How much could you lose to online agents through complacency?
I believe that perception is everything and at the moment estate agents are having to deal with the perception that some of them don’t give a good enough service and that because of this the public’s expectations are low.
What does this mean? Well in my experience when people believe that the majority are giving bad service and can’t be bothered they will go for the cheapest version of that bad service they can find.
My company has just completed a mystery shop campaign to over 500 agents. The results were interesting to say the least. Over 60% of people we spoke to responded to our enquiry by asking “what’s your budget” followed by quite incredibly?” Have you got anything to sell?”
Of course I understand how vital it is to capture that information however firstly no one wants to be asked their budget before they have been engaged or treated like a client rather than another irritant to get rid of because “we are busy”
It’s quite incredible to me that not 45 seconds after taking or making a call the negotiator is asking if you have a property to sell.
This is the most selfish question ever adds no value to the customer who remember was enquiring to buy and leaves a very nasty taste. Why not find out where they live at present, what’s prompted them to move to ***** and find out more about them. If you do that and then ask what they are intending to do with their current home you have more chance of having a business conversation rather than a tick box registration.
If we are just “registering” customers then they might as well go to an online agent who are in some cases very clear about how little they will do(we mystery shopped them as well)
We need to be adding value at every stage. Do our customers know that if they go online they will probably be dealing with sales progression themselves; Are they aware that they are talking to a faceless person in a call centre who could not and cannot tell them where the nearest doctor, dentist, school, or the A&E is. Of course not but if we don’t add that value if we are not calling our tenant on his/her first day in the property ( too many agents say I don’t want to do that it opens a can of worms) to welcome them home and ask for a review and a referral then we will fail
How can we expect to survive the on rush of online agents if we don’t up our game? We have to deliver world class customer service to everyone and if you have an issue with negotiators saying they don’t have enough time to “be nice” on the phone then something is very wrong.
Our estate agent clients are finding that by constantly reinforcing a culture of world class service they can not only stay ahead of the game but can also drive forward
Boyd Mayover is the Co Founder of The Sales Doctor a training company that has helped over 540 negotiators in 2015/2016 improve conversion rates, gain great reviews and boost profits. 0208 906 6725 www.salesdoctors.co.uk boyd@salesdoctors.co.uk
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