Which? Trusted Trader
The assessment is your customers
What Which? Trusted Trader is
Which? Trusted Trader is a consumer endorsement scheme. It is not a qualification or a competence register; it is the Which? name, which homeowners trust, attached to a trader who has been vetted on quality, trading practices and customer satisfaction.
It costs around £1,200 a year and renews annually, which makes it one of the pricier consumer-facing marks on this site. It applies to a wide spread of trades — electricians, gas engineers, plumbers, builders, glaziers, painters and decorators, roofers and landscape gardeners — and its draw is almost entirely on domestic work.
The scheme sells the same thing to two audiences. To the householder it says someone independent has checked. To the trader it says that the brand’s reputation will bring enquiries, which is the part worth testing against the price.
What is actually being assessed
Most schemes assess a business by looking at documents. This one assesses it by asking other people.
Which? runs background checks directly — credit, trading standards records and online reputation — and interviews you about how you operate. You do not supply documents for that. What you do supply is a list of recent customers, typically ten or more, with their permission to be contacted, so that Which? can ask them for independent feedback.
That makes the customer list the application. A business with a good trading record but no tidy way of finding the last ten customers, their contact details and a record that they agreed to a call, has a practical problem before it has a quality problem.
What membership requires
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A trading history.
At least a year, with evidence of financial stability. Evidence: business accounts or equivalent.
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Which? interviews and checks
, covering credit, trading standards and online reputation. Evidence: none from you — Which? does these directly.
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Customer references.
Recent customers Which? can contact, typically ten or more. Evidence: the list, with their permission.
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Public liability insurance
Appropriate to your trade.
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Trade qualifications and memberships
What you have to keep doing
Collect customer reviews through Which? Trusted Trader after each job. The overall satisfaction score has to stay high.
Keep to the trading standards the scheme sets. A serious complaint or a breach of the Which? code can lead to suspension, so disputes have to be resolved promptly.
The ongoing requirement is a standing exam
Because the assessment is the customers, it never really ends. The entry check asks ten people what you were like; membership then asks every subsequent customer, indefinitely, and a score that drops is a risk to the membership itself.
That changes how the money should be thought about. The fee buys access to a brand, but what it commits you to is a permanent, public measure of satisfaction on every job. For a business that already does this well, it is a good place to be visible. For one that sometimes has a bad week, the exposure is much sharper than a document-based scheme, where a lapse is private until the next inspection.
It also sets the real priority for any trader considering it: sort out how disputes are handled. A complaint handled promptly is protected; one left to drift can cost the membership.
The mistakes we see most
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Applying with no reference list ready.
Ten reachable, willing customers is the gating item.
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Treating it as lead generation only.
It is a continuing satisfaction commitment as well.
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Letting a dispute sit.
Prompt resolution is a stated obligation.
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Paying £1,200 for trade-heavy work.
The pull is domestic, so check your customer mix first.
Where this lands in Gaffer
Customers are recorded against completed jobs with their contact details and consent, so a reference list is a query rather than a week of hunting.
Complaints are logged against the job with a date and an owner, so “resolve disputes promptly” is a visible queue and nothing is left to drift until somebody mentions it.
What the brand brings and what it does not
The Which? name carries trust with homeowners that most trade bodies cannot match, because it is known for independent consumer testing and not for representing trades. That is the whole reason to consider paying £1,200 a year.
What it does not bring is any certainty of enquiries. The scheme puts you in front of people who are already looking for a trader and want reassurance; it does not create the need. A business in a thin local market, or one whose work is mostly commercial or repeat, will see far less from the listing than the fee suggests.
The honest test is to ask where your current domestic enquiries come from and how many arrive from people who say they checked the trader first. If the answer is “most of them”, the scheme adds credibility at the moment of decision. If the answer is “recommendations”, the fee is paying for what you already have.
Pay for the trust, not for the leads, and the arithmetic is much more realistic.
Reviews you collect are yours to reuse
Because the scheme asks you to gather customer feedback after each job, a membership produces something that outlasts it: a body of independent, dated comments from real customers.
Used well, that archive is useful well beyond the listing. Specific phrases about punctuality, tidiness and clear pricing are exactly what a quote follow-up or a service page needs, provided they are used with the customer’s consent and with accurate attribution.
The discipline is the same one the scheme demands anyway. Ask every customer, ask promptly while the job is fresh, and handle the unhappy ones before they write. A firm that does that finds the reviews improve its own operation as much as its marketing, because patterns in the comments point to the things customers notice.
It also makes leaving easier. A business that has built its feedback habit can step off the scheme and keep the habit.
Before you apply: a one-week audit
Spend a week looking at your own business as Which? would. Search your name and read what comes up: reviews, forum posts, anything a stranger would find. Check your accounts are in order and your insurance is current. Then list your last twenty customers and mark the ones you would be happy for Which? to ring.
If you struggle to find ten, the scheme is not the problem; the gap is in how you keep in touch after a job. Fixing that costs little and improves everything else you do, including the referrals that already bring most of your work.
If you find fifteen without effort, you are ready, and the application becomes a formality with a clear purpose.
Questions tradespeople ask
How many customers do I need to give? Typically ten or more recent ones, with their permission.
Do I send documents for the interview? No. Which? conducts the checks and interview itself.
Can I be removed? A serious complaint or a code breach can lead to suspension.
Is it worth £1,200? For domestic-heavy work with strong recent customers, often. For commercial work, rarely.
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