Great Customer Service – Make it a habit !!
Ok I will get straight to the point. Every week we read or hear about someone in the Property Industry talking about the importance of providing great customer service. Common themes such as “Shape your proposition around the customer”, “make sure you deliver what the customer wants”, “great service will differentiate you from the competition”etc, etc.
Now, don’t get me wrong, having a burning ambition to do all of these things and to execute them properly and efficiently is absolutely right, but why do some commentators make it sound like its special, as though it’s a whole new phenomenon? Great customer service is not a ‘discretionary add on’ that customers pay extra for…it should be standard practice, part of the core proposition. Estate Agency is a service industry.
So let me ask you a question. Who should benefit from providing great customer service?
Before you answer, think about this from a different angle. For example, If I go for dinner to a Michelin star restaurant I know that the customer service will be excellent. But does it give me anything extra, no. Does it give me an advantage, no. Do I enjoy the experience, yes. Do I enjoy the attention, yes. Do I enjoy the whole evening, yes. But its only what I expect anyway so there is no real added benefit to me, nothing extra. However, I will tell people its great, I will share positive highly commendable views with the public and I will be passionate about the service and my experience.
So the real beneficiary of providing great customer service is the restaurant. More bookings, more customers, more revenue, more demand.
So, coming back to the question, who should benefit from providing great customer service? The answer is your business, your Estate Agency, your people and you. Your customer(s) enjoy the experience, the service, the attention, the advice etc but you should benefit from providing great service.
Thinking about customer service in this way will help your staff to deliver a great service to existing and potential customers. It will become the norm and it will be part of the company culture. It will happen all the time, it will be remembered by clients and it will be shared among their friends, their relatives, their work colleagues and it will be talked about. Providing great customer service isn’t discretionary – make it a habit, today
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