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What do our clients think?
Right: Ange (What Lies Beneath) and Jon McAlpine
What are the benefits of a Homestar home?
Getting feedback - the good, the bad and the otherwise can be a scary experience, however, it is something we believe is absolutely critical to the success of our business going forward. After seeing the insights from Thorne Group build, we decided it was also a critical project for our business.
In case you haven’t read about the aptly named company ‘What Lies Beneath’, it specialises in just that, deep-diving into every aspect of our client's experience. Run by the dynamic duo Ange and Tracey.
Ange did such an amazing job getting the insights for Thorne Group, we had complete faith in her to get to the nuts and bolts of what we do well, so we can keep doing it and work out a plan to tweak anything that didn’t go to plan. After a random selection of previous clients, Ange completed a series of extremely comprehensive interviews. We would sincerely like to thank our clients for taking the time with Ange. Their feedback has been invaluable.
Here are a few snippets of what our clients had to say (shared with permission).
Of course, there were some things we have to improve upon and we are excited to be in the process of working on this currently.
Extract from 'What Lies Beneath'
“Jon is very approachable. He is a great listener. He doesn’t insist on things, we work it through”
— John & Dianne V.
Extract from 'What Lies Beneath'
“Jon spent a lot of time with us, it was important for him to work out our lifestyle; to get to know us and what we liked. He’d call onto the site a bit too which was nice. He was good to communicate with. Jon was generous, as are Thorne Group in general, and we feel like it’s been a two-way street the whole way”
— Ken & Gaye S.
Extract from 'What Lies Beneath'
“It was Jon that got us, because he ‘got us’, he really listened to us. He is fantastic, he didn’t try to put us in a box, he wanted to know what we wanted. He asked ‘how can we incorporate this preference, and have you thought about this?’ In the end our choice of architect came down to who was listening. Other companies tried to pigeonhole us, there was no communication about ‘us’”
— Hayley and Grant
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“Their culture is friendly, thorough and honest. Nothing was ever a problem. Jon was so efficient, and I like that he involves other like-minded people”
— Belinda & David
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“We instantly gelled with Jon and he listened to everything. His communication and approach to the whole project was particularly good. Jon’s work is excellent and we love his style. I was very green, and Jon guided me the whole way through the process”
— Sue & Hugh
Extract from 'What Lies Beneath'
“Jon is a great guy and he’s incredible at what he does. He was cool with his detail and dimensions. We like that the architectural elements of our house are unique”
— Monique and Duncan E.
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“With Jon we felt a connection. We had grand ideas, and Jon was great at talking through concepts and capturing what we were after and letting us know we were being unrealistic, but in a nice way. We like his style and he is a very good listener. We had a dream that we would have all our bedrooms downstairs, kind of like an upside-down house. But we changed our mind because Jon stepped it out for us that it would have increased costs significantly. Jon captured what we were looking for. We liked and appreciated the loop from Thorne Group Architecture to Thorne Group Build. And Jon from concept drawing to pricing. Then to Dan for the building stage. It was fantastic”
— Errol B.
Extract from 'What Lies Beneath'
“They did everything well. We needed plans and we spent a lot of time with Jon. We made lots of changes and he was cool about that. He helped us make the right decisions and to explain the gain/loss equation and using the right materials. In the beginning we didn’t know how it would go, if we were being too ambitious or not. But Jon and the team said we can have what we want, and we got everything we’d hoped for. We loved Jon’s ideas. We were demanding about kitchen space and in the end he did listen to me. I felt sorry for him having to change the plans. But for us living in the house a year later, it all works, and every little thing makes a difference. He has such great ideas and a fantastic use of space. It’s amazing what he can squeeze in without really changing anything. We have a 205sqm house on a 340sqm site. It’s a single level, 4 brm, 2bthrom, living areas, big wardrobes and walk-in pantry. And it’s lovely to live in. I mean, how does he do that?”
— Scott and Melanie