When it comes to customer service, companies have an entire department dedicated to ensuring the success of their clients’ experience. The wise ones understand that it should never be limited to a single department, but it should permeate throughout your entire company with every single interaction you have with your clients, prospects and anything on the digital sphere. As a real estate agent, positive client interactions are the backbone to longevity in an industry that gives little elbow space.
People remember great customer service – but they’re more prone to sharing negative ones. Don’t be a cautionary tale.
Customer Service is the Holy Grail to Real Estate Agents
“If the company only cares about the bottom line this will be visible in the customer experience.”
Your reputation precedes you. Your brand has been built on the foundation that you get results and offer exceptional service to your clientele. Continue to build on that instead of getting complacent and resting on your laurels.
Sometimes it can be tough to think of the bigger picture, and how these experiences all play into each other. It might be easier to visualize it as a domino effect where an experience, whether positive or negative will trigger a chain like reaction. Ask yourself this: are you comfortable sharing the past 10 clients as references?
Don’t Listen to Reply – Listen to Understand
It’s no surprise that the real estate industry is a competitive landscape, where the client is in the driver’s seat holding all of the cards with an encyclopaedia of options to choose from. Odds are someone guided them in your direction; so you’ve already got an upper hand on your competition, now instil confidence in them so they will pay your services forward.
This is an emotional transaction with a lot on the line and people want to know that someone is in their corner identifying and anticipating their needs. And it all starts with effective listening.
Being Responsive With Your Digital Content
This isn’t in relation to making your content fit every screen (although this is a must in the world of marketing) this is about how quick you are with responding to online sentiment and narrowing the gap between when they engage with your content and when you engage back with them. It’s the art of effective customer service in a digital age.
Phenomenal customer service has become magnified due to the advent of the digital sphere, where customers either vent their frustrations or proclaim their love for the overall experience. Far too often we forget that social media is a place to engage and interact with your audience. If someone takes the time to reach out and comment on your Facebook page, don’t just leave them high and dry – show them some love back!
Offering Unparalleled Customer Service in 5 Steps
Customer loyalty is hard to win and easy to lose. Consider these five elements the steps to customer service success.
- Going Above and Beyond
Are you making yourself available through text, Skype and email? Are you signifying that you can be a helpful resource long after the close? People like the idea that they can reach out to their agents to pick their brain on the state of the market, recommendations for contractors or just general advise on when to start planning to put their house on the market.
Are you aware of their buying or selling timeframe? Is it an investment property? Are they selling to buy? What is their five-year window like? Being motivated for your client means asking these questions so you get a better sense of what their vision is.
You know what they say, if you go above and beyond for your clients – soon you’ll be going above and beyond your competition.
- Don’t “Ghost” Your Clients
There is a popular term among the younger generation called “ghosting.” It’s when someone up and disappears without a trace, completely severing all communications with you. The sad reality is that ghosting isn’t just reserved for the dating scene, it happens all the time in business, especially in real estate where some agents already have their eyes already set on what’s next. A great way to avoid this is to schedule reminder check-ins and to lean on your CRM to capture the tidbits of information that pop up throughout every correspondence. And then after a close, you can avoid the ghosting phase by automating your communications with them so you’re always keeping a pulse alive.
- What are you Doing That Nobody Else Can?
This is the gold standard that every agent should hold himself or herself to: how are you differentiating yourself from your competition?
Put yourself in the shoes of your clients. What are you doing for them to make them feel confident and secure in working with you? What is standing between you and your competition? Are you adapting to your clients’ needs? Hold yourself to a higher standard and ask yourself this question daily.
- Be Sincere
It’s important to make your customers feel important. Everyone wants to feel appreciated and treated with respect – so show them that. You don’t always have to agree with your clients but do take the time to listen to their thoughts, ideas, and opinions so they feel understood. You want them to have good representation during the process, to have a good experience and to be protected. You’re spending so much time together, so it’s important that both parties click.
- Ask for Feedback
Asking for feedback shows that you’re invested in their long-term success and are actively looking for ways to improve the experience with them. Positive feedback teaches you a lot by confirming that what you’re doing is working, and that you should do more of it. And negative feedback shouldn’t be taken personally. Instead, use it as an opportunity to take action, make improvements and strengthen your relationship.
Key Takeaway
The roadmap to positive customer service starts and ends with you – but you don’t have to go it alone. A real estate CRM is your GPS system that helps steer you in the right direction and reorients you when you veer off course.
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