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Customer experience vs customer service in real estate

Posted by Dominic Hoskins - 20 July, 2014

The perception that "great customer service is enough" is no longer valid in today's market; providing the status quo is not enough to be successful—or even remain in business, in some cases.

What you'll learn in five minutes:

  • The Difference Between Experience and Service
  • Customer Experience - The 5 Core Criteria to follow
  • Not All People, the Right People
  • Love your People
  • Customers have a (Loud) Voice
  • Beginning to end.

 

Read more: Fuelling the CX flywheel: the secret to sustainable growth [Free Guide]

 

HOUSE

The difference between experience and service

We have evolved from valuing good customer service to now desiring, and paying a premium for, an exceptional customer experience.

Customer service is the personal service we offer—our one-on-one contact with the customer. Customer experience, on the other hand, includes every touch point the customer has with your brand.

This includes the customer's experience with your website, from how quickly you respond to their inquiries and questions, through to your staff response and ability to offer solutions; as well as how they emotionally connect to you on all channels including Facebook, Twitter and other multimedia or social media channels you manage.

In other words, the full customer experience is how you make them feel every step of the way when connecting to your brand.

 

5 core criteria to follow:

1. Experience culture

You must provide a culture where employees thrive by virtue of providing an exceptional customer experience.

Being in the business of selling real estate, for example, agents do not typically outline their core service is "selling Real Estate." Most would prefer to claim they offer the home seller or buyer a 5-star experience. This 'experience culture' is felt by the consumer—and it is this culture that attracts consumers.

 

2. Not all people; the right people

You must be very selective with your recruitment.

Team members and employees must adopt the same core values, culture, ability and commitment to provide a high standard of customer experience.

"The biggest problem with the real estate industry is that we hire anybody". Recruiting needs to done by the real estate agency instead of being outsourced to a recruiting company.

Only those who match your culture and your 5-star customer experience philosophy should be employed.

 

3. Love your people

Treat all customers exceptionally—employees are customers too.

Have a "two-customer" philosophy. This means consider your employees as customers, as well as the consumer. If you take care of your employees, your customer will be taken care of.

Both the agent (and staff) and the consumer are the customer of the company. The consumer and the company both are customers of the agent (and staff). We are all customers of one another and treat each other as such.

 

4. Customers have a (loud) voice

Unearth customer feedback—uncover customer pain.

To access and manage this customer feedback, a proven, powerful customer loyalty metric designed to measure the satisfaction and loyalty of a businesses customer base is essential.

What's important is to listen to our customers and act on what they say. You can't keep everyone happy but if you are able to listen to what your customers have to say and respond quickly, you will be able to neutralise any negative feedback and many times turn it the other way around.

 

5. Beginning to end

Integrate your company brand name, webpage, Facebook, Twitter, and other social and multi-media services you provide.

This is where it all comes together. A customer experience is in every location that the consumer intersects with your brand, from the very beginning through to the very end. Look at every touch point and work to produce consistency across all channels and an exceptional customer experience with each and every interaction.

 

Exceed Customer's Expectations

A 5-star mindset means disdain for anything mediocre and common in the real estate industry.

 


Conclusion

Customer experience will become the powerful weapon in your competitive arsenal on the battlefield because it is so important to today's consumer and because it is so difficult to consistently deliver.24/7 lifestyles require 24/7 service, beginning to end.

And, for those of us who live or die by referrals, 4-star "exceeding expectations" won't create the customer loyalty we depend on. Only through a new 5-star standard where the customer feels amazed, delighted and uncommonly cared for, will they become our raving fan. 

Customer Monitor's customer experience measurement platform, provides Net Promoter Score measurements across the business and makes it easy for you to segment your customer feedback. This allows you to set and measure KPIs in the business as well as understand key areas of strength, weakness and improvements which could be made.

 


Learn more about the power of providing stellar customer experience with our free ebook, available below.

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Topics: Customer Experience


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