Make 2019 the Year You Really Pay Attention to Your Customers

There isn't a company in real estate that does not believe that it pays attention to the needs of its customers. We all want to think that every one of our customers would give us a 5-star rating, but we know deep down inside that is not the case.

Because we interact with our customers every day, we do have some sense of what they are looking for. Here's the problem though--we don't TALK to every one of our customers regularly. The silent majority are out there forming opinions without ever talking to their MLS, association or brokerage directly.

So how do you really KNOW if you're doing the right thing for your customers? Those that are the most unhappy are probably not talking to you about it. There could be a ticking time bomb out there and you have no idea it's coming.

Conversely, you probably have raving fans that have not told you their story about why they respect your service, technology or training as much as they do.

As we start to think about New Year's resolutions, why not add a commitment to get a better handle on what your clients, agents or customers think about your services?

Here are three quick suggestions about inexpensive, but effective, ways to make sure you are focused on constant customer satisfaction improvement in 2019.

1. Satisfaction Surveys

The quickest and easiest way to get a handle on customer perspectives is to ask them directly. We all think we know how our customers feel, but we have found when doing customer satisfaction research for our clients that is not always the case. Sometimes an organization needs to see it in black and white before it can be addressed.

We have fielded hundreds of surveys for MLSs, associations, brokerages and tech companies, so we can help you field a study that is unbiased and asks the right questions to uncover the most important answera to drive your organization forward. We have been able to help brokers address a dissatisfied agent BEFORE they got recruited away. We have been able to help MLSs identify a weakness in their technology suite and work with their technology vendor to build a roadmap to fix the problem. We have helped tech companies understand the level of awareness and understanding of their solutions to help them refine their messaging and reprioritize their product roadmaps. SO many good things can come out of one simple annual survey.

2. Input Forums

Another interesting way to solicit feedback is to offer a forum on your site where your customers can provide suggestions and then invite other customers to comment and vote on the customer suggestions submitted.

3. Focus Groups

Focus groups can be a great way to get a dialogue going with your customers. We have found that if you conduct even just two or three focus groups with the same target audience, the most important topics to be addressed will surface relatively quickly. If you cover a large region and don't want to incur the expense of travel costs, renting space and feeding your attendees, you can also conduct virtual focus groups. They are a great way to get feedback for your current offerings as well as suggested enhancements BEFORE you spend thousands re-engineering something that does not hit the mark.

We have been able to help our clients refine their messaging, prioritize new development and get unfettered access to customer feedback that had never been shared with our clients directly.

If 2019 is the year that you would like to get to know your customers' needs better, we would love to help!

Happy Holidays!

To view the original article, visit the WAV Group blog.