Frequently asked questions.

Head to the For Businesses page and apply. It takes about a minute, and applying is free.

Yes. Applying and becoming Shmooze Certified are free. You only pay if you choose a paid level for more visibility.

Two things: you hold at least 4.0 stars across your Google reviews, and you serve metro Atlanta. That is the whole bar. You pick your own Google listing when you apply so we check the right business, and we read your rating straight from Google.

Home-service trades like roofing, plumbing, HVAC, electrical, landscaping, handyman, painting, cleaning, pest control, and more.

Seconds. You get your answer on the screen before you leave the page, because we check your Google rating live instead of putting you in a queue. Nobody sits waiting on a human to click approve.

You can still join. If there is no rating to check, you are approved and your profile goes live without stars, and your rating appears automatically the moment Google has one. Being new is not the same as being bad at the work.

You are not certified yet, and you are not shut out either. We show you exactly what we saw and point you to the help page, and you can reapply the day you clear 4.0. There is no waiting period and no penalty for trying again.

Applying and certification are free. There are three paid levels: Starter Business at $25 a month, Established Business at $50, and Market Leader at $100. You can move up or down anytime.

Starter Business gets you found: the badge, your own profile page with your Shmooze reviews, a spot in the directory, and one promotional post a month in the group. Established Business adds placement above Starter members in your category plus a written audit of your online presence with a 30 minute strategy call. Market Leader adds concierge homeowner requests routed to you first, the top spot in your category and on the homepage, a fresh audit every quarter, first call on podcast bookings, and a free professional headshot.

It is the top membership. A homeowner request goes to the Market Leaders in that category before it goes to anyone else. The tier is not capped, so a category can have more than one, and among them the request goes to whoever fits it best on a fair rotation.

Yes. Registered nonprofits get a free community level.

Yes, anytime. Move up when you are ready to grow, or down if you need to.

Certification puts you in front of 17,000+ homeowners already asking who to hire. Market Leaders also get homeowner requests routed directly to them.

No. We do not sell the same lead to five competitors. A concierge lead goes to you, not into a bidding war.

By category. A request goes to the Market Leaders in that category first, matched on how well their listed services fit what the homeowner described, on a fair rotation. Established and Starter members only see it if no Market Leader takes it.

They come warm, from a community that already trusts the Shmooze, so you are not a cold stranger fighting on price.

You have 4 business hours to claim a lead before it rotates to the next pro, and the clock only runs 8am to 8pm, so a lead that lands in the evening is still yours the next morning. The homeowner is waiting though, so the sooner you reach out the better your odds of winning the job.

A homeowner tells us their category, zip, what they need, their timeline and whether they own the place. We send it to one pro, not five. You get a text and an email with a claim link. Tap it and you see everything they told us. Claim it and their name, phone and email are yours. Nobody else gets that lead while it is with you.

Four hours, and the clock only runs between 8am and 8pm. A lead that lands at 6pm is still yours at 10am the next morning. If you are on a job, on a plane, or asleep, you have not lost it.

It goes to the next pro and you get a message telling you so. There is no penalty, no mark against you, and your place in the rotation does not change. We tell you mainly so that if you open the link later and it does not work, you know why instead of thinking something is broken.

Market Leaders in that category get it first, on a rotation so nobody gets buried. Inside that group we look at what the homeowner described against what your profile says you do, so a kitchen job goes to whoever actually mentions kitchens. Your notification tells you which words matched.

Before a request reaches you the homeowner tells us when they need it, whether they own the property, and for bigger jobs a rough budget. It rides along with the lead so you know what you are walking into before you pick up the phone. It is information, not a filter. You decide.

Open the same claim link and use the hand it back button. Pick the reason: not your kind of work, outside your area, booked out, they never responded, or you quoted and they went another way. If someone else should take it we route it on immediately. If the homeowner has gone quiet it comes to us rather than to another pro. No penalty, and telling us beats leaving them waiting.

No. It does not affect your placement, your rotation, or what you get sent next. We would rather know in ten minutes than have a homeowner wait three days. The only thing that actually costs you is silence.

One at a time. This is not a shared lead sold to five competitors. If you claim it, it is yours and nobody else is called.

Sign in at the member account page and use the confirm your profile form. You get five: one core category, up to two secondary, and up to two offered.

Core is what your business IS, and it is printed at the top of your profile. Secondary are real service lines you want work in. Both of those show when a homeowner browses that category. Offered is work you will take but do not lead with, and it only turns up in search. It exists so that browsing Interior Design shows interior designers rather than every general contractor who will hang a curtain rod.

Enter your trade license number on the same confirm your profile form. A blank is never shown as unlicensed, it just means we have not been told.

Wherever you tell us on that form: an email address, and a mobile number if you want the text. If you never set one, they go to the email on your membership so you are not missing leads because of a blank field.

Once members have confirmed their own listings. Google does not reliably return businesses that hide a street address, which is most pros who work out of a truck, so automatic matching put the wrong reviews on some profiles. Add your Google listing link on the confirm your profile form and yours comes back on. Your Shmooze reviews were never affected.

The report a problem form on your account page. It goes into a queue with a ticket number, not into somebody's inbox, and you get an email when it is fixed.

Yes. Reply to any lead message or email [email protected] and we will pause you or adjust which categories route to you. Better than letting them time out.

An in-house team, the crew behind Atlanta Pro Network, that runs your marketing when you are ready to scale: GBP optimization, reviews, websites, SEO, ads, video, and more.

Most members start with GBP optimization plus review generation. It is the quickest win and climbs you up the Google map pack fast.

Yes. We run targeted, tracked paid campaigns aimed at homeowners ready to hire, not spray-and-pray ads to strangers.

No. Growth Studio is optional. You can be certified and grow through referrals without ever buying a service.

Growth Studio can set up automated review requests, and the community runs review campaigns that reward the most-reviewed businesses.

Your logo, categories, service area, membership level, Shmooze reviews from neighbors, earned badges including Licensed when you have given us your license number, any member deal, and a Leave a Review button.

Shmooze Certified is the vetting seal every member carries. Top Rated and 10+ Years come straight from real data and cannot be bought. Market Leader is different, it simply means that business receives concierge requests directly.

Google review display is paused for now. Confirm your Google listing in the member account form and it comes back on your profile once verified. Your Shmooze reviews show the moment they are approved.

Keep your rating strong, respond fast, and consider a higher visibility level or Growth Studio help. Top Rated and Market Leader badges get the spotlight.