Joe the Plumber? Not on our watch

This election's Joe Six-Pack, a plumbing company owner named Joe Wurzelbacher, is quickly finding out that public scrutiny is humbling. Among other things, a quick background check indicated that Joe isn't licensed as a plumber in his county.

HomeStars users don't need the Associated Press to hound a person mercilessly, however.

All we know is that other homeowners are willing to talk about their experiences with good and bac plumbers - like this one. Maybe Richard the Plumber doesn't sound as humble (more like plumbing royalty), but for the Woburn, MA residents who use him, it's quality that counts. No spin doctors required. And of course, if you're licensed and have a variety of certifications (unlike Joe), you can come on HomeStars and claim your company to tell consumers about it. Claiming your company is free. (We sell upgraded listings also, for companies seeking additional profile depth and visibility.)

Posted by Andrew Goodman
0 comments | Permanent Link

 

Managing Online Reputation

We had an interesting note from a client a few weeks ago, which I think is worth discussing. He had purchased a home services company and had a series of not-so-good reviews on HomeStars. He asked us to remove them because he said that they were the fault of the previous owner. He makes an interesting point, but the reality is corporate reputation is actually what you buy when you purchase a company. The reviews of past customers are the legacy you are purchasing when you buy an enterprise, and it's then your job to change course, acquire new reviews - really a new reputation - which eclipses the old, poor performance of your predecessor.

Leslie Carothers writes for Furniture World magazine and makes some very good points our customers should be aware of. We also suggest setting up a Google News Alert with your company name, so you can see when you've been mentioned in the press or by another blogger or customers.

We harp on this point here at HomeStars, but it's worth making again. The more you get your happy customers to write reviews - and you know you have lots of them - the less impact the negative ones will have on your reputation online.

Posted by Brian
0 comments | Permanent Link

 

Great Question

Yesterday in my inbox I had a great question from one of our readers and I thought I'd respond publicly because it's an important and excellent question and one many readers probably have.

Looked at the reviews for [company name] because I know the owners. Was stunned to see that the reviewers were almost exclusively relatives and high school buddies. What use is Home Stars if you do not have way of filtering out partial testimony from parties who have a vested interest in the company? It is great to find out that the two sister-in-laws of the owner think his painting is terrific but, without quality control, you are doing your internet customer a disservice.

Without getting into the motivations of the inquirer, the question is valid. The company referred to in the question currently has 19 reviews and a rating of close to 9. There are many good reviews there, but a few not so good. Is every review from a totally disinterested 3rd party? Perhaps not. We do check our reviewers to insure they have a valid email address, and we cross check that people aren't posting multiple reviews on the same company from the same location. Is it a perfect system where we absolutely insure work was done on every review? Perhaps not.

But reviews work because of The Wisdom of Crowds. (and I highly recommend the book) If we have a lot of reviews on a company generally the good companies will fare better than the worse. The author, James Surowiecki, says "Wise crowds" need (1) diversity of opinion; (2) independence of members from one another; (3) decentralization; and (4) a good method for aggregating opinions." I think this is what we provide at HomeStars.

Should we have a place for our users to rate HomeStars? of course. It's on our list of things to do and we'll probably have it out in the next couple months. Lots of other things on the agenda right now.

Posted by Brian
0 comments | Permanent Link

 

Go ahead and Claim yourself!

Andrew just sent me an interesting study from Palore that studied small & medium sized health & beauty businesses in the west coast, and what % claimed their directory listing on various online web sites. (note - claiming means registering to the listing so you can then directly update your address, hours and add more information about your company). Palore found that companies that were already advertising online were 2.5 times more likely to claim than non-advertiserrs. And 45% of all companies advertising, claim listings on various online directories. But what's nice to see is that 18% of non-advertisers also are seeing the value in keeping their web presence up to date.

Labels: advertisers, claim, companies, register

Posted by Nancy Peterson
0 comments | Permanent Link

 

Unique Selling Proposition for a Contractor?

Got a chuckle out of this shot from a Chicago contractor's van. Their tagline is "We return phone calls and show up on time!"

If anyone out there has done business with these guys, right there is the makings of a potential positive review. :)

[Hat tip: Perry Marshall (print subscription newsletter).]

P.S. Their ugly website uses this USP also. I won't even try to speculate on why they have a one-pixel link to a video of Jerry Lewis singing "I only have eyes for you."

Labels: chicago, contractors

Posted by Andrew Goodman
0 comments | Permanent Link

 

Some New York Times Thoughts on Reviews for Fourth of July

Happy Fourth of July to our American readers.

As an ex-resident of New York I'm still a fan of the Times. Someone passed along this article to me on how companies are using review sites like Yelp to manage their reputation.

I thought this part of the article particularly insightful, and good advice for our renovators and listed companies:

Jeremiah Owyang, an analyst with Forrester Research, said in an e-mail message that smart business owners would “get involved in Yelp, listening, responding and being an active part of the dialogue, some going so far as to place signs on their physical doors requesting reviews.”

At HomeStars we encourage companies to respond to reviews. It opens up the dialogue and provides more insight into to what went wrong, and what went right.

The most important thing we suggest for companies listed on Homestars who get bad reviews - and, face it, you can't be perfect all the time - is to honestly respond to the bad, and primarily get more reviews by encouraging your customers to talk you up online. Readers appreciate the honesty comes with a company responding to a bad review, and that everyone can't be perfect all the time.

Posted by Brian
0 comments | Permanent Link

 

Introducing .... Me

Hello Homestars Blog readers.

I've just joined the great Homestars team and thought I'd introduce myself. My name is Brian and I've been a long-time Homestars user, and even had a copy of the old Homestars book.

I originally met the team here at a Home Show about 2 years ago when I had bought and was renovating my house. I blogged about the experience here, although I haven't updated the site in a while. Finding home renovation resources - especially reviews was challenging and Homestars definitely helped. A couple of my great finds from the site were Mayday Drain Services and Accord Roofing - both excellent companies.

I'm somewhat of a technology geek, and love reading other people's tech blogs. Some of my favourites are my friend Kevin Restivo's musings, as well as one of the bigger Web 2.0 blogs called Mashable.

Of course, here at Homestars we appreciate feedback. So send us notes, comment on our blog postings and of course review your favourite companies.

Posted by Brian
0 comments | Permanent Link

 

A tidal wave of new Charter Members!

Wow - what an overwhelming response! Thank you everyone for the fantastic support of our Charter Member drive. We are digging our way out of a huge pile of new members requiring validation. Until we get back on track, the promotion will be on hold for the next little while. We will honor our commitments for gift cards for any member who signed up before Tuesday May 27th and who meets program requirements.

Posted by Nancy Peterson
2 comments | Permanent Link

 

What's your profile look like?

Check out our new tools in the My Profile section of your account. Log in, go to My Profile in the upper right-hand corner, and members who have signed up for the Charter Member program will find new tools to keep you in the know about our Charter Member program and more.

Enjoy the weekend! Anyone tackling a major home improvement project? Planting the vegetable garden? Traveling? Post a note in the comments.

Posted by Anonymous
0 comments | Permanent Link

 

Welcome New Charter Members

Response to our Charter Member program has been outstanding. With more than 1,000 reviews coming in over the past 48 hours and over 400 new enrollees in the Charter Member program from almost every state in the U.S., we're working hard to read and process the reviews.

Our process involves human editors, reading each and every review. Please bear with us as we power through a bit of a backlog!

If you have signed on with our Charter Member program, please give us a little extra time to get caught up. All reviews will be read and processed, and those users who meet the requirements for the Charter Member program will receive their rewards.

To provide maximum benefit to fellow homeowners, in the meantime, why not log into your profile, click on the blue "My Profile" tab, upload a picture and answer the profile questions so others can get to know you a bit?

Another quick note: the area of greatest need is reviews of local, non-chain stores. HomeStars users are particularly curious about local contractors and independently-owned home-related retailers.

We"re thrilled to welcome so many new members this week. We, and your local community, thank you for your ongoing efforts to share and write reviews.

Posted by Anonymous
2 comments | Permanent Link

 

What's your home worth?

Value is sure in the eye of the beholder!

A friend of mine just sent me this joke email. It is very funny, and there's more truth to it that we'd like.

Zillow.com's zestimator is a good example of the large fluctuations even computer programs can give on the value of your home.

Posted by Nancy Peterson
0 comments | Permanent Link

 

Role of "Influencers" Questioned; Friends' Recommendations Drive Purchases

Social media users report taking product recommendations more seriously if the recommendation comes from their circle of close friends or family, reports Canadian polling firm Pollara. According to the Pollara exec quoted in this Online Media Daily story, "marketers may have to reconsider who the real influencers are out there." [Hat tip: Techmeme.]

Labels: word of mouth

Posted by Andrew Goodman
0 comments | Permanent Link

 

Keep Lysol on hand, just in case

We read all reviews that go up and sometimes we pause and reflect on whether things should be posted or not. Our guidelines are to accept relevant information about the work done, service or product purchased. Hearsay is rejected. It's not fair to a business that Sally your best friend had the same problem - let Sally write her own review.

Labels: guidelines, hearsay, hygiene, service

Posted by Nancy Peterson
1 comments | Permanent Link

 

Renovation Meta-Planning - An Idea Whose Time Has Come?

The whole purpose of HomeStars, of course, is to help homeowners make planning decisions about home improvement.

So what do we think of companies whose job it is to help with those planning decisions? Hey, that's not for us to say - yes, we can certainly opine, but... - ultimately it's the community who will rate the planner companies just as they will rate specific contractors.

Let me explain where I'm going here. I ran across a small print ad about a site called WendysRenoStory.com. Because there wasn't much disclosure in the ad, except for the positive words from the smiling Wendy, I wasn't expecting much. In fact, I half-expected it to be some kind of scam.

I read the promotional-looking material on "Wendy's" landing page, and was eventually directed to the "real" site for a company called PlanSmart. I have to say I was impressed as I read on. Although many architectural firms and general contractors are out there helping you to plan your overall direction, the pitch from PlanSmart made intuitive sense to me, and seemed a bit different. If you have an older home (built prior to 1970, they say), any significant remodeling is going to require hundreds of small decisions. My home was built in 1896, so it's all about variables. :)

And if you're like me, you only have a loose sense of the technical elements of a complex reno. It's not only about who you can trust, but what direction you actually want to take with your reno. You're left sifting through bids to a few firms, and fortunately now that HomeStars is here, looking at reviews of their work.

On the surface, PlanSmart seemed to offer a helpful "pre-planning" service to help put you on the right path towards a successful renovation. It's not dissimilar to what we hope to accomplish with this website.

So I looked for reviews of or mentions of PlanSmart. Unfortunately I didn't find any.

So I checked the domain records for WendysRenoStory. Seems that it's owned by a Walden Design Build listing an Eglinton Ave. address in Toronto. Bingo! HomeStars has one highly positive review for Walden Design Build. At least we're getting somewhere.

Looking a bit more closely, Bruce Borden of Walden Design Build is prominent on the PlanSmart bio page. Seems like a very solid track record.

Anyone have any experience with PlanSmart? We'd love to hear about it, if so.

Posted by Andrew Goodman
0 comments | Permanent Link

 

Drainworks reaches new benchmark of 111 consumer reviews

I'd like to single out Drainworks as they are an exemplar in how they use the HomeStars consumer forum to interact with their customers, and demonstrate (in an open medium) their point of difference. Getting into the conversation on the net is smart marketing and they 'get it'. Drainworks has a reason to jump in, as based on customer feedback they are always on time, on quote and offer creative approaches to solving emergencies (that can be stressful and costly). Consumers are contributing very helpful perspectives on this company - some are extremely detailed on the difficult problems they encountered and how it was solved. A couple of homeowners mention how Drainworks identified work that may be covered by the city. The company actually helped them prepare the paperwork to get a rebate. Now that's service.

Normally we don't focus on one company on our blog but this is an extreme case of someone who understands that reputation is built over time and honesty, trust and reliability can't be taken for granted by homeowners. Especially when someone is digging up your yard.

Terry Cord, the president, is actively involved in what's going on in the field, even though he has many trucks and up to 40 technicians out at any given time. And with each review published, both good and bad, he responds to every single one himself. This is someone that takes word of mouth seriously.

My favorite post is from someone who had a problem and months later called Drainworks to come back and fix it.

'Drainworks installed two new outdoor faucets a few months ago. ... I went to winterize the faucets and found that one of them had been installed wrong. ...I called Drainworks and they had somebody to my home within hours to fix it and they could not be more apologetic. Mistakes can happen to anybody but what sets great businesses apart from all their competitors is how they deal with problems months after the sale. Drainworks proved that they are really a great company.'

Not all the reviews are 10 star, and that's again what sets Terry apart. His very first review was a 2 star and Terry was really upset the complaint hadn't reached him first. HomeStars verified the review and Terry accepted that sometimes people aren't happy and won't tell you. So he wrote his first response. That was 16 months, and 110 posts ago.

HomeStars is coming out shortly with a Top Rated Companies list in our developed cities based on your opinions, and how helpful others found your reviews. Drainworks will undoubtedly make the list as they not only have reached an empirical level of high ratings with Toronto area homeowers, but their reviews are recent and as good today as they were a year ago.

Thanks to all 111 homeowners who took the time to provide everyone with these insights. And keep up the good work Drainworks!

Labels: Drainworks, exemplary, managing feedback, respond to reviews, top rated

Posted by Nancy Peterson
0 comments | Permanent Link