May 14 2013
Have you ever noticed that most of the people who advise real estate agents to give great customer service fail to explain how to do so? It's easy to understand what constitutes great customer service in a restaurant or a department store. It's easy to get the concept when you're on the receiving end of it.
Why all the evasion, then, when it comes to giving solid advice as to how to actually give great customer service to real estate clients? It is, after all, one of the most important aspects of your business – if you hope to remain in business.
Agents who provide great customer service build bonds with their clients that lead to long-term relationships. Therefore, the service you provide lies at the heart of your referral pipeline.
If you ever want to know what people like about a situation, ask them what they don't like about it. By removing the negatives you can get really close to the positives.
It didn't take me long to find out what consumers don't consider good service:
For an even bigger eye-opener, attend a Hear it Direct event, or watch some of the videos they post online. In case you aren't familiar with Hear it Direct, it's a company that holds all-day consumer conferences in different parts of the country, interviewing actual real estate consumers.
Let's take a closer look at some of these negatives that seem to be a common lament of many real estate consumers, and turn them into positives.
Are you ready for yet another "Real Estate Agents Suck Because" remark from a real estate consumer?
"I hate when I call and get an automated system or voicemail and not a real person."
According to the California Association of Realtors®' 2012 Survey of California Homebuyers, when deciding which agent to hire to help them purchase a home, most buyers went with the agent who was the "most responsive." An additional 17 percent of those surveyed chose the agent who was the first to respond.
Once the consumer becomes a client, most expect the agent to respond immediately, while many are willing to wait 30 minutes and still consider the response time adequate. Wait any longer than that, however, and you'll be an example of poor customer service.
Only a handful of buyers claim that their agent met their response time expectations, and even worse, only 3 percent of agents exceeded the expectations.
It seems it isn't enough, however, to respond quickly. Most homebuyers expect their agents to use their preferred method of contact. For instance, CAR's study showed that 32 percent of the buyers surveyed expressed a preference for text messaging with the agent. Sadly, only 5 percent of them had agents who respected that preference. Of those that eschew telephone contact – only 14 percent wanted the agent to communicate by phone – 44 percent of their agents ignored that and responded by telephone.
The takeaway from CAR's survey is that agents need to respond as quickly as possible to a client, using their preferred method of contact. That is a big component of great customer service, according to real estate consumers.
Remember the consumer quoted above who was upset that his agent didn't keep in touch with him during the short sale process?
Set up one early evening a week to reach out to your current clients – by phone, email or text. Even if nothing is happening, the fact that you took the time to contact them will be noticed. At the end of the transaction, a happy client is the client who is most likely to to spread the word about your excellent customer service.
In both the CAR survey and other recent studies, real estate consumers bemoaned the fact that either their agents didn't have a great deal of knowledge of the real estate transaction or they didn't adequately share that knowledge.
Unless they are serial buyers or sellers (investors), most real estate consumers don't have a clue about what lies ahead in their transaction. It's important to spend time with them at the very beginning, giving them a course on Selling 101 or Buying 101. Tell them everything:
There are few things more frustrating than speaking to someone and knowing they aren't really listening. Even worse is when they appear to be listening but events down the road show that they weren't.
No matter how busy you are it is vital to stop the chatter in your head, relax, and listen to the person sitting in front of you. Allow your client to relax as well, whether it's in his decision of how much to ask for his home or his desire to look at homes without feeling pressured to make a commitment, give him space.
So, now that you have a few tips on how to provide excellent customer service during the transaction, don't forget that it should extend beyond the sale as well, if you hope to retain the client and everyone in her sphere of influence. Check back in with your client a few weeks after the transaction to see how everything is going.
Henry Ford said, "A business absolutely devoted to service will have only one worry about profits. They will be embarrassingly large."
Here's hoping the few tips you've just read will bring you huge profits that will embarrass the you-know-what out of you!
To view the original article, visit the Market Leader blog.