Service, Service, Service – The Key to Building Loyalty

Service, service, service in real estate is one of the keys to longevity, don’t you agree? We do. The fact is, the more you service your customers, the better the customer experience they will have when dealing with you, and the more likely they will be to deal with you again and become a promoter (referring their friends and family to you).

These benefits come from going out of your way, every time, with every customer. Offering   the best service, turning your customers into promoters and building loyalty; that at the end, will result in an overall lower cost of acquisition because your happy customers are out there selling for you.

Great service involves:

·        Knowledge and professionalism

·        Communication – both speaking, and more importantly, listening

·        Technology – using cutting edge tools to expedite the service you provide, more efficiently

·        Speed – getting the job done quickly

·        Measurement – taking the steps to truly understand the service levels you are offering and making a commitment to constantly make them better

Many companies track and measure their customer loyalty using a Net Promoter Score (NPS). NPS can be derived by asking your customers a simple question: on a scale of 1-10, how likely would they be to recommend your services to someone else? 1-6 are your detractors, 7s and 8s are passive, and 9s and 10s are your promoters.

The numbers are clear:

·        Promoters account for 80% of referral business – MIT Sloan Management Review – Micro Economics of Customer Relationships

·        Detractors account for 80% of negative word of mouth – MIT Sloan Management Review – Micro Economics of Customer Relationships

·        On average, a 12 point increase in NPS resulted in the doubling of a company’s growth – Bain and Company

This is an inexpensive model that you, as a real estate sales professional, can adopt to measure your own individual performance. If you gather your clients’ email addresses you can use economical online tools such as Survey Monkey to learn your personal NPS. Also, this sets the stage for you to discover the things that your customers enjoyed about their experience with you and also uncover areas that you can improve in. It is valuable to poll both those customers whose homes you sold or who purchased another through your services, as well as those who were unable to achieve what they wanted.

 

Measuring how your customers felt about their experiences with you is one of the many ways to provide even better service. Another thing that you can do to service, service, service your clients is to look for ways to make the service you provide currently even better.

When looking at ways to make your service that much better, one of the easiest ways to do this is to leverage the tools and technology available to you and also to learn more about new tools and technology available to real estate sales professionals in Ontario. There is essentially an app for every function you can imagine these days. Social media is also a great way to listen in and learn more about what your customers value in a real estate sales professional. The same apps and social tools that you can use to make your services that much better can also be used to market yourself.

For more information about tools that you can use to service, service, service your clients and do more, faster, please check out www.myvimo.ca.