I have worked with Field Nation alternative clients in the freelance IT tech industry since 2000. I’ve been a Field Nation technician since 2010 and on Work Market since 2011.
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Video Transcript:
Are you looking for alternatives to Field Nation and Work Market?
In today’s video, I am showing a full length interview that I did with
Chelsea Mueller,
the tech recruiting manager at Cloud Work Pro.
I have a playlist set up on the Field Tech Academy YouTube channel
that will have all of my Cloud Work Pro content.
This video is a full length interview that I did,
I’ve also broken this full length video up into three separate smaller videos
and each video is focused on specific areas of Cloud Work Pro and how it works.
Let’s get into the video.
Chelsea, welcome.
Thank you very much for having me.
On your platform, is it similar to Field Nation in that
a completely independent company
can join the platform and create their own tickets and route them out to technicians?
Yes, that’s correct.
they are all part of our vetted, trusted technician program.
So all of our trusted technicians are eligible
for completing those work orders for our clients.
So you guys have a vetting process. You’re trying to avoid
techs that would be called pizza techs or trunk slammers?
We are laser focused on having the best of the best technicians
And so we have a thorough vetting process. All of our trusted technicians will complete a profile.
They’re going to provide their own insurance. They’re also going to complete a background check and an interview.
So we know when we are looking at their profile, we’re looking at the types of work that they perform. We’re looking at the quality of work that they produce through the photos that they that they send to us. And clients are also able to take a look at that.
So when you’re reviewing your technicians and you’re vetting them,
what places are you looking at to see their past work experience? Are you looking at their Fit Nation profiles, Work Market profiles, things like that, or are you just relying on the photos they send you? Or
how do you guys approach that?
Great question. So when we are looking at technicians,
you know, I’ll take a look at their website if they have one, I may check out their LinkedIn profile if they have one.
We’re going to take a look at the quality of work that they have shown us through their pictures.
So when I’m looking at pictures, I want to see well managed cables, nice straight lines, because I’m not looking for gaping holes in the walls. I’m not looking for their tool bag to be dumped out in front of the equipment. I’m looking for everything to be nice and neat because if they, you know, it’s pretty simple for them to pull a picture from their phone of a past work experience where they did a great job.
That’s what we are expecting. But also we’re going to have a conversation with that technician. I’ll ask them about, you know, some recent jobs that they completed in the field. My expectation would be that that that conversation would… would flow pretty seamlessly, that they’ll be able to tell me that this morning I was out at
a retail chain doing a point of sale swap.
They can talk me through that.
Seems like that may be kind of a time consuming process.
You know, I kind of think in terms of scaling and as you guys grow,
do you anticipate that that will be a problem in as you grow and get larger to still be able to vet technicians to that level of thoroughness?
That’s a great question. Our quality is unwavering. So we… we use the technology that we built into our platform to help scan through the different profiles so our system can read through these profiles pretty easily.
So, you know, it’s just a matter of the ones that are flagged by our system that we need to do a manual check of doing that.
But we’re also improving those systems from the inside frequently as well as the user interface as well.
So within Cloud Work Pro, our all of our technicians and our clients are using our app.
So it’s very intuitive.
For technicians,
it’s very user friendly. And when you’ve been out in the field and you want to know step by step what the customer is expecting. So we have a step one, step two, step three.
All of this is happening in real time. So the client, the client is able to see what the technician has completed. The technician is able to mark those off and communicate with the client very easily as well.
it’s always nice from a technician perspective to have clear expectations. You know, seeing a work order that says network troubleshooting and that’s literally all there is,
is always nerve racking because you don’t know what you’re getting into. So I like that concept of having specific checklists, specific deliverables,
to know to have more of a description of, okay, the network is down, but you know, we… switch
one is not communicating on these ports, you know, something more specific. So I like that concept.
Within our app, we have an instant message feature. So the client and technician are able to communicate directly. We also have a contact box so the technician knows who to contact about which issue. And then some of our clients even have a video chat feature so the technician can show the clients exactly what they’re looking at.
We expect true professionals on both sides. So our clients are the best of the best and they know that they are getting trusted technicians. And our technicians know that the clients are going to be thorough with their work orders, and they’re very clear with their expectations.
I like the fact that you are
seeking professionalism on both sides because obviously it’s a two way street. You’ve got to have a professional tech
and you need to have a professional client to work with to really have a good balance.
And I love the video chat feature. That’s really interesting because
I’ve supported my own employee techs at times and there’s just moments when
video
you know, being able to view something in real time and then show you on their phone like, okay, here’s here’s what I’m looking at.
I mean, that’s that’s an incredible asset,
Right? And that’s built right into our app.
And then also our support team is incredible. We have US based support.
if a technician is not able to get a hold of a client, then our support team can always step in and either try to mediate or to try to get clarification from the client.
So we’re always here to help.
in what countries do you guys operate?
CloudWork Pro is open to Canadian and U.S. based technicians and clients as well.
One of the big questions and one of the big things I see techs complain about is the fees.
And for example, on Field Nation, I know there is a normal 10% fee for all work orders,
but they also charge fees for insurance and other things. So for technicians that are looking at Cloud Work Pro
what are the fees on your site?
As of today there are no fees for technicians on our platform and the expectation is that we have the best of the best in technicians and we try to turn that…
We try to share that with our technicians as well. We really appreciate the work that they do for us.
We do not charge any fees for technicians to have insurance, like we don’t provide insurance for technicians. The expectation, again, because we have true professionals and these are technicians who are out in the field day in and day out, that they carry their own insurance.
So at this time, we do not offer any sort of pay-per-work order for… for having insurance.
I agree with you. I think if you are
a professional in this industry, that you should have your own insurance already before you even join the Cloud Work Pro platform.
Our support page on our website is actually really helpful.
It shows you what the COI should look like. You know that it needs to be for commercial general liability, that it needs to be at least $1,000,000 in coverage, CloudWork Pro needs to be listed as a certificate holder. And then if a technician doesn’t happen to have insurance, they’re welcome to reach out to me. And I’m happy to make suggestions for insurance companies that other technicians have been using.
I like that.
So once a technician decides to sign up and they fill out the form on the website, about how long can they expect it to take before they get their interview and then to be actually activated on the platform.
Yeah. So things on our end happen very quickly.
So I have had technicians who sign up one afternoon and then the next day they are approved. So it’s going to depend on how quickly the technician gets
their paperwork together.
So you’ll need to complete the profile. That’s adding in your profile picture as well as your photos of work. I think the biggest obstacle has been
getting a certificate of insurance with CloudWork Pro listed as a certificate holder.
That’s an important piece. And then we have an interview. Most interviews are available next day. You know, if it happens to be in the middle of the afternoon and you really want to be approved. You can always send me an email or send me a text and see if I happen to have time available.
Mondays and Tuesdays, I tend to do later interviews to accommodate all of the different time zones.
So I would say on average, most of our technicians are in the process 1 to 3 days, but it is really up to the technician as to how long they want the process to take. Once we have completed their profile, they have their insurance, they have completed their background check and interview. Then I’m able to press the approve button.
So… things happening very quickly around here. So you’re the gatekeeper for us. You’re the one we need to be nice to.
I, as of right now, yes,
So, Chelsea, what would you say right now in terms of numbers? How many technicians do you guys have on the platform and how many clients do you have on the platform? Where are we standing now? I know you guys have been in business out for one a couple of years.
We’re almost two years old.
We are just shy of a thousand vetted technicians that have gone through our trusted technician program
and are active in the marketplace. And now our goal for that, so like I said earlier, we are laser focused on quality rather than quantity when it comes to technicians on CloudWork Pro. So our tech pool will most likely never be as large as other on demand marketplaces.
But that’s the way that we like it, because when clients contract with technicians through CloudWork Pro, they know exactly what they are receiving, whether that’s on the job site or in their communication. So that is always going to be a vetted and dedicated technician who will represent them professionally.
I like that approach.
You know, there’s always a place for the Wal-Marts of the world
and then there’s always a place for a higher level, a higher quality service.
So what would you say right now, your monthly average volume is for tickets around the country or I guess we should say include Canada as well?
Yeah. So we’re cautious about sharing specific numbers to maintain our competitive advantage. However, it is safe to say that our monthly ticket volume is on a significant upward trend. So that’s reflecting the growth, and trust, and expansion of our client base. While we’re just getting started, the increase in work orders is a strong indicator of our platforms growing success.
Excellent.
Chelsea, I’ve heard that Cloud Work Pro is associated with Tech Link in some way. Can you kind of explain that relationship and what the need was for a Cloud Work
Pro app?
So Mike Mudd, the CEO and founder of CloudWork Pro, is also the owner of TechLink Services. So he brings a lot of experience and knowledge of what it takes for an I.T
service
installation company to be successful and he’s able to apply that knowledge to Cloud Work Pro.
You may be asking like why would we have another company?
Well, CloudWork Pro focuses on the self service marketplace model where clients and on demand technicians can meet and conduct business. So in comparison, TechLink is a full service model where TechLink’s project managers oversee work orders and they manage the network of technicians on the client’s behalf.
So both companies serve different needs, so it’s best to keep them separate.
And we really focus on what we do for the clients and for the technicians.
That makes sense to me.
CEO is Mike Mudd
and he’s got experience of, what, 17 years in this industry?
Yeah,
since the early 2000.
CloudWork Pro was
the brainchild of Mike Mudd.
So with his experience in the space, he actually identified two problems with the current status of on demand marketplaces.
One was the randomness of the quality of techs that are found on other marketplaces,
Seeing that, you know, just about anyone can join
and go after skilled work orders. He also heard those client
rumblings
about this. And he knew that he could do better. So secondly, the lack of modernization when it came to streamlining work order management.
And communication between clients and technicians.
So with modern software, he knew that this could be remedied.
In 2021,
he started to work to solve these problems by developing a new revolutionary on-
demand i.t service marketplace.
So in the middle of 2022, CloudWork Pro was officially launched.
So on your platform,
I, as a company, would like to be able to manage my account and do things from a web based portal rather than just an app. Do you allow both sides of that, or is it strictly app based?
Great question.
As of right now, our technicians can only use the mobile version of our app. However, we are developing it so that the technicians can use the web version as well. So very soon we’ll have that available. I think that’d be great. So even right now, so if I as a company have my own sub techs, if I’m managing things I’m going to be having at the moment, I will have to use the app based version of it.
Right now that is the case.
I… the account owner would pop into the mobile app. They would see the technician that is there on site and they can manage that work order right there from their mobile device.
Our software is very intuitive so it’s very easy to use. But yes you are going to be holding a mobile device at this time.
I think that would be a great addition to it.
And you know, Michael, we are open to technician feedback as well as client feedback, and we’re always producing these enhancements. We had some enhancements come out earlier this week and about a month ago we had a large set of enhancements and all of that was based on client and technician feedback.
So very simply, a technician reached out and said, You know what is really inconvenient? Uploading one photo at a time. Is there any way that I would be able to bulk upload photos? And we’re like, Yes, we can do that. So now you can bulk upload photos on CloudWork Pro’s app.
So you know, just feedback like that, we’re happy to incorporate.
That makes sense for a technician. If it makes sense for the client, it makes sense for our business. We’re happy to develop that.
I’m glad to hear that. It’s nice to know that you guys are still working on developing and shaping this around technician need and client need.
Something I’ve always thought would be really amazing,
and I thought might set a company apart from a place like Field Nation and Work Market,
would be for
CloudWork Pro or another company
to actually allow
a technician company
to manage their own
work orders
in your app.
Because right now, for example,
I’m using things like Zoho Creator and
Google Sheets and all these different things
for tickets that we generate or we receive from other platforms or other direct Field Nation alternative clients.
You know, we have to somehow track all of that work in one common place, even though we’re getting them from all these different platforms, all these different clients.
So I’ve always thought it would be something that would set a company apart to have
their software allow, at least if nothing else, for tracking purposes to be able to put all of your tickets in,
to have them flow through a process,
and
if there wasn’t a massive fee for something like that, I would think you would attract a lot of technicians to that.
And because then they can know, okay, I got a one place to manage all of my work.
Our technicians can manage their their own work orders through the CloudWork
Pro platform. They would just create an account on the client side and they can upload their own technicians. Some of our clients will have their own technicians and then they’ll also use additional CloudWork Pro technicians for, you know, either as helpers or if they have something that is out of state, for example, and they need that job taken care of.
Well, I’m excited to hear about that.
The next thing I want to talk about, Chelsea, is the
technician company setup.
That’s something that, that I think should be mentioned about our technicians as well. Sometimes we have a single technician and sometimes we have a team of technicians that will come on to our platform. And just because we have a team of technicians, it doesn’t, you know, if you have a company that has 30 technicians, not all of those techs might be the right fit for our company.
So, you know, don’t be offended if we don’t bring on all of the technicians from your team, because what we are really looking for is that with any work order that is assigned to that technician, that they would be able to go out and do a high quality job.
Our platform wasn’t really designed for those who are really green in the field.
This is designed for more of the technicians who are already at that expert level.
Obviously, as you mentioned, not all of the technicians may be eligible based on skillset and experience.
So you have a separate
ratings guide for the technician as well as a rating system for the company themselves. Is that correct?
That’s correct.
Each of our technicians, you know, if they go out there and they do a great job
they will be rated by the clients
and that’s per work order.
After every work order, the client will provide a rating for how great of a job that technician did.
And so obviously one bad tech is not going to ruin the relationship with Cloud Work Pro. You’re going to work with
the technician company and allow them to
make amends and obviously maybe suspend that tech, but not actually penalize the entire company for that.
That’s right.
Our support team is happy to reach out and try to find a resolution between technicians and clients. So that both are happy.
I think that’s important.
A lot of technicians
live in fear
of being suspended from a platform and not being able to
make their case and actually try to clear things up. And, you know, a lot of these guys make a living off of these platforms. And so to have one just
shut down on them without any kind of recourse or discussion,
it makes them nervous.
Obviously they need to take care of their clients and you’d
expect professional technicians,
but there’s always going to be misunderstandings.
I think it’ll be important for technicians to know how you guys would
support the technician on that situation and give them a chance.
Sure thing! That’s a that’s a really great question.
The key here is that we have humans all around us, right? The clients are humans, the technicians are humans, and our team are humans as well.
So we try to prevent as many of these issues from happening in the first place. So that’s why our system will guide the clients on creating their work order. That’s why our system will guide the technicians for, you know, applying for that job and making sure that they understand what is expected of them.
That’s why the pay is very clear. That’s why, you know, the payment terms are very clear even before that technician goes to site.
They can use the instant message feature. They can also use the contact box. So they should be able to clear up any of these issues before they start to become a major problem.
If the technician is not able to get a hold of the client or there happens to be an issue right then, I encourage our technicians to reach out to our support team as early as possible. And the same thing for our clients. If they are having an issue with a technician, they should reach out to our support team so that we can get this remedied right away.
And then after the work order has been submitted, again, there’s points of contact throughout the entire process. So we should have an idea if something is coming up before it becomes a real problem. If, in the event that it does become a real problem, again, our support team is here to help to mediate that.
Our clients are able to give a rating at the end of, you know, once they close out that work order.
if that technician went out there and just was above and beyond, they just did a really great job, they can favorite that technician. So the client knows the next time that they have a work order in that area,
that technician will be at the top of their list.
But also if they just want to pull up a list of their favorite technicians and maybe offer for them to travel to a different location just because that tech did a great job, that’s that’s an option as well.
I like the idea and I have a lot of buyers that will come directly to me on the other platforms
because
they know the work that I’m going to deliver.
And so I think that’s nice for techs to know that that relationship can be built on the Cloud Work Pro profile as well.
We encourage the technicians, if they have really great clients, and they want to bring them over to the CloudWork Pro, we’re happy to accommodate that. Our sales team is fantastic at helping clients to set up their profiles and get things up and running.
I’m sure you are.
If you happen to be a technician who also wants to run your work orders through our platform, that’s a question that I’ve gotten many times. You can be a technician and a client, so you would just have separate logins. So again, you would go into the sign in, sign up, and then you would click on the client button.
Okay, so you got separate profile log ins based on whether you’re a client or a technician.
And that makes sense because, I mean, the fields and the forms that you’re gonna need to fill out and and the way you’re going to track it is going to be different. So that that makes sense.
One thing that I wanted to share, Michael, is that we have different roles for the technicians on our platform.
So we have an account owner, so that’s the first person who needs to sign up. That’s the person who’s going to have like the W9 information, the insurance information for the company, also the banking information. So that’s your account owner. They will be able to manage themselves as well as their team. And then after they have been approved, they’ll be able to invite additional technicians.
Now the additional invited technicians can be a dispatcher. That would be someone who’s not going to sites but they would be able to find work that’s available on the platform. They can assign those work orders and they can also manage those work orders. Then we have our unrestricted technician. That would be a technician who will be going to site, but they will also be able to see what is available on the platform.
They can see pay, they can see rates, they can negotiate, they can assign the work orders to themselves or other team members. And then we have restricted technicians. So a restricted technician will just receive the work order that has been assigned to them. So they will not see how much their work order pays. They will not see any room for negotiation on a date or pay or anything like that.
They just see, Hey, on Thursday at 8 a.m., you’re going to this location and here’s what you’re going to be doing. So we do have those different profiles, and that’s assigned by the account owner.
And I will interview or our recruiting team will interview
each of the technicians. So if an account owner invites a restricted technician, then
I’m just going to talk to them about what they will see when you receive your work order.
Here’s what you’re going to be doing. I’m not I’m not going to talk to a restricted technician about, you know, setting up banking information or negotiating anything with the client.
There are a couple of things that I wanted to.. to… to just go over again, and that is the kinds of techs that we are looking for because our CEO, Mike Mudd said, I want people to make sure I want to make sure people know that we do not accept work orders that are less than $50.
So the expectation here, again, is that we have true professionals on both sides, and that’s we have high expectations from our clients as well, so. I like that. And I think a lot of techs will like that approach too, because, you know, it’s hard to make a living at $25 an hour. As a lot of even Field Nation tickets are routed out at.
Another thing that I see a lot of technicians complain about on, you know, Reddit threads and other places is
pay issues and some buyers choosing not to pay tickets.
Now, obviously, if the tech has not done a good job, then I would understand that being the case.
But I’ve also had situations where on Work Market, especially, because there is no security on Work Market,
I’ve had buyers just simply not pay me. They didn’t have a reason other than it was probably financial and they were just a flighty company and they disappeared.
So my question for you is with CloudWork Pro, does your platform pre-fund the tickets and do you protect the technicians against having nonpayment for no reason?
Yeah, absolutely. I that’s
I’m very sorry that things like that have happened to you on other platforms. That’s that’s a reason why a technician should come to Cloud Work Pro and that is because, you know, you’re going to get paid for the work that you have done.
Our clients are true professionals, just as all of the techs are true professionals. And so the expectation is that the clients are going to pay and we’re going to make sure that that does happen. Now if there’s a reason that the client is not closing out that work order, we’re going to have a conversation with the client as to what’s going on.
Like we did this thing not happen? And then we’re going to go back to the technician and we’ll find a we’ll find a remedy for that situation. But if a if a technician is going to be doing the work, that they should be getting that pay. So we will certainly work with our technicians, but they the clients are not going to get away with doing things like that because that’s unprofessional.
So the expectatio, true professionals on both sides of the fence.
Love to hear that. Love to hear that. And I think a lot techs will appreciate that as well.
I think most technicians are small time guys.
You know, missing out on a
small amount of money is a big deal to a small time guy.
So on the pay side,
what pay methods do you guys offer and what kind of one of the timeframes and is it automated? Do I have to go in and select something to have the money transferred? Kind of talk to me about the pay process.
Great question. So when our account owners profile is approved, then they will be set up to see everything that’s available on our platform. Once they have completed their first work order,
our standard payout is 14 days. Now, if there’s anything different from that, it’s going to be noted within that work order, so you’ll know about that upfront. So assuming that this is a standard work order, standard payout is 14 days. 14 days after that work order has been completed and signed off by the client, then the the first time the account owner is going to receive two emails from our partner platform, hyper wallet.
So within hyper wallet that will receive those two emails, one says you have funds available and the other says that you need to set up your account. So with Hyper Wallet you’ll set up your account and you can choose if you’re going to be paid through Venmo, PayPal, ACH, or a check, and then the system will default to that every time.
You can always change it. You’ll just want to make that change before submitting your your next work order for approval.
It’s going to continue to go through that payment platform and you’ll continue to receive that money the same way until you decide to change it. Okay. And do you guys offer any kind of fee based faster payment method?
Currently, we do have a fast pay option, and that’s
we just pass along whatever Hyper Wallet charges. I think it’s like 3.5 percent, but not certain on that part. But we
just pass along whatever fee comes from hyper wallet for the fast pay, and that pay comes to you within one week.
Great to know.
Well, Chelsea, I want to thank you for coming on the Field Tech Academy YouTube channel and speaking with us today. I think this will help a lot of technicians to understand your platform better. And I hope it helps bring you new technicians and maybe even new clients.
I’m always happy to see somebody competing in this marketplace. I think the idea of your quality control is amazing and I really wish you the best.
Thank you so much for having me. I’m very happy to be here and if technicians have any question, the clients have any questions, they’re welcome to reach out. Again, our support information is on our website, and then I really hope to see all of those qualified technicians up on our platform soon.
I will also include all the information from Chelsea in the description of this video. You you can link directly to it.
I think that it’s really great that you are out there teaching
uh teaching people about how to, how to use their skills because like they are legitimately great professionals out there and we need
we need them to be using their skills.
Get out there and do that for companies, you know, go out there and just do do a really great job. Have that high level of customer service, a high skill set.
Good on you for for showing other people how to do that. Well, thank you.
I hope you enjoyed learning about Cloud Work Pro today.
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