February 3, 2021

Silverback Strategies, a marketing agency, conducted a research study to help the home service industries understand consumer buyer behavior so they can make more strategic marketing investments to acquire new generations of buyers.

In August of 2020, Silverback Strategies surveyed 1,066 U.S. adults who had purchased a home service within the most recent 12 months. Questions were focused on their most recent purchase experience — starting when they first realized they had a problem, all the way through making a purchase and leaving an online review.

Here are some of the key findings:

1) Buyers seeking home construction were most likely to go online as a first step toward selecting a provider. This was especially true for buyers under the age of 55, revealing ample opportunity for home construction and landscaping companies to capture new generations of customers and retain them for years to come.

2) Buyers were most likely to use a search engine on their mobile device when they first realized a need for home construction and landscaping companies. Some buyers used other digital channels to seek out solutions, like rating and review sites or various social media platforms, or they went directly to a service provider’s website — a form of brand recall from marketing campaigns focused on brand awareness and name recognition.

3) Home construction seekers were more likely to have conversations with two separate service providers, highlighting the need to differentiate from competitors.

4) Outside of cost, “customer ratings and reviews” and “examples of past performance” were top criteria buyers used to evaluate home construction and landscape service providers.

5) More than 70% of home construction buyers are active on Facebook.

“Home service demand has increased significantly during the pandemic’s stay-at-home and work-from-home mandates,” said John Tyreman, research director at Silverback Strategies. “In fact, home sales have boomed, with many Americans seeking more comfortable places to ride out COVID-19. In July 2020 alone, home sales increased by 8.7% versus July 2019 sales.

“With so many people living in newly bought houses and more people stuck at home, home improvement services have seen a new boom as well. The study reveals how the customer journey has become digital and why companies need to adapt if they are to grow and attract new generations of customers. This study illuminates the path to finding and capturing these buyers.”

You can download the full report here.

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