Who makes the decisions?

GOLDEN, CO — ServiceMagic, an online marketplace that connects homeowners with home service professionals, says its recent customer survey confirms that there's a lot of confusion about who is the decision maker when it comes to home improvement projects.

The online survey asked 490 homeowners and 485 residential contractors who they believed was the primary decision maker for home improvement projects.

"This is a very telling survey," said Rodney Rice, co-CEO of ServiceMagic. "There is a gap between perception and reality within the household, and contractors are often caught in the middle."

Rice added that more than 90% of issues arise from communication breakdowns and the triangle of the two spouses and the contractor can be a factor. If a contractor communicates with only one spouse, assuming they've discussed and agreed on a project, there can be unpleasant surprises.

ServiceMagic uses its proprietary technology to match consumer service requests with local service professionals for more than 500 different home service needs, including landscape design, installation and maintenance. The company's nationwide network is made up of 40,000 prescreened and customer-rated home service professionals.