What puts a business on an Adelaide list
How Adelaide businesses are chosen for a list and ordered, why paying never changes it, and the registers worth checking first.
Each list starts from a real need: a buyer in Norwood with settlement three weeks away and no building inspector yet, a family in Glenelg whose ducted aircon has stopped, parents hunting for a childcare place before Reception. Four things then decide which businesses are listed and how they are ordered.
Do they do this job all week?
We start with what fills a business’s week. An electrician who fits the odd split system is no aircon installer, and a medical centre with one visiting skin doctor is no skin cancer clinic. The businesses doing exactly the job on a list go first, and those offering it on the side rank below them or are left out.
A few lists are narrow by design. Roof plumbers deal with gutters, flashings and downpipes, a different job from restoring a tired roof, so each has its own list. Bulk billing is another case: whether a centre bills Medicare directly can change, so ask when you book.
A name that has lasted
Next comes what customers say publicly about each business, there for anyone to read. Warm comments from one busy month count for less than steady approval across years, so a few keen friends cannot put a business ahead of one with a long record. Practical remarks matter most: a tradie who came in the window promised, a final bill that stayed close to the quote, a fault fixed properly the second time.
What it says about itself
After that we read what the business publishes on its own site and channels. The useful pages state, plainly, what it offers and what it leaves to others, the suburbs it covers, how it prices work and which licences, insurance and warranties it holds. A roofer who quotes a licence number, a clinic that lists its practitioners and what a first visit costs, or a builder who explains progress payments gives you something concrete to weigh up.
Nobody pays to be chosen
Where each business sits is our call as editors, set on merit, and every list gets looked at again. Paying does not get a business onto a list or change the criteria. After selection, a business can choose between Pro, with more detail on its page, and Top, which reserves one of three labelled slots near the start of a list that already includes it. Both are labelled, and the site carries no advertising.
Checks worth making yourself
Building, plumbing, gas fitting and electrical work are licensed in South Australia by Consumer and Business Services (CBS). Ask for the licence number and search the CBS licence register. A contractor’s licence covers the business, and the person doing plumbing, gas or electrical work needs their own registration too. The Office of the Technical Regulator regulates the safety standards for that work. Larger domestic building jobs need a written contract showing the builder’s licence number and, for bigger jobs, building indemnity insurance, so ask to see it before you pay a deposit.
Doctors, dentists, nurses, physiotherapists, psychologists, chiropractors, osteopaths and podiatrists are registered with Ahpra, and its online register shows whether a practitioner is registered and on what conditions. ‘Surgeon’ is a protected title: only doctors with specialist registration in surgery, obstetrics and gynaecology or ophthalmology may use it. For cosmetic procedures, ask who will perform and prescribe, then look them up. Counsellors, dietitians and speech pathologists are not on that register, so ask about their professional association’s accreditation.
Lawyers in South Australia hold a practising certificate, which you can look up by surname on the Law Society’s Register of Practising Certificates. Complaints about a lawyer’s conduct or bill go to the Legal Profession Conduct Commissioner. Conveyancers, land agents, sales representatives and property managers are registered with CBS, and a conveyancer or lawyer can explain the seller’s Form 1 statement before you commit. Migration agents must be on the register kept by the Migration Agents Registration Authority (MARA).
Tax agents and BAS agents must be on the Tax Practitioners Board register. Financial advisers appear on ASIC’s Financial Advisers Register, and mortgage and finance brokers need an Australian credit licence or work for a licensee as a credit representative. If a dispute with a bank, broker or adviser goes nowhere, AFCA, the Australian Financial Complaints Authority, can look at it.
Childcare centres are assessed against the National Quality Standard, and the result appears on the Australian Government’s Starting Blocks website. In South Australia the Education Standards Board is their regulator. Vets are registered with the Veterinary Services Regulatory Board of South Australia. Anyone teaching people to drive needs a Motor Driving Instructor (MDI) licence, which they should be able to show you.
We do not check each register ourselves, so give them a few minutes before you commit money or a signature.