Therefore it is inconceivable why the consumer who spends the big money still has to go through all the troubles to find the right provider. Why the consumer can’t be treated like a true VIP to get the best deal and the providers have to compete for the business. As an example, if a consumer is selling a house for $1M and the real estate agent could earn $30k or more from the sale, why should the consumer have to find the agent but not the opposite? In the end, it is the consumer who spends the big money so he/she should have the power to get the best deal.
An obvious solution is to allow consumers to list their request and hope that the providers will respond and compete. Such service includes Craigslist.org, various car price quoting services and servicemagic.com (for home improvement project). However all of these services are not satisfactory. Consumers don’t know how many service providers use Craigslist to respond to their ads so there might not be any response; Consumers don’t necessary get a good car price quote because the quote is private thus the dealer does not have the pressure to beat the competition; Consumers also have to give up their phone number just to receive a call from some home improvement providers. In most cases these providers do not address customers’ specific need and requirement before making the call.

The Solution

QuestBid is an open business voice request system. QuestBid recognizes that almost if not all business listings have a phone number. QuestBid deploys a virtual calling agent to reach out to the providers on authorized by the consumer. Consumers stay anonymous until a satisfactory provider is found and negotiation requires disclosure of contact information.
Service Steps Description:

• A consumer submits a service request, such as finding a real estate agent and the screening criteria, e.g., agent commission rate < 4%, having prior transaction in the neighborhood(zip code), and speaking French etc.
• QuestBid prepare a list of local providers for the consumer to select to make inquiry.
• QuestBid generates a voice message from the text entry; uses an automated telephony system to call the providers and invite provider to register and bid.
• Existing providers will be notified to bid on the request as well.
• Bids from the providers and recommendations from other user will be entered to the discussion thread created for the request, accessible to all users and providers to promote transparency and competition