As an independent luxury real estate
marketing firm, who wants to compete against the big brand real estate
franchises, you can have a distinct advantage by providing
“jaw-dropping service. It may cause potential clients to switch brand
loyalty in your favor.
Recently, we visited our local
independent pet store, instead of heading out to the national chain
store in downtown Santa Barbara. They have only three locations in our
area.
A young man cheerfully greeted us and
was genuinely eager to find out how he could help us. When we told him
that cat food was our query he walked us over to that department and
proceeded to go through every dry and wet food brand that they carry,
explaining the pros and cons of each for our particular needs. He knew
the content of every product by heart, which thoroughly impressed us.
Their cat food brands are not available
at the national chain store or at supermarkets. We purchased two of each
flavor of one brand for our two cats. The prices were the same as our
typical choices at the national chain store.
After this gentleman explained the
difference in each of their cat litter offerings, we decided to purchase
a very large and heavy bag that he offered to carry to our car. He told
us that this was what they do at their store unless we wanted him to
divide it into smaller bags as a courtesy. Our jaws dropped!
What a difference in service between the
local independent and the national chain store with 1000 locations!
Our cats love every one of the food items we purchased. This actually
represents a savings because it was always hit and miss with our finicky
cats, which meant quite a bit of waste.
We started to contemplate defecting to
the local independent store even thought we liked the convenient
location of the chain store (next door to our most frequented market).
Then, came the clincher that overcame our switching barrier.
Ron wanted to return a defective cat toy
purchased from the chain store. The checkout clerk, who knows us very
well, refused to give him a full value credit ($3.99) because he did not
have a receipt. He was offered a gift card for 70 cents, which is the
current sales price of similar (defective) items.
An appeal to the store manager, who also
knows us very well as frequent customers, was also fruitless. He felt
like he was talking with robots who were not allowed to override a
policy to make important entrepreneurial customer retention decisions.
End of brand loyalty! For about 3
dollars, they lost hundreds of dollars of business per year from us.
Jaw-dropping service caused us to jump ship!
How can you incorporate jaw-dropping service in your luxury real estate practice?
ABOUT: Napa Consultants, International is the leader in brand strategy for the luxury real estate industry. They work exclusively with professionals who are passionate about gaining or sustaining market leadership. With an expertise in personal branding, company branding, luxury real estate website design and social media marketing they help their clients become the breakaway brand in their marketplace.
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