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Tag: RealEstate

We Have A Bad Reputation

Geeky Girls | Tuesday, October 16th, 2012 | No Comments No Comments
[ Industry | Marketing Tips ]

RePosted with permission from http://TheGeekyGirls.com 

By Laurie Davis

Real estate agents have a bad reputation. In a 2012 Gallop poll asking to rate the honesty and ethical standards of people in different fields, Real Estate Agents landed just above Lawyers and below Bankers….  don’t know about you but that just doesn’t sit well with us. We recently answered a few questions about reputation along with a few of our friends and it’s clear, there is an elephant in real estate’s living room…

Reputation is a hard thing to fix. It takes a lot of work to overcome a widespread poor impression held by the public. The first step is to provide exceptional service, but to do that you have to know what the consumer really wants. The only way to know is to ask if the service you provide is meeting their needs and expectations. We may be afraid to hear the answers, but if we aren’t providing what they need, isn’t it better to know? If we can make adjustments and become better at what we do, we can stop perpetuating the bad reputation. Listening to consumer panels at events like Hear it Direct andInman Connect has given us a few ah-ha moments.

“The way to gain a good reputation is to endeavor to be what you desire to appear”. – Socrates.

Next, managing reputation and knowing what people are saying about you is important – now more than ever. Every consumer has a voice and an audience in this digital age. If you ask for feedback and then listen – you may be able to avoid a bad review or comment in a place that you have no control over. There are so many review sites on the internet… how do you even begin to get a handle on it? We started using RealSatisfied about a year ago. It has given us a way to monitor how we are performing. Our clients are able to tell us the good, the bad and the ugly – and it gives us the opportunity to fix what went wrong. The best part is we have easily gotten a lot of great testimonials as a part of the RealSatisfied process that we now can display – on our own sites and on some of the review sites.

It seems that the key in all of this is communication. Asking, listening and then responding in a positive constructive way. Recently the question was asked in one of our favorite Facebook groups,Raise the Bar, “When there are “problems” on transactions, what, in your experience, is the number one cause of those problems?”. The answers all boiled down to one thing…. a break down in communication. Communication is the most important thing in any relationship…. why would the relationship with your clients be any different? So let’s stop tip toeing around that elephant and start doing something about it….


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How to Set up a Customer Satisfaction System without the Hassle – Real Estate Broker example

Chris Drayer | Tuesday, July 17th, 2012 | No Comments No Comments
[ How to | Marketing Tips ]

 Adele Berenstein,  a retired Customer Satisfaction Executive with over 41 years experience at IBM wrote the following post on her blog.  http://www.satisfactionsecrets.com  She is a valuable resource and consultant in big business and was very kind to allow us to repost her article here.   She has no affiliation with RealSatisfied.

Buying or selling a home is a major financial transaction for all concerned. Picking an agent to list with or an agent to help find a home is a decision that often involves word of mouth recommendations. As a result, it is very important for a broker to monitor it’s customer satisfaction ratings for its agents and for the broker as a whole.

In an earlier blog post about how to easily create a customer satisfaction survey, I covered many tools available to do your own survey or poll for your business. But there is more to a customer satisfaction system, than just the questions in a survey. In that post I talk about elements you need to consider when evaluating a survey tool? It still takes work to set up a customer satisfaction system. But what if there were services you could buy that were geared to your industry that provided a whole system, and would eliminate the hassle of setting up your own and running and managing it.

I recently came across a Real Estate example of a system called RealSatisfied, currently in place in Australia, the US and Canada with plans to rollout in the UK and New Zealand. It provides a system for customer satisfaction for broker who many have multiple real estate agents working for them.  The system is provided as a service and does not require hardware and software installations within the broker’s IT shop.

Elements of a Customer Satisfaction System:

“Management can use the results to train both new and existing agents and share best practices.”

1. A survey questionnaire geared to the type of transaction just completed and customizable to show the broker’s logo and the agent’s name and picture.  Real Satisfied has three types of surveys for brokers:

a. Seller Satisfaction

b. Buyer Satisfaction

c. Lost Listing (why a seller did NOT list with the broker after a proposal by an agent)

2. A method to send out surveys to the target audience.

3. Reporting that provides results back to management and optionally to the agent who is being rated.

a. Individual Surveys

b. Aggregated surveys for each agent over time

c. Comparisons of agents within the broker’s firm

d. Comparison of agents and brokers with industry norms.

e. Reports on different topics, such as overall satisfaction, performance across multiple elements of the service provided, recommendation rating (would you recommend this agent) and testimonial return rate (clients are asked if they would be willing to provide a testimonial).

f. Number of surveys sent out and the return rate.

g. Customer requests for management escalation about the service they received.

A customer satisfaction system, such as the one provided by Real Satisfied, allows a Realtor to evaluate itself against others in the industry, and to manage each of their agents. The agents also benefit. They can view where they are doing well and where they need to improve. Management can use the results to train both new and existing agents and share best practices.

There are other organizations the provide agent ratings such a RatedAgent.com, Zillow, Redfin and others that can provide a consumer with ratings for individual agents or sites like NeighborCity that help someone find an agent  but Real Satisfied takes the hassle out of setting up and managing a customer satisfacton system within RealEstate.

If you know of other customer satisfaction systems like this for the Real Estate industry or any other industry, share it in the comments section below.

Note: Real Satisfied also provides a customer satisfaction system for Property Managers to measure customer satisfaction of Landlords and Tenants.

photo by: anoldent
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Reece & Nichols Launches Customer Satisfaction Program

Chris Drayer | Wednesday, May 9th, 2012 | No Comments No Comments
[ In the News | Industry | Success Stories ]

Reece and Nichols Real Estate in Kansas CityKansas City, MO. Leading Kansas City area real estate brokerage Reece and Nichols is among the first in the nation to launch a program to collect consumer feedback on transactions performed by their company and its REALTORS.

There is an emerging trend among service companies to measure customer satisfaction. Companies like Yelp have provided this type of service for restaurants and other industries. Reece and Nichols have chosen real estate industry specialist RealSatisfied to power their program.

“RealSatisfied is integrating with Reece and Nichols to help us better listen to our customers. Reece and Nichols is the #1 real estate company in Kansas City, and we want to continue to deliver a remarkable home buying and selling experience in the future,” said Linda Vaughan, President of Reece and Nichols. “The ability to measure our performance allows us to better refine our services, education and tools.”

The RealSatisfied API integration enables an automated survey process that is easy to use. “In our beta test office, the surveys performed very well with an exceptional response rate generating testimonials and useful feedback.” The feedback survey data is compiled and used to generate easy-to-use reports and trend analysis for agents, brokers, and management.

The partnership was announced Monday in Overland Park, Kansas at Reece and Nichols’ Spring Company-wide meeting.

About Reece and Nichols Realtors
Reece & Nichols Realtors is committed to creating and delivering a remarkable home buying and selling experience. Clients are offered a seamless transaction through its family of services that include Plaza Mortgage, Kansas City Title and Reece and Nichols Insurance. Reece & Nichols is a partner with HomeServices of America, the second largest real estate company in the United States and an Affiliate of Berkshire Hathaway. Reece Commercial, founded in 2009, is a subsidiary of Reece & Nichols. It provides sales and leasing services in the office, industrial, land and retail sectors.

About RealSatisfied
RealSatisfied created the first easy-to-use customer feedback system for real estate brands. Agents, brokers and real estate companies can compare their performance versus an office and national benchmark at a glance. In-depth reports are generated in real time for managers to use in coaching and education. RealSatisfied launched in the US in January 2012 and was founded in Australia.

Contact Reece and Nichols: Patty Nizzi VP 913.266.5676 PNizzi@reeceandnichols.com
Contact RealSatisfied: Chris Drayer CMO 816.679.3787 Chris@RealSatisfied.com

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Press Release written and posted originally by RETechnology 

Reece and Nichols logo used with permission of Reece and Nichols

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Let them Swear: In Search of Negative Feedback

Chris Drayer | Thursday, April 5th, 2012 | 2 Comments 2 Comments
[ In the News | Marketing Tips ]

I want to hear from my most angry clients.

Angry clients tell everyone but you.

Angry clients tell everyone but you.

In fact I want them to yell, rant and swear at me.  Just say it.  Tell me what went wrong, tell me why you wont work with me again. Tell me where to go.

If they are deeply emotionally charged – I want to have them tell it to my face.    Perhaps I really deserved it.

The problem is that less than 10% of your upset clients will ever tell you directly.

Instead, your name and your brand get pummeled and you lose repeat business and referrals.   How can I respond and mitigate damage if I don’t know?

Things that don’t get measured, don’t get changed.

Join Chris Drayer  Thursday April 12th in the RETSO Lab at 11:30 for “In Search of Negative Feedback”

“Your most unhappy customers are your greatest source of learning” – Bill Gates

photo by: Lazurite
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How Dynamic Surveys Encourage More And Better Testimonials

Geeky Girls | Wednesday, April 4th, 2012 | 1 Comment 1 Comment
[ Industry | Marketing Tips | Success Stories ]

The Geeky Girls are RealSatisfied…. and we love saying that! We have been using RealSatisfied to get feedback from our clients for several months now and we have been very pleased with the results.

Your customers may hear you - but can you hear them?

Using RealSatisfied last month I received this awesome testimonial:

“Laurie Davis was a vital reason our move from Fayetteville to Pinehurst via Ocean Isle Beach was a smooth transition with very little stress. We were confident that she had our best interests always in mind and kept us up to date and fully informed on any and all situations promptly by computer. We are still amazed at her efficiency in expediting all the transactions without our having to run up and down the highway to close a sweetheart deal in purchasing our perfect home. We are so pleased to be here and credit Laurie Davis with our sense of well-being throughout the move. When there was a need for quick action she called immediately with necessary information and always kept us updated, She is a real asset to Keller-Williams.”                             —–Dick and Raye Hensdale

RealSatisfied has given us a way to simply and easily ask our clients if they think we did a great job. The surveys are well thought out and  give clients the opportunity to respond without having to figure out what they need to talk about.

Here’s  the bonus….The surveys are dynamic.  As they complete a survey, RealSatisfied determines if they are upset or satisfied.  They can choose to write a testimonial if satisfied, or ask for additional help if upset.  This Feedback is important to growing our business.

How you ask for feedback is important. Often when you just ask a client directly for a testimonial they are not quite sure what to say, but after completing the survey they have had a reminder of all the things you did for them throughout the transaction. It’s much easier for them to put their experience into words.

We also love the “Lost Listing Presentation” survey. While  none of us like to hear we didn’t do something as well as we could have, it is a great opportunity to learn and improve. Hopefully after a few times you won’t even have the need for this survey!

We’ve found RealSatisfied to be a useful tool in our real estate business and think you will too. Give it try – it’s free for brokers and agents  for 30 days (and who doesn’t love free?).

photo by: DuReMi
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