It is easy to think you can be all things to all landlords, but through knowing your business and understanding how your customers perceive you, you can more effectively grow your business. Too often we can look for a ‘silver bullet’ or quick solution when there isn’t one. Without clear direction and planning is it easy to expend a lot of time and energy jumping into an action that does not produce the required result. Find yourself doing the same thing without much success - the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over expecting a different result – change.
Know Your Business
When I say know your business, I don’t just mean ‘independent letting agent’. Think more in terms of, what were your last 10 new instructions? How many years do your customers stay with you? What is the make up of your existing portfolio – are there trends to specific geographic areas, age of landlord, number of properties, and type of property?
Know Your Customer
The answer to what makes up your business will enable you to understand your customer base and furthermore allow you to effectively target your potential customer. Through undertaking a simple segmentation of your customers you will start gaining an insight into similarities. How did they find you? Who pays above or below the standard fee? How long have they been with you? Thinking all your customers is the same is just not the case. Why do I need to know if my customers are similar? By identifying a group of customers who use you for the same reason allow you to target similar clients effectively.
Know Your Service
With time constraints on everything we do, it is very easy be reactive rather than proactive. When was the last time you asked an existing client whether you could do anything better? Have you ever used a feedback form? Reading this you are probably dismissing this and saying ‘it never works’ but how did you sell it to the recipient? Anyone who is paying you every month to look after his or her asset cares about the service you provide. You may not get 100% response rate for the same reason you never sent out the form in the first place, but for every response you do get it offers a real insight into what you are doing well, and what you can do better. The things you can sell to potential customers
There is nothing stopping you asking customers who have left you – why they left? What could you change to make them think about returning? They used you before so you must be doing something right!
In an industry where you can’t try before you purchase, word of mouth and testimonials are vital, and don’t cost you anything.
Sell Something Unique - You!
Whether the service a customer is looking for is let only or fully managed, the product is fairly generic across the lettings industry, apart from one thing – You. Using phrases like “great local knowledge” and “years of experience” don’t stand you out from the crowd of letting agents all chasing the same business. What makes you different? The work you undertook knowing your service will enable you to identify some of these, and highlight the elements that matter to customers like the ones you are targeting.
Know Your Market
In the face of a more educated customer and the growth of online, do you know how potential customers find you? More than ever landlords are searching online for both information relating to their asset, regulation and potential agents. Are there products on the market that could help your business? Coming back to knowing your customer, if you know that they are technology driven look at what is new in the market, if they are about insuring the monthly revenue do you offer rent guarantee? When you are instructed on how well you can look after an expensive asset, being able to show you are protecting that asset better than the competition is going to be vitally important to a prospective landlord.
Rajeev Nayyar is MD of Fixflo, a picture-based repair reporting system that makes life easier for property managers, landlords and tenants.
By guiding tenants to identify their precise issue, Fixflo gets you the information you need about a repair without time consuming calls, emails and inspections.
Fixflo also automatically alerts tenants to issues that they are responsible for fixing and steps they should take in emergencies to protect themselves and your property.
To find out more visit: www.fixflo.com
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