Over the many years of my career, one thing that continues to resonate within my business and for that matter, all businesses, is how we strive to differentiate ourselves in order to achieve long-term success. Individuals and companies are always looking for ways to set themselves apart from their competitors. Industries evolve, markets change and economies fluctuate. As these things continue to move, the one true differentiator remains a constant… customer service. Or should I say… the customer experience.
I have witnessed firsthand how technologies have changed the real estate business. Information used to be our golden egg and now, that information is readily available to anyone who wants it via the World Wide Web. It’s not the end of the world mind you… we simply need to change the way we approach our business. Technology is a bit of a double edge sword. It allows us to accomplish more tasks, more rapidly and ultimately we are able to do more business. Email, text messaging and electronic signature are some examples of these technologies. The downside in my opinion is that we lose the belly to belly relationship building that is so critical to our business. I suppose the key here is that ultimately you need to understand who your customer is. Are they the old school belly to belly types who require a face-to-face meeting in order to develop a relationship of trust, or are they the new school millennial who feels they accomplish more through technologies available to them? In order for you to truly differentiate yourself and provide your customer with an awesome customer experience, you have to identify who they are and what they want.
We have seen technologies change the travel industry, the taxi industry and there are continual, perceived threats to the real estate industry. Companies like Redfin, Trulia, and Zillow are some examples. Recently, Zillow acquired an electronic, document storage company, with presumably, the ultimate goal of not only giving information but facilitating a real estate transaction online. Whether or not that will come to fruition is yet to be seen. Regardless of what the future holds, I remain steadfast in my belief that quality customer service is something the customer will always require. I’m not sold on the belief that true customer service can be delivered via technology. That day may come in some form or fashion and I may not recognize it when it gets here but what I do know is, if you can provide your customer with an amazing customer experience they will continue to come back to you because of what you bring to the table. Never forget that.
Gotta go now. I have a whole bunch of emails and text messages to return.
Have a great weekend.
