Real Estate Customer Service

My wife just came in and yelled at me for purportedly yelling at a nurse at the doctor's office a few weeks ago.  Now, let me make it clear, I did not yell at anyone, but I did refuse to do what the nurse wanted me to do.  Fighting off my wife, (just kidding sweetheart), it got me thinking about customer service and the real estate profession. This is what happened:

I went to the doctor because I was coughing and hacking up a storm and my wife was concerned that I had pneumonia. Obviously, when I got to the doctor, I was not feeling very well and was absolutely exhausted.  I signed in and sat down, waiting to go into an examination room.  The nurse at the desk then called me up to the desk.  I, with great effort hoisted this bulk of a body out of the chair and struggled to the desk. Ok, I may be exagerating a bit and did I mention that I wasn't feeling well? When I got to the desk, which seemed like a miles long journey, the nurse asked me to fill out a banker's box full of forms.  Did I mention that I might be exaggerating a bit, but it was really about 6 forms and about 1/2 hour of filling in the forms?

Now these forms were the same forms that I have filled out previously at the doctor's office and the doctor's office already had all of the information necessary to fill in the forms, except they wanted me to do it rather than having the staff do the work.

Through bleary, red eyes and holding a Kleenex to my nose, in between coughs, I said no. The nurse gave me an increadulous look of disbelief and told me I had to.  I then coughed on her, (no, not really but I thought about it). And said no again, looking at her with a "what are you going to do about it", look, which to her probably looked like Spartacus about to slay the Romans, and I sat down.

I was then ushered into an examination room by another nice nurse and the Roman nurse came into the examination room with the forms filled out requesting that I sign them, which I did.  Well, I didn't have pheumonia, or so I was told and had second thoughts about the sample medication that the nurse gave to me. And I suspect that smile that she gave to me as a limped out of the office was not a smile of consumate customer service.

So the purpose of this blog was not to recount my battle with the Romans nor my defeat at the hands of my wife, but to point out the importance of customer service and the gradual elimination of the words from our modern lexicon.  Do you give good customer service?  If so, how?

Seriously, I wrote this in a playful mood but have been thinking about what customer service really is for attorneys, property managers, brokers, and their vendors.

Comments

[Howard F. Kline]

I recently met a woman who is a leasing agent for Olen properties and she gave me a great example of what customer service is from the leasing agents perspective. On a regular basis, she visits the tenants. She gets to know how many children they have, what's going on, brings them flowers and chocolates on their birthday and otherwise makes it personal and friendly. About 10 months prior to the expiration of a lease she starts discussing, with the tenant, what renewal options there are on the lease and often retains the tenant without the need for another broker or attorney to get involved. Ah, tenant retention, what a wonderful thing.

[Fred Garrett]

Howard,

I think this is one of the most important things a landlord can do (Customer Service). I see customer service as when the tenant comes to me (Operations Manager) and starts yelling about a roof leak (During a weak we have no rain). I explained that the leak is coming from thier HVAC unit not the roof, at this point the ceiling tile has become so saturated it falls to the floor in a splash, which allows me the opportunity to educate the tenant because now you can clearly see the water running from a joint in the duct work. But this is not where the customer service should end, I then asked Housekeeping to bring me a carpet extractor and a floor fan and started to clean up the mess, to which the manager was amazed and then stepped in and had his employee finish the cleaning.

I truly believe that customer service is the most important thing I can deliver to my tenants and it is becoming a lost art.

Thanks

Fred

[Howard F. Kline]

Thanks JW. The feeling is mutual. It's nice to be appreciated. The interesting thing is that this blog is becoming a labor of love and I am enjoying posting more and more often. I am also finding ways to be more efficient in my posting habits making it easier for me to post.

[A Facebook User]

Howard, I so appreciate this blog. I get so much crap for putting out blogs that veer off course even slightly, from commercial real estate. That is why I started http://www.JWonPurpose.com.

This blog lets me do more, but I still want to share with my CRE crowd great stuff like this.

CRE Professionals and Investors are people too and I hope I am right when I believe that they want to see interesting stuff that may pertain to business or service in general.

I believe I just have to stick to my guns and hope someone gets it.

Much Thanks
JW Najarian
www.CREPIG.com
www.CREDAA.com