According to data from the National Institute of Statistics, 10.9% more homes were sold in Spain during the first half of 2018 than in the same period the year before. This data gives us clues about the good health of the sector but, so much optimism should not make us instantly confide in agencies. Constantly improving their services and how they reach their clients is the best way to ensure that the positive current is in their favour or that, in the event of a change in trend, it does not affect their client portfolio. How can you improve the services of your real estate agency?
5 tips to improve customer service in your real estate agency
INDEX:
2. Appropriate the real estate CRM
3. Develop real estate tools and software
5. Do not be ambiguous with the information provided
1. 24-hour attention
This does not mean that you have the agency’s shutters open day and night, but that, as far as possible, you have tools that allow you to attend to your real estate clients at any time and improve the services of your agency.
During the day, establishing contact through Whatsapp with the agents’ company mobiles facilitates the management of appointments with clients and the answering of doubts that may help to close a sale, etc.
During non-working hours, automated chats, auto-answer emails or a section for common doubts, questions and answers, etc., can help to resolve issues on the spot increasing the satisfaction of the service.
2. Regulate the real estate CRM (Customer Relationship Management)
Data management in the property must be effective and accessible to each agent in a timely manner. When a client comes to us looking for a specific property, we must be able to find the right ones at the right time, and not waste their time showing them other properties that do not fit their profile.
Therefore, having a CRM where any agent has the appropriate permissions to access the data of the properties that fit each profile (capturing other options that do not apply such as accounting and administration), is ideal for each client who visits our real estate, receiving the information (and thus the attention) they deserve.
3. Develop real estate tools and software
A good CRM is not everything when it comes to tools that improve customer service: every innovation, every programme that helps the client to see their needs resolved in the shortest possible time, will help to improve the appreciation that they have of your property.
This applies, for example, to how properties are presented, whether on our website or on real estate portals. Having a virtual tour software that speeds up how to view each property and even reduce the time and number of unproductive visits (with no necessity to travel or stay an hour to visit it and get a first impression) greatly improves the client’s perception of our services.
4. Acquire specialised staff
The high turnover and the perception that agents are more than agents, but also opportunists are two of the factors that produce the worst results for customer satisfaction. Therefore, if instead of having a staff fully dedicated to filling their appointment schedules, we free them from the time invested in these visits with time dedicated to better services, the client will get what they need from each one of them.
And how do we manage to free up all that time needed for better service? By ensuring that every appointment is made because there is a high level of interest in the property, which ensures that clients have seen it in detail beforehand through a virtual tour of the homes.
5. Do not be ambiguous with the information provided
Retouched photos, defining a top floor with hardly any light coming in as a ‘luminous penthouse’, counting pantries or rooms as bedrooms… This information coming from the property’s file that seems to help attract clients initially becomes not only a waste of time for the agent and the visitor, who are disappointed with what they see in reality, but also a source of dissatisfaction that gives off a very bad image of the real estate agency.
Therefore, we should not hesitate to use sources of information such as photos, location plans, videos, the aforementioned virtual tours, etc., which help to show each property as it is, with a careful image that will not drive the client away either but with enough realism to correspond with what the they will actually see.
In short, the techniques to improve the services of your real estate agency are very much in line with the techniques to sell more properties: no more sales are made disguising reality or hiding information, they are only achieved in greater numbers through the better attention and service we offer to the client.
