What an exciting and crazy time for the Trusted team. The interviews for CBC Radio Saskatchewan ( on Blue Sky , the CBC long running Saskatchewan news/call in , magazine daily lunchtime show) and CBC TV Evening news for Saskatoon and also Saskatchewan were broadcast on Friday May 6th. The CBC radio interview with founder Sara Wheelwright was broadcast live and you can listen to the full 9minute interview by clicking here. Find out why Trusted was founded and what the process of verification is for the businesses who have made it on the site.
The CBC TV interview with Jill Smith was broadcast at 5.10pm in the Saskatoon news ..then a longer segment appeared in the Saskatchewan news at 5.40pm . Click here to see the founder Sara as she talks about the Trusted concept ( the article is 9mins 28sec in to the News Broadcast).Thanks to Laddie at Hairstyle Inn for doing a wonderful job on the hair at very short notice...more proof that he is well deserving of his great reputation and place on our site!
Things started happening straight after the Radio interview was broadcast , with one lady sending an email within minutes of the end of the broadcast to ask if we could recommend a good roofing contractor( as there are no listings on the site in that category yet) ....Trusted replied that we don't have anyone we can confidently recommend at this time..but we do have a meeting set up with a local contractor that specializes in roofing next week that comes highly recommended..so I hope to get back to her soon with a Trusted Roofer! What this shows is how Trusted works...the lady that contacted us, did so as she felt after hearing the interview that we would give her the best advice, that she could Trust our recommendation...she didn't go to Yellow pages, Google or go to her circle of influence, her friends or her family..she went straight to TrustedSaskatoon.com to get answers...because it is the Smart & Simple choice.
After the TV interviews aired we were inundated with nominations through the website via the NOMINATE A BUSINESS button on the 'Contact Us' section of www.trustedsaskatoon.com . The nominations covered many, many categories and we will be spending next week following up on those recommendations...we really appreciate your time and effort to all the people that contacted us..and please encourage others to do the same..Good businesses deserve recognition!
People also contacted us to tell us how much they loved the site and the idea itself, and that they can definitely see themselves using Trustedsaskatoon.com as a great resource when they need a recommendation!
A friend of Sara's contacted her through Facebook to say how great she thought the idea was after seeing the link to the CBC coverage..she had this to say about Trusted
"Great biz idea Sara .... Moving to Spain in 2003 I found the language barrier a hindrance at first and would choose English companies for my needs ...but these tended to be expensive, as they took advantage of this .. It took a lot of time but through recommendation I ended up using local Spanish companies which were equally if not better than and considerably a lot less expensive. Also there weren't the regulations you find in the UK so i found a lot of Cowboy's would set up business on the Costa Brava/ Cost Del Sol without even having the necessary qualifications... I heard stories of people not just being over charged for services, plumbers Electricians etc but horror stories of bogus mortgage companies with people loosing their life saving! Moving here to New Zealand I was recommended an Immigration adviser by a friend but have been bitterly disappointed by this person.He gave incorrect advise, did not respond to queries, basically i ended up doing most of the work myself... T...he stress involved was unbearable... relocating abroad is stressful as it is! I ended up having to find a different adviser who has been amazing but I have lost ( been ripped off! ) over £2,000 Trusted is a fabulous company not just for people who are relocating to the area but like you say, not all of us know someone who can recommend a certain type of business. GREAT WORK LADIES AND WISHING YOU ALL THE SUCCESS YOU DESERVE X Ursula Bell.
So, the word about Trusted is now out..and the general consensus overwhelmingly, is the the time is right for Trusted!
Sara in the CBC Studios in Saskatoon.
On the same day as Trustedsaskatoon was launched to Canada on CBC 3 new listings also went live . JonesE became the 3rd and final trusted Landscape & Yard Services , and Decora Homes became the first Trusted Saskatoon Home Builder ..once the dust settles next week we will tell you more about each of these wonderful businesses and we haven't forgotten to tell you about the 3 other Trusted listings that went live last week.
As we move in to a new week we have 30 listings up live on the site for you to browse , and we have many many more great companies in various stages of the Trusted verification process ...so keep checking in to see who is coming soon in the listings that are currently empty. It won't be too long before we will have at least 1 option for every category for you to be able to rely upon!
The Trusted team would like to thank everyone that has supported them so far in this journey..we are truly blessed to have such wonderful friends and family members to believe in us and our dream ..and of course, we would have nothing if it wasn't for the outstanding businesses that are on the site...