Six Areas to Dominate Customer Service

Are You An Eagle or A Duck?

No one can make you serve customers well….that’s because great service is a choice.

One man, Harvey Mackay, tells a wonderful story about a cab driver that proved this point.

He was waiting in line for a ride at the airport. When a cab pulled up, the first thing Harvey noticed was that the taxi was polished to a bright shine. Smartly dressed in a white shirt, black tie, and freshly pressed black slacks, the cab driver jumped out and rounded the car to open the back passenger door for Harvey.

He handed my friend a laminated card and said: ‘I’m Wally, your driver. While I’m loading your bags in the trunk I’d like you to read my mission statement.’ Taken aback, Harvey read the card. It said: Wally’s Mission Statement: To get my customers to their destination in the quickest, safest and cheapest way possible in a friendly environment…This blew Harvey away. Especially when he noticed that the inside of the cab matched the outside. Spotlessly clean!

As he slid behind the wheel, Wally said, ‘Would you like a cup of coffee? I have a thermos of regular and one of decaf.’ My friend said jokingly, ‘No, I’d prefer a soft drink.’ Wally smiled and said, ‘No problem.. I have a cooler up front with regular and Diet Coke, water and orange juice…’ Almost stuttering, Harvey said, ‘I’ll take a Diet Coke.’ Handing him his drink, Wally said, ‘If you’d like something to read, I have The Wall Street Journal, Time, Sports Illustrated and USA Today.’

As they were pulling away, Wally handed my friend another laminated card, ‘These are the stations I get and the music they play if you’d like to listen to the radio.’

And as if that weren’t enough, Wally told Harvey that he had the air conditioning on and asked if the temperature was comfortable for him. Then he advised Harvey of the best route to his destination for that time of day. He also let him know that he’d be happy to chat and tell him about some of the sights or, if Harvey preferred, to leave him with his own thoughts.

‘Tell me, Wally,’ my amazed friend asked the driver, ‘Have you always served customers like this?’ Wally smiled into the rear view mirror. ‘No, not always. In fact, it’s only been in the last two years. My first five years driving, I spent most of my time complaining like all the rest of the cabbies do. Then I heard a personal growth expert on the radio one day.

He had just written a book and said that if you get up in the morning expecting to have a bad day, you’ll rarely disappoint yourself. He said, ‘Stop complaining! Differentiate yourself from your competition. Don’t be a duck. Be an eagle. Ducks quack and complain. Eagles soar above the crowd.’

‘That hit me right between the eyes,’ said Wally. ‘Dyer was really talking about me. I was always quacking and complaining, so I decided to change my attitude and become an eagle. I looked around at the other cabs and their drivers. The cabs were dirty, the drivers were unfriendly, and the customers were unhappy. So I decided to make some changes. I put in a few at a time. When my customers responded well, I did more.’

‘I take it that has paid off for you,’ Harvey said.

‘It sure has,’ Wally replied. ‘My first year as an eagle, I doubled my income from the previous year. This year I’ll probably quadruple it. You were lucky to get me today. I don’t sit at cab stands anymore. My customers call me for appointments on my cell phone or leave a message on my answering machine. If I can’t pick them up myself, I get a reliable cabbie friend to do it, and I take a piece of the action.’

Wally was phenomenal. He was running a limo service out of a Yellow Cab. I’ve probably told that story to more than fifty cab drivers over the years, and only two that I know of took the idea and ran with it. Whenever I go to their cities, I give them a call. The rest of the drivers quacked like ducks and told me all the reasons they couldn’t do any of what I was suggesting.

Wally the Cab Driver made a different choice. He decided to stop quacking like ducks and start soaring like eagles.

Customer Service 101 - 6 areas to dominate as an Real Estate Eagle. With 1.2 to 1.3 million Real Estate Agents in the industry, how are you differentiating yourself from the ducks on the real estate pond?

1.Your Skills - Communication - can clearly articulate what you need to convey to another party. The other part of communication is accurately receiving information, not making assumptions/jumping to conclusions. People - works well with others - a pleasing personality. Versatility - someone who has the ability to adapt to many and ever changing environments/situations, Problem Solving - the ability to think through issues that arise and find ways to effectively and efficiently resolve them in a timely manner, Pricing - our ability to objectively assess value and do so in a manner that would be consistent with the trends and current market conditions, Negotiating - know when to speak and when to listen. Has the ability to listen for cues and can zero in on opportunities that work in your favor.  This is just a short list and gives us an idea of the complexity and range of the skills our clients are looking for in an agent - that is an “eagle” agent.

 2.Your Attitude/Mindset - Where’s your focus? Do you typically find fault with things or are you looking for solutions? Are we focused on being learning based or caught up in the media and daily drama going on in the world? Are you living in fear and worry or are you empowered and optimistic about the future?  Why do I mention these?  They ALL come into play when we’re going about our daily routines and interacting with buyers, sellers, other agents and vendors in your market.  It’s how we show up to our listing appointments and at our buyer consultations.  Ducks are quacking about how all the reasons they’re unable to hit their goals and the eagles are making things happen in spite of the market and any personal challenges they're facing.  

3.Your Work Ethic - Being an Eagle means outperforming your competition with your work ethic.  It’s how you show up and do your job. Being an eagle means you go the extra mile, not cutting corners and looking for the easy way out of things. Being thorough and paying attention to detail. It’s also the little things like being accessible and responsive.  I learned many years ago and have made it a philosophy to live by - it goes like this - we often come to a fork in the road, one has a sign posted “the hard road” the other “the easy road” and...when we take the easy road it always gets harder and when we select the hard road, it typically ends up being easier. That said, it’s unlikely anything worth doing will be easy. Having a solid work ethic also means you stick with things and don’t give up.  I think a major contributing factor to being successful is just staying the course.  When you stop and start and stop and start, moving forward is slow if even at all. Think about it, what would happen if we drove like that? We’d get nowhere fast while burning a tank of gas.

4.Your Compassion - Ducks are self-absorbed and out for numero uno, themselves. Eagles rely on their leadership training and influence to look for what's best for everyone. Eagles think Win-Win or no deal.  We need to remember that moving ranks up there as one of the top most stressful events that takes place in our lives. When we step back and realize we’re not getting our clients at their very best.  We have the opportunity to show our compassion, patience and be supportive in the process. Always remembering to remain the calming force in our transactions, focused on solutions, not the challenge. Eagles do this by putting others needs ahead of theirs.

5.Follow-up/Follow Through - It’s amazing isn’t it, when we come across someone that actually follows through on what they said they’d do we’re taken back and impressed.  It’s a sad commentary that it takes so little to stand out in today’s business world.  Eagles keep their word and their commitments.  Even if they don’t have an answer, they will call and tell you they don’t have an answer. Ducks go out of their way to avoid responsibility, aren’t organized and haven’t the moral conscious or regard for other people's feelings and needs. Be an eagle, just do what you say you will do and that in itself will cause you to win more often and dominate your market.

6.Your Overall Professionalism - the skill, good judgment, and polite behavior that is expected from a person who is trained to do a job well. Eagles are professionals, they take the high road and do what’s right instead of being concerned with being “right”. This means taking all aspects into consideration, including representing the entire industry and its image. A true professional is a class act and respected by not only their clients, also by their peers. I say it often that agents need to remember that we’re not working against each other in the business.  Yes, we are representing our clients and need to do so at the highest level. In doing so, keeping top of mind to work with and through the agent on the other side of the transaction to get all parties on the same page, or at least as close as possible, in a professional and respectful manner.