Our HomeStars Best of Awards (BOA) were launched seven years ago to recognize top-rated companies that we believe are the most trustworthy and have been recognized for great work by validated homeowners. We know that people take note of the Best of Awards badge and that it informs their hiring decisions. As this award has grown, HomeStars continues to improve the process by which we select our winners.
Recent events surrounding the bankruptcy of a previous BOA winner has triggered some changes to how we decide who wins. We have implemented new, more rigorous checks to ensure authenticity of reviews. As a result of these new checks, we are confident the BOA winners for 2014 will be our most trustworthy group of winners yet. In addition, we have applied these new checks to previous year winners and in rare cases the we have taken the difficult step of revoking the award from a few BOA winners from previous years.
We will not be communicating our enhanced checks to anyone. We will also be rolling out further changes to our review moderation processes later this year, as these learnings will inform all activities on the site.
Every year our team and I get contacted by companies asking why they did not win. We will not answer these questions. HomeStars has a rigorous process for validating reviews, and that is not something shared with anyone, including most of our own employees.
In closing, the Best of Award is the HomeStars “seal of approval”. As Founder of the company, my first priority is that we only select winners we believe have earned it. We also reserve the right to revoke past awards at any time, without notice, if we suspect fraudulent activity. We want to ensure all winners serve each homeowner to the best of their ability and in the most professional way possible.
I wish you and your business a prosperous 2015.
Nancy Peterson
Founder & CEO
HomeStars
