What’s The Best Customer Service Experience You’ve Ever Had?

by Greg Vincent, on 31st October, 2009 • 4 Comments

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I enjoy asking people this question because it often takes their mind back to a really happy moment in their life & normally the experience isn’t something that has come directly from a company as such. It’s normally something a staff member has gone out of their way to do.

I’ve experienced a lot of great customer service over the years, but there is one customer service experience that I’ve had that just stands out head & shoulders above the rest.

We were holidaying in Whistler, Canada and staying at the Delta Whistler Hotel to enjoy our first ever White Christmas .

My wife Annette & I wanted to make everything just right for our daughters Natasha & Katelin, so we made sure that we booked a room with an open fireplace so Santa Claus could come down the chimney.

I must say that the whole town of Whistler was like something out of a Fairy Tale, but what happened back at our hotel needed to be seen to be believed.

Everything was decorated magnificently, the restaurant had a beautiful miniature Christmas display that was breathtaking & kept Natasha & Katelin mesmerized for ages.

On Christmas Day they had one of Santa’s helpers downstairs giving out presents & they even put on a special show with Barney the Dinosaur (who was bigger than The Wiggles at the time). We were all having the time of our lives.

But the best part about our whole experience was something special that one of the staff at the hotel did for us.

We were down in the foyer, heading out to dinner with friends, when all of a sudden 3 blokes walked into the hotel with a huge Christmas Tree. It was obvious that they were guests of the hotel & that they were taking the tree up to their room.

The tree had only just been cut because there was snow dripping off the branches onto the foyer carpet & was so big that they had difficulty getting it to fit into the lift. It was really funny to watch them squeezing up against the tree so they could all fit into the lift & get the doors to close at the same time.

Seeing these guys struggling with the tree made me realise that we didn’t have a Christmas Tree in our room. So we walked up to the Concierge & asked if they knew of anywhere that we could get a tree or even a branch of a pine tree for our room.

He said they didn’t know where to get a tree or a branch but he’d see what he could do.

We then went off to dinner with our friends & didn’t think any more about the tree…until we got back to our room from dinner to find a fully decorated Christmas Tree, with lights flashing, lighting up our room.

We were blown away…

It was the icing on the cake for our White Christmas holiday & I’ll never know how they got the tree in our room or where it came from.  And, if you think about it, the hotel probably had lots of Christmas Decorations sitting in a box in storage or they could have taken the Christmas Tree from somewhere else in the hotel,  but none of that mattered in our eyes. All that mattered was that they went to the extra effort to do that for us & it made us feel special.

And because they did that for us, we’ve told lots of people about this experience & won’t hesitate to stay there again in the future.

How to have customers raving over your service?

Now in analysing the experience, when booking our holiday we had an in-built expectation for a certain level of service from this company, but in the end it was the great customer service delivered by one of their people within the company that left the greatest lasting impression.

As a real estate agent, your clients will all have differing opinions about the level of service they expect from you & your company, whilst it is vitally important that you deliver on your promises, doing that little something over & above is the thing that will have your customers raving about you.

There are lots of things that you can do to impress customers.

There are lots of things that you already do that probably go unnoticed that you can be made to appear more obvious to your customers. You need to leave footprints or evidence of service in your day-to-day activities. (eg. the hotel cleaners don’t just put a new toilet roll in the holder, they fold the end of the paper to make sure the customers know that it’s new.)

If you want to generate more business,I recommend that you have a brainstorming session with your team about customer service.

Ask each member to share their best customer service experience & what made it the best ever customer service experience for them.

Then come up with a few simple ideas about leaving evidence of service or doing something above & beyond what the customer expects. And then start implementing them one after the other into your business.

Remember your customers like nice surprises. So make sure they are simple, easy to implement & come as a complete surprise to the customer.

Please feel welcome to share the best customer experience you’ve ever had underneath this article.

Alternatively, if there’s something that you currently do that is totally unexpected & WOW’s your customers GenYre readers would love to read them & get some fresh ideas.

Posted via web from jasonrose’s posterous

If only I’d done that right from the start….

by Dave Skow, on 28th October, 2009 • No Comments

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Setting the right habits from the beginning of your career can make a world of difference for a sales agent.

Those who have been in the industry a long time know just how all-consuming and exhausting real estate can be. There’s always a danger of burning out.

So rather than have you say, “If only I’d done that right from the start”…., I thought I’d share 6 Success Tips to help you move forward faster.

1. Switch On & Switch Off

The most important habit for sales agents to adopt is time-management. At the beginning of their career, sales agents are generally very ambitious and enthusiastic, so much so that some don’t take the time to relax at all. Working 14 hour days, six and a half days a week isn’t a healthy way to make it big. There needs to be a balance between striving to be successful and having time out.

Most agents conduct open house inspections on Saturdays, meaning that Sunday really is the day of rest. However is this enough? Why not set aside a few hours on a Wednesday afternoon to swing the nine iron around the golf course? Or unwind on the couch with a good book? It is hard to do, but this balance is essential to assuring longevity in the sales field.

2. Set daily and weekly work plans – and stick to them!
Sit down and work out your most dollar productive activities. Then set aside time per day and per week for that task.

We all know that the key to success in a new sales person’s career is prospecting, however, it’s also perhaps the most loathed activity they undertake. Having time set aside every day to complete prospecting is vital. Similarly, maintaining contact with current clients and customers, as well as all those who grace our database will ensure happy vendors and purchasers and referrals falling over themselves to get to you.

Or how about trying this: turn off the ‘new message’ indicator on your email program and limit yourself to checking your inbox twice a day (unless of course you know something important is there waiting your perusal).

3. Keep your own personality
Most established agencies have set strategies, often in the form of scripts and dialogues, which ensure agents’ compliance in anything they say to the public and are aimed at giving them the confidence to converse with consumers.

The danger, though, is for new sales agents to stick so closely to the script that they sound fake.

People can spot a fake a mile away. One of the most persistent comments I hear from friends and family after dealing with agents, particularly those new to the profession, is how robotic they can tend to come across.

While I am a big advocate for the use of these scripts, far too many new agents lack the personality behind the message they put across. Instead of harnessing a positive approach to begin building rapport, they shoot off these lines as though it’s the thousandth time the phrases have come out of their mouths that day.

The relationship between client and agent is as important as the actual products and services on offer. It is imperative that, from the first meeting, trust and confidence is attained. By simply finding a common ground with the client, agents can go a long way to achieving this.

4. Build your database and nurture your contacts
One of the biggest regrets many sales agents have is not getting to work on building a database from the very start of their career.

Whether it is on flashy computer programs or by using a card filing system, everyone with whom you do business or meet during prospecting needs to be recorded for appropriate follow up and action.

Even before commencing a career, agents should sit down and really think about all the people they have any relationship with. From friends and family right through to the dentist you have been visiting every 12 months since you were five, everyone with whom you deal is a potential client or customer.

Once this list is created, an introductory letter announcing the big career change should be mailed to this list. You have now planted the seed. But in order for the seed to grow and for the plant to bear fruit, it needs feeding by way of regular contact. This could be through monthly newsletters, regular phone contact or occasionally calling on your contacts face-to-face.

Follow up is also vital. As a benchmark, agents should aim to make at least 75% of their turnover as a result of referrals and repeat business within the first three years in the industry. To achieve this, it is imperative to remain the only name that comes into your past clients’ minds when they think of real estate agents. This is easily achievable, not only by maintaining contact, but also through simple gestures like settlement gifts, tokens on the anniversary of their sale or purchase, and by offering them advice about the state of the local market before they even think of asking.

New agents also need to create a network of ‘people of influence’. These can be anyone from bankers, financiers, builders, tradespeople and solicitors. Meeting on a scheduled basis, say once a month, can go a long way to building relationships within the group. Together, you form a super-power of providers of property services and can assist each other not only through referrals, but also through the wealth of knowledge that the network possesses.

5. Develop your image
Traditional newspaper advertisements and brochures are still extremely useful in profile building, but the innovative agents know the importance of doing more than just this.

Your name needs to be everywhere, on your signboards, billboards, local television and radio.  And even more than this, in this day in age, social networking has a huge role to play in your image (but I’ll leave the finer points of this technology to other experts like  Greg Vincent).

However, agents need to be mindful of how they may be perceived. If you think you are God’s gift to real estate and you like to flaunt it, you probably come across as arrogant and people will avoid contact with you.

On the flip side, if you are too lax in your attitude towards your abilities as a sales agent, people will probably see you as not interested and lacking enthusiasm and drive. It is a fine line to tread, but one that is essential in order to build a flourishing client base.

6. Increase your knowledge
It’s also important to keep improving your skills and knowledge through training.

With access to information so freely available to consumers, agents have never had to be more on the ball than they do now. Statistics show that purchasers spend 34 days researching on the internet before making any kind of initial contact with an agent. Some look for a particular type of property in a particular area for months before purchasing.

Make sure you know what’s happening within your area. Keep an eye on new listings coming onto the market & research sales happening in your area. It’s extremely important that you are able to share up-to-date, relevant information with your clients so you can become seen as the expert in your area.

Agents should also be allocating approx. 10% of their income to professional development – whether that be through conferences and seminars, subscribing to organisations who offer continuous learning material or through the local business networks. As the old saying goes, ‘Knowledge is power’ and agents need to possess all they can to keep at the top of their profession and remain a step ahead of the competition.

Posted via web from jasonrose’s posterous

His day job is with Brisbane Property Managers Rental Express as there Operations Manager and operates a Brisbane Real Estate Auctioneer company Auction Dynamics. Other interests include www.becomeanauctioneer.com.au a website resource for Real estate Auctioneers & is developing a Internet Marketing Business.

Jason is married to his wife Regina and has a 4 year old daughter Deeka.

They live in the Western Brisbane suburb of Indooroopilly.

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