In March of 2017, we introduced Listing Concierge to our very first market: Sacramento/Tahoe in Northern California.
Listing Concierge at that time was very different, as we were working with a temporary solution – and a very disjointed process – to get us by until the program we have today was ready to go. Unlike today’s platform, which is an innovative one-stop-shop solution, a handful of different platforms were necessary for agents to get all their Listing Concierge marketing completed. It wasn’t exactly the best user experience for our agents – far from it, actually!
With this less than ideal system for our agents in the beginning, I knew we were going to have to make up for it on the service end. At least that was something we actually had control over while our first-of-its-kind platform, to be introduced later that year, was under development.
Our motto at the time was this: Let’s kill our agents with exceptional service that they can’t get anywhere else and maybe they won’t be as bothered by the tech part. Internally, we started saying, “TLC (Team Listing Concierge) delivers TLC to listings” – a phrase we still use today.
So, starting with our very first Listing Concierge employee (she was the one to coin that TLC phrase, too – thanks, V!), we embraced that philosophy and to this day, service excellence remains at the very core of what Listing Concierge is all about: providing our agents with advanced technology combined with white-glove, boutique services.
Two of the most important qualities we look for in anyone we’re bringing onto the team are extensive customer service experience and enjoyment interacting with people. While there are a number of other skills we look for as well, to be part of TLC you have to excel in the area of service – no exceptions.
We take our service so seriously that we measure it every day with the agents we serve through Listing Concierge. In 2018, on average, our Listing Concierge Coordinators (LCCs) average 4.94 out of 5 stars for service excellence. We are proud of that – but we know there’s always room for improvement and we’ll never stop working hard at making Listing Concierge an even better experience for our agents. Note: If our LCCs ever receive less than a three-star review, we follow up with agents personally to see how we could have made their experience a better one. We want our agents to know that we take their feedback and our service seriously – we want to be continually improving!
No matter how crazy good our platform is now or into the future, we also understand that real estate is a relationship business. That’s part of our strategy, too: to build long-term relationships with our agents through the service we provide to them. We want to be the silent partners in their business success, helping them win the listing, prove their value and turn one
listing into three more. We want our agents to love the tech part of Listing Concierge and then be wowed by the stellar service they receive.
Service isn’t always easy, though – as anyone who has worked in a service role knows. Like with anything, snafus are going to happen no matter how perfectly you plan or execute (I learned this long ago while handling events for the company, as there were things from time to time that happened beyond our control – it used to drive the perfectionist in me crazy!). This is true for Listing Concierge as well. When you have so many hands involved in a program like this, it’s bound to happen. Photos may not get processed properly. Brochures might get delayed during shipment. TV shows might get preempted by an awards show!
What’s the secret to handling messy situations like this? It helps to have a calming presence, great service and a plan of action. With more than 15 years of real estate marketing under my belt – all in a service capacity – I’ve learned that you can fix almost any wrong by having a great attitude and a plan in place to help make things right asap. Again – it’s about the service.
It’s why I shop at Nordstrom and my local boutique grocery store. I love their products, but they back it up with friendly, excellent service that I can’t get anywhere else. It’s what keeps me coming back – and this is the kind of draw we want Listing Concierge to have for our agents, too. We want them to love our tech and be further drawn in by our service.
In this day of technology where service is all too often an afterthought by many major companies (that’s a major fail in my book!), it’s refreshing that it doesn’t get lost at Coldwell Banker NRT.
