If you’re battling a serious late night craving the chances are high that Yelp can help you find a reliable pizza joint. Meeting your girlfriend’s parents and in dire need of a haircut? Yelp has got barbers that you can call in a bind. And if you need to groom your pup in a pinch, Yelp has got you covered.
What you may not know is that Yelp can find you a hero to save the day if you need something fixed around the house. Plumbers, roofers, electricians, contractors, locksmiths, exterminators and movers are just a few of the many home service businesses found on Yelp. Features like Request a Quote, Service Areas, business hours and Service Offerings make Yelp a one stop shop if you need help fast.
“’A new roof is not like new clothes. When you need it you need it now.”’ -Hristo Kyurkchiev, Boston Gutters
In other words, sometimes these home service emergencies just can’t wait. Luckily, Yelp is here to help. We’ve searched near and far to find home service heroes who have come to the rescue when Yelpers were in a time of need.
Jay Sofker, AKA Jay The Locksmith has seen it all. He’s a local NYC legend and his success on Yelp has taken him from living in his Mom’s garage to owning an extremely successful business. It wasn’t until Jay listed his business Lockbusters on Yelp that people started to endorse the fact that he was the go-to guy if you were in a bind. Or as Jay likes to say, “the guy who won’t screw you for being screwed.” Thanks to his reliable reputation on Yelp, Jay has been able to help out Yelpers in all sorts of crazy situations.
“A really awful roommate finally left and I’ll be called over. It’ll be tense at first and as soon as the locks change you can just see the relief on their faces. The last time this happened I was even invited to a party called ‘ding dong the witch is dead’ and I was celebrated as a hero for being the locksmith who changed the lock. They obviously found me on Yelp. It’s easy for me to say that last part because everyone finds me on Yelp. 99.9% of all my clients are either referred from Yelp or found me from someone else who found me on Yelp. Sometimes my job can get pretty scary. One of my scariest calls ever was from a woman whose crazy ex-husband had just gotten off the plane and was headed towards her location. They were going to be there in thirty minutes. I rode right over and was able to help.”
Jay isn’t only a hero to Yelpers who have been locked out. He is a true hero because he uses his success as a locksmith to help the greater good. Jay donates all of his tips to a local animal shelter.
“When I stopped needing tips for my own income I started donating them. I didn’t publicize this but a lot of Yelpers would write about this in their Yelp reviews. It took on a life of its own which was unintended… One small thing like that led to so many bigger things, and Yelp helped spread the word about that.”
Jay isn’t the only home service hero using his career to help others. Adonis NYC Movers is one of Yelp’s most popular movers in NYC. If Adonis has a customer who is in a domestic abuse situation and needs to move immediately he will move them free of charge. According to Adonis, having a presence on Yelp has helped him spread the word about this. Adonis directed us to one of his favorite reviews that was written by a Yelper who was nearly evicted by his landlord because of his messy apartment. What they did not know was that the tenant was dealing with a very challenging life threatening illness. Adonis calmly and professionally spent two sessions helping clean the entire apartment. Decades worth of stuff was cleared out, organized and rearranged. According to Yelper Bruce R., Adonis was “a manual therapist. In the truest sense he and his crew used their hands, minds and human goodness to re-orient a portion of my life over which I had lost the ability to manage myself. Now, I have a clean apartment, a clean slate, and a much clearer road forward, both literally and figuratively.” Bruce also happens to be a Vietnam vet who works as a licensed massage therapist to help other vets with post traumatic stress. Because of this, he truly understood how valuable it was to have Adonis helping him during a time of need.
Ranking number eight on a list of 50 top bed bug infested cities, New Yorkers find themselves in need of pest control more often than most. Manny, the owner of Pestrol, an NYC based extermination business, knows this all too well. Manny recalled a situation where a woman found Pestrol on Yelp and called in because her daughter had woken up crying, covered in bed bug bites.
“She was frantic on the phone explaining her situation with her child. They had complained to their building management company about her daughter waking up with marks on her body and were suspecting bed bugs but were not sure. The management company sent their exterminator to inspect the premises and nothing was found. I recommended a canine bed bug inspection since their exterminator didn’t find any evidence of bed bugs… We inspected the apartment with Ladybug, our bed bug sniffing dog, and there was an alert on the side of the bed frame… I concentrated in the area Ladybug alerted and asked if I could remove a portion of the wood where it was split. There we found one female bed bug with a few eggs. The wood splitting on the bed frame had caused some deep cracks which made finding the bed bug very difficult through only a visual inspection. I advised a necessary treatment and inspection of the surrounding apartments. I found out weeks later that it was their neighbor that was heavily infested with bed bugs and that was the source of where the bugs came from.”
Every day Yelp helps people make decisions on where to spend their money. And while finding a quality Thai restaurant or a new spin studio is helpful there is nothing more important than taking care of the place that you call home. Next time you are in need of a home service hero don’t forget that help is just one Yelp search away.
