YARD WORK FOR THE UBER GENERATION

What do Calgary, Airdrie, Chestermere, Cochrane, Fort Saskatchewan, Leduc, Sherwood Park, Spruce Grove, St. Albert, Stony Plain, Edmonton and Winnipeg have in common?

Answer:Yardly – a better way to get yard work done

By Cara Bedford

REATED TO MAKE YARD WORK SERVICES AS SIMPLE AS ORDERING AN UBER, YARDLY IS SET TO DISRUPT THE WAY WE MAINTAIN OUR HOMES.
Unlike traditional lawn care and snow removal services which often require a lengthy process involving phoning a contractor or business and waiting for a quote, you can get the service you need, when you need it, simply through just a few clicks on your computer or your phone.

AVOIDING THE PITFALLS OF OTHER PEER-TO-PEER PLATFORMS
Though Yardly takes several cues from peer-to-peer platforms like Uber, the application improves on the idea by avoiding conflict with traditional snow removal and lawn care companies. Instead of fighting against them the way Uber has done with the taxi industry, Yardly incorporates them, creating profits and opportunities for all parties – including customers.

ENGINEERED FOR SUCCESS
Yardly is the brainchild of Sheldon Zhang and Terry Song who both graduated from engineering programs at the University of Alberta and who both worked together for the same engineering
firm. They often discussed business ideas over lunch, but never planned on leaving their steady, high-paying jobs to work at a risky start-up together. However, when the idea for Yardly came
to them, they knew it was something they had to pursue. Their business proposal is a simple one: to make yard care services easier to obtain while also connecting existing companies with more customers.

cutting down on their advertising costs and streamlining payments.

Yardly officially incorporated on September 28, 2015 and launched the website to accept inquiries in November 2015. By the end of that month, the app was introduced in the IOS store, but was recently pulled back as Song and Zhang started to focus on developing a mobile-friendly website portal.

REAL EXPERIENCES: YARDLY FOR MY YARD
With an abundance of weeds in my yards and a shortage of time in my schedule, it seemed that this piece on Yardly was a serendipitous opportunity to try out the service and see if it was as easy to use as the creators had said it would be.

In the interest of science and reclaiming my weekend from weed pulling, I began my Yardly experience on Sunday May 13th at 1:55pm when I went onto yardly.ca from my mobile. After choosing the
“Spring Clean-Up Standard Package,” I scrolled down to the bottom to realize that my total was a little more than I expected. The app had auto-checked several services that I didn’t need which raised the price. However, I was easily able to uncheck them, so this wasn’t a big deal. >>> By 2:01pm I had paid and completed my order – 6 minutes with no human interaction or phone calls!

By 2:12 pm I had this in my inbox
The following Saturday, May 19th, I got a email in the morning reminding me of my service. It even had a rescheduling feature and asked me to clear away large obstructions. However, this email said I would be in the queue order on May 20th, but my contractor actually arrived at 1:20 pm on the 19th. Not quite the day promised in the email, but I won’t complain about getting the work done a day earlier!

QUALIFIED CONTRACTORS
The contractor was friendly, polite and went through the entire service with me. I bombarded him with questions which he answered like a pro. I asked about insurance and how Yardly vetted their contractors and he was gracious enough to show me a certificate which he received after a very precise interview process. He told me his history, which included 6 years of professional work for various companies, Yardly.ca

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