How better customer service can help you win more listings

31 July 2024 1632 Views

By Mike Bilboe, Face For Business

Buying or selling a home can be one of the most stressful and uncertain times for both the buyer and seller.

With so many different things happening at once, providing clear communication and customer service can make all the difference.

It’s easy to think of “customer service” in an estate agency setting as an add on. A support service that reacts to queries. But it can be much more than that.

Used properly, customer service can become one of the most effective marketing tools you’ve got that can help you win more listings, without the usual costs of ongoing marketing.

1. Stand out in a crowded market

If you walk around any High Street, you’re still likely to see lots of offices for estate and letting agents. Gleaming windows of new listings. Not to mention the rise of online agents.

It’s a crowded and competitive market. And when the final product or service (buying and selling a house) is essentially the same, the experience you give buyers and sellers can be the thing that makes you stand out.

Just having a friendly voice on your end of the phone when someone calls with a question or to book a viewing can make all the difference.

Missing out, or making a bad impression on these early interactions can be the difference between winning and losing a listing, especially if customers get the impression you’re unreliable.

2. Retaining business

Sales are taking longer now as buyers trudge through higher interest and mortgage rates and are less likely to make an offer when they’re uncertain if rates are going to come down in the coming months.

Which makes communication even more important. You can’t change many of the external factors you’re up against, but you can control the communication you offer to buyers and sellers.

When sales are taking longer, it’s easier to move onto another agent if a seller thinks they’re not getting the service they want or struggle to get in touch with you when they need an update.

Ensuring reliable communication makes it more likely you can avoid disgruntled customers and retain their business, even when the selling process is taking longer than they’d like.

3. Win online reviews and testimonials

With a purchase as big and important as buying a house, it makes sense that sellers would ask people they know about experiences they’ve had with previous estate agents. Or at least do research online about testimonials and reviews.

When they do this research about you, what are going to find?

Positive reviews about how friendly you are and communicative and responsive to calls and queries?

Or complaints about how difficult it was to speak to someone and get answers?

Providing positive experiences is more likely to lead to positive reviews, which in turn can result in more listings from referred business or customers coming to you after reading more positive reviews.

4. Build brand trust through communication

Anyone who’s sold a house knows how complex it can be to keep up with everything that’s going on. It’s worse too if you’re doing it for the first time.

Good communication and having people available when questions arise can make the selling process a lot less stressful and helps you build trust with customers.

It’s usually the not knowing what’s happening that causes the anxiety around selling a house, so alleviating this with responsive call answering goes a long way.

5. Win more referrals with word of mouth

Winning new listings can be an expensive and time-consuming proposition.

Wouldn’t it be easier to benefit from inbound enquiries?

One of the best ways to win referral business is to provide the best possible experience to sellers so they’ll recommend you to friends and family in the future.

A lot of this comes down to being responsive and communicative during the process. Having real people answer the phone rather than a robotic or automated system for example.

Returning calls with the right information or transferring callers to the right person first time are all small steps that add up over the course of selling a house that can result in more word-of-mouth referrals.

Where effective call answering comes in to building trust

1. Be available for longer

Sellers and buyers can’t always call during the usual 9-5. Offering out of hours call answering and being available on the weekends can help you win more listings and make you more available.

Outsourcing your call handling can also allow you to do this without requiring you to commit to the extra hours or weekend shifts.

2. A more professional experience

Despite the availability of online communication, most buyers and sellers still prefer to call estate agents when they have a question or want to make a booking.

Professionalism with your call handling will allow you to give a better impression to callers and help you deal with queries more effectively.

3. Reduced wait times

Long wait times are annoying for customers when they’re on the phone.

An outsourced call answering service can reduce customer wait times by always answering calls quickly and either directing the caller to the right person, taking a message to be dealt with later or even dealing with basic enquiries directly.

4. Create consistent call management

If you’re working in an office, you’ll know that employees don’t always answer calls or take messages in the same way. Often, they’ll not even get all the relevant information you need because they’re just trying to get the caller off the phone and get back on with their work.

By outsourcing your call answering you can create a more consistent call handling function that ensures all calls are answered and dealt with in the same way to create a better experience for the customer.

It can also help with returning calls because our PAs will take all the necessary details you need to properly return the call and save the customer needing to repeat themselves.

Improve your customer service with outsourced call answering.

Outsourcing your telephone answering can help you improve your customer service while helping to keep costs and admin time low.

By using an outsourced call answering service to professionalise your customer service on the phone and online you can create a more consistent and enjoyable customer experience that can reap rewards for your business, long into the future.

If you want to see what impact an outsourced call answering service can have on your business, you can try ours, completely free and with no obligation for 7-days.

Call us on 0333 323 1007 to talk to us or fill out the contact form on our website here and we’ll get back to you to answer any questions you might have.

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