In Women We Trust: HomeStars Champion the Best in Fix it Services

When it comes to evaluating a product, standards and labels can do most of the up front work, but what about a service? How do you evaluate a personality and a work ethic and do it quickly because the plumbing just broke and the ceiling needs to be patched and painted? HomeStars is a free online service that provides those answers; it's a rating service for renovators, retailers and repairmen.

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Nancy Peterson conceived of the idea after having her own hard luck finding good-for-your-word-and-your-work contractors. She left her corporate marketing job at Kraft to start HomeStars. Shortly after she put the concept together she partnered with Andrew Goodman who provided his online marketing talents to make the idea fly. She notes that it is a major change to walk out of the corporate safety net and start something from scratch - ego is checked at the door and you are building a team on a vision, not a business plan with a few million bucks to spend.

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Given that, I asked Nancy in an E-terview, could you go back to a corporate position again?

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NANCY: It would be hard to go back to 5 days of meetings and see a product launch in 12 - 24 months versus 1 month. The Internet is a fun fast paced environment and you have to be focused and moving things forward daily. A big joy for me has been making decisions faster and not having to defend it in a board room with multiple decks, over many weeks. I love building a business that's meaningful so I hope I can do that together with the small band of great people and evangelists at HomeStars.

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I agree, I couldn't go back either, I'd fall asleep waiting for things to happen inside corporation walls. I then asked her why HomeStars is different from the other sites I have listed on the left.

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NANCY: We came out in Toronto in 2006 with personal funding. Last year we raised an angel round to expand the business geographically. The main point of difference is allowing homeowners to share their joy, pain and experience so everyone can make better and faster decisions on hiring great local companies. We read EVERY review and weed out "fake" ones as best as we can. You can't buy rank or manufacture it, only homeowners determine that. Word-of-mouth is our first source to find great trades and services - you want to know as much as you can about the guy coming in to rip out your floor and install the hardwood you spent thousands of dollars choosing. My girlfriend hates her front foyer now as the tile installer made the grout too wide - we need to know more granular information about companies as home improvement purchase decisions are much more complex and expensive than buying a car or eating out.

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I had to ask, What about green contractors will you be focusing on them more?

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NANCY: Other than a Green Products and Services category - we are not focusing on this (important) aspect of home improvement at the moment. Green Companies can list themselves and describe their creds in their listing. We'll be adding a talk forum shortly to channel the important home improvement questions and concerns that matter for people. I personally hope green issues rises to the top. Cathy Rust, who writes our Toronto Blog has an environmental degree and is very involved in the community working on green building projects at local schools.

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What trends are you seeing? What do people seem to care about the most?

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NANCY: They are currently asking - what's your track record? Can I trust you to deliver on your promises and do quality work? Am I being charged a fair price? Can I contact your happy clients? And show me pictures of your work! [hear that small biz types? Make sure these questions are answered on your websites as well.] We estimate around 60% of our reviewers are women. We do read reviews as people want quality, not quantity when it comes to reviews and don’t have time to sift through garbage. We are getting better at this process too.

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Any specific examples to share? This review concept terrifies most small companies.

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NANCY:

Rafina is my favorite. I met him at the home show and he told me how much he believes getting his clients to post reviews has helped his business. His first review was terrible, and he said he was devastated when he read it. It was a client that decided to use a cheaper flooring material and he'd recommended against it. Long story short, they had problems afterward which were no surprise to Rafina. The company owner responded to the review with his perspective instead of fuming about it. He asked other clients to write reviews and he makes the effort to respond to all of them. Clients told him they thought the negative review made Rafina a more legitimate company to them as they know not every project will be a 10 star. They believed his response actually made sense and found Rafina a more credible and trustworthy flooring contractor.

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That's so true, people have common sense and they can tell if someone is being honest or covering up something. I think most people want to give others the benefit of the doubt. They want to believe that someone will give it to them as well.

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NANCY: People say to me - well what if he's done a bad job and the person hasn't written on HomeStars. My answer is that the word will get out quickly on Rafina or anyone else that is doing consistently bad work. If you do a search on Rafina in Toronto - their reviews on HomeStars come up immediately. And his negative review is still there as well.

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How can your readers use HomeStars now when there are no reviews in their community?

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NANCY: If your readers are interested in helping us build your neighborhood - please contact melanie@homestars.com as we are actively looking for expert homeowners that can share their stories and build valuable content that their neighbors will value. We are just formalizing a grassroots community program and we need some passionate volunteers on the ground floor!

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That works for me. I grew up in a small town where we didn't need this kind of service, word of mouth was the only way my Dad found jobs as a home decorator. Thanks Nancy! May you and your team have much success connecting good workers with paying jobs.