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by Wally Conway,
Host
of the Home and Garden Show on WOKV
Happy New Year!
Here I sit on the first workday of the year. The office is not
yet open and the phone has not yet rung. I love this time of year.
Nothing yet accomplished, and no mistakes yet made. It is a wonderful
time to reflect on the year that was, and look ahead toward the
year that is yet to be.
The idea that comes to mind is that it will be a fantastic year
if we can inspect another 3000 homes and do it without a single
complaint! A lofty goal indeed, but one worth working towards!
Imagine a year without a single complaint! I reason that goal is
good for real estate professionals, good for me, and great for our
mutual customers. Just how would we work toward a year without an
unhappy customer?
 First
and foremost, we must always remain customer-focused. There
is a very easy test of every decision we make with or on behalf
of our customer. Simply ask "if I were doing this for my mother,
how would I do it"? Works like a charm every time! It seems
that when we have a deep personal interest in putting the best interest
of another individual first, things always work out better.
Long ago I worked for a fellow who often said "want it bad,
get it bad". He was a commanding officer of a Navy squadron,
not a realtor, but his point was this - sometimes we want a particular
outcome so bad that we do bad things to get there. Some deals just
don't need to be done, or done in the manner that they are preceding,
when not in the best interest of the customer. If we stay centered
on their best interest it is likely they will end up happy with
their home, happy with their real estate professional, and have
a low probability of complaint. Maybe even become a referral source!
Second, we must educate our customers on how good choices are made.
Using home inspection as the example, it is not enough to simply
refer a particular inspector or inspection company, or, worst of
all, put our head in the sand by sending them to the yellow pages.
We need to be able to articulate how and why sound choices are make.
Have them compare companies on the web. Even if we make specific
recommendations, we owe it to ourselves and to our customers to
explain the process by which we made the recommendation.
When people lack a well-articulated case for recommendations it
has numerous risks. Customer confidence is reduced with an answers
such as "be sure the inspector is licensed", or my favorite
from agents, "he has never killed a deal in my office".
As all should know, there is no license requirement in Florida for
home inspectors (a subject for another column), and the deal killing
statement is hardly customer-focused. A more compelling case might
be something such as a description of our own Chris Brown, "Chris
has been a state licensed contractor for over twenty years, an ASHI
certified home inspector since 1997 and has performed more than
3,000 home inspections. I would recommend Chris to my mother".
Now THAT is compelling!
Lastly, it is critical to keep the customer engaged in the process.
When the customer is deeply involved with every turn in the home
buying journey they feel more in control. For the home inspection,
this means the buyer must attend the inspection. It is interesting
to study home inspection complaints. We receive about one complaint
for every 500 homes inspected. That is really very few, but remember
we are working toward zero! By our definition a complaint is a call
from a past customer that could not be solved over the phone, but
required me to revisit the home. In 9 out of 10 complaints, the
customer did not attend the inspection!
By not attending the home inspection, buyers have a greatly reduced
understanding of not only the inspection process, but also a reduced
understanding of their home. And more bad news, if the buyer did
not attend the inspection, their real estate professional probably
did. Now not only are they unhappy with me, they are also unhappy
with their agent!
After more than ten years and 20,000 inspections I can tell you
this, the surest way to a happy customer over the long term is:
- Always put the best interest of the customer first
- Educate your customers for clear and comfortable decision making
- Participate along with the customer in every event
So far so good, the phones are ringing, the schedule is filling
and to this point, a complaint free year! Let's all work hard to
keep the streak going!
Copyright © Florida HomePro, Inc. and Wallace
J. Conway. All rights in all media reserved.
About the Author: Wally Conway is your weekly Host of the Home
and Garden Show on WOKV, and author of the book "Secrets of the Happy
Home Inspector", available at GoHomePro.com.
Wally's expertise and experience has been sought after by HGTV's "House
Detective", DIY Network's "Finders Fixers", the National Association
of REALTORS®, newspapers, and corporations. As a speaker, writer, and instructor,
Wally blends the right amount of up-to-date information with just the right
amount of humor, insight, motivation, and real-world application. Visit WallyConway.com
for more information!
Reproduction of this article: Permission is granted to use this article
in any media provided that the article is reproduced in its entirety as shown
above, with the authors resource box/bio included including links to http://www.gohomepro.com
and http://www.wallyconway.com
as the original publisher.
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