Before choosing a home service professional to work on their home, the most important thing for a homeowner is to know that they can trust who they’re hiring. As fine as the contractor may seem over the phone or in person, you never really truly know what you’re going to get until it’s too late.
This is why we all rely so heavily on word of mouth to make our hiring decisions. But when you only know one or two people who have worked with a certain pro in the past, online reviews are what most rely on to make a truly informed decision.
Since 2006, HomeStars has collected hundreds of thousands of reviews from homeowners all across Canada for service professionals from all home improvement and repair categories. When writing a review, homeowners are prompted to rank their satisfaction and recommendation for a company, which together form a score out of 10.
Example of a homeowner selecting their Satisfaction and Recommendation scores.
Methodology
Based on over 10 years of data, we’ve taken a look at which home improvement categories have the happiest customers. To ensure an accurate ranking average from as many homeowners as possible, out of 146 categories listed on HomeStars we are only showcasing categories that have received a minimum of 1,000 reviews in this post. Additionally, many reviews that we receive are rejected if deemed inauthentic, and so only reviews that have passed our strict review guidelines and have been successfully posted on HomeStars are included in this study.
Results
As it turns out, there are a large number of pros that are doing a fantastic job of delighting their customers. Below are all of the eligible home improvement categories with their collective average ratings from service pros within those categories that homeowners have reviewed.
Home Reno & Repair Categories with Top Homeowner Satisfaction
Collectively, all categories had fairly high rankings and, as a result, satisfied homeowners. The vast majority of categories had a ranking of 8 or higher, with only 7 categories with a ranking of less than 8, and the lowest satisfaction score being in the 6-7 range.
A special congratulations is owed to our home service professionals in categories at the top of our homeowner satisfaction list, which includes:
- Mouldings
- Stucco
- Mould Detection & Removal
- Home Inspection
- Closet & Storage Solutions
- Foundations
- Insulation
- Waterproofing
- Pest & Animal Control
- Electricians
- Paint & Wallpaper
- Home Theater
- Interior Design
- Lighting
- Masonry & Bricklaying
As mentioned earlier, the actual scores of most of the categories are in many cases a fraction of a decimal point away from each other, so pros in all of these categories should be proud providing exceptional service to homeowners.
Review Requests Compared to Total Published Reviews
People are more often motivated to write a review as a way to complain when unsatisfied, and the data shows it. The more companies asked customers to write a review, the higher their average rankings are. This suggests that asking for reviews increases the likelihood of receiving a positive review.
In a perfect world, homeowners would review every experience they have with a home service pro. But sometimes we all need a gentle reminder. As the data shows, home service pros should always be asking their clients to review their work in order to increase their Star Scores. If the company you hired doesn’t ask for a review, write one anyway and help their great work gets noticed!
Reviews from Star Reviewers
Star Reviewers are HomeStars’ most trusted and active community of reviewers. Looking at the percentage of total reviews for a category that came from Star Reviewers, these numbers increase as overall customer satisfaction goes up. This suggests that home service pros in the top-performing categories generally have a better understanding of what the most knowledgeable homeowners expect from their home improvement contractors.
Great Work = Great Reviews
We are so proud of all our service pros for maintaining such high levels of homeowner satisfaction. The vast majority of companies ranked 8 or higher, and considering these are in industries that can often have a bad wrap, this is an incredible feat. By reading helpful reviews from others who have hired a home service pro, you can be more confident in your hiring decisions and be more likely to eventually write a positive review yourself once your job is complete.
Are you surprised by the results? Has your experience with a service pro in one of these categories been in line with the overall averages? Let us know in the comments!
