Abstract: A customer may be allowed to request a service and to very quickly be put in touch with a local service provider who can perform the requested service. The customer need not know the identity of the vendor beforehand, and the vendor may not know the identity of the customer before agreeing to discuss the service. Multiple local service providers may be contacted in parallel by a centralized server configured to connect the customer with the local service providers. The most qualified or most highly rated local service providers for the particular service may be identified and then contacted first. The customer may be put in touch with one or more vendors in a very short amount of time after submitting the request, e.g., within 90 seconds.