Customer Service – Creating RAVING Fans

When I say the words “customer service” a wide variety of ideas pop into one’s head. Perhaps an example of an interaction with a sales clerk that was pleasant and made you really want to go back to the store again. Or another experience, like the one I had with the cable company that didn’t go so well and left me searching for an alternative to them as my internet provider. Excellent customer service is one essential element of any successful business. It’s something that in our role as a transaction cooordinator we must be mindful of how we are interacting with ALL parties in a transaction, not just the agent who has hired us, but everyone else too. Many years ago when I started my transaction cooordinating business and was working with my first client, I gave that file my all and then some. What I mean by that is my work style, and ethics dictated how I worked the transaction and the attention I gave to it, the then some part came from it being the only file I had and therefore I was able to give it a little extra attention. At the end of the closing, I got a call from the paralegal at the law firm who handled the closing. She told me she’d really seen value in what I did and asked me if I offered my services to others. I resisted the urge to holler ABSOLUTELY, and held my self together and answered, “yes, I do.” She asked a few more questions about my company, my services and then asked me if she could introduce me to her fiancé, he was the Team Leader at a local Keller Williams office, and she said they needed someone in their office to provide these services. Of course, I said YES! Soon I was on the phone with the Team Leader and answering his questions about my company, my services and if I could come out to their office and speak at a team meeting. I said yes before I could talk my self out of it as I had no experience speaking before a group. Eventually, I began getting business from that office, then the Team Leader introduced me to another Keller Williams office in the area, and soon I was working with some agents there too. What has grown my transaction cooordinating company consistently over the years has not been my ability to market, or sell, sure those are important, and I have to do them, it’s been the service we provide. My best, least expensive and most fulfilling business growth method has been delivering rock star service to everyone in the transaction and making our clients feel good about choosing my company to provide it. As my transaction cooordinating business has grown and added new team members my philosophy on this is always shared with them in a way that they can deliver the same rock start service. One of the books on this topic that everyone new hire listens to is the audiobook Raving Fans, by Ken Blanchard. You can listen to the audio book on YouTube here https://youtu.be/yejNB9mRs3E. In it Mr. Blanchard describes how to deliver the kind of service that will have your clients or customers telling everyone they know about you. It’s not a huge long book, but it does pack some good examples in it. In the end, I believe it’s the littlest things that make the biggest impact on our clients and keep them coming back and telling others. And while we all have our idea of what good or GREAT service looks like, we have to be sure that we’re communicating that with our clients and likewise, they are letting us know how we are doing.