Taking company directories one step further

This post is the first of a series of posts where I review the services offered by companies (Barbadian and regional) which I believe are striving to deliver innovative solutions via information technology. Please note that unless otherwise noted, I am neither affiliated nor sponsored by the companies covered in these posts.

Recently, I've been pondering upon the advice from one of my workmates who has been encouraging me and others to install hurricane shutters on the windows at our homes. Mindful that the shutters may prove to be a bit expensive, I asked him where he bought his and how he installed them. As we talked, he gave me a number of tips on how to buy 'cheap' shutters that once installed with his method would provide similar protection as the more expensive automatic versions. Despite his good intentions, I'm still left to either trust his opinions entirely or perform my own objective search for a good product. Such a search would almost definitely require me to drive around to each department store, take notes and then process the information on my own. Now, that’s definitely work cut out for a free Saturday morning/afternoon OR I could try to contract a handyman who'll find the shutters for me. Personally, I prefer the second option!

Traditionally, I would've had to resort to more word-of-mouth or the telephone directory "yellow pages" (online or in print) in order to find a handyman for the job. However, these directories are tedious to peruse and offer little in the way of information by today's standards. Fortunately, there is a local company which aims to make the process of finding such a handyman very easy. This company has launched a website named lastminutebajan.com

Taking a cursory look through the website, lastminutebajan.com appears to be little more than another of the myriad yellowpages websites which list Caribbean businesses however while it does list businesses according to the category of services they offer, that's where most of the similarities end.

On most yellowpages websites catering to the Caribbean market, when you find the business you were looking for (or a list of businesses in a particular service category), you're most likely going to only find simple contact information and hopefully, the company website where you can find the real information. However, that's a 2-step process and time spent checking each companies' website then going back to the respective yellowpages website. Also, if the companies do not have a website or their website doesn't provide relevant information about their services then that's time truly wasted.

Now, lastminutebajan.com simplifies this decision-making process by encouraging website visitors to rate and review the services provided by the listed companies. Company ratings are displayed as percentages using the typical 5-star system while the company reviews are listed below the company profiles. Additionally, companies are given 5 minutes of airtime on a popular radio station during which they can advocate their services and provide customers with incentives to rate and review their businesses. Businesses can then monitor customer satisfaction, to an extent, and market/improve their services accordingly.

Finally, Lastminutebajan.com utilizes a custom tagging system which makes it even easier to find what you're looking for. If you enter "roof" in their search box, you'll get all of the companies who offer services related to dealing with roofing. Therefore, in order to find a particular service, you can simply enter exactly what you’re looking for. I think that’s pretty neat.

Lastminutebajan.com is really coming into the business directory market with a powerful combination of internet, radio and social interaction. Compared to other “yellowpages” websites or even the yellowpages book, it provides features which put it far ahead of the curve. However, I really hope that they change the current requirement to sign-up in order to rate/review a site. Very few people enjoy the process of giving away their personal information to another website especially when it requires them to remember yet another password. As a result, many websites get a ton of fake information from their users during these registration processes. I would advise changing the sign-up information to solely name and email.

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