Overview

Every iGUIDE Pro in the ION directory is a certified operator with a verified business, and you can see their equipment, coverage, recent work and reviews before you say a word to them. If you would rather choose someone yourself than wait for bids, this is the faster route.

This article covers searching the directory, reading a profile, how results are ordered, and the two ways to get a price from a Pro you like.

You do not need an account to browse. The directory is public. You need an ION account only to message an iGUIDE Pro or send a quote request.

In this article

• Searching the directory
• Reading the results
• How results are ordered
• Reading a profile
• Contacting an iGUIDE Pro
• Quote request or job posting?
• Paying your iGUIDE Pro

Searching the directory

Go to ion.goiguide.com/find-a-pro. The page opens on iGUIDE Pros near you, with a heading that tells you what you are looking at, for example "38 Pros within 75 km of Toronto, ON".

Filters

• Advanced Capture Certified. iGUIDE Pros who have completed iGUIDE's Advanced Capture training.
• National provider. iGUIDE Pros covering work across the country.
• Available weekdays and Available weekends. Based on the availability each iGUIDE Pro sets on their profile.
• Worked with before. iGUIDE Pros you have already hired through ION.

Widen the radius before you conclude nobody covers you. The default is 75 km, and many iGUIDE Pros travel further. Coverage is written on each profile, so a promising listing is worth opening even if the pin looks far away.

Reading the results

Each card shows the company name, the operator, their Google rating, their city and their industry. Badges appear on the card too.

A missing Google rating does not mean a bad one. ION only shows a rating where the business has Google reviews, and leaves the field off entirely where there are none.

How results are ordered

Where an iGUIDE Pro appears in directory results comes down to a handful of factors, and a Pro can influence most of them directly.

Who appears at all

• iGUIDE Pros with a location pin within the search radius, which defaults to 75 km (45 miles) of the searched location.

How results are ordered

• National Provider badge. National Providers appear at the top of results.
• Top Provider badge. Applied to iGUIDE's most experienced operators based on capture volume, reviewed quarterly.
• Google star rating.
• Number of Google reviews.
• Distance from the search location.

A Job Poster can also re-sort results by Best match, Highest rated or Most jobs completed, and filter by Advanced Capture Certified, National provider, weekday or weekend availability, and Pros they have worked with before.

What that means for your profile

Most of that list is something you can act on:

• Connect your Google Business Profile. Your star rating and review count are two of the ranking factors. Without the connection, both are blank for you.
• Place a location pin in every region you genuinely serve. A region with no pin is a region you do not appear in.
• Set your availability. It is what puts you under the weekday and weekend filters.
• Complete your industries, portfolio and description. These do not move you up the list, but they are what turns an impression into a message once someone opens your profile.

Your visibility depends on your profile being accurate and current, so keep it up to date.

Reading a profile

Three things worth weighing:

• Location pins tell you about reach. Each pin sits in a region the iGUIDE Pro covers without travel expenses, so someone with pins in several cities covers more ground than the nearest one suggests.
• The portfolio is the real evidence. Delivered tours show you the standard of work you would be buying.
• Check which reviews you are reading. Google reviews come from the Pro's Google Business Profile, so if that listing covers a wider business they may describe work other than property capture. Where a Pro has completed jobs on ION, you can switch between their ION reviews and their Google reviews.

Use Share to send a profile to a colleague.

Contacting an iGUIDE Pro

Two options sit at the bottom of every profile. Both need you to be signed in. If you are not, ION prompts you to sign in and explains that the thread and their reply will live in your message centre.

Send a message

Best for a quick question: do you cover this postal code, can you do next Tuesday, do you handle occupied buildings. Type your question and select Send message. They are notified, and their reply arrives in your ION messages.

Request a quote

Best when you know what you need and want a price. Request a quote opens a form on the profile page with the same details as a job posting, plus a notes field.

Select Send quote request when you are done.

Use Additional notes. A job posted to the board has no free-text field, but a quote request does. This is where site access, parking, gate codes, occupancy and whether a ladder is needed belong.

Anyone can see this on a job posting, including people who are not signed in and have no account:

• The project city and state or province
• The industry, property type, approximate area and number of floors
• The dates needed by, and the price range
• The deliverables and capture requirements requested
• How many bids the job has received

Only the iGUIDE Pro whose bid is accepted can see:

• The project's full street address, released at the moment the bid is accepted

Only the Job Poster can see:

• The bid amounts. iGUIDE Pros can see how many bids a job has, never what they are.

Nobody else can see these at all:

• The Job Poster's name, company and contact details, which never appear on the listing
• Messages between a Job Poster and an iGUIDE Pro
• Delivered files

The address here is the property being captured, not the Job Poster's business address, and it is never made public.

Deliverables you can request

Start by deciding what you need back from the capture. There are two paths.

• A completed iGUIDE and add-ons. You receive finished, processed deliverables. What you can choose from depends on the industry you select.
• Raw project files (.tar). You receive the unprocessed capture data and process it yourself. This requires an active iGUIDE Portal account to process the raw data yourself.

If you want completed deliverables, these are the options by industry.

Real Estate covers more than the iGUIDE itself. Photography, Twilight Photography, Drone / Aerial and Video are the other things a photographer commonly captures on site for a listing, so one visit from one iGUIDE Pro can cover all of it.

iGUIDE Advanced Drawing Package reveals a further set of CAD options once you select it: Reflected Ceiling Plan Add-on (DWG), Exterior Elevations Add-on (DWG), Roof Plan Add-on (DWG), 3D Model Add-on (RVT) and 3D Model Add-on (DWG). They stay hidden until the package itself is selected.

The Advanced Drawing Package includes a plotted PDF by default. You receive it whether or not you add any of the CAD options above. Knowing this up front avoids surprises about what arrives and what it costs.

For full detail on what each package and add-on includes, see Packages and Add-ons in the iGUIDE Help Center.

Quote request or job posting?

Nothing stops you doing both. See Posting a job on ION.

You cannot send an existing job posting to a specific iGUIDE Pro. A job on the board has Save and Share but no way to direct it to someone. If you want a particular Pro to see it, either send them a separate quote request from their profile, or use Share to copy the link and send it to them yourself.

Paying your iGUIDE Pro

ION does not process or hold payments. The Job Poster and the iGUIDE Pro agree a price through the bid, then settle directly between themselves.

Because payment happens away from ION, deposits, invoicing and cancellation terms are for the two parties to agree. Set them out in the bid note or in messages before work starts.

If the delivered work is not right, the Job Poster has two tools before the job is marked complete. Request a revision asks the iGUIDE Pro to redo or fix something. Flag as incomplete reports that the delivery does not match what was ordered. Both notify the iGUIDE Pro so they can re-deliver. Neither is available once the job is marked complete, so check the files first.

Disagreements about money are between the Job Poster and the iGUIDE Pro and are governed by the ION Terms of Service. iGUIDE does not hold funds and cannot reverse a payment made away from the platform. If you have any concerns about another member, contact iGUIDE Support.

Related articles

• What is ION?
• How to sign up for ION
• Posting a job on ION
• Viewing and responding to jobs
• Your ION profile: Setup and management