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Tag: Survey

You Don’t Always Want a Client Testimonial

Chris Drayer | Thursday, April 25th, 2013 | No Comments No Comments
[ Marketing Tips ]

“Always ask for a testimonial, because you never know who will give you one.”

IMG_0807Perhaps you’ve heard this line of thinking before. It’s motivational, something you’d hear from a stage somewhere. It’s designed to get you beyond the fear of asking for a testimonial.  But it’s has a critical flaw.

Beneath the strategy of how to ask, lies a much deeper root issue. And it’s exposed by the word, “always.” Do you really want to ask for a testimonial from someone who is lukewarm about your service? How about someone who is even less than lukewarm?

Here’s what I have gathered from observation.  Most of the real estate agents I have met have never, ever had an upset real estate buyer or seller because of something they did.  They are the best of the best and they will send you all of their testimonials to prove it. The other agents in their transactions, however, that’s a different story. “They” are the ones that cause all of the problems.

So, lets talk about the “other” agent.  Whenever you get together for a cocktail or a fund raiser for RPAC, or a YPN meeting - the other agent agent, we’ll call her Annie Agent, decides to tell you a 15 min horror story.   I won’t retell the story, you know it all to well. So, here’s the take away from that story:

“I have the client from Hell.” – Annie Agent

While you’re listening to the story, you’re deciding  which of the following is true:

a) This buyer / seller probably really loves this agent.
b) This buyer / seller is the the client from hell and the offspring of Beelzebub.
c) This agent may have a communication / process problem.
d) This is actually the agent from Hell, I feel sorry for that client.

Like you, I’ve been to many YPN, Association &  RPAC events, so I know these horror stories pretty well.  But the question at hand is this, should Annie Agent ask her client from hell for a testimonial?

Here are some possible results.

If  a) is right, the client will gladly give Annie a testimonial if asked. The key word being, “if.”

If  b) is right, the client will gladly throw Annie under the bus on any review site with zero stars and outlandish claims of abuse no matter what kind of service Annie provided.

If c) is right, Annie will likely not have a process in place to ask ask the client for a testimonial – but she may get around to it sometime.

If d) is right, Annie will ask the upset and angry buyer and seller for a testimonial, completely oblivious to the fact that the consumer is irate, angry and upset with the agent. See c) above.

Good customer service and experience are important to generating more a) type customers. ”81% of companies with strong competencies for delivering customer experience excellence are out performing their competition.” -Peppers and Rogers Group 2009 Customer Experience Maturity Monitor

Here is a growing problem.  There are WAY more upset and slightly upset customers than anyone knew.

For every ONE customer complaint, there are 26 others who have remained silent. -Lee Research Co.

26 to 1!  That is staggering to think about.

Real Estate Testimonial Tip:

Do not ask a frustrated, yet polite or very upset customer for a testimonial.  This is like throwing gasoline on a fire.

Upset or frustrated clients will tear you apart.  They will go directly to their SOI (Read: Facebook) and blast away at your brand.  When their tirade boils over to Yelp, Google, Zillow, Trulia and Realtor.com, the damage has tremendous staying power that equates to long term brand damage.

A Dynamic Solution

Use a dynamic survey. Dynamic surveys listen to customers responses. RealSatisfied only asks satisfied customers for a testimonial.  Thus no “gas on the fire” effect. Dissatisfied and upset / angry customers are asked if they would like speak with management to help resolve the problem.  This is risk management customer escalation at its finest.

Listen, Measure and Improve

Don’t just ask for a testimonial because your gut says you did a good job and deserve one. Your gut is not a good measure of your customer’s satisfaction. Implement a system that knows the happy from the unhappy, the satisfied from the somewhat satisfied.  Learn to deliver customer experience excellence and out perform your competition.

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Breaking Ground in Canada

Chris Drayer | Thursday, January 24th, 2013 | No Comments No Comments
[ In the News | Industry ]

RealSatisfied is in Canada.

Surveys and Customer Data Reporting from RealSatisfied Canada

The view behind the RealSatisfied booth in Banff at sunrise.

The Banff Western Connection is the Canadian national associations bi annual confrence – set in the majestic Canadian Rockies.  Presidents from each of the Canadian associations, large brands and leaders like Better Homes and Gardens Sherry Chris, industry trend experts such as Kelly Mitchell, Terri Conrad and Richard Silver have all gathered to educate, learn and grow.

So, today makes it official- the RealSatisfied automated surveys, 80 real time reports and data trend analysis are officially available in Canada.  We turned on RealSatisfied.ca a few months ago with little fanfare and already have satisfied brokers and brands building data and learning from their customers’ experiences.

With operations in Australia, The United States and now Canada, RealSatisfied is quickly growing into a customer service standard for the real estate industry.

Canadian? Try a Free Trial of RealSatisfied.ca

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EXIT Realty Corp. Integrates RealSatisfied Automation

Chris Drayer | Thursday, October 25th, 2012 | No Comments No Comments
[ In the News | Industry ]

Nashville, TN – October, 25th 2012

Today, we are proud to announce an automated back end integration with EXIT Realty Corp. International’s new Total Office Resource Center (TORC) system.

The reputation of the Real Estate industry is not favorable.  EXIT has integrated with RealSatisfied to raise the reputation bar while helping consumers and agents. EXIT has a strong desire to highlight its successful agents testimonials and seek innovative ways to educate and coach others.

“Reviews and testimonials are important to EXIT because we strive to provide the best experience possible to our customers, and buyers and sellers look to reviews when vetting an agent. RealSatisfied simplifies the collection of testimonials and amplifies their value,” says Tami Bonnell, CEO of EXIT Realty Corp. International.  “Integrating this system with TORC allows brokers to easily monitor their brand in the market in real time, analyzing trends for ways to improve.”

EXIT knows their public reputation is at stake and they do not want to leave it to chance.  They selected tools like RealSatisfied that are cutting edge and deliver maximum benefits.

Exit realty and RealSatisfied integration

“EXIT has chosen key strategic partners from among the best technology available for the real estate industry, such as RealSatisfied, and integrated them into TORC,” Jeff Lobb, EXIT Realty’s VP of Technology and Innovation, added. “EXIT brokers will seamlessly leverage the RealSatisfied customer satisfaction system to grow and improve.”

In the last three months RealSatisfied has continued to build on its early success by allowing consumers to easily push agent testimonials to Zillow, Yelp, Trulia and Google on one page. RealSatisfied also added verified, third party Agent Profile Pages and a new WordPress plugin that pulls approved clients testimonials into agent websites.

“They see a benefit from reviews on Trulia, Yelp, Zillow and Google – but want to learn more from the big data picture,” said Phil Kells, co-founder of RealSatisfied.

“EXIT Realty is putting the consumer first by listening and tracking their satisfaction after the transaction,” RealSatisfied’s Jeff Turner notes. “Everyone wants a better experience for the real estate consumer; things that don’t get measured don’t get managed.  The first step to improving customer satisfaction levels is understanding where those satisfactions levels are to start.”

 

 

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Enterprise Level Customer Profile – Patty Nizzi, Reece and Nichols

Chris Drayer | Thursday, August 2nd, 2012 | No Comments No Comments
[ In the News | Industry | Marketing Tips ]

Reece and Nichols utilizes the RealSatisfied API to plug into their CRM. Every transaction ends with an automated RealSatisfied survey sent to the buyer or seller. The real time data from the survey responses create actionable feedback in the form of 80 real time reports, and escalation options for testimonial retrieval keyed to positive responses or management alerts based  on negative experience responses.

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Pre-Release Real Estate Survey Test

Chris Drayer | Tuesday, May 15th, 2012 | No Comments No Comments
[ In the News | Product Updates ]

Pre-Release Survey Test Drive

RealSatisfied is testing two new Real Estate surveys to be launched soon.

Just test launched are the landlord placement survey and the tenant placement survey – both built with the expanding rental market in mind.   If you are in the rental business these will help you gather testimonials and feedback to grow your bottom line.

Landlord Placement Survey

Should be sent when a new tenant is placed in a property to receive feedback from the landlord – suits both new and existing landlords.
Contains both the opportunity to receive a testimonial as well as an option to be contacted by management.
Tenant Placement Survey

Should be sent when a new tenant is placed in a property to receive feedback from the tenant – suits both new and existing tenants.
Contains both the opportunity to receive a testimonial as well as an option to be contacted by management.
Both surveys are transactional and serve a different purpose to the loyalty surveys.
You can help Test Drive by reviewing the new surveys and providing feedback.  Send yourself the a new survey by clicking the grey “Test Drive” button at RealSatisfied.com  and tell us what your think.   The two new surveys are labeled ”Pre-Release”.
Your input will help shape the final product prior to launch.  Thanks!
photo by: Mr. Mystery
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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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Sending A Survey Invite Couldn’t Be Simpler

Jeff Turner | Tuesday, March 20th, 2012 | No Comments No Comments
[ How to ]

We’re often asked, “Is RealSatisfied.com easy to use?” Of course the response is always, “We don’t think we can make it any simpler.” But that’s what everyone marketing a product says, isn’t it?

Judge for yourself. The video above will illustrate just how quick and easy sending a survey invite using RealSatisfied actually is. It’s only 48 seconds long, so even the video is quick.  Here are the steps.

  • Click on the “INVITE” button in any of the the survey invitation categories, they all work exactly the same way and require the same information.
  • Select the agent on whose behalf the survey is being sent. Then, enter a property description, this will typically be the address,. the sellers name, your custom greeting, and their email address.
  • Once you’ve entered the information, simply click preview to see how your survey invitation will look.

If everything is how you expected, click send and you’re finished. It’s that simple.

 

Your new survey invite is sent immediately and will appear in your RealSatisfied seller survey list, where you’ll be able to easily track it’s progress.

That’s all there is to it!

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Great 2012 Marketing ROI – Clean Graffiti?

Chris Drayer | Thursday, January 5th, 2012 | No Comments No Comments
[ Industry | Marketing Tips ]

Its an annual winter ritual that started when I was into building things with Construx as a kid - but last month I cleaned out my dresser and closet and found some crazy clothes and things I had intended to use but didnt.

As a child I had to select the toys I had not used much and place them in a bag.  (like kung-fu-grip GIJoe...)  My folks would donate them to the needy for Christmas.  Today we donate to Rose Brooks - a local women's shelter.

This time of year is powerful - we look out over  2012 with hope and dreams.   But like my old toy box,  now is also the time to remove the unused and clean the marketing slate.
Continue reading...

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New Survey : Lost Listing Presentation

Phil Kells | Tuesday, June 28th, 2011 | No Comments No Comments
[ How to | Product Updates ]

Great news for agents ! Our new Lost Listing Presentation survey has just entered pre release. This means you can test drive the survey and give us you feedback before the survey moves to final release.

Get feedback from vendors where you have not won the business – see what the difference was, learn improve and become a better agent.

We’ve received a number of requests for this survey and your feedback is an important part of our survey release process. We do want to hear what you think so please let us know (feedback @ realsatisfied.com)!

Test drive the new lost listing survey today.

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