Neighborhood Business Directory – Why Communities are Changing Their Approach

Many communities are changing their approach to a collective neighborhood business directory. Once confined to a clubhouse wall or the local pool bulletin board, new neighborhood business directories are allowing members of the community to rate, review, and refer businesses to one another right from their own homes. These new neighborhood business directories are changing the way communities invite businesses into their homes and they are much more useful, efficient and effective than the typical yellow pages for a number of reasons.

Price – Some online business directories and searches across the country are changing their format to membership only. Consumers and homeowners are now required, in many cases, to pay a small fee each time they search for a business. New neighborhood business directories allow communities to set up a private directory without paying a single cent.

Reliability – A major problem faced with large business directories is that positive referrals are not required for a business to be listed. Neighborhood business directories require all business listings to come as positive referrals. Without a referral, a business cannot be listed, no matter how much they pay. This is creating a great system where businesses are forced to work to improve their services and reputations for each customer.

Safety – A criticism that many online business directories face is that there is no background checks on businesses before or after their listings are placed. Neighborhood business directories require all business to have a positive record with past clients, only allowing quality businesses to be listed. This creates a safe atmosphere for any homeowner worrying about letting strangers into their homes. The neighborhood business directory system is built around safety for homeowners that are now forced to pay fees to view information on other online business directories.

Many neighborhoods around the country are implementing these private community business directories and are seeing great results. The safety, reliability and free cost that comes with a neighborhood business directory is never seen in a large online directory.