I’ve had plenty of experience with awful customer service, from lettings agents leaving the phones unmanned, to broken boilers left unfixed for months. As a prospective tenant, I can assure you that being treated like rubbish has led me to boycott agents before (shoutout to various student letting operations).
Feefo has found that 70% of 25-to-34-year-olds said they rely on reviews before they decide on an estate agent, meaning that the way you treat your current tenants counts for future business.
Improve phone customer service – keep it REAL
This one is important both for winning new landlords over and getting quality tenants into your agency to rent from them. At Reposit, we call a lot of letting agent offices and we’re surprised by the number of those who have a dial tone system which doesn’t work properly or don’t answer their office line. Who doesn’t know the frustration of not being able to get through to speak to a real person?
📞 With the influx of new online agents, high-street agents have the chance to bring a personal touch to business you can’t always get with online brands.
Improve customer service by having a member of staff dedicated to answering calls at all times, extend the phone hours to make it easier for people to get in touch and record a voicemail message to let any missed callers tell you how to reach them.
Get involved with new technology
Straight away, you should invest in a modern, up to date website. PurpleBricks and others like them have made an impact on the market partly by being instantly accessible through the website.
Consumers expect established businesses to engage with cutting-edge technology, and 4 in 5 tenants believe that tech will transform the industry.
Then, look to other areas where tech can improve your service. You should be integrating the work of extremely popular new startups, like ValPal and Reposit, into your platforms. Offering ValPal’s instant messaging service or virtual showings through tech services like Periscope instantly signal to me that they invest in modernising their service because they care about their customers.
If it ain’t broke…oh wait, it probably is!
Here in the Reposit office we’ve traded stories about our nightmare rental repairs! From full fridges left broken for weeks to mouldy showers and leaky taps, we’ve felt the pain of maintenance being ignored. Don’t just take my word for it..👇
…research has found that tenants’ top desire is landlords responding quickly to issues (an overwhelming 69% said so). Plus, if it’s left to get worse, your landlord is going to feel it in their wallet and that’s even worse!
That’s why I love solutions like Fixflo, they provide a platform that allows tenants to quickly report repairs, and landlords to easily manage them, whilst clearly laying out what each of us is responsible for. If only there was a similar solution for lazy housemates.
Think like a tenant, walk in our shoes
I can’t tell you the number of times I’ve tried to resolve issues, only to have to search for half an hour to find the right number, or spend a whole afternoon being passed between two branches of the same company. Your customer service system should be designed specifically for ease of use.
Go even further and test out your service by ‘mystery shopping’, exploring your call services by asking friends and family to test out your phone-lines and message your web systems. The best way to know whether your customer services processes is working is by going through it yourself!
Keep tenants happy (even the students) by offering more 🤗
Us tenants love a savvy deal, or a bit of help with house admin, including partnerships with local shops and restaurants, or instituting systems like Fixflo mentioned earlier, will really catch our eye.
Or better yet, sign us up through Reposit. By freeing up our deposits and giving us the chance to save or spend the extra cash, you can guarantee to have grateful and happy tenants. Not only that, but we will want to get that deal quickly, which will make your landlords happy when their property gets snapped up right away.
