Hiring a handyman can be a headache-inducing experience. Sometimes the job ends up costing more than the original estimate, or the five-star Yelp reviews turn out to be pure fiction. There is little protection for customers who simply want their homes to function properly.

Zorik Gordon and Michael Kline, two veterans of the tech industry, recognized these issues and set out to change the way people approach home repairs and services. This past July, they launched Serviz (serviz.com), a website and iPhone app (an Android version is planned to launch sometime this year) that allows users to find repairmen, plumbers, cleaners, electricians and other home specialists on demand. Users can book a background-checked professional for same-day service and see exactly what it will cost beforehand.

“The whole process of booking and buying a home service is really broken,” Gordon said. “We created a new solution.”

All of the Serviz professionals are required to have a clean criminal record, insurance, a license (if necessary) and good reviews from customers in order to stay listed. They all are given tablet devices so customers can track their arrival time and pay the bill electronically.

It’s free to book an appointment. Listed prices vary per service, but customers may also book a repairman for a service not listed, for $45 to $60 per hour, depending on the project. The company marks up parts and labor 20 percent.

“We think the rates in the current market are just too high,” Kline said. “A lot of market research went into our pricing. We’re willing to survive on lower margins because, for us, it’s about building lifetime customer relationships.”

Currently, Serviz, which is headquartered in Sherman Oaks, is available throughout all of Los Angeles and Orange counties, but Gordon said he plans eventually to take it global.

Gordon said that Serviz has more going for it than price: It also helps alleviate safety concerns because people don’t always know who they’re hiring to come into their home when they call up a business.

“We were considering hiring one potential merchant until 17 negative things had come up on his background check. This is somebody out there who is advertising his services, and he gets to go into people’s houses. That alone is a huge fundamental difference between [us and the existing system],” Gordon said. “Having an intermediary company is a buffer between yourself and the merchant.”

The Serviz model also has proven valuable to the listed specialists. In its first five months, Gordon of Valley Beth Shalom said 10,000 jobs have been booked and completed through Serviz. And Kline, of Congregation Or Ami, explained that the company is taking some of the effort out of the job-finding process for these professionals.

“We’re burying the cost of marketing and customer acquisitions that they’d normally have to cover,” he said.

Richard Ledesma, an L.A.-based handyman with 17 years of experience, said his time with Serviz has been nothing but positive. He’s working an average of four jobs per day six days a week, and the majority of his jobs come from the website.

“It’s been great. They book me clients now,” Ledesma said. “Before, I had my own clientele, but they’ve pretty much doubled my work.”

Bruce Blumberg, a customer from Ranchos Palos Verdes who has hired Serviz professionals to fix his microwave and dryer, said that from the time the appointment was made until the technician completed the job, an email and text were sent to him to document the process. He also never waited more than 30 minutes for a technician to arrive at his home.

“Being a real estate broker for many years, I have come in contact with a multitude of vendors, including many handyman types,” he said. “Serviz is a breath of fresh air. In most businesses, communication is the key to success, and these guys get that.”

Before starting Serviz, for which they have raised more than $20 million in funding, Gordon and Kline were founders of ReachLocal, an online marketing system for local businesses around the globe.

Gordon said he believes that everything local, from auto repair to health care businesses, needs to be disrupted because the same problems exist across the spectrum.

“You don’t know who a good provider is,” he said. “Booking and buying services is a painful experience.”

courtesy of jewishjournal.com