4 Steps to Excellent Customer Service

Excellent Customer Service is the heart of our real estate business and the key to long term success based on referrals and repeat business. Everybody knows that! The question often comes down to the specific how’s of serving those sometimes difficult clients. A recent article from Inman News gives us “4 Steps to Customer Service that Never Let’s Clients Down” and it’s worth a read!

Let’s face it. Dealing with clients is challenging.

Homebuyers are emotional. They see a bedroom painted red and can’t move past the color of an otherwise perfect home. Homesellers are too rational. They need you to elaborate every bit of minutiae in your marketing plans to justify a price decrease.

So how do you provide these two very different groups of people with high-class customer service? It starts with what’s in your heart and what’s in your soul. Here are four ways real estate agents provide better customer Service to both homebuyers and sellers — 100 percent of the time.

It starts with you

To provide great customer service, you first have to want to provide great customer service. Everyone can spot a phony. Clients know when you’re just babbling a bunch of bull.

If you aren’t dedicated to delivering exceptional customer service all of the time in everything you do to everyone you encounter in your real estate career, you won’t have it in your heart and soul to give great customer service. You need to eat, breathe and sleep customer service around the clock.

Exceed, don’t just meet, expectations

Customer service isn’t something you do to meet your client’s expectations. Any average Joe can meet the needs of a client. People who want to give great customer service strive every single time to exceed their client’s expectations. Going above and beyond is the only way to remain relevant to your clients.

If you are working with homebuyers who like craft beer, don’t just show them on a map how close the nearest brewery is to the house. Drive them past the brewery on the way to the showing, then provide them with a growler of the spot’s signature brew when you arrive.

Be mindful — it always wins

Customer service is intentional. You have to be mindful because everything you say has an impact on the people you interact with. When a potential client asks you to do something for him or her, don’t say things like “no problem” or “don’t worry about it.” Elevate your customer service game by saying things like “my pleasure” and “I would be happy to take care of that for you.”

Do it all the time

Great customer service isn’t something you can do just some of the time, most of the time or nearly all of the time. You have to give great customer service all of the time. Clayton Christensen, author of The Innovator’s Dilemma, brings up this point about customer service: It is easier to do things 100 percent of the time than it is to do things 99 percent of the time.

What he meant by this expression is that not giving your best every time is an easy trap to fall into. And if you don’t deliver your best just once, it’s easier to let quality slip again and again.

Thanks, Inman News, for some great tips to keep in mind to make sure we’re delivering our promise of excellent customer service.

David M. Hassler

VP, Professional Development