Following some feedback from a recent seller survey, we felt it would be helpful to run you through exactly how service areas work.
The whole point of service areas are for you to ensure that you are getting Barks relevant to you and your business. The Barks you receive are generated through the service areas that you cover. They can be added and edited at any time. Please see a few important questions and answers below which should hopefully give you a better understanding on how they work:
“What are service areas?”
Service areas are a combination of the area you cover geographically and the service you provide as a professional. You put in what it is you do as a business (by selecting one of our categories), a location and then set a radius in miles accordingly (up to 30 miles around one location). There is no cap on the number of service areas you can add to your profile. The more service areas you have – the more Barks you will potentially receive.
“I don’t get enough Barks”
Try extending your service areas. It is always worthwhile covering a wider radius just to see what might come in. If a high value job comes through, you may feel it’s worthwhile travelling that little bit further. So long as an email alert is not going to be a nuisance we would always suggest covering as wide an area as feasibly possible. It’s better to see what’s out there than not. Of course, if you get something that is not relevant or of interest then there is absolutely no obligation to respond.
“I get too many Barks”
Great that you are getting a high number of enquiries, but we only want to be sending you over relevant leads. If it is because they are coming in too far a field, you can reduce the radius you cover to make it smaller – this will then stop so many leads coming through to you. If you are receiving the wrong type of enquiry, you can simply remove this service area. You will find a small ‘X’ which will remove this for you.
“I cover the whole of the UK”
At present, we do not have a feature that allows you to cover the whole of the UK with one click. That said, you can put yourself down as covering every major city with a 30 mile radius (we have the cities listed in order of popularity at the bottom of each page). For example:
- Web Design in London with a 30 mile radius
- Web Design in Manchester with a 30 mile radius
- Web Design in Bristol with a 30 mile radius
- Web Design in Liverpool with a 30 mile radius
You will then be alerted to all the Barks placed in these areas.
You can find a list of the top UK cities here
“I cover many trades as a supplier”
No problem at all. Like with locations, you can have as many of our categories as you like listed in your service areas. You can also have a different radius set for each one so you can cover a smaller area for the lower value jobs and then a larger area for the higher value jobs. We would always suggest adding in as many categories as possible so you can see the other types of enquiries we receive which could be relevant to you.
For example, someone in the Gardening industry might have the following:
- Gardening in Richmond with a 5 mile radius
- Landscape Design in Richmond with a 30 mille radius
- Fence repair in Richmond with a 10 mile radius.
If you are having any difficulties with service areas then just give the customer service team a call on 0207 1172 656 or email team@bark.com – we would love to help.