Don’t be fooled! Customer service is not the same as customer experience.

Recently some people in the industry have said to me that customer service is not relevant anymore, today apparently it’s all about the customer experience or ‘CX’ as it’s often termed – sounds much sexier doesn’t it?

“Yes the customer experience is important but the service your team deliver is what sets you apart from the competition”

However I would argue that customer service and customer experience are NOT the same thing. Customer experience is all about improving the customer journey. More often than not this is achieved by improving the online & digital experience through great tech, good examples of this would be Uber or Hotels.com. Both services provide a great customer experience but service is nowhere to be seen. There’s also some great proptech solutions out there, good proptech enhances your customer journey but – more importantly – it frees up time for your team to focus on service levels. Yes the customer experience is important but the service your team deliver is what sets you apart from the competition.

The conveyancing sector is very different from most, we work in what is essentially a conflict industry where there are always two opposing parties – a seller and a buyer. There will always be obstacles and problems to solve and they can only be solved by delivering great customer service.

“Customer service means treating your customers like you’d treat your own family or your close friends”

So what do I mean by delivering great customer service. Well I literally mean treating your customers like you’d treat your own family or your close friends (I’m assuming here you get on with your family and that you’ve got friends!). What do we do for family and friends that we don’t do for others? We go out of our way for them – and that’s what giving great service all about because when you go out of your way for someone you start a relationship and once you have established a relationship with someone you begin to build TRUST. Establish trust and you’ll have a customer for life.

You have to want to give great service, it’s either in your DNA or not. It’s connected to the type of people we are, the way we treat our customers is an indicative of the way we look at life in general. I believe there is a real opportunity for conveyancers who truly believe in delivering those exceptional service levels to rise above the sea of mediocrity customers expect. It’s a challenge as there is a constant struggle to balance service levels with delivering profit but the firms who don’t give in to putting profits above service will enhance their reputation ensuring secure long term profitability.

 

This article was submitted to be published by The ESTAS as part of their advertising agreement with Today’s Conveyancer. The views expressed in this article are those of the submitter and not those of Today’s Conveyancer.

3 responses

  1. Love the sentiment, but unfortunately until firms recognise how demand impacts on capacity, and stop overloading their conveyancers with excessive caseload volumes, there will never be enough time to deliver client service to all 100 plus clients, looking for updates, advice and effective communication. Trying to get a quart out of a pint pot creates the single biggest negative influence on Service Levels and until we resolve the commercial impact of inappropriate fee levels requiring conveyancers to carry excessive caseload levels, quality service will remain merely something we talk about.

    1. Thanks for your feedback Jamie, I appreciate that in the ‘real’ world – especially at the moment – delivering quality service is a real challenge but as I said at the end of the article it has to be the long term goal for any conveyancer that wants to differentiate themselves the ensure ‘long term’ profitability.

  2. Couldn’t agree more. Customer service is the human element. It’s hugely challenging to get right but the aim, surely, must be to treat your customers the way you would want to be treated.

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