Can You Hear Me Now? Listening to the Voice of the Customer

Submitted by Molly Castelazo on Mon, 07/13/2009 - 15:12

I was on hold yesterday with the bank – waiting to speak with a customer representative. Instead of playing annoying elevator music while I held, the bank decided to do some good ol’ marketing. They told me about how they’re listening to the voice of the customer (me, I presume) – and have designed a whole slew of wonderful products to serve me better.

 
Listen to the voice of the customer.
 
Two thoughts came to mind as I listened:
  1. You’re on the right track, bank. If you’re not listening to the “voice of the customer,” you’re dead in the water.
  2. Good try, but. . . When you market to me telling me that you’re listening and have designed products to serve me better you have to actually, you know, listen and design products to serve me better.
So what are the marketing lessons I took from my 14-minute hold?
 
Marketing lesson #1: Listen to your customers. Actually listen to them.
 
How do you listen to your customers? As a real estate agent, because you don’t have the volume of customers as, say, a huge bank, you can simply pick up the phone, send an e-mail or mail a letter. Ask them:
  • What do you love about my service?
  • What would you change about my service? Make them pick something substantial.
  • What’s the most important quality in a real estate agent?
  • Would you recommend me to your closest family members?
To get honest answers, you may consider asking an outside firm to conduct your survey for you. There are some online survey firms that will e-mail a survey to your clients and then aggregate the results for you. SurveyMonkey.com is a good one. You can also design and send out surveys yourself through Constant Contact. Castelazo Marketing Ltd. regularly conducts customer satisfaction surveys for our clients, too. Contact us to learn more.
 
An extra bonus? You’ll probably get some great testimonials from your clients that you can use to market yourself to prospects (as they say, “The proof is in the pudding” – prospects would much rather hear how great you are from your clients than from you).
 
Marketing lesson #2: Measure the results of your marketing activities. 
 
Listening to what your clients and prospects are telling you through the actions they take (or don’t take) as a result of your marketing activities is critical – if you want to spend your money efficiently and design marketing activities that work, that is. I’ve written before on the importance of measurement and how to do it – check out our free article, Measure Twice, Succeed Always.
 
Marketing lesson #3: Follow through on what your customers tell you.
 
I was making dinner the other night and my two-year-old son Miguel was in the living room sitting on the couch watching Cars, drinking his chocolate milk, when he decided that it would be really fun to jump up and down on the couch, milk and all. The first splatters covered the new drapes and, of course, the beige couch. “Miguel, stop that please,” I said (okay, yelled – and without the please). He stopped. Looked at me. Smiled. And proceeded to create a chocolate-milk mural on the white walls.
 
What’s the lesson? Listening isn’t enough. When you hear what your customers have to say – by asking them as well as by measuring the results of your marketing activities – you then have to take action. For example, we did a client survey the other day for a small real estate agency – we surveyed about 100 clients. The clients were overwhelmingly happy with the agents’ service, but one criticism was consistent: the clients wished their agents had updated them more frequently on what they were doing.
 
So the agency bought a software system that allows its agents to make daily posts of what they’ve been doing for each client. The clients can access the system, to stay on top of their agents’ work. And, the agency went an important step farther . . . after hearing how important these updates were to clients, the agency made it a point to talk about their new software in all of their marketing materials. 
 
The result? Listings rose 10% and agents have reported getting more referrals from thrilled clients.
 
To achieve the same kind of success – or better – make sure you:
  • Listen to your customers. Actually listen to them.
  • Measure the results of your marketing activities. 
  • Follow through on what your customers tell you.
Do that and boosting your income as a real estate agent will be a million times easier than getting a helpful customer service representative to answer the phone at the bank.
 
July 13, 2009
Molly Castelazo
Castelazo Marketing Ltd.
 
Learn More
molly@cmrealestatemarketing.com
480-987-7958