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OFFICIAL MAGAZINE OF THE NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS®






 IMPROVING CUSTOMER SATISFACTION

  
Developing A Follow-Up System

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Post Closing Strategies

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Improving Customer Satisfaction
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Broker tip
Building Referrals
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Bright Ideas: Customers for Life
Code Of Ethics: Customers for Life
Quiz:
Customers for Life
More Resources: Customers For Life
  4 Reasons Customers Don’t Come
Back—and Solutions for Keeping Them

1. They forgot about you. Most customers only think about finding a real estate professional when they have an immediate need.

Solution: Provide some sort of contact with past clients on a monthly or bimonthly basis using a variety of newsletters, market-trend reports, holiday cards, and “Just Sold/Just Listed” postcards. In addition, work to establish a brand identity in the market so that your name becomes synonymous with real estate services.

2. They were dissatisfied with your service. You can’t please all the people all of the time, but if the same issue continues to appear on customer satisfaction surveys, you may need to change your approach.

Solution: Ask your broker or a sales associate you respect to role pay with you to evaluate your performance and then provide feedback for improvement. Work with friends to try out new selling approaches.

3. They were dissatisfied with the service provided by another vendor in the transaction. Because people tend to group everyone involved in transaction together in their evaluation, a poor performance by the title company may earn you a negative response.

Solution: Be sure to ask questions about each vendor in your customer satisfaction survey. If certain companies consistently rate low, remove them from your recommended list. Ask other associates for feedback on their experiences with problem vendors; maybe service can be improved by changing the way you work together.

4. They moved to another state. Approximately 19 percent of all moves were out of state in 2002-2003, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

Solution: If a significant percentage of your business comes from relocations, encourage past clients to remain on your mailing list when they move. Relocated clients can be your ambassadors in other markets, all for the expense of a few cards a year.


Tips for Creating Customer Surveys

A well-constructed customer satisfaction survey is the ideal way to learn how to improve your performance and demonstrate your professional commitment to your past clients.

1. Keep it short. Don’t ask more than six to eight questions or it will seem to complicated and time consuming for clients to complete.

2. Use a rating scale (from 1 to 6, for example) to help customers in their evaluation. Survey experts suggest an even-numbered scale gets better results; odd-numbered scales encourage respondents to just choose the middle number.

3. Ask respondents to compare your service to past real estate experiences.

4. Consider developing an online customer survey, especially if your Web site is a major source of business.

5. Leave space at the end so that respondents can add extra comments.

6. Enclose a self-addressed stamped envelope to make returns effortless.

Click the Word icon to launch sample buyer and seller surveys used by Ebby Halliday, REALTORS®, Dallas.
rmotoolkits__buyersur.doc


TIP: If you haven’t been getting a good response rate for your customer surveys, use the professional surveying trick of enclosing a crisp $1 bill as a reward for their efforts along with a stamped self-addressed envelope.

Using Survey Results to Improve Performance

Sandra Hughes, head of the customer VIP Programs at Ebby Halliday, REALTORS®, in Dallas, shares her ideas for using survey results to enhance customer service.

Q: What do you do with returned surveys?

Hughes: We review them first at headquarters to make sure no legal issues are involved and then forward them to individual salespeople via their office managers. Positive surveys get mentioned at weekly sales meetings. Negative ones get discussed between manager and salesperson.

Q: Do you reward good service in any way?

Hughes: Absolutely. The surveys ask customers to rate the service they received on a scale of 1 to 10. At the end of the year, we give out awards to the salespeople who have achieved the highest scores.

Q: How do you handle complaints?

Hughes: We tell salespeople to use complaints as an opportunity to call clients and thank them for their business. Then we ask the client what we can do to correct the problem.

Q: Any other uses?

Hughes: For the last three years, 97 percent of our respondents have rated us as good-to-excellent in terms of overall service. We recently created a flyer touting that fact, which salespeople can put in their listing packets. The surveys also provide us with marketing information. One of the questions we ask is, “Did you move within the Dallas area or come from out of state?” That helps us to know where our business is coming from and what areas we should be targeting.
For the Advanced Salesperson:
Learning More From Your Customer Surveys

DO:
  • Call survey respondents and ask for more details if you receive a “fair” or “poor” rating. Because many people may be reluctant to talk with you, begin your conversation by explaining that you sincerely want to improve your performance and that they would be doing you a favor by being honest.

    Keep It Legal: Some calling activities of real estate professionals need to comply with the requirements of the new National Do-Not-Call Registry after Oct. 1, 2003. Click here to learn more about the registry. If you are unsure about how the new rules will impact your telemarketing activities, it is recommended that you consult with your attorney before taking any action.
  • Give more importance to survey responses from high-end transaction clients and customers who had worked with you before or were referred by past customers. Although you want every customer to be satisfied, your most profitable customers are particularly important.
  • Analyze the surveys to look for patterns along demographics lines. If you see a certain type of comments frequently from one group—such as younger buyers—you may need to adapt your services or presentation accordingly.
  • Use positive survey responses in your marketing efforts, with respondents’ permission.


DON’T:
  • Make judgments based on one survey. Instead, review surveys in groups every three to six months and look for patterns. For example, if response time in returning phone calls is rated as average or below by 15 percent of buyers, you may need to set new standards for yourself and your assistants.
  • Limit your surveying to clients; send a survey to cooperating brokers as well.
 
For the Broker
Instituting Company-Wide Service Improvement
  • Consider sharing the cost of customer-satisfaction surveys with your sales associates. At Ebby Halliday, REALTORS®, in Dallas, the company’s share of the survey is prorated according to the salesperson’s commission split. Thus, if the commission split with a salesperson is 50/50, the salesperson pays for half of the survey costs.
  • Keep survey results in front of sales force. If one or two associates consistently score high on customer service, ask them to talk about their techniques at sales meeting.
  • Analyze the results of all the company’s surveys and look for trends that might require company-wide policy changes.
  • Recognize top service with a company-wide award program.
Building Referrals>