This is a series on how customer experience relates to repeat and referral business, that we are running on our other blog which is focused more on small business generally. But we thought the series might also be of interest to Active Rain readers. Not every real estate or mortgage professional has a team, but the points below regarding teams can still apply to others you work with to serve clients. We hope you find the series helpful.
If you are a small business owner, know that you don't need to be a corporate giant to design and deliver exceptional customer experiences that will generate repeat and referral business.
But you do need to be serious about your job as the primary "Educator-in-chief" in creating a customer-centric business.
Many a small business is letting customer experiences "happen" rather them having them be designed, executed, managed, and gradually improved.
Here is the point I'd like you to consider: your customer experiences won't rise to the level of exceptional unless you educate and work with your employees to build a true passion and commitment for great customer experiences.
As mentioned in post #1 in this series, you start with "think time" just to get clear on your own commitment, and to reflect on the direction you need to be moving toward.
What I want to share now is the need to design a simple orientation for every new employee - and to take all existing employees/team members through this orientation if you do not already have something like this in place.
Here's the thing: we influence and improve the behavior of others first by our own example, and second by our communication and expectations.
If you want steadily improving customer experiences, you must treat your team very well...respectfully and with good leadership practices, and...you must educate and work with them over time to instill a customer-centric approach. Some of your team will naturally "get" this. Others will need more work. All will need to hear from you, and see your example on the primacy of customer experience, if you want to create a more customer-centric business.
The POINT: you must educate and work with your people to clearly communicate what customer experiences look like, and the philosophy behind your expectations.
Here are at least four things that I think are critical to communicate during your orientation.
• Some time on your company's history and "story"...how and why it came into existence.
• Your company's "point of view" including the non-negotiable values that are the foundation of what your business is about.
• The primary expectations on what good customer interactions look like. This is where you can get very specific on the behaviors that define excellence with customers.
• Set expectations on how communication and feedback will happen. What is the plan or process for how we communicate on day-to-day work issues?
None of these things happen automatically. All of them require your active leadership.
There are lots of relatively easy things you can do to build great customer experiences, and we'll talk about them in this series. We also invite you to learn about a simple customer appreciation tool that greatly improves your way of building lasting relationships with valued customers. Learn about that here.
[The Kathy O’Neal Team serves home buyers and sellers in Northern Virginia, with special focus on Chantilly, Centreville, and the communities of the Western Fairfax region.]
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