Nearly 50% of Australians do not enforce licence checks from tradies when hiring them, according to the Tradie Trust Index from Hipages. This puts home construction at a high risk for damage, with Australians spending a combined rate of $73 billion on home construction per year and potential home repairs from DIY services.

Jobs for households including plumbing and cleaning are not being taken seriously, according to Hipages. This can result in a failure to follow the right steps to find qualified licensed tradies to get the job done from the start.

There are three simple steps that Hipages calls the ‘Trust Trifecta’. It’s recommended that all home owners follow this to ensure the tradie they hire has the appropriate qualifications for the task at hand. The ‘Trust Trifecta’ includes the following:

1. Request the licence – Before a tradie commences any work, always request to see their licence (where required) and check it’s valid for the value of the planned project. Not all trades require a licence, and the rules vary from state to state, though trades like plumbers, electricians and builders always require formal qualifications. To make this process easier for consumers, Hipages displays all received licence numbers on its tradie profiles. Where relevant, it also shows if a tradie is limited to particular job size restrictions, based on their licence, trade category and state they service.

2. Ask for examples of work. Take a look at previous projects to get an idea of the standards you can expect and if the work aligns with your plans. According to the Hipages tradie trust index, 72% of consumers check how reputable a tradie is by reviewing examples of work before hiring them.

3. Read online recommendations. It is also worth reading online reviews or client feedback. On Hipages, customers can leave ratings and recommendations, with tradies also given an average star rating based on client feedback. Recommendations provide reassurance to potential customers, with 46% of consumers trusting online testimonials.

Hipages chief customer officer Stuart Tucker says, “The key to fostering a trusting two-way relationship is an honest and open line of communication. It’s also advisable to formalise all details of a job in writing, particularly with the amount of responsibility that is transferred onto a tradie”.

“This month, Hipages has made it even easier for customers to connect with trusted tradies through updates to the platform. On the tradie profile page, customers will be able to clearly view licence numbers for each tradie, as well as licence requirements for their trade categories in the state they service.”

Australia has one of the highest levels of smart phone usage in the world, with most of the nation using it as a tool to manage their lives. Everything from ordering food, consuming news and entertainment, paying bills and transport, all of which is conducted through apps which immediately connect consumers with services.

While several industries have enabled digital efficiencies for consumers the trade and home improvements sector has lagged behind, Aussies are still spending almost 30 hours each year searching for tradies using a variety of outdated methods, from searching online to asking friends and family. Emergence of the on-demand tradie economy enables consumers to bring more efficiency to their lives by using digital solutions.

“With an insatiable appetite for convenience, immediacy and connectivity, it is unsurprising to hear that almost 90% of consumers are sourcing tradies through online sources. As the trades industry undergoes a digital transformation, it is great to hear that 84% of tradies have developed a digital presence in the past five years,” says Stuart.

Digital and on-demand platforms like the Hipages app, which streamlines the tradie recruitment and verification process compared to old-fashioned methods, have helped reduce research time by 80%. Aussies are now only spending an average of 56 minutes per job, to find and book the necessary tradie online.

Not only is Hipages digitising the tradie finding process, it is now also digitising the important role word-of-mouth plays in consumer-tradie engagement. Following on from findings in the Hipages tradie trust index that revealed 80% of consumers trust word-of-mouth recommendations when selecting a tradie, Hipages has introduced a new ‘community’ feed on its app. The new feature allows consumers to log into Hipages through its Facebook account, to easily learn which tradies are being recommended and hired by neighbours in their local area, as well as understand who their Facebook friends are booking and recommending to their network.

Results from the Hipages Tradie Trust Index found that both consumers and tradies rate electricians as the most trustworthy trade.

“Consumers’ sense of trust is very closely tied to response rate and cost,” explains Stuart. “When hiring an electrician, it’s more often an emergency situation with your local sparky coming to the rescue. Almost 50% of an electrician’s jobs are emergency or ad hoc. It also doesn’t hurt that sparky’s are some of the most commonly hired tradies in Australia with the fastest turnaround quote times in the industry.”

The Hipages Tradie Trust Index found that the more money consumers handover to tradies, the warier they are, with more than 70% of consumers less trusting of tradies when the jobs are worth over $2,500.

Taking a look around the country, respondents from regional areas are more trusting of tradies (57%) compared to their suburban (54%) and metro (50%) counterparts. Gen X is the least trusting of tradies (55%) with baby boomers the most trusting (60%). Women also trust tradies (57%) much more than men (48%).