TheBusiness


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Julian O’Dell is founder of TM Training & Development


TheDilemma


As 2012 unfolds, I’m slightly apprehensive. It is critical for our survival to ensure that we diff erentiate ourselves from our competitors to win a suffi cient share of available sales in our area. But how?


JULIAN SAYS: 2012 is likely to be an extremely challenging year property-related businesses. Numbers of completed property transactions in England and Wales have reduced dramatically since 2007 and do not look like recovering to those old levels any time soon (over 100,000 completions a month was an easy ride in hindsight), meaning that there may simply be insuffi cient residential estate agency sales income within the UK to sustain anywhere near the numbers of branches and fi rms that exist at present. In January, I reread my favourite non-


fi ction book ‘Moments of Truth’ by Jan Carlzon – one that I fi rst enjoyed many years ago and which has helped me improve the way I run my businesses more than any other. As I devoured for the seventh or eighth time


the words of wisdom on each of the 135 pages, it struck me that every estate agency proprietor should do the same.


The M.O.T. Jan Carlzon took over Scandinavian Airlines in 1981 – a company on the verge of losing $20 million. One year later, it was making a profi t of $54 million. That turnaround is quite extraordinary in both size and speed. Better still, the way he achieved it was simple and straightforward. It was all about understanding and maximising what he called the ‘moments of truth’ – in other words, every single interaction that a customer has with a company, whether it lasts only a few seconds or more, needs to be a positive experience - better than they expected and better than the competition deliver. I have run dozens of seminars on the


‘Moments of Truth’ principles and encouraged estate agency proprietors and managers to apply them to their own operation. Conveniently the initials of ‘Moments of Truth’ are ‘M.O.T.’ – and by giving your business an annual ‘M.O.T.’ in the same way as you do a car, you can ensure that your business is operating as effi ciently and smoothly as possible. Those owners that have


36 ● May 2012 ● TheNegotiator


perfection need not cost money- just time, energy and diligence.”


done so frequently report back that having carried out the three key stages of listing, reviewing and perfecting the ‘moments’ that customers experience, an upturn in business levels inevitably follows. Just listing the ‘moments’ is a time-


consuming task but an essential one. Think about sales and rental applicants and all the interactions they have with your fi rm from their fi rst visit to your website, to contacting the branch, to receiving information from you, to arranging viewings and so on.


“The steps to Vendors and landlords have a vast list of


experiences with you from their fi rst awareness of your brand, to booking a valuation appointment, to the appointment itself, to the point of instruction, to feedback calls and many more. Once these have all been listed, it is crucial


to conduct a review to see exactly what your customer’s real experience is like (perhaps by way of ‘mystery shopper’ exercises or customer feedback forms), and then to take steps to perfect each ‘moment’. The steps taken towards perfection need not cost any money – rather an investment of time, energy and diligence.


Coff ee stains? Once you embrace this concept (and ideally read the book!), you will fi nd yourself experiencing your own ‘moments of truth’ when you are a customer. It is often easier to recall examples of bland


or bad customer service rather than those of an exceptional nature. Many of my experiences during my 2011 house move left a lot to be desired. I regularly encountered slow or no responses to emails, lack of knowledge on the part of the agent at accompanied viewings (‘How old is this house?’ I asked one agent. ‘As you can see Mr O’Dell, it is fairly old’ came the reply) and an overwhelming lack of selling skills. These substandard ‘moments of truth’ paint a poor picture of the companies in question. Jan Carlzon once said, “Coff ee stains on the


fl ip tray suggest to our customers that we do not service our engines properly,” which is one of my favourite business quotes. The ‘coff ee stains’ in the sales/lettings industry are minor mistakes and issues that create a bad impression upon the recipient. Spelling mistakes in emails, sloppy window displays, lack of punctuality and poor personal appearance can all lead to harmful conclusions in the minds of the customer. In a challenging marketplace such errors can cost a company its very existence. ●


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