A Q&A session with Right Trades CEO Stuart Harvey.
After years of working in the trades sector and facing the same daily frustrations as many tradespeople, Stuart set out for a solution. His result, Right Trades, a unique one-stop trades solution business with a global mission to connect customers to independently assessed, trustworthy trade partners offering fixed-price solutions.
Tell us a bit about your background to give the readers some perspective about who you are.
I grew up in Manchester but spent a lot of my early adult life living in Australia. I’ve always worked in the trades sector, since leaving higher education and progressing from apprentice to business owner. I enjoy the sense of satisfaction you get while working in trades, whether this is completing a repair or new installation, you bring happiness to customers and demonstrate professionalism from order to completion.
How did the idea of Right Trades come to light?
Over the years, my colleagues and I kept running into the same issues and I was determined to find a solution. I partnered with Lauren Dalton and we assembled a diverse professional leadership team to formally assess the difficulties trades businesses and customers face. We spent a full two years of due diligence, market research and properly analysing the sector before bringing on legal representatives, financial advisors and a digital marketing agency to effectively bring the solution to fruition.
What is Right Trades?
Right Trades is a unique one-stop trades solution business that is revolutionising trade services. Unlike competing brands, Right Trades simultaneously meets the needs of both customers and trade partners alike. Trade partners gain exclusivity to at least one of Right Trades’ 450+ UK regions with no same-trade competition for jobs, control their own prices without any additional fees for leads or jobs, have access to group tenders and buying discounts for insurance, accountancy and products and much more.
Meanwhile, customers are guaranteed high-quality work from independently assessed tradespeople, avoiding the hassle of having to find a reputable tradesperson. The job is completed at a time convenient to them with transparent, fixed costs and round-the-clock access to customer service teams to ensure satisfaction.
How does the application itself function?
Right Trades is a responsive web application. We’ve made it intuitive and very user-friendly for those not so tech savvy folks. Basically, the system has three easy-to-use interfaces:
1. The public website is available for anyone to access
2. A customer’s system. Customers can store past jobs and search, book and track active projects. That is the same be that one job or 100,000 jobs
3. The trades partner’s platform is the most in-depth allowing them to set their own fixed pricing, take payments and manage an online diary
When did Right Trades launch?
We officially launched Right Trades in March 2016. We’re launching in two phases. The first stage is to build brand awareness in the industry we’re entering so we can target key individuals and businesses to develop partnerships. The second stage will be rolling out the software to the public for use.
And what are your immediate next steps?
We are now selecting quality trade partners across the trades spectrum from landscape gardeners, to builders, joiners, electricians and beyond throughout the UK. We truly believe that we have created something special, and want our partners to be proud to be a part of this game-changing community. We are focusing our efforts on marketing and PR to generate brand awareness and build our user base. We’ve signed on to exhibit at a number of industry trade shows, we are advertising at football league stadiums, running a radio and video campaign and are also using digital and social strategies.
“Trade partners gain exclusivity to at least one of Right Trades’ 450+ UK regions with no same-trade competition for jobs, control their own prices without any additional fees for leads or jobs, have access to group tenders and buying discounts for insurance, accountancy and products and much more.”
Sounds exciting, so can anyone use Right Trades?
Yes. Eventually anyone in the UK that requires a trades project, of any scale, to be completed will be able to visit our website. They’ll be able to input details and select an appointment time to get a fixed price job or select an appointment for a survey. The web platform takes care of the rest.
What are your long-term goals for Right Trades?
Our mission is two-part; firstly, to be the world’s leading fixed price repair service for domestic and commercial properties and secondly, to change the way people have traders carry out work. Our journey is only just beginning and we see huge opportunities for trade partners to work and grow with us.
