In Client Experience

ARE YOU TURNING TODAY’S PURCHASERS INTO TOMORROW’S SELLERS?

CONTRIBUTED BY ALISTAIR WRIGHT, HARCOURTS CX MANAGER

While the adage that ‘today’s purchasers are tomorrow’s sellers’ is a bit of a real estate cliché, a quick look at the Harcourts CX numbers suggest it may not be receiving the attention it deserves. While our global Net Promoter Score (NPS) for a rolling 12 months is an excellent 70 – see below for a quick explanation – this masks a discrepancy between the scores we achieve from our seller clients as opposed to our purchasers. The all-time NPS for sellers is a fantastic 77, but lags at 64 for purchasers. While 64 is still a very good score, it possibly undermines our ambition of delivering the finest experience in real estate for all our clients, sellers and purchasers. More importantly, this number suggests we may be inadvertently reducing the future value that purchasers represent. All of the things our service delivery aims to achieve can be undermined by small but avoidable missteps during the purchaser journey. Even a top-line analysis of the reasons purchasers give for a poor NPS makes this point. Mishandled key-handovers are a prime example. Not being able to immediately present keys to a buyer at the allotted time or appearing late to an agreed handover slot are often seen by purchasers as significant black marks. The comments describe a sense that the agent – and by extension, the whole of Harcourts – has received their commission and lost a degree of interest in the purchaser. However incorrect this may be, perception is reality and it’s that reality that’s reflected the NPS awarded. The good news is that being often relatively small issues that can cause a mark-down to the Harcourts experience, they can be addressed quickly and easily. In South Africa, for example, the leadership team have worked with business owners to focus on purchasers and can now boast an outstanding NPS of 76 for these clients, compared to an equally amazing NPS of 78 from sellers. And of course, every increase in purchaser NPS increases the estimated future value of a Harcourts business – because satisfied clients not only tell people about their experience, but also because as happy purchasers, we’ve increased the likelihood of them asking us to appraise that property when they come to sell in future years. WHAT IS A GOOD NET PROMOTER SCORE? Net Promoter Score (NPS) is calculated from the 0 to 10 score we ask clients about their likelihood to recommend Harcourts to a friend or colleague. The results are on a scale of -100 to +100, and therefore 50 is considered a ‘good’ score. 60 is very good and is the target many large corporations aim. An NPS of 70 or above is considered ‘World Class’ and the gold standard for organisations to strive for.

60 70