Room for improvement: How to take your clients from rage to referrals

Have you ever heard one of your friends or family describing the property transaction process with a positive adjective?

For home buyers, sellers, investors and renters alike, property transactions are typically stressful, admin-heavy and emotionally charged experiences.

Combine the compounding stress of a major life change, potentially risky long-term decision making, uncertainty and significant financial commitments with one of the most complex and administration-heavy processes of your life and you have a recipe for drama and dissatisfaction.

Home sweet… horror.

After making a decision to proceed, interacting with an estate agency is often the first step in a client’s property journey, closely followed by a deluge of admin, stress and chaos.

As property professionals grapple with gigantic workloads, regulatory requirements, bureaucracy, commercials, the ‘other side’ and relentless email requests for updates, clients are fighting their own battle.

Research, instructing, decision making, collating, calculating, signing, approving, proving identity, verifying funds, the list goes on and on. The amount of administration in the process is enormous by professional standards and completely overwhelming for the average individual.

Heavy on the admin and significance, property transactions are often once in a lifetime events for clients. They remember how they felt during the process long after the keys have changed hands.

From the first conversation to completion, every interaction creates an impression. How your clients feel about you and your firm has a direct impact on their likeness to come back or recommend you to others.

So what can be done?

Many providers, services and tech products position themselves as the solution to client stress and dissatisfaction, could the combination of technology and services which focus on client experience delight rather than disappoint and drive recommendations for you and your firm?

Pain-points you in the right direction

Stress levels are high but the bar is low when it comes to client expectations surrounding the administrative components of property transactions.

Unfortunately due to past experiences and the grapevine, clients won’t typically be over the moon about the hundreds of hurdles they face prior to move in (or out) day.

It's not all doom and gloom however, because every challenge in the property journey includes a chance to stand out. Required administration and tasks can be reimagined into simple and secure micro-experiences, reassuring instead of frustrating.

When a task your clients have been dreading ends up being surprisingly straightforward, the feeling of relief and gratitude can do wonders for your firm's reputation.

Turn client stress into success: Start here

How your clients feel about you isn't just the first impression, their perception is built and maintained throughout their entire journey with you.

Let's get started laying the foundations to build a great experience for you and your clients:

1. Audit and review: Check out your entire process from your client's perspective. Look for moments of friction and potential frustration, consider every email, phone call or document they receive, each piece of technology they are asked to use and the timing of all these interactions. Knowing why your clients feel the way they do is the first step in understanding how to change their experience for the better.
2. Feedback is a goldmine. We know it sucks to read a bad review or receive a complaint but this is where you can find the biggest gripes your clients have with you and your service. They are a great place to find and refine your clients pain points without much guesswork.
3. Work better "together" by using products and platforms that integrate with each other. Repetition is a recipe for frustration. By implementing systems and processes that link together your clients and you won't be duplicating document uploads or data entry.
4. Support matters: Make sure you know what level and type of help your clients can access from every supplier you engage with. Look for providers with thorough, expert support teams where they can get help through their preferred contact method including in-app support, online chat, email and of course, directly via phone.
5. Communication is key: An informed client is usually a happier client. Straightforward information and having questions and concerns addressed quickly can have a massive impact on your client's emotional state. Transparency and proactive communication make a big difference for clients in life-changing property transactions.

Taking care in business: Commercial impacts of positive client experiences

Beyond generating referrals, positive client experiences can deliver tangible benefits to you and your firm:

• Reduced acquisition costs: Retaining existing clients and securing their repeat business is significantly more cost-effective than constantly chasing new leads
• Higher conversion rates: Clients who have positive experiences are more likely to progress through the transaction process without delays or dropouts
• Competitive differentiation: In a market where services can seem similar, customer experience becomes a key differentiator
• Reduced operational friction: When clients can easily complete required steps, your team spends less time on follow-ups and more time on value-adding activities

When clients come first, referrals follow

You don't need an online blog to tell you the property market is competitive, full of emotionally charged clients and convoluted processes. Enacting a campaign to change the UK property transaction process might be a long bow to draw for those with a gigantic case load and full inbox, but there are still opportunities for improvement.

There is no one-size-fits-all-solution that can "solve" the property process, but transformation can come from within, by utilising a client experience first approach and partnering with technology and other providers built with user experience in mind.

In a world flooded by online reviews and bot generated content, which consumers trust less everyday, the opinions of friends, family and peers are paramount when it comes to major decision making.

Investing in your client experience isn't just good for customer service, it's good for business. It's time to turn moments of exasperation into relief and watch your referrals, reputation and revenue increase.

Download Thirdfort on the App Market or book a demo here.

       

       if(window.strchfSettings === undefined) window.strchfSettings = {};
   window.strchfSettings.stats = {url: "https://reapit.storychief.io/en/take-your-clients-from-rage-to-referrals?id=285250017&type=26",title: "Room for improvement: How to take your clients from rage to referrals",siteId: "5524",id: "050daf32-7d1f-4635-838d-b7a540d2649c"};
           (function(d, s, id) {
     var js, sjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0];
     if (d.getElementById(id)) {window.strchf.update(); return;}
     js = d.createElement(s); js.id = id;
     js.src = "https://d37oebn0w9ir6a.cloudfront.net/scripts/v0/strchf.js";
     js.async = true;
     sjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, sjs);
   }(document, 'script', 'storychief-jssdk'))