Wonder What Are Your Clients Thinking? Survey Them

Make Customers for Life by Asking

As our property management companies become so dependent on technology for communication, we sometimes lose that personal touch. The importance of excellent, genuine customer service in generating and maintaining healthy, profitable business is lost as we shoot a text or an email to our clients and tenants.

This can sometimes lead to misunderstandings and, as we all have experienced, an angry and impulsive Yelp Reviewer. We all say we try to offer amazing service. Sadly, the majority are only doing half of what is required.

To give great customer service, you must know what your clients need, want, expect, deserve and demand. How do you find that out? The simple answer is to survey them. I am surprised when people admit they don’t survey their clients, or that they have done it in a limited manner.

After college, and before my venture into real estate, I worked at Intel Corporation. Working in business development for a large company gave me insight into how important it is to understand the feelings and feedback of customers and employees. As we were always striving to do better and to stay focused on customers’ needs, surveys were the norm.

Surveying shouldn’t just include those who will spend money with you — what about the people that work for you? First, survey the most important people — your staff. Once you have discovered the issues, needs, and challenges they are having, you can then fix or attempt to take actions to solve them. Your staff will be happy, committed, and supportive of any changes that need to be implemented.

You can then use a survey program for your clients. The results can be quite eye opening! Clients may think, ‘No one else has done this — these people obviously care about their business, so we’ll give them our other properties to manage, as well, or let their friends and fellow investors know — that is key!

Survey Programs

This is really important. Do not rush and do a one-time survey without anyone knowing the results — it will mean nothing. Make sure to make this an ongoing project. Perhaps survey twice a year, to really see if your improvements are being felt by your clients.

These are some suggested steps to follow:

Send the survey.

“We would like to give you the best customer service possible and, to do that, we need your advice/help.” Once you have received the responses (you can increase the number by offering incentives and/or phoning clients and offering to take details over the phone for those who feel they don’t have time to complete the survey), then thank your entire database for their feedback and suggestions — not just the respondents.

Advise them of the outcome and give the exact date.

This is so important! If people are surveyed and they never find out what happened, they will never bother to complete the survey again and your quest to show you care will be lost. Even though you felt you were doing a good thing

Advise them of the next survey (maybe in three or six months).

Give them the exact date the next survey will go out, so they will be able to tell you if service has improved as a result of their suggestions, making them an integral part of the whole process. The added benefit is that, along the way, you will build a perception that you can be trusted and that you always keep your promises.

If you can turn a one-time buyer into a client for life, a couple of things happen and all of them are good.

1. Your income goes up. People have a reason to do business with you.

2. They stay with you longer. Acquiring customers is always expensive! Direct mail, online marketing, buying leads, etc., can really cost you. If you take care of your existing customers, they have fewer reasons to leave you.

3. That loyalty builds a barrier to competition. If you have done a good job taking care of your customers, it is going to be difficult for your competition to lure them away.

4. It is easier to get customers to stay with you, and if you sell homes, maybe they will buy more properties for you to manage, or have you sell the homes they have. Providing and focusing on service for life is important!

Seems like common sense right? Develop customers for life — acknowledge what is important to them and show them you care about their opinions. Make “customers and clients for Life” and improve, simplify your business.

Current editions of the award-winning Residential Resources magazine is sent eleven times a year to members. Join NARPM to receive all of the benefits of membership and receive current editions.

Residential Resources: September 2016 Issue: Volume 27, Number 9