 | | Marketing your brokerage Enhancing Customer Service | | ||
|  Setting Marketing Strategies Analyzing the Business Climate Creating Your Market Identity Planning Your Advertising Coordinating Company and Salesperson Marketing Developing Public Relations Strategies Enhancing Customer Service | Customer Feedback Surveys: The Key to Customer Satisfaction What’s the surest way to improve your customer service? Experts agree: ask customers what they think. Use these two sample surveys—one from franchise Century 21 in Parsippany, N.J., and one from Coldwell Banker Pelican Real Estate in Lafayette, La. Forms originally appeared in “What Info Do You Need from Customers?” REALTOR® Magazine Online, October 1999 TIP: Give all salespeople copies of the survey and a return, postage-paid envelope to distribute to customers. Or have the company send out surveys and then share the results with sales associates. Having the surveys sent to you will not only you help improve overall company service, but assist you in monitor the performance of individual associates.—Michael H. Bedsworth, “11 Ways to Improve Service Now,” in Real Estate Today®,February 1995 TIP: Don’t do surveys and ignore the results. If you see patterns of complaints—more than one—develop a specific plan to improve that service. Tips for Making Surveys More Effective
TIP: Phone surveys can cost two or three times the amount of a mailed survey, but will produce faster results. According to West Group Research, a five-minute phone survey of 400 participants would cost approximately $6,000.
Portions adapted from William Keenan Jr., “Customer Satisfaction Surveys Miss the Mark,” Industry Week, March 20, 2000 | |