Renovation supplier reviews are the cheapest research you will ever do. Most people still read them wrong. They look at the star average, see 4.8, and stop.
The star average is close to the least useful number on the page. Two shops can both sit at 4.8 and be nothing alike. Here is what to read instead.
Start with the count, not the rating
A 5.0 built on 14 reviews is a small sample. A 4.9 built on several hundred is a track record. An average only means something once there is enough underneath it, and volume is the one part a shop cannot manufacture over a weekend.
Homus has been trading 6 years across two showrooms, with 1,000+ five-star reviews between them. The useful part of that number is its size. It is big enough that one good week does not move it, and one bad week does not either.
So when you compare two shops, put their review counts next to each other before you compare their ratings.
Read the dates before you read the words
Sort by newest. Two things to check.
Recency first. If the newest review is eight months old, the shop you are reading about may not be the shop you walk into.
Then spacing. A steady trickle across years is a business serving customers. Forty reviews inside one week and then silence is a campaign, and sometimes it is something worse than a campaign.
Reviews that name a person are worth more
This is the best filter there is, and almost nobody uses it.
“Great service, highly recommended” tells you nothing. It could be any shop in Singapore. A review that names the salesperson and repeats what they explained is much harder to fake, because that kind of detail only comes out of a real visit.
Weight those. Skip the rest, however glowing.
The low-star reviews are where the information is
Most people either skip these or use them to disqualify a shop. Both are mistakes.
Hundreds of reviews and nothing below four stars should worry you. Things go wrong in this trade. Supplier defects happen, and so does delivery damage. A retailer who has never had one unhappy customer has either sold very little, or is managing the review page instead of the problem.
The part to read is the reply underneath. Does it answer the actual complaint, or does it thank the customer for their feedback and change the subject? That short paragraph is your best guess at what happens when your order is the one that goes wrong.
We are a retailer, not a manufacturer, so we do not control what comes out of the box. We do control the answer afterwards. That is what we mean when we say we will always be there.
If the shop has more than one branch, read the right profile
A retailer with two outlets has two Google profiles, and they can read very differently. Different staff, different stock on the floor, different Saturday.
Homus runs one profile for Lavender and one for Tampines. If you already know which one you are driving to, read that one rather than the combined impression a search result gives you.
Two things worth hunting for in the text
Range is the first. Look for anyone describing several unrelated purchases in one visit. A reviewer who leaves with a toilet, a tap and a hob has saved themselves a Saturday, and the arithmetic on that is in our piece on one-stop renovation shopping.
Pricing clarity is the second. Reviewers tend to mention prices being displayed and explained only when it is unusual enough to be worth writing down. How ours is put together is a separate read.
Brand names are a bonus. If a reviewer mentions a brand you are already considering, that is worth more to you than another line about friendly staff. We carry 40+ brands and can source most others on request, which is the full list.
What renovation supplier reviews cannot tell you
No review will tell you how matte black looks under your own bathroom lighting, or how heavy a basin mixer feels once you pick one up.
Reviews get you to a shortlist. The shortlist gets settled in person.
Frequently asked questions
How many reviews should a renovation supplier have before the rating means anything?
There is no fixed number, but a rating built on a few dozen reviews moves too easily to lean on. Several hundred is roughly where an average starts to hold steady. Check the count before you look at the stars.
Are reviews that name a staff member more reliable?
Usually. A named salesperson and a specific product are the kind of detail that only comes out of a real visit, and they are much harder to fabricate than a line of generic praise.
Should I avoid a supplier that has negative reviews?
No. Any shop that sells enough will collect some. What matters is the reply underneath, and whether it deals with the specific complaint or talks around it.
How recent do reviews need to be?
Check that the newest ones fall within the last month or two. Staff and stock both change, so an older review describes an older shop.
How many five-star reviews does Homus have?
1,000+ across our Lavender and Tampines showrooms, built up over 6 years of trading. Both profiles are public, so the count is easy to check for yourself.
Come and check the reviews against the showroom
Both showrooms are open every day, 11am to 8pm.
Lavender: 116 Lavender Street, #01-03, Pek Chuan Building, Singapore 338730
Tampines: 1 Tampines North Drive 1, T-Space, #01-18, Singapore 528559
Visit our showroom, and compare us before you decide.
