Thumbtack

What it is

Thumbtack is the marketplace where customers post the work they need doing and pros like you reply. Connecting it to Joby means you stop copying those requests over by hand: when a customer sends your Thumbtack business a new request, Joby opens a job for it within a few seconds, already carrying the customer's name, phone number, address, the kind of work, and everything they typed into the request.

You set it up on one page. You get there from Settings›Connections & AI›Integrations, then click the Thumbtack tile. The tile sits in the Sales & marketing category, and typing "Thumbtack" into the search box at the top right of the Integrations page finds it straight away. The tile reads Connect before you have set it up and Manage afterwards.

The page itself is short. At the top is the Thumbtack name with a badge that reads either Connected or Not connected, and underneath it the line "New Thumbtack requests create native Joby leads." Below that there are only three things to fill in.

The Pipeline box on the page is deliberately greyed out and fixed on Default Joby pipeline. There is nothing to choose there yet.

When to use it

• You pay for leads on Thumbtack and somebody is retyping every one of them into Joby.
• Requests are being missed or answered late because nobody is watching the Thumbtack app.
• You want Thumbtack work to run through the same statuses, follow-ups and reports as the rest of your jobs.
• You want to know how much of your work really comes from Thumbtack, measured in Joby rather than guessed at.
• You run more than one Thumbtack business profile and want some of them — or all of them — feeding one Joby account.

This page is only about new requests coming in. Replying to the customer, quoting and booking still happen in your normal Joby screens once the job exists. If you want something to happen automatically after a Thumbtack job arrives — a text to the customer, a task for an agent — build that in Visual Workflows.

Before you start

• You need to be an owner or an admin. Connecting, saving, sending a test lead and disconnecting are all owner-and-admin only. Anyone else who opens the page gets a message such as "Only an owner or admin can change this setting" the moment they try.
• Your role needs Integrations switched on. An owner or admin sets that under Settings›People›Team Roles, in the Admin & Settings group, under Integrations. Without it the whole Integrations area is blocked, including this page.
• A Thumbtack login that owns the business profiles. You will be sent to Thumbtack to sign in and approve the connection, so use the account that actually holds the businesses you want — not a colleague's personal login.
• At least one active lead status. The Default lead status list is filled from Settings›Pipeline›Lead Statuses, and the Save integration button stays greyed out until you pick one. Set your statuses up first — see Lead Statuses.
• The office agent you want as owner must be active. The Default owner list only offers active team members from Settings›People›Team Members. Leaving it on Unassigned is perfectly normal if you sort out ownership yourselves.
• Your phone numbers, if you have them. Joby registers your active US numbers from Settings›Channels›Phone Numbers with Thumbtack as your business numbers. Numbers that are switched off, numbers outside the US, and any number with "masking" in its name are skipped on purpose. If you have none yet the page simply reads "No eligible active Joby phone numbers" and everything else still works.
• Worth doing first: add an ad source named Thumbtack under Settings›Pipeline›Ad Sources. Every job that arrives is stamped with that source, so having it in your list keeps your filters and reports tidy. See Ad Sources.
• Your company may use different words. "Lead" can be renamed for your account, so the field labelled Default lead status here may read Default job status on your screen.

Step-by-step

1. Open the Thumbtack page

1. Go to Settings›Connections & AI›Integrations.
2. Find the Thumbtack tile — type "Thumbtack" in the search box at the top right, or click the Sales & marketing category button to narrow the tiles down.
3. Click the tile. It reads Connect the first time and Manage once you are set up. Either way it opens the same page. (Its own address is /settings/integrations/thumbtack if a colleague sends you a direct link.)

2. Connect your Thumbtack account

1. The page opens with a large panel headed Connect Thumbtack and the line "Authorize the Thumbtack businesses that should send new requests to Joby."
2. Click the Connect Thumbtack button.
3. Joby takes you over to Thumbtack. Sign in there and approve the request to let Joby see your businesses and their new requests.
4. Thumbtack sends you straight back to this page. A message reading Thumbtack connected appears and the badge at the top right changes to Connected.

If it did not work you land back here with Could not connect Thumbtack and a short reason. The usual causes are closing the Thumbtack window before approving, or taking so long that the attempt goes stale — in both cases just press Connect Thumbtack again.

3. Tick the businesses that should send you work

1. Look at the Thumbtack businesses panel. Every business profile your Thumbtack login owns is listed with its picture, its name and its phone number.
2. Tick each business whose requests should open jobs in Joby.
3. Leave a business unticked if you want to keep handling it inside Thumbtack. Nothing from an unticked business ever reaches Joby.

If the panel says "No Thumbtack businesses are available." the account you signed in with does not own any business profiles. Disconnect, then connect again with the right Thumbtack login.

4. Decide what a new job looks like

The four boxes underneath control every job that arrives from now on.

5. Save

1. Click Save integration at the bottom right. It stays greyed out until you have ticked at least one business and chosen a default status.
2. A confirmation appears telling you how many of your businesses are now live. That is the moment the connection starts listening for new requests — connecting alone does not do it.
3. If Joby could not register one of your phone numbers with Thumbtack, the same message carries an extra line beginning Phone registration: naming the business and the reason. New jobs still arrive normally; see Common mistakes.

6. Prove it works

1. Click Test connection. Joby checks that each business you saved is still reachable, that its new-request feed is switched on, and that your phone numbers are registered.
2. Click Send test lead. Thumbtack sends Joby a pretend request with made-up customer details. Nothing appears on your real Thumbtack account and no customer is contacted.
3. Open Work›Leads in another tab. The test job appears at the top of the All tab within a few seconds.
4. Delete the test job once you have seen it, so it does not muddle your numbers.

How to check it worked

• The badge: top right of the Thumbtack page reads Connected, and the line under Thumbtack account connected shows the right number of businesses selected.
• The tile: back on Settings›Connections & AI›Integrations, the Thumbtack tile now says Connected with a green tick and its button reads Manage. Click Connected in the switch at the top right of that page and Thumbtack should be in the list.
• Test connection: a green panel headed Connection verified appears, saying how many businesses were verified. A red Verification needs attention panel names the exact problem instead.
• Send test lead: you get Test lead sent, and a job shows up in Work›Leads within a few seconds.
• The job itself: open it and check the Ad Source reads Thumbtack, the status is the default you chose, and the owner is who you expected. The customer's description and their answers to Thumbtack's questions are in the job notes.
• Come back later: reopen the page and your ticks, status and owner should all still be there. If they are not, the save did not go through — press Save integration again.

Common mistakes

• Changing the status or owner does not rewrite old jobs. Those two boxes only decide how future requests arrive. Jobs already in Joby stay exactly as they are.
• Renaming or switching off the status you chose. The next time you press Save you get "Selected lead status is not active". Pick a status that still exists under Settings›Pipeline›Lead Statuses and save again. The same happens with a deactivated owner: "Selected owner is not active".
• Adding a phone number later and expecting it to register itself. New numbers you buy under Settings›Channels›Phone Numbers are only sent over to Thumbtack the next time you press Save integration. Run Test connection afterwards to confirm.
• Ignoring "One or more Joby phone numbers are not registered." That message from Test connection is telling you exactly what to do: press Save integration again to repair it.
• Trying to save without being an owner or admin. You will see "Only an owner or admin can change this setting". Ask an owner to make the change, or have them give your role the right level under Settings›People›Team Roles.
• Sending a test lead before saving. The Send test lead button is greyed out until a business is ticked, and if you have ticked one without saving you are told to save first.
• Leaving test jobs in the list. Test leads are real jobs in Joby, so they count in your Leads tabs and reports. Delete them once you have seen them work.