Responsiveness – The Key to Customer Happiness

What do prospects want? Overwhelmingly we hear a customer is changing management companies because of unresponsive service – that is why they are talking to us to change.

Responsiveness is the keyword but the following is what the prospect means. First, the prospect wants responsive communication. If they call they want to talk to a human being. If they leave a voicemail they want a call back – the sooner the better. If you make a promise on how fast you will return calls – stick to it. However, remember to underpromise and over deliver. If you say you will get back to someone within 2 hours and you don’t then you are breaking your promises and untrustworthy – if you say you will return a call within 1 business day and call back in 2 hours – you are a star. The same principle applies to emails and letters.

Secondly, prospects and clients want responsive action on items they ask you to get done. This is where your organization comes to your resuce. You need to keep a running log of requests that a client asks for and then work down that list. If the list grows faster than you can work it down then you are not providing responsive service. You can either work more hours to get down the backlog, delegate some to property vendors or hire a temporary worker to help you get thru the list. One techinque I use is when a new client comes on board they ususually have a backlog of work since they did not have responsive service, so I have an extra person help on the list to help the manager look like a star.

If you focus on one thing – focus on these two items of responsive service and you will not lose accounts and you will grow a customer base of fans who will tell others about how good you are – and that is where referral business comes to your doorstep. Good luck!

Published on July 5, 2012 in Property Management

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Responsiveness – The Key to Customer Happiness

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