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Architecture Guide
Cost vs. Value Report
Good Neighbor Awards
Handouts for Customers
Top 100 Companies
Take a Quiz
30 under 30
Young Professionals
REALTOR® Emeritus
| ONLINE DISCUSSIONS INNOVATOR SERIES: CUSTOMER SERVICE ROUNDTABLE Customer service experts from REALTOR® Magazine's November article answer your questions and share their thoughts on how to build stellar customer service into your operations and that will keep your customers coming back. Participants will respond to your questions this month.  |
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your qUESTIONS aNSWERED
Click on the topic links to see questions from other readers, or scroll for the most recent posting.
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PARTICIPATING EXPERTS
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Industry Performance REALTOR® Magazine: What grade does the real estate industry deserve for customer service? Bert Waugh Jr.:Most of the surveys you see on how people think about real estate professionals don’t paint a good picture. We as the brokers are the ones at fault, because we’re still hiring 100 percent of those who get into this business. It takes a beautician 1,700 hours to get a beauty license in Oregon; it takes a sales associate 150 for a real estate license. Yet we’re dealing in the single largest investment that people have. Top Customer Service Mistakes REALTOR® Magazine: Where are salespeople missing the boat? Chip Bell: Not keeping promises. We and others have conducted research showing the No. 1 impact on customer satisfaction is the degree to which you’re reliable, that you can be trusted to keep your promises. So, a big mistake would be making a promise you can’t keep. And I think the other one is that sometimes we forget, in our quest to deliver world-class service, that unless we provide that core requirement — the one thing the customer came to you for — none of the other things matter. You know, if I’m on an airline and the service is terrific but the plane lands in the wrong city, I’m not going to be a happy camper. Bad Reviews REALTOR®Magazine: Is it hard for companies to protect their brand, given the growing number of social media Web sites on which people can be exposed to your company and post complaints? Traci Entel: There’s an analogy here between real estate and the health care industry. The relationship between patient and physician has historically been the most important one in health care, but now there’s a lot of interference with that from the insurance company and the Internet, which has a ton of information for patients. Physicians probably feel the same way as you do. Sure, there’s information out there, but a lot of it might not be accurate. So you have a harder job, one, because patients and customers expect you to know what they know and, two, because you have to reeducate them when they’re misinformed. That’s a hard thing to do, especially at the beginning of a relationship. I would say, rather than fight against the Internet, make it work for you. The same instantaneous communication that can hurt you when you have a dissatisfied customer can help you when your customers have positive stories they want to share. |
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