Why your agency should invest in customer service

Exceptional customer service is essential to any successful agency. Every single interaction you or your staff have with your clients - whether they’re landlords or tenants - should help them to achieve their goals and ensure they feel valued - that they’re being treated fairly and appreciated by your agency.

Customer service = customer satisfaction

Customer satisfaction is a trump card in a highly competitive marketplace and, in an age where online reviews and social media reign supreme, it’s essential to proactively provide excellent levels of service to both your landlords and your tenants avoid one disgruntled customer’s irate tweets spreading like business-damaging wildfire.

Friendly, knowledgeable and effective service will build trust with your clients by providing proactive advice to help them meet their goals, as well as reacting to problems quickly and respectfully. Each interaction you have with a customer should be approached as an opportunity to acquire new business, retain an existing client or up-sell additional products and services.

Many agents find by proactively providing exceptional customer service to their tenants and educating them throughout the process on what is required, they need to reactively spend less time answering tenant phone calls to complete the deal. When a problem does arise though, having knowledgeable and empathic staff members who can find a solution quickly, will mean happier customers who return or refer other business.

Your staff need to have the knowledge, power and authority to resolve any issues or complaints as soon as they arise and be versatile enough to think on their feet and deal with whatever situation is thrown at them.

Providing good customer service is an art

The art of providing top-notch customer service is the ability to listen and assess your customer’s goal, query or problem and being able to decide the quickest path to a either achieving that goal or solving their problem. Clear communication skills are a must and great reserves of patience and empathy are essential.

Being able to provide good service and support to your landlords and tenants helps you to build brand awareness, reduce problems by ensuring any friction does not become an issue and lets your clients know any complaints or feedback will be handled properly and professionally. This improves the overall customer journey, reducing churn and bolstering the reputation of your agency.

Good support is an investment - not a cost

Training all of your customer-facing staff to be able to provide exemplary service and support shouldn’t be viewed as a cost - good customer service can help your agency grow and prosper. Customer retention is far less expensive than customer acquisition, and customers who feel valued and successful in achieving their goals are far more likely to stay with an agency whose staff provides a friendly, adept and consistently high standard of service.