Interview with YouGottaCall.com’s Founder Tim Tracey
Full Disclosure: I believe in the system that Tim is launching and I am helping him promote it. RAMjr.
Welcome
Richard: We are talking today with Tim Tracey who has a fantastic new program that is just about to be launched called You Gotta Call. Can you tell us a little bit about YouGottaCall and how it works to benefit businesses and local charities?
Tim Tracey: Sure, You Gotta Call is the word of mouth connection engine. Essentially it is a way that consumers who are already sharing word of mouth referrals for their trusted businesses can do so on the web. It actually improves on word of mouth because not only can you directly refer to your friends your trusted business you can also find the businesses that are trusted by your friends more efficiently than normal, natural word of mouth.
R:Wow that’s interesting. So it’s a network of trusted service providers so there is sort of a built in social proof aspect to You Gotta Call.
T: Exactly
R: and it helps charities?
T: It does because YCG takes word of mouth, and word of mouth is extremely valuable. So we allow businesses to pay a voluntary amount that they can for each and every referral or each and every new customer that they sell to. That money goes to the favorite charities of the members who are involved in that transaction.
R: Huh, So there is no cost to the business then, other than what they volunteer.
T: Right, we call it better than free. Because it is free to join and it is free to use. Members can join and use it for free. They can connect with their friends and coworkers and neighbors, the people they normally share word of mouth referrals with. Businesses can join and use it for free as well. They each set the amount that they voluntarily pay for when they get a new customer or when they get a referral. That amount is paid when that transaction is verified.
The way we look at : word of mouth is incredibly valuable. Most Small businesses say that more that 80% of new customers comes from word of mouth. We are simply taking that huge value which dwarfs all other forms of advertising and we are asking what value monetarily would they attach to that? We allow them to voluntarily pay that amount and they know that it goes to the favorite charities of the customer who referred this new person to then as well as the new customer themselves.
R: So I’m sensing some really interesting little twits to You Gotta Call that probably make outshine a lot of search engine type things, especially for consumers, where they can go and network through people that they know to find trusted businesses.
T: That’s right, You may be new to town, or maybe you have a need for a service you never had to hire before. It might be a sudden need like your boiler is leaking in the middle of the night and your basement is flooding,. Or you have some need that you don’t want to call 4 or 5 of your friends and ask them gee who should I use for this need. BUT, if you can find those same peoples’ trusted plumber for example, without waking them up, and it still benefits you, because you found a trusted business,
it also benefits your favorite charity every time you use it, it also benefits the favorite charity of the person through whom you found that new business.
R: Awesome, There is another little twist there that is important for local businesses. I get a lot of concern from businesses that operate on a local basis that are worried about getting leads from, if they are in Connecticut, from Hawaii, and they really cant service those. Your service, You Gotta Call, seems to allow them to network through each location, each local area.
T: That is our plan. We are right now operating in Connecticut which is a small state and we are able to service most of the state because even if you are a service provider that has a service radius a lot of that radius would cover most of the state of Connecticut. Connecticut is a great test market for us. But as we grow and get traction we will go to other cities as well. Each of those other cities will have a local network where local consumers there will be able to connect with and get referrals for their trusted businesses that serve their local area.
R: There is a compelling reason for local businesses to join You Gotta Call . Its free to join .You get to help local charities. You get to help people in your network by being able to refer other businesses that you trust without having to actively refer them. They can see who you are connected with and who you recommend.
T: Right. I’ve networked with lots of local businesses since You Gotta Call launched in 2008. Each time I’m in a room whether it is at a local chamber of commerce or some other type of networking group, I’m talking face to face with Business owners who themselves are talking with one another in hopes of getting referrals, which is great because that is what networking is all about. But, I think it is kind of funny and a little ironic that while they are locked in a room talking to one another, their customers, their neighbors and friends who are their best source of referrals are out in the community talking to their friends and their neighbors at schools and grocery stores and offices and at parks and athletic complexes. It is interesting that the owners would corral themselves into a small space and disconnect themselves from their best source of word of mouth referrals. Where we give them a tool where at all times they can be connected with that better source of referrals. So while they are doing whatever they are doing, whether they are working or networking they are actually connected to their network of customers friends and neighbors who give them their best referrals.
R: ( Clicking away taking notes.) My mind is spinning through some different ideas right now. One is picturing this sort of exploding across the country. What are you visions for You Gotta Call heading into the future I know you are starting in Connecticut as a test market.
T: We have very high aspirations for the site because we know it is a huge market and it’s a huge need. Word of mouth is the very best form of advertising devised by people ever. So all we are doing is we are using that form and bringing it onto the web in a patent pending way. The unique things we are combining here bringing the social media aspect of consumers to businesses and including charities in there with a voluntary payment, that is something that we have a pending patent on. That is something we are very excited about. As far as our long term vision, we do see it rolling out nationally to each major metropolitan area and eventually filling in wherever so that when people think of giving or getting a referral for a trusted local business, they will immediately think of word of mouth and they will think of YouGottaCall.com.
Non-Profits are the people who benefit monetarily from this. So we are looking at them and want to be partnering with them locally as well as regionally and nationally so that each non-profit invites their supporters who recognize the value that they provide the community and they give the money to these charities. By connecting with their community of supporters, each non-profit can build out their network and as their network expands and expands, It is going to provide for the non-profit a recurring source of revenue that can keep them going in their mission, helping their communities really perpetually.
R: I’m liking the fact that the money stays at home too it stays close to your neighborhood. That is an important part of the puzzle. The people involved in You Gotta Call determine which charities that money goes to .
T: That’s right. Each person involved in a trasaction benefits their charity each and every time they use the network. That charity may be a local charity, it may be a national charity.They Trust that charity, thats why they sacrifice their time and money volunteering for that charity and donating to it. We are simply saying, there is something that you are doing every day. You are squeezing some of the monetary value from word of mouth referrals and redirecting it to the charities you support.
R: Wow, it sounds like you guys are going to be heading for some growth once you release this.
T: Its exciting, You know we have been working getting our system developed and improved. We have been working on a new navigational look and feel that will integrate with Facebook, It has improved navigation, we have imported a couple of thousand local Connecticut businesses to kind of make it easier to find and easier to get signed up. So a lot of improvements that have been built into this release that is coming out in June 2010.
R: Awesome. Tim, I want to thank you for taking the time to chat with us about You Gotta Call.
Ill put links in the text. Is there anything else that you would like to add about You Gotta Call?
T: Sure. You can follow us on Twitter. (http://twitter.com/YouGottaCall. ) I’m @TimTracey and look for our blog on blogspot YouGottaCall (http://yougottacall.blogspot.com/ ) You can also visit http://www.YouGottaCall.com and join!
I’m looking for anyone’s suggestions or inputs. I’m looking for partnership opportunities with charities, or national concerns that are looking to service local consumer population in their part of the country so we can roll out effectively and we can get this thing going to help out as many charities as possible, as quickly as possible.
R: Tim, Thank you very much for chatting with us today. I am looking forward to learning more about You Gotta Call as you grow and would like to wish you all the best in the future.
T: Thank you Rich, it was a pleasure to be on your program.
