homestars
with the acquisition of homestars, homeadvisor strengthens its north american market leadership position in digital marketplaces dedicated to home services. homestars joins homeadvisor market leaders in
company profile information is not moderated by homestars. ask the contractor to verify before hiring .
the reviews on this page are the subjective opinion of the author and not of homestars inc .
a lot of reviews on homestars are very positive. is the platform as effective as it could be ?
plus, homestars is an easy way for companies to reach out to new customers. between mid - july and mid - october this year, 100, 000 companies in the gta were contacted through homestars. com .
nancy peterson, co - founder and ceo of homestars. com, poses for a portrait at the head office in toronto
gardin had experience. he had accolades from homestars. com. and, until the collapse, he had impeccable references .
, a proprietary score out of 100% that grades each home improvement company. to learn more, visit @ homestars on
homestars worked hard to change that perception. how a company responds to a negative review can build its credibility, peterson explains .
homestars: a website where homeowners can post reviews of contractors, painters, electricians, plumbers and other renovation - related service providers .
to fund homestars, she used her own savings, took out a loan and then fundraised among friends, family and angel investors .
a feast for crows if you' re a lawyer. homestars has introduced a bully warning for businesses that have sent it or reviewers legal letters .
canada' s largest & most - trusted website for connecting with home service professionals. find a pro & start your next project on homestars. # yougotthis
we receive hundreds of reviews every week from people just like you. see what fellow homestars users are up to in this review round up! click here to write a review :
with canadian cities now packed with reviews, the company is turning its attention to the united states. over the next 12 months, homestars plans to start building its reviews of companies in american cities .
in this month' s small business success stories profile, we spoke to nancy peterson, the co - founder and ceo of homestars, an community of homeowners and home improvement companies throughout canada and the u. s .
a quarter of companies have taken legal action over online reviews. in nine - tenths of cases where a review is removed, it is because of a threatening legal letter, says canadian home - improvement ratings site homestars .
we receive hundreds of reviews every week from people just like you. see what fellow homestars users are up to in this review round up! ready to write a review of your own? click here to get started :
tonight, homestars founder and ceo, nancy peterson, will be speaking at tech toronto' s july meetup. check it out if you' re interested in hearing from some of toronto’s tech leaders, innovators, and enthusiasts .
however, even sites like homestars can have their problems. one issue that zavitz has come across is the fact that most contractors with 10 - star reviews will be booked for months in advance and unavailable to take on new jobs .
“we backtracked and really focused on toronto and the golden horseshoe, ” peterson says. then, as toronto really started to pick up the next year, homestars began to focus on building reviews from vancouver, calgary, ottawa and hamilton .
from the beginning, homestars has encouraged companies to respond to reviews on the site “because when people are reading reviews, they are going to trust the company that is responding and also being accountable for a bad review, ” peterson says .
when planning the business, peterson searched for people with complementary skills. that' s how she met andrew goodman. the consultant, who specializes in search engine marketing, is a co - founder of homestars and plays a strategic role in the company .
early on, homestars also put together a team of advisors, people with a wealth of experience and contacts. aside from their contacts, the advisors are very helpful to bounce ideas off, peterson says. “it' s good to get outside opinions. ”
we have a chinese wall [ an information barrier to prevent conflict of interest ] between our sales team and our content team. homestars is really for homeowners and our number one stakeholder is ensuring that we have a trustworthy site they can rely on to help them make better decisions .
initially, homestars was launched with a dot - ca domain, which made sense since the site was geared to toronto. “but our vision was to really scale this up in multiple cities across north america. we realized we needed a dot - com domain, ” peterson says .
to help spread the word about the website, homestars is active in many charitable events. it also participates in home shows. with up to 40, 000 homeowners under one roof for four days, home shows are a great way to meet homeowners and facilitate reviews, peterson says .
instead of simply searching the internet at large, zavitz recommends using a site like urltoken to narrow down your search field. homestars is
a really good shortcut to finding a good contractor because you' re getting genuine, unfiltered feedback from clients that they' ve had ,
he says .
while the company' s mission is to help homeowners get the best - rated tradespeople for their projects, it' s the contractors and vendors who provide the revenue by advertising on the homestars website. good reviews are a powerful driver for business so a connection with homestars can be highly beneficial – or not, if they garnered negative comments. there' s no charge to the homeowners using the site or any obligation to write a review although users are encouraged to contribute, both positively and negatively. the company currently has hundreds of thousands of reviews specifically relating to major cities across canada, excluding quebec .
although homestars has encouraged homeowners to post reviews since the beginning, there have been changes to the site over time. in the first year, it focused exclusively on toronto. there was also a book version, but it quickly became out of date. the company axed the book to focus on the website .
word of mouth is often considered the best source for finding home renovation professionals. unfortunately, it' s not always possible to get a referral from friends or neighbours. that' s why homeowner nancy peterson started www. homestars. ca, an online resource listing that lets homeowners post reviews of companies providing home - related products and services .
. it' s a free service helping homeowners find reputable professionals through its database of two million companies and hundreds of thousands of reviews. homeowners write reviews based on their home improvement experiences - - both good and bad - - to help others make better hiring decisions. the integrity team at homestars validates every review before it is published. homeowner ratings, as well as many other data points, form the basis of
as a first - time home buyer, nancy peterson was just as confused as anyone when it came to renovating. despite being a corporate executive armed with an mba, she found the decision - making around who to hire
absolutely daunting .
that became her inspiration for co - founding home stars directory inc. , known as homestars, in 2006 – a toronto - based private company that posts online reviews by home - owners about their local home - improvement experiences .
companies may threaten libel or slander when somebody' s written something negative. with homeowners in mind, we' ll review these before they go up to make sure they' re meeting the criteria. our legal team will reach out and help them write it in such a way that if they had to go to court, they' d be able to defend it. truth is an absolute defense. we go through these thorough steps learned over the years to protect the review writers and homestars from hundreds of lawsuits .
a i called my contacts and because it was such a novel idea i got in front of venture capitalists fairly easily. writing business plans is a massive strength and i brought that discipline to homestars. we plan quarterly, semi - annually and annually. that is a big piece: when you are going in front of money, you have to have your answers down. i ended up getting a term sheet but did not close it, which was lucky because i would have been left a 35 per cent owner. i took that term sheet, which was a valuation of $ 2 million, and parlayed it into an angel round valuation of $ 1. 75 million. i was able to close my first round of financing in 2007 for about $ 500, 000 .
a we sell paid listings. we have 250, 000 companies listed in canada and they are all basic, unpaid listings. if they subscribe to a paid listing, they can upload a logo, photos of their work and there are more tools for them to use. an account manager educates them on how to use our mobile app, for example, where companies can take before and after photos of current projects, write a description and text homeowners who can then either give permission or not to post them on homestars. we have several thousand paid subscribers now in major cities across canada. the first priority, however, is building trustworthy content. we have a lot of technology built around making sure the reviews are coming from real homeowners. our filters screen out spam; 25 per cent of the information we receive never gets published and we have moderators that read and decide if they are going to investigate .
it' s the same way you would choose your friends, in a way ,
says zavitz .
you have to use your intuition .
if you' ve ever hired a contractor for any type of project, you' ll know that choosing the right person is the most important thing you can do to ensure the job gets done right. unfortunately, many homeowners, especially those who are buying in a new area, simply don' t know where to start when it comes to finding the right person for the job .
there are plenty of good contractors out there, so why is finding a good one so difficult sometimes? brian zavitz, a contractor with over 20 years of experience, and the author of the ebook
the homeowner' s guide to finding a contractor ,
thinks that most people simply don' t realize how important finding the right contractor is .
people don' t treat finding a good contractor as a skill to be learned ,
he says. instead, most people take what he calls the
shotgun approach ,
where they simply ask a contractor :
when can you start, how long will it take, and how much will it cost ?
while it' s important to get quotes before beginning a project, there' s much more that goes into finding a good contractor than taking the
shotgun approach .
so in order to help you make the right decision for your next project, here are 10 tips you can use to find a great contractor .
the days of finding contractors in the yellow pages are over, but nowadays instead of pulling out the phone book, most people turn to google. according to zavitz, however, this is not a good way to begin your search .
i don' t think that going to a contractor' s website is useful in the least ,
he says. while positive testimonials on a contractor' s website can be a good sign, zavitz points out that
they can be falsified .
my recommendation for something like that is to be patient ,
he says .
don' t go for the people who are getting 10 stars, go for the people who are getting 8. 5 stars out of 10, and read the reviews .
rather than simply looking at star ratings, carefully reading reviews can actually give you a better idea of how a contractor will work with you .
another search method to stay away from is picking a contractor based on a flyer you' ve received in the mail .
i advise never to engage a contractor who you find out through a flyer that comes to your mailbox ,
zavitz says .
this doesn' t mean that all contractors who send out flyers are bad contractors, but, zavitz says ,
there' s such a possible high concentration of bad experiences coming that way that i say it' s best to avoid it altogether .
ultimately, zavitz says ,
the people who are good in just about any market do not need to advertise .
if the internet and your mailbox can' t be trusted, then who can be trusted? in most cases, the best way to find a contractor is through word of mouth. however, not just any word of mouth will do – getting a recommendation from your neighbour who had someone help them build a fence is much different than getting a recommendation from someone who actually works in the construction industry. if you have a plumber, electrician, or other tradesperson you trust, ask them who they would hire as a contractor to work on their home .
no matter how big or small of a job you' re planning, it' s always a good idea to seek out multiple quotes before making your final decision. how many quotes should you get? that depends on how big the job is .
at the very least, talk to no fewer than three different contractors ,
says zavitz. the larger the project, the more quotes you should solicit .
you have to weigh the potential for loss ,
he says. if it' s a small renovation, then you have less to lose if you make the wrong choice, but if you' re planning a major project, you' ll be well served by soliciting as many quotes as you can, within a reasonable timeframe .
people focus on price; that' s a mistake ,
says zavitz. while price is always a factor that must be taken in to consideration, simply choosing the contractor who gives you the best quote is not the best way to find the right person for the job. in fact, this can often lead to problems later; a price that' s much lower than the comparables could be a sign of an inexperienced contractor, or worse, an unscrupulous one .
knowing what questions to ask a contractor during your initial meeting with them can help you narrow down your list of choices. here are a few good questions to use :
first, ask the contractor how much advertising they do .
it' s a trick question ,
says zavitz; if the contractor just wants to impress you, he or she will start bragging about how much they spend on advertising. however, as zavitz has explained, this is usually a bad sign, and will give you an indication that you may not want to work with this person .
another important issue to ask about is how the contractor deals with unexpected issues. issues beyond anyone' s control will arise with any major renovation project, and a good contractor is not one who avoids these issues altogether, as this can be impossible to do, but one who takes the initiative to resolve the issues as quickly as possible, without giving the client anything to worry about .
major renovations can be very stressful, and a good contractor has to be a bit of a psychologist ,
zavitz says .
for more tips like these, you can refer to the list of sample questions provided in zavitz' s ebook .
sometimes, bad contractor - client relationships can actually stem from a bad client, and not the other way around. what makes a bad client? there are a variety of issues at play, but the biggest factor usually comes down to clear communication. are you clear about exactly what you want to be done? do you fully understand the size and extent of the work you' re asking for, and can you communicate that properly to your contractor? the more straightforward and transparent you can be, the more likely you' ll get an accurate quote, and the more likely end up with a finished product you' re happy with as well .
another important factor to pay attention to when speaking to a contractor is their general attitude and demeanour .
it' s the same way you would choose your friends, in a way ,
says zavitz .
you have to use your intuition .
some things to pay attention to are how much they listen, and how honestly they answer your questions. sometimes, admitting you don' t know the answer to something can actually be a sign of wisdom rather than a sign of weakness .
the final step in choosing the right contractor is simply to have fun and enjoy the process. after all, you' re making your living space more wonderful, so you might as well have a good time while you' re at it .
and in the end, if you do end up with a bad contractor, you can always chalk it up to experience .
good judgement comes from experience, and a lot of that comes from bad judgement ,
says zavitz, quoting will rogers. so don' t worry too much about making mistakes; as long as you learn from them, mistakes will only help you grow .
a friend of mine recently found his contractor to redo his kitchen in the paper edition of the yellow pages! his approach was that he wanted an experienced contractor; and it is less likely that new companies will pay for paper ads. older contractors running small businesses never turned to online advertising as they keep on getting jobs from word of mouth. i think it links to ‘ be wary of advertising’. though it was a brilliant idea. guillaume – urltoken
great article, it’s very important to find a good contractor and i absolutely agree that experienced contractors don’t need advertising .
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the subject who is truly loyal to the chief magistrate will neither advise nor submit to arbitrary measures .
with 50 employees and current annual revenue at close to $ 5 - million, the company has grown 50 per cent year over year for the past three years .
ms. peterson, 49, who' s also the ceo, previously worked in senior management positions for p & g and then kraft foods for 12 years, on brands such as nabob coffee, philadelphia cream cheese and toblerone .
i could have created all sorts of other ideas – directories, photos, credentials and licenses – but really it all boiled down to what is a great predicator of having a successful outcome? in hiring a contractor, you really want to know how they' ve conducted themselves with past clients. it' s sort of like a job interview. your past success will be a great predictor of your future success .
sure, no one is a perfect 10. we tell this to companies all the time. they might have some bad clients along the way or miscommunication or maybe one of their employees did a bad job. but ultimately, if they make it right and are a good company doing great work time and time again, that' s who people want to find and hire .
your advertisers are the same people being critiqued. what are your rules around that ?
companies can advertise, whether they have reviews or not. i look at advertising and reviews like church and state; like movie advertising in newspapers. movies can advertise but it can' t affect their rating .
we read everything before it goes up so we' re actually not automating that process. we were the first to flag reviews four years ago, even before yelp, so if a review is taken down for any reason, we put up a marker for that user. it may be because it' s being investigated or because a home owner asks us to take it down .
i took a call from a homeowner this morning who said the contractor had threatened them over a negative review so we took it down. the review is then marked,' removed by homeowner'. that' s a strong signal if the review is removed by the homeowner .
i' d say 99 per cent of reviews removed by homeowners are because they' re afraid for some reason or been harassed or bribed to take down their review. sometimes it' s a positive review but they still want it removed because they' re not happy with the company anymore .
sometimes a company says they don' t recognize the work – for example, they' ll say they' ve never done work in aurora – but if we get back proof that the homeowner hired this company, then the negative review stays up .
it' s a bit of a black box only because companies want to game. therefore none of us will communicate how we moderate but we look at the technical things that come in that we can check. then there' s the actual moderated experience on the company. if they' ve been gaming before, we do certain things based on the situation. we have a pretty button - down process but things can slip through the cracks. we also have whistle blowers. a company contacted us last week about suspicious activity on a competitor' s page that we had missed, so we investigated .
how a company is ranked by reviewers can really affect how they' re seen on the site – the more good things your customers say about a company, the higher they rank. contested reviews are immediately removed and fact checked. if something isn' t legitimate, we' ve done measures such as remove our' best of awards' rating or disqualified them from' best of awards' .
you wouldn' t believe how angry companies get at us. we walk a fine edge. we' re loved and hated. at the end of the day, we know we' re doing the right thing if companies hate us. we' re living up to doing what we' re trying to do which is to be the most trusted source .
we just started by building a really good body of reviews in toronto. the first thing i did was go to a home show to find homeowners planning to work on their homes. that was a great move. we still participate at home shows across canada .
the other was finding individuals who are committed. my cto has been with me from the beginning. having pivotal people work with you can absolutely make or break a company .
we worked remotely for the longest time but now we have an office. we take a hybrid approach where we work both remotely and centrally. past 50 people, you need to have more of a core central space. rent is a big expense but it can also accelerate your growth if you bring people together. when you' re starting a company, you really have to pick and choose what you' re investing in .
we all use skype as a virtual water cooler for daily questions and funny stories going on across the country. then every month we have virtual calls we' ve named
the heartbeat
. it' s just a nice way of getting everybody up to date on all activities in the organization, past successes and what our objectives are for the month. we usually have about 25 per cent of the people in the office and the rest just patching in. it' s a presentation so we use gotomeeting and google +. then we publish the video on google + private community .
for the annual meeting, we book a resort in ontario to bring every single person together offsite for three days. we' ve done it for four years now. it' s fantastic for our culture. we sit around the campfire and have fun olympics with people on different teams so they get to know each other .
the constant challenge is building that flywheel of relevant good content in every market. we' re locally based so we have the constraint that, for example, you have to live in toronto and have hired somebody in toronto in order to write a review. you can' t write a review on a company you' ve never hired. other review sites allow that but what good is that? it' s irrelevant .
you can just use a translator. it requires dedicated new resources so we haven' t crossed that bridge .
when we first first launched, we scaled so we could build in the u. s. , but realized it would have required tens of millions of dollars in venture funding, so we took a different track. we' re focused on canada .
really define what you' re trying to accomplish. we' ve stuck true to our mission of helping homeowners since the very beginning. also, the' hows' and' whats' can be figured out, but answering your' why' will not only help shape what gets you up in the morning but why other people will want to work with you .
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information is the one tool that' s essential for any job around the house. and while content about home ownership, renovation and maintenance is now widely available on all media, it' s not always easy to identify reliable sources of unbiased, well - researched material. here are a few examples of books, magazines, and websites that offer up the best tool of all – good information .
the king of canadian contractors, mike holmes, believes that homeowners must educate themselves before starting out on any home project. to help with the process, he has released a new book, make it right: inside home renovation with canada' s most trusted contractor, which is an a - to - z primer for home renovation projects .
the book includes advice on how to identify a good contractor, and direction on how to handle such issues as permits, deposits, contracts and material changes .
there are specific chapters on bathroom, kitchen and basement renovations as well as detailed sidebars with holmes' take on features such as bump - outs, in - house sprinklers and ventilation. each of these chapters also provides a list of the top - 10 project - related issues holmes thinks homeowners need to know about .
there' s also a useful glossary of building terms and products. with a list price of $ 33, holmes' book is an excellent resource for anyone buying a new house or renovating their existing home. for more information, go to the website www. holmesonhomes. com .
if you' re in a bookstore looking for holmes' book, stop by the magazine section and check out a copy of canadian home workshop. i' ve just started picking up this publication, and have found it a great source of information on new products, fix - it techniques and design ideas – despite the fact that i' m not a woodworker. i' ve also become a frequent reader of the
ask a pro
forum on the magazine' s website, where readers can post queries and get advice on everything from how to dry cherrywood to how to remove stucco from a ceiling. to check it out, go to urltoken and click on ask a pro .
reviews can include information on everything from a company' s pricing, delivery to work habits and follow - up. to keep it fair, reviews are vetted, and the companies cited are invited to respond. launched just a year ago, the site already has about 14, 000 listings of companies in the greater toronto area and about 6, 000 in vancouver. there' s no charge to use peterson' s site .
and if you' re looking for further proof that good information doesn' t have to be pricey, visit the canada mortgage and housing site (www. cmhc. ca), which is probably the most underutilized source of home - related information for canadian consumers .
cmhc covers a variety of topics related to home ownership, including buying a home, getting your home ready to sell and securing a mortgage. there are also step - by - step guides to renovating a home, creating barrier - free housing and using environmentally friendly building materials and processes. cmhc has also launched a series of online maintenance videos that cover such topics as roofing care, cleaning mould and adapting homes for seniors .
not all information on the cmhc site is free, but the average homeowner can find a wealth of material without having to spend a penny .
the website of the canadian home builders' association is also a good source of information about all aspects of home building and renovation, and it can be accessed at www. chba. ca .
comprehensive information on sustainable building materials is especially hard to come by. however, there are two sites i' ve found offering lists of companies that supply products and services to environmentally friendly building initiatives, and they are a good place to start .
one site is related to the sustainable condo project, built in collaboration with cmhc and the ecosmart foundation (www. sbtc. ca) and on view last fall in toronto as part of the green building festival. this educational display is designed to promote sustainable building design, products, technologies and systems. you can find a list of the companies that participated in it by going to www. sustainablecondo. com .
if green building sources are what you' re after, you may also be interested in the all terrain cabin, a design project created by bark, a not - for - profit design collective based in vancouver. the atc was recently on display in toronto at the metro home show .
using a shipping container as a base structure, bark created a prototype for a sustainable cabin - like structure that would fit a family of four. it' s still an exercise in design and not a product you can purchase, but it' s a great showcase of homegrown environmentally - friendly products and services. the list of companies that provided materials or products for the all terrain cabin is available on the collective' s site www. barkbark. ca .
is a toronto - based freelance writer whose work also appears on www. lovemyplace. com. write to her at vicky @ lovemyplace. com .
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after wading into the unknown for her own home renovations, nancy peterson launched a website where previous customers can post reviews - good or bad - about contractors, painters, plumbers, cleaners, etc .
nancy peterson wanted to give her 60 - year - old house a facelift — a new kitchen, an updated master bathroom, new windows and refinished hardwood floors .
there was just one problem. she didn' t know any reputable contractors. “it was pretty daunting, ” she says .
realizing other homeowners faced the same situation, peterson decided to do some problem - solving. in 2006, she launched
jump ahead four years. the site has 250, 000 companies listed on it from across canada, including 50, 000 in toronto. now, if you want to hire an electrician, you' re no longer in the dark about finding someone other people liked. “homeowners are more empowered, ” peterson says .
there is no charge for homeowners to read or post reviews on the site, or for companies to be listed. companies can pay to upgrade to a premium listing, which includes photos, additional information and an ad on competitors' pages. however, a premium listing does not guarantee a better ranking. companies with the most and best reviews rank the highest .
prior to launching the website, peterson held senior marketing positions at major corporations, including kraft foods and procter & gamble .
“it was hard to leave a good paying job and start a company where you are not going to make a salary for a long time, ” she says. but peterson believed in her idea — a sort of tripadvisor site for home renovations .
the site broke even in 2008. since then, profits have been reinvested in the company to fund growth — building new markets and adding new staff. there are now 13 employees, compared to four at the beginning .
urltoken from its previous owner. “it wasn' t a $ 49 buy. ”
there was also a staff transition. peterson realized the team that built the website focused on toronto didn' t have the tools to build a scalable website, one that could easily add reviews about contractors from other cities .
in mid - 2007, she let the original team go. “it was a very hard decision to make, ” she says .
a new team built a scalable site, which was ready for initial release in late 2007 .
the original plan was to launch the new site in canada and, at the same time, launch a site in boston. but that was too much to bite off at once .
the site not only benefits homeowners, it' s also a useful tool for contractors — although they didn' t all see it that way at first. in the early stages, some worried a negative review would drive away business .
that' s a lot of homeowners grateful they could read reviews. and that' s a lot of companies who will benefit from those reviews .
to think, it all started because peterson wanted a new kitchen. now, that' s a renovation that has paid off .
a i realized the most fun was taking something that wasn’t doing so well but had potential and growing it. i had gone through a renovation and finding the right contractors was a daunting process. it blew me away that the companies i worked for spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on market research but there was nothing in the home improvement field for homeowners — a $ 40 - billion industry. at the time tripadvisor was in its nascent stage and seeing those reviews was my aha moment .
a right after closing that round of financing, i launched in both toronto and boston because all the vcs filled my head with the fact i had to go to the u. s. i kept hearing ‘we don’t want to fund a canadian - only company’ from the vcs. that’s still true today. we weren’t ready for boston. to launch in two centres when your content is very local requires a lot of resources. we hired a community manager in toronto who was able to get 1, 000 reviews pretty quickly for us but we didn’t have the sales infrastructure set up to convert those to sales, which is difficult because it takes time for reviews to do anything for a company’s business .
a we’ve had to raise money about every two years. we’re in a position now where we can self - fund but that’s taken nine years. you can scale a lot faster if you’re venture backed .
bringing in key individuals during growth stages is important. i’ve had to make some difficult decisions in the past three years about senior people who’ve been with me when i realized they weren’t the right leaders to help us grow fast. one of two key people i’ve brought on is our head of engineering, who is focused on agile development. my first cto was phenomenal in the early days, but wasn’t able to scale the engineering team and get his hands off the keyboard. another person who has made a dramatic difference is our cfo. we had a pretty good grounding on churn and its economics, but until we brought on these two key people we didn’t think of ourselves as a software company. they’ve helped us get into that mindset .
a it’s fundamental to having a great business. the foundation of our culture is trust. our no. 1 stakeholder is the homeowner. everyone has to be aligned to that. if our sales team doesn’t feel a company is a good, ethical company, we don’t want their ads .
a we are focused on being the most trusted source for home - service contractors in canada .
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negative feedback: online review sites should push businesses to improve their facilities. some have decided paying for fake reviews is an easier way to go about things
this might sound a theatre critic' s dream, but craigslist' s
get $ 5 for yelp review
leaves less room for such notions .
it' s the seamy side of an online reviews industry which has enticed clickfarms in bangladesh, lawyers in london, and new york' s attorney general .
and now, the uk' s competitions and market authority (cma) as well, which is opening an investigation using its consumer enforcement powers, and pondering further action .
the cma is also planning an international project on online reviews and endorsements, to coincide with britain' s year - long presidency of the international consumer protection and enforcement network, which starts 1st july .
it' s big business, these new crowdsourced yellow pages of the internet. a hearty 62% of british consumers say they are likely to be affected by positive online reviews - with negative ones, that soars to 89% .
once upon a time, we kept our stiff upper lips, and we kept online opinions stoically to ourselves .
then along popped amazon and ebay in 1994 and 1995, and with them our habit of scrawling online our joy or chagrin with each latest acquisition .
we now measure ourselves and businesses against an economy of likes, follows, and stars .
one in sixteen of the people online across the world visited tripadvisor last july. the website gains 139 reviews each minute .
trustpilot' s partnership with google means it provides many of the ratings provided with the search engine' s results .
and yelp' s 77 million reviews pulled in 142 million visitors in the first three months of 2015 .
restaurants which increase their ranking on the platform by one star raise revenue by 5 - 9% , according to harvard business school assistant professor michael luca .
negative reviews are the most useful because they continue to challenge our methods, and teach us more about what our customers want ,
says charlo carabott, managing director of mazuma mobile, a watford mobile phone recycling company .
he says his company engaged with an early spate of negative reviewers, publicly answering their complaints, and now boasts a 9. 8 out of 10 trustscore on trustpilot, with 100, 000 reviews .
but for every business like mr carabott' s, there' s another with a more negative reaction. some will even turn around and sue their critic. others pen fake reviews, then slate their competition .
london - based pimlico plumbers sued yelp in 2014 for
defamatory and disgusting
reviews .
they were ultimately taken down as part of a settlement, says vince sollitto, yelp' s senior vice president .
he says anonymous speech is better protected in america than in england and wales, where websites can be required to hand over a reviewer' s identity under the defamation act of 2013 .
and new york attorney general eric schneiderman announced in september 2013 that 19 companies had agreed to cease posting fake reviews and pay penalties from $ 2, 500 to $ 100, 000 (£1, 600 - £64, 000, €2, 225 - 88, 990) .
the companies ranged from a dentist, a cosmetic surgery, an adult entertainment chain, and the charter - coach giant us coachways .
it would seem 10 - 30% of online reviews are fake, based on what i' ve seen ,
said a veteran of this investigation in the new york attorney general' s office, who did not wish to be named .
the typical business leaving fake positive reviews - known as boosting - has either few reviews or a recent crop of negative reviews. companies also write fake negative reviews - vandalising - attacking the competition .
at the moment, we will have around 3% of the reviews that are flagged, that' s either proactively by users or by ourselves ,
says trustpilot' s james westlake. by context, he adds, the website has one new review every five seconds .
the reason is quite simple. when was the last time you checked a review of burger king or mcdonald' s? nobody does that ,
says dr georgios zervas, assistant professor at boston university, who studies internet markets .
he says the number of reviews rejected as suspicious by yelp, 16% , at present, has increased yearly .
there are several telltale signs of fake reviews. they are often shorter, and more extreme, clustered at either end of the scale .
too many reviews, or from the same ip address, at the same time is another sign, says jenny sussin, an analyst with technology research firm gartner .
tripadvisor uses
approximately 50 filters
, applied by automated systems, says adam medros, who heads its product development .
you have interconnectedness of attributes between people, devices, and locations that aren' t normal, and they stand out against backdrop of normal behaviour ,
he says .
firms suspected of doctoring reviews receive a scarlet letter, a red badge alerting readers that reviews submitted for that business have raised suspicions .
it' s a cat and mouse game, says mr medros, which he confesses he finds geekily intriguing .
there' s always going to be an arms race, a little bit, around the tech different people are using, and the ways we use to detect them ,
he says .
they' re getting better, we' re seeing this in past years ,
says trustpilot' s mr westlake .
we identify fraudulent activity and it morphs, like a cold virus .
many scammers are recent computer science graduates from developing countries such as bangladesh, india, and the philippines .
in the short term, it is easy for them to fake an ip address, but harder to manage this at scale without tripping alarms .
websites like yelp have also engaged in more cloak - and - dagger ways to tease out illicit behaviour, posing as scammers, or businesses searching to hire them .
if those caught cooperate, it is another source of intelligence into the other side' s dark arts .
it turned out we were able to get people to admit they were fake ,
says the specialist from the new york attorney general' s office .
it was a combination of people coming clean, and the occasional email providing enough of a gotcha ,
he says .
part of the reason, suggests yelp' s mr sollitto, could be local small businesses are the last part of the business world to be brought online .
most still spend nearly all their advertising budget in traditional ways, even as studies show consumers searching for and finding them online .
partly, they get to control the message, the copy, the one - way advertising, even though the reality is that no longer works ,
he says .
it will take some time for the small business market to come to accept
all these old - fashioned methods are worthless
.
what really matters is online, and online you can' t control a message. you can only earn a reputation .
the foreign secretary quits, telling theresa may
needless self - doubt
is leading to
semi - brexit
.
karim hajee, father of four, wanted to turn his two - bedroom bungalow into a five - bedroom dream home. like dozens of others, he entrusted his big renovation to adam gardin .
karim hajee stands in front of the big hole in the ground left behind after major renovations on his bungalow were halted. hajee is one of a group of people who say they have been left in the lurch after a builder, garcon building group, ran into financial difficulty .
karim hajee stands inside his gutted home after major renovations on his bungalow were halted. hajee is one of a group of people who say they have been left in the lurch after a builder, garcon building group, ran into financial difficulty .
hajee said gardin’s 10 - year - old company, garcon building group, gutted his north york house in october, dug the hole in november, and abandoned the site in the middle of december.
urltoken is a canadian company , which publishes reviews written by homeowners about home improvement professionals such as repairman , contractors , renovators , and retailers . homestars was formed in 2006 by nancy peterson . the globe and mail ran a feature on the company shortly after its foundation . the company began as an online community of homeowners , sharing reviews of their personal experience to help other homeowners find reputable contractors . each review can contain details on the delivery of the work , contractor ’s work habits and the quality of the follow-up . similar to other review sites such as tripadvisor , contractors are able to respond to any reviews that are written about them . the national post announced in 2015 , that homestars had over two million companies listed on its website and hundreds of thousands of consumer reviews about those contractors . in 2015 , profitguide ranked homestars as the 77th fastest growing company in canada . founder and ceo , nancy peterson , also won an award in 2015 as one of canada 's top female entrepreneurs , where she ranked in 71st position . 
urltoken is a canadian company, which publishes reviews written by homeowners about home improvement professionals such as repairman, contractors, renovators, and retailers. homestars was formed in 2006 by nancy peterson. the globe and mail ran a feature on the company shortly after its foundation. the company began as an online community of homeowners, sharing reviews of their personal experience to help other homeowners find reputable contractors. each review can contain details on the delivery of the work, contractor ’s work habits and the quality of the follow-up. similar to other review sites such as tripadvisor, contractors are able to respond to any reviews that are written about them. the national post announced in 2015, that homestars had over two million companies listed on its website and hundreds of thousands of consumer reviews about those contractors. in 2015, profitguide ranked homestars as the 77th fastest growing company in canada. founder and ceo, nancy peterson, also won an award in 2015 as one of canada's top female entrepreneurs, where she ranked in 71st position.
urltoken is a canadian company, which publishes reviews written by homeowners about home improvement professionals such as repairman, contractors, renovators, and retailers. homestars was formed in 2006 by nancy peterson. the globe and mail ran a feature on the company shortly after its foundation. the company began as an online community of homeowners, sharing reviews of their personal experience to help other homeowners find reputable contractors. each review can contain details on the delivery of the work, contractor ’s work habits and the quality of the follow-up. similar to other review sites such as tripadvisor, contractors are able to respond to any reviews that are written about them. the national post announced in 2015, that homestars had over two million companies listed on its website and hundreds of thousands of consumer reviews about those contractors. in 2015, profitguide ranked homestars as the 77th fastest growing company in canada. founder and ceo, nancy peterson, also won an award in 2015 as one of canada's top female entrepreneurs, where she ranked in 71st position.