The experience of clients and how they perceive the treatment and professionalism of an agency has grown in importance when it comes to expanding clientele. Today, what was previously called “word of mouth” is now found on the internet in the form of opinions, reviews, ratings, comments… Thus it has become essential that your company is a trusted real estate agency and to build a relationship of trust with clients not only for work ethics but also as a recruitment tool. How can one achieve this?
1. Focus on customer satisfaction
2. Amalgamate tradition + innovation
6. Extra tip: make your satisfied customers ambassadors
It is increasingly important to earn the seal of approval as a trusted real estate agency: yet it is neither a question of being complacent, nor of making the job of buying and selling apartments a long-distance race to see who removes more properties from their portfolio.
A job well done in the real estate world consists of always wanting to offer the best to buyers and sellers. We must ensure that, without eternalizing the processes, each client feels safe in the knowledge that we will cover their specific needs.
The trust placed in a real estate agency is not earned overnight: those that have been in the market for the longest and can offer extensive knowledge of the sector and experience in how to carry out each sales process are the ones at an advantage when it comes to winning over customers.
This does not mean that recently formed agencies cannot compete in this regard, but they must provide a unique selling point that defines them as professionals offering the best to their clients. For example, developing innovative tools that streamline sales processes.
This also applies to traditional companies, which cannot live solely on the income of years of experience in the market. The modernisation process could ,for example, involve implementing virtual tour software that allows each client to visit the properties without the need for prior appointments or travel. In both cases client satisfaction will be enriched.
Whoever wants to sell their property wants to do it quickly, and whoever wants to buy the property of their dreams wishes to move into it as quickly as possible.
In both cases, working with that impatience can lead to dissatisfaction. For example, wanting to showcase flats without rhyme or reason exhausts the client, wastes the agent’s time negates the fact that a more selective search or a way to offer the information of each home to its suitable client would save these common headaches.
In this case again, tools such as virtual 360-degree tours make it easy, without the need for travel, to visit the property “at a distance” and resolve doubts by videoconference. Neither the client nor the agent have to waste hours on something as simple as filtering homes that may or may not be of interest.
WoWould you offer a one-bedroom home to a married couple with expectations of starting a family? We think that these “beginner” errors can be overcome but entering well-established routines and processes when offering and showing apartments can make us fall into the trap of assuming that this filter that we have also applies to the client who requests to see a home.
Finding something that does not fit is the main source of disappointment and, with it, dissatisfaction, so we must not only try to offer the client all the previous means that help them find what they are looking for, but also guide them and advise them. We must ultimately help them find the home of their dreams.
A satisfied client is one who has found the solution to everything they needed in our real estate agency. Therefore, we must have all the resources and essential tools that cover that need.
The process of every real estate client is not as simple as:
I want to buy an apartment -> offer me / find me the one I want
Instead, the process is more like:
I want to buy an apartment ->tell me what you have in your portfolio that would be suitable -> give me access to facilities so that I can inform myself about the properties offered -> I am certain that these fit into my idea of ideal housing -> let’s go see the ones that are likely to pass the filter -> let’s decide which is the best out of all of them -> I wish to buy it-> help me close the transaction.
Those who go to the agency to sell their property want the same process to be carried out, but from their perspective:
I want to sell an apartment -> make it visible to your potential clients -> offer all kinds of resources and facilities to convince a potential buyer -> do everything possible so that whoever visits it, finally stays with it -> facilitate the sale transaction.
In both cases, an effective real estate CRM, a well-designed, attractive housing file with all the possible information at hand, a flexible and well-coordinated visiting schedule, tools that help in the process of conviction, such as virtual tours … are resources that make it easy to meet every need efficiently and quickly and to become a trusted real estate agency.
One of the obstacles that a real estate agency faces is, contrary to what usually happens in other sectors where a satisfied client returns as many times as is necessary, in the case of real estate, the fact that a client probably has a “one way ticket”.
By this we mean that whoever buys or sells a property, probably does it only once in their life, so no matter how satisfied they are, it is most likely that they will not be able to repeat the experience with our real estate agency.
After persistent efforts, we must maximize results beyond the satisfaction of a successful purchase or sale, resorting to the “word of mouth” technique to which we referred to at the beginning. Make sure that they recommend you to not only close friends but to those who need to buy or sell a flat in their circle, -something that will arise naturally if we comply with these 5 key rules. Encourage them to leave a positive review on Google Maps, on real estate sales portals and on opinion forums, etc.
In any case, this is an extra resource to make a well-done job last and be recognisable to those who are looking for a trustworthy real estate agency. But as we have just pointed out, there is no doubt that with positive and persistent efforts and the tools that make a sale possible, this label will come to by itself.