Microsoft's Home Team app wants to help your business get discovered

Home Team
Home Team

Does your business have bad reviews on Yelp? Microsoft's new Home Team app is designed to help your business get noticed by Windows Phone users.

Similar to Yelp, Home Team is a free mobile app that provides consumers with recommendations and reviews of local businesses and professionals. But unlike the popular reviews engine, Home Team relies on feedback from people with whom consumers choose to connect with directly rather than strangers.

For example: consumers can connect with friends on Facebook or they can join work groups to find information about your company, products and services.

How it works

Once consumers have created connections with friends and coworkers, Home Team will search through the user's contacts list to find professional services. These businesses will be added to the user's network, where his or her connections can discover them.

If a user likes your business, he or she can can add it to his or her "Home Team" where it will be listed among other frequently used services. This feature enables users to quickly relocate your business without having to dig through their entire contacts list, or worse, having to Google.

When users are in search of a specific type of business or service, they can alert their networks by creating a "New ask." For example: Searching for a web developer.

Once in the Ask section of the app, users can create a New Ask, view old Asks or view Asks from friends.

An early version of the app is in beta.