It’s 9pm, the walk-in just died, and you’re about to hand your weekend’s food — and a service-call fee — to whatever name comes up first in a search. That’s the worst possible moment to meet a contractor for the first time. The owners who sleep through that night already had the number: the one the café down the block has used twice and would call again.
Why Google reviews fall short for trade and supply
Review sites are built for consumers choosing a restaurant, not for owners choosing a fishmonger or a refrigeration tech. The best local tradespeople are often booked solid on word of mouth and have barely any web presence. And star ratings carry no context — “five stars” tells you nothing about whether they show up on a Friday night or pad the invoice.
How owners actually find people they trust
Reliable vendors and repair people travel by recommendation, between businesses that face the same problems. The strongest signal isn’t a rating at all — it’s a nearby shop that has paid this person, seen the work, and would use them again. The trouble is that this knowledge usually lives in scattered group chats and one owner’s memory.
Build a list worth sharing
- Write down who you already trust — and the trade, not just the name. The fridge guy, the gas-safe plumber, the pastry-flour supplier.
- Note what matters operationally: how fast they respond, whether the price is fair, whether they actually turn up. That’s more useful than “good”.
- Trade lists with neighbours. Your plumber for their electrician. A street’s pooled list beats any directory.
The privacy problem — and the fix
There’s a reason owners don’t post honest reviews of a supplier they still depend on: they don’t want to burn a relationship or tip off a competitor. So the most useful ratings stay private. The way around it is a list that’s pooled and owner-verified, where you can see how nearby shops rate someone without anyone knowing who said what.
That’s what Kanjo’s Contacts does — a shared address book of owner-verified suppliers and repair people, pooled by the shops around you and privately rated by your neighbours. The fridge guy who saved the café down the road is one search away, before the next breakdown.