What customers actually look for in a tradesperson's profile
A short, practical guide for tradespeople: the five things customers read first, and what makes them click your number.
The page they spend 30 seconds on
When a customer clicks your profile from a search result, they decide in about 30 seconds whether to message you. They are not reading a brochure. They are scanning for five specific things.
Get those five things right and the same customer who scrolled past two other profiles will pick up the phone.
1. Your full name and a real photo
The biggest single trust signal is that you are a real person. A first name with a stock photo, or a logo with no face, gets fewer calls than a full name with a real photo of you on a job site.
You do not need a studio shot. A clear phone photo of you in your work clothes, outside a recent customer's house, with a tool in your hand, is more persuasive than anything a graphic designer can produce. The customer wants to know who is going to ring their doorbell.
If you trade as a limited company, list the company name as well, but the photo and full name come first.
2. A one-line answer to "what do you do?"
The line directly under your name is the most-read sentence on the whole page. Make it specific.
- Weak: "Quality home services across South London."
- Strong: "Bathroom and kitchen plumbing, 12 years on the tools, based in Clapham, covers SW London zones 1–4."
The strong version answers four questions in twenty words: what trades, how experienced, where based, where you travel. The weak version answers none of them and reads like a brochure.
If you cover several trades, list the ones you most want work for first. If you turn down certain jobs, say so. "I do not take on new boiler installs — only servicing and repairs" filters out the wrong calls and makes the right calls more confident.
3. The trades you cover and the area you cover
Customers want to confirm two things before they read further: that you actually do what they need, and that you actually come to their postcode.
The platform lets you list both. Use it properly. If you are a heating engineer who occasionally does small plumbing jobs, list both. If you only cover a 15-mile radius, set it. A customer who lives 40 miles away and then finds you cannot reach them feels misled — even if it was never your fault.
Be honest about edge cases. "Within the M25, but happy to travel out for a full day" is more useful than a 50-mile radius that you secretly hate quoting for.
4. Recent activity
Customers want to see that you are active. A profile with no recent activity reads as if the person has stopped trading.
The platform shows your join date and the date of your last bid. You cannot control the join date, but you can control the last-bid date by being responsive on /jobs even when you do not win the job. A polite "thanks for the message, I am booked solid this month but try next month" is better than silence — and it shows the next viewer that you are engaged.
5. A clear path to your phone number
The whole point of the profile is the moment the customer clicks the phone-reveal button. That button is the only thing that matters.
If your other four elements have done their job, the customer will click it. If your other four elements are weak, the most beautiful profile in the world will not get the click.
The reveal is one tap. Make sure your phone is actually on the number you list, that you can answer between 9 and 6, and that your voicemail is not full. The number of jobs won by simply answering the first ring is higher than most tradespeople realise.
What customers do NOT care about
A few things you might assume matter actually do not.
- Long bios. A four-paragraph "About me" loses people by paragraph two. Two short paragraphs is plenty.
- Buzzwords. Lines like "top-rated", "five-star quality" and "deeply care about our craft" read as filler. Specific facts beat adjectives every time.
- Multiple email addresses. Customers pick up the phone. List one number and one email.
- A website link. If your website is not adding new information beyond your profile, do not link to it. A weak website actively hurts you.
- Awards from years ago. A 2018 industry award helps less than a recent customer reference.
A 10-minute profile audit
Open your profile on your phone right now. Read it as if you are a customer who has never heard of you. Answer these five questions:
1. Do I know who this person is, by name and face? 2. Do I know what they do, in one sentence? 3. Do I know whether they cover my area? 4. Do they seem to be active and responsive? 5. Can I see how to call them?
If any of the five answers is unclear, fix that one thing and move on. You do not need to rewrite the whole profile.
A note on profile photos
If you take only one action from this post, take a new photo of yourself today, outside a recent job site, in your work clothes. Use the better camera on your phone, hold it horizontal, and have a friend or your partner take three shots from slightly different angles. Pick the one where you look approachable and competent. Upload it.
The cost of doing this is ten minutes. The value of doing this, over the year, is several jobs that you would not have won with your old photo.
Ready to put it into practice?
Open your HeroTasker profile and apply the five-question audit. Then head to the jobs board and write one short, specific bid pitch on a task that fits your trade and area. The customer reading it will be doing exactly the kind of profile scan this post describes.