...because great service requires more than good intentions!

Q Tips™ for Quality Service Certified real estate sales professionals, are hints, helpful suggestions and proven techniques to improve service quality and help QSC members take advantage of the resources available to them.

Featured monthy, Q Tips can include a helpful marketing tip using QSC resources, an idea for using QSC resources in listing or buyer presentations or advice on how to handle certain service situations. Q Tips are collected from QSC members nationwide.

The first Q Tips bulletin is displayed below. Subsequent Q Tips can only be accessed in the QSC members section. QSC members, click here.

Bulletin # 1

Service Challenge to Service Champ in 10 Steps

1. Respond
2. Listen
3. Maintain your poise
4. Acknowledge
5. Apologize
6. Commit
7. Deliver
8. Seek third-party assistance
9. Remember the ultimate goal
10. Learn

1. Respond. The ideal time to take action related to a problem or complaint is immediately. Problems rarely improve with time. Responsiveness is one of the key success variables for professional service providers.
2. Listen! When a "situation" develops, listening is the single most effective approach to a successful resolution. As tempting as it is to "explain" or defend, don't. Listen: to the whole story, take notes, avoid judgments, and never interrupt. Your opportunity to respond will come, later. Ask fact-based "what" (not "why") questions. Focus on the facts not the reasons, causes or motivations.
3. Maintain your poise. Professionals do not become "caught up" in the emotions of the moment. Your role at this time is to understand the current situation from the customer's point of view not to explain yours. Remember the message from the old ditty:

   To sell Mary Smith what Mary Smith buys
   You must see Mary Smith through Mary Smith's eyes.

   Know your limits and predetermine when to retreat. If customer discourse turns to abuse, have a well-considered, professional exit that keeps you beyond the emotions of the moment. Focus on the big picture: resolving the problem.
4. Acknowledge. Restate the problem as it has been presented to assure your understanding. Obtain customer agreement on the definition of the problem.
5. Apologize. Whether or not the facts are correct or not, whether the customer is correct or confused, even if the customer is the cause of the problem your ability to make things better or worse depends upon the customer's receptivity. The best solution in the world is only effective if the beneficiary is receptive. Make it easy for the customer to listen to you: apologize for their discomfort, their pain, and their stress.
6. Commit. Promise to return with a resolution, an answer or the results of what you have learned. Set a deadline and determine the method of communication (who, how, when).
7. Deliver. Keep your follow up promise and be on time, ahead of schedule is best. This is your opportunity for a complete relationship turn around. Transforming a problem into a satisfactory experience has the potential to create a loyal customer for life.
8. Seek third-party assistance. If it becomes very difficult to interact with the customer through problem resolution, hand the ball off to a neutral party i.e. supervisor, manager, or fellow associate. Someone who is "uninvolved" may see the circumstances and issues more clearly and is less vested in right or wrong. Failure to find resolution at this stage will significantly raise the stakes.
9. Remember the ultimate goal. Your business is a reflection of your reputation and your service to each individual customer and all of them collectively. The cost and benefit of a satisfactory customer service experience extends well beyond the life of the transaction. Doing your best to resolve client dissatisfaction is not an issue of the moment. Highly satisfied or highly dissatisfied customers leverage their experience among dozens of potential customers.... today's solution is tomorrow's reward.
10. Learn. Service problem reality or perception... there is something to be learned. After the smoke clears, the best service professionals re-examine the facts and circumstances following a service or communication break down. Implement the appropriate changes.

Q Tips and the content here in are the exclusive property of Quality Service Certification, Inc. and may not be reproduced or distributed without permission. Copyright Quality Service Certification, Inc. 2003. All rights reserved.