2024 Home Services Marketing Study
How Homeowners Plan to Discover, Research, and Hire Home Services Providers in 2024
Introduction
Home services companies dealt with rapidly changing conditions over the last several years, starting with pandemic-fueled demand for home upgrades and continuing on through a period of relatively high interest and mortgage rates. Further, the proliferation of new sources for provider recommendations and shifting communication preferences continues to impact where and how consumers should be marketed to. To better understand how these changes have impacted consumers’ home service choices and what providers should expect moving forward, Tinuiti surveyed over 1,000 US homeowners in February 2024.
Many Homeowners Held Back on Home Services Spending in 2023
In the past year have you hired more, fewer, or about the same number of home repair/maintenance/improvement services companies than usual?
A majority of homeowners said they had hired about the same number of providers in the past year as usual across home repair, maintenance, and improvement services. However, respondents were nearly three times as likely to say they had hired fewer home improvement companies as they were to say they had hired more. Homeowners were also twice as likely to say they had hired fewer home maintenance companies as they were to say more, while a slightly higher share of respondents said they had hired fewer home repair companies than more home repair companies.
In the past year have you hired more, fewer, or about the same number of home repair/maintenance/improvement services companies than usual?
When asked how high interest/mortgage rates had impacted their home repair and maintenance decisions over the last year, 28% of respondents said they’ve been spending less and delaying most services, while another 20% said they had spent less and were taking on more home repair and maintenance projects themselves.
Which of the following best describes how high interest rates/inflation impacted your home improvement (kitchen/bathroom remodeling, painting, etc.) decisions over the last year?
Home improvement efforts were similarly impacted by interest rates, with half of respondents saying they spent less over the last year as a result of high rates and that they were either delaying projects or taking on more of the work themselves.
Younger generations in particular have been delaying home repair, maintenance, and improvement projects due to the current interest rate climate. Across Gen Z and millennials, 37% said they had been spending less on these home services and delaying most of the work. For boomers, the rate saying the same was just 20%.
Across home repair, maintenance, and improvement, just 6% of respondents said that high interest/mortgage rates drove them to spend more over the last year on home services because they couldn’t purchase a new home.
Lower Interest and Mortgage Rates Could Boost Home Services Spending in 2024
Relative to 2023, how much do you expect to spend on the following areas in 2024?
Looking ahead to what their total 2024 expenditures will be relative to 2023, less than a quarter of respondents indicated that they expect to spend more for home repair, maintenance, and improvement services. More respondents said they expect to spend less in 2024 than in 2023 across all three categories, but the most common expectation was that expenditures would remain about the same.
If interest/mortgage rates come down significantly over the next year, which of the following are you more likely to do?
However, when asked to consider the possibility that interest/mortgage rates fall significantly over the course of 2024, 47% of homeowners expect they would spend more on home improvements as a result, with only 22% saying they would spend less.
Many Gen Z and millennial respondents in particular would look to invest more in home improvement projects and sell their home should interest rates come down. Over 18% of Gen Z and millennials would make that decision, compared to just 8% of baby boomers.
Most Homeowners Hire Professionals for Anything They Don’t Immediately Know How to Do
Which of the following best describes your household’s approach to home services?
Despite the rise of DIY influencers and blogs, most homeowners still call a professional for repair, maintenance, and improvement projects. Only 4% handle all of their own home projects, while 24% will do some research to see if they can figure it out before calling a professional.
Although respondents most commonly said they do at least some simple home projects, 22% of Gen Z and millennials said they hire a professional for all home repairs, maintenance, and improvements. For comparison, just 15% of baby boomers said the same.
Overall, 17% of homeowners say they hire a professional for all home services, but that share is 51% for those who describe their households as not at all skilled/handy at completing home repair, maintenance, and improvement projects. Only 8% of respondents described their households as not at all skilled, though, while 15% described their households as extremely skilled.
Most Homeowners Still Prefer to Book Service Appointments by Phone, but Many Shift to Text for Follow-up Communications
Homeowners’ preferred method of communication with home services companies.
When asked how they prefer to schedule home services professionals, 58% chose over the phone, nearly three times as many as selected the second-most popular response, online. Once a provider is booked, homeowners were nearly as likely to prefer communicating by text message as over the phone, and these two options accounted for 70% of respondents.
Even Gen Z and millennials tend to make a phone call when scheduling home services appointments with 48% of respondents choosing that option. Even so, younger generations were much more likely to prefer scheduling home services via online methods than older generations. Online/email was the preferred home services scheduling method for 37% of Gen Z and millennials, compared to just 17% of baby boomers.
Many Homeowners Rarely Seek Out New Providers for Services They’ve Hired for Previously, but Younger Generations are More Open to Change
When hiring for a job such as lawn care, plumbing, or HVAC services that you’ve had completed by a home services provider in the past, how frequently do you seek out a new provider for similar work rather than using the provider you’ve worked with previously?
When hiring for a job they’ve previously had completed by a home services provider, 43% said they either rarely or never seek out a new provider for the job. Only 6% said they always seek out a new provider, highlighting how difficult it is to become a provider for those households who already have a go-to company they work with.
Home services providers are likely to have more luck with younger generations, though, as 35% of Gen Z and millennials say they seek out new home services providers very often, if not always. Just 8% of boomers said the same, with half of that generation saying they rarely or never do.
Price Isn’t the Most Important Quality of Home Services Providers for All Homeowners, but is for Gen Z and Millennials
Do you prefer to work with a single home services provider for multiple services or to find a specialist for each area of need?
In terms of what kind of company homeowners are looking to work with for home services projects, more than two-thirds of respondents said they prefer to work with a specialist for each service, rather than a single provider of multiple services. Gen Z respondents were the most likely generation to prefer working with a single home services provider for multiple services, while Boomers were the least likely.
Do you prefer to work with a single home services provider for multiple services or to find a specialist for each area of need?
When it comes to the top three qualities of home services companies that are most important to homeowners, more than half of respondents selected that companies should be licensed and insured, the top response. Having the best prices was the second-most selected option, followed by good online reviews. Just 5% of respondents believed that being a nationally recognized brand was one of the three most important qualities for home services providers, the lowest of all qualities included in the survey.
Gen Z and millennial respondents were more price-conscious than older generations, selecting having the best prices as the most important quality of a home services company. Price was only the fourth-most important quality to baby boomers, who were more likely than other generations to say that a home services company responding quickly to inquiries was a top priority.
These findings have implications for how home services providers should market themselves to homeowners. For companies that offer a wide range of services, it’s crucial to communicate deep subject matter expertise in each area. When highlighting particular qualities in ad copy, home services companies should clearly communicate their status as licensed and insured as well as competitive pricing, but be aware that older households may be more concerned with speed than price.
Who To Hire for Home Services Is Typically a Shared Decision for Couples, but Men Are More Likely To Go It Alone
In your household, who typically makes the decisions on who to hire for home services?
Among all respondents, 52% said that they alone tend to make the decision on who to hire for home services, while another 39% said they share the decision making with their spouse or partner. Among only those homeowners that do live with a spouse or partner, 53% make decisions with their spouse or partner, while just 36% make the decision alone.
These results differ considerably for men and women, however, with 50% of men who live with a spouse or partner saying they typically make the home services hiring decisions alone. For women that live with a spouse or partner, that rate was just 27%, with 59% saying they share the decision making.
Interestingly, among men that live with a spouse/partner, younger men are more likely than older men to say that they typically make the home services hiring decisions alone. Just 31% of Gen Z and millennial men who live with a spouse/partner say they share these hiring decisions, compared to 56% for baby boomers.
Most Homeowners Typically Book Service Providers More than a Week in Advance
For seasonal home maintenance services like lawn care or HVAC, how far in advance of the job being done do you prefer to book a service provider?
For seasonal home maintenance projects like HVAC and lawncare, 35% of respondents said they prefer to book a provider more than a week but less than a month in advance. Fully 25% of respondents prefer to book more than a month in advance, the same share as those who prefer to book only when the job needs to be done.
For the following home services, when do you typically search for providers? (Among those that do hire companies in each category)
For many of these seasonal projects, spring months between April and June were the most popular for when to start searching for providers among those respondents who typically searched during a particular time of the year. This was particularly true for lawn care, pest control, and pool care, and spring is clearly a key period for home services companies looking to attract new customers.
That said, ‘no specific time frame’ was the most common response among homeowners who searched for each home service in every category but lawn care. Thus, home services marketers need to stay active throughout the year, even for those categories that can be seasonal in nature.
Search and Social Dominate Home Services Provider Discovery Across Generations
Where do you recall seeing or hearing about a home services provider that you used for the first time in the past year? Select all that apply.
More than a third of respondents said they recalled first seeing or hearing about a home services company they used in the past year through search engines, while 29% said the same about social media. No other media source was selected by more than 20% of respondents.
For Gen Z and millennials, 36% of respondents said that they had first discovered a home services company on social media that they later hired. Streaming video was also a relatively strong discovery platform for younger generations with 11% of Gen Z and millennials having first heard of a home services company they later hired on streaming, compared to just 2% for baby boomers.
On which social media platform do you most often discover new home services providers?
Just over 35% of respondents said that Facebook was the social media platform where they most often discover new home services providers, which was more than all other social platforms combined. A significant share of homeowners said they don’t discover home services providers on social media at all, including 52% of baby boomers. Just 19% of Gen Z and millennials said the same, however.
Google Plays a Pivotal Role for Consumers Searching for Both Home Services Providers and Reviews
When actively searching for home services companies, 86% of respondents said they start their search online, compared to only 14% who said offline. For those searching online, 61% said they start their search using a traditional search engine like Google or Bing, by far the most popular response.
When consumers look specifically for home services company reviews, Google itself is often the intended destination as Google reviews were consulted by 64% of respondents. Thus, the search giant is an important part of home services provider discovery and evaluation for many consumers.
Facebook was the second-most commonly consulted source of home services company reviews. Just 4% of all respondents selected TikTok as a platform they consult when looking for home services company reviews, but that share was a whopping 27% for Gen Z homeowners.
Nextdoor is quickly becoming a popular source of home services reviews, with 24% of respondents saying they’ve consulted it. This share is highest among older generations, and just 12% of Gen Z homeowners say they consult Nextdoor for home services reviews.
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