No matter what industry you work in or where you’re based in the world, customers will always be your most important asset. Customers bring revenue and allow the cogs in a business to keep turning, as well as having the power to make or break reputations. 

In the property industry, customer service is a commitment that tends to see relationships with clients built over a long period of time. Whether you’re a landlord, construction company or an estate agent, customer service isn’t just a 2-minute phone call – it’s the duration of the lease, construction period or sales process. 

It’s a well-known fact that external factors can create customer service challenges in the property industry, such as supply chain delays causing projects to be delivered late. So, how can you manage these issues and deliver good customer service? And why is this important?

Customer satisfaction helps you gain and retain

Property is a very social industry and people tend to speak to their network of contacts for recommendations. Providing good customer service to existing customers will mean they are much more likely to recommend your company by ‘word of mouth’ to their own networks.

It’s also important to consider that many clients within the property industry are repeat customers, especially those within the construction, management and development sector. For example, developers have a constant turnover of projects and, once one is finalised, they will be looking to move on to the next and reach completion as soon as possible. To allow for a smoother process, they’re likely to stick with their usual contractors to meet this goal.

Good customer service is vital for retaining clients – if clients are left unhappy with the performance of your company, they are unlikely to have the motivation to do business with you again. We all know that this industry is competitive, and if you don’t offer that pinnacle customer service to leave clients happy and satisfied, then you’re probably not going to retain business with them.

Consider the online world

The power of online cannot be ignored when it comes to customer service and reputation management. What’s written about you online and on social media will have a big impact on your reputation and, ultimately, the performance of your business.

If you have top-notch customer service, people may go the extra mile and leave a positive online review for you, or even share their positive experience with their social media network. These comments are easily accessible in the public domain, meaning that everyone can see how great you are

On the back of this, poor customer satisfaction can result in the opposite, with previous clients taking out their frustration with negative comments online. It can take a lifetime to build a reputation and a minute for it to be destroyed, and one substandard customer could spread the bad evaluation of your business to many potential customers, proving to be very damaging to your brand, business and future sales.

Customer service and communications come hand-in-hand

Customer service and communications are very closely linked – having good communication with your customers leaves them feeling satisfied with your services, which they then communicate to their networks. 

And it’s not just your customers that can promote their positive experience – client testimonials and case studies are a great way for property businesses to promote their offering and boost their reputation.

As a Birmingham PR agency with many years of experience working with property and infrastructure clients, we understand the nuances associated with the industry and what makes your customers tick.

If you’d like our help and advice, or would like to find out more about our offering, we’d love for you to get in touch.