Information Homeowners Trust

When we facilitate focus groups for clients, we always seem to learn something that we can share with everyone. It happened again when a long-time client, the National Fenestration Rating Council (think windows and doors), recently asked us to conduct research with homeowners to help them design a new energy performance label for shades, blinds, and other window attachment products.

We asked participants to tell us where they get information about the home improvement products they buy, and then to rate those sources in terms of how much they trust them. By far the most common and trustworthy source of information: recommendations from family, friends, and neighbors. This confirms what national surveys have said for years: the information we trust most comes from people like ourselves.

Participants also told us that while they spend a lot of time shopping in retail stores and surfing the Web, they don’t necessarily trust what they learn there. And the good news for our client: NFRC is considered very trustworthy.