A successful customer journey is a recipe for property rental success.
Understanding the customer journey is more than just a strategy to improve your marketing and win more clients. It's about knowing your clients' behaviors and expectations and improving your customer service so that you can become a market-leading real estate professional and also succeed in closing in property rental leads.
What is a customer journey?
A customer journey, also called a customer journey map, is a story that outlines how your customer begins and completes their property rental, or purchase experience with an emphasis on their interactions and touchpoints with your business. It gives agents a visual tool to gain insights into common customer pain points and how to improve their service.
The first step to client success is understanding their customer journey
Did you know that your customer's journey starts well before they meet you?
Your client may begin their journey browsing online or touring open houses. Perhaps they first heard of you when passing by a property rental listing or through a referral from a friend. You can only uncover this valuable information by talking to your clients about their experiences.
In real estate leasing, you must maintain an up-to-date digital presence on your company's website, social media, and standard listing portals. In today's market and digital world, your online presence will likely be your client's first impression of you.
Going forward, you need to know how your client interacts with you and your communication platforms to map your customer journey.
Questions to ask when creating your customer journey maps are:
- Who are your clients, and what do they think of you?
- Where do they spend their time online and offline?
- What channels do they absorb information through (phone, email, text, social media, etc.)?
It would help if you outlined several customer journeys that correspond with the different types of clients you work with, such as singles, ex-pats, couples, or families. Alternatively, you may find that your clients have different customer journeys when they have different budgets.
Success in property rental relies on you
Your main goal should be to understand how you can improve your interactions and communications with your clients. Remember that doesn't necessarily mean that you must send them text messages daily. It might be that some customers expect weekly emails with new properties for lease while others want to have regular phone conversations.
To improve their experience, you need to understand their expectations and how you can exceed them.
- How can you eliminate points of friction in the journey?
- Are you creating consistency across all your digital touchpoints (website, social media, and email)?
- Are you listening to your client's feedback?
- How quickly are you responding to your client's needs?
- Can you improve your team's interactions with clients?
Whether buying or leasing, real estate transactions are almost always personal and involve clients' emotions. Customer journeys help you better understand your customer, enabling you to personalize your interactions with them throughout their journey.
Your clients want to feel that their wants and needs are understood. This knowledge will make it easier for you to provide targeted listings, improve efficiency, and advance the overall customer experience you deliver.
A satisfied customer earns trust and, therefore, referrals
While closing a deal is always important, the trust you build with your clients through an outstanding customer experience is worth far more than your next commission check. Trust leads to:
- Confidence in the quality of your service.
- Your client's belief that you will put their needs above your own.
Most customers seek a service that requires as little effort and sacrifice as possible. Therefore, they want their interactions with you and your team to be seamless and free from delay. Be highly responsive, listen to their needs, and provide targeted and curated communications.
As you develop your client's trust in you, you'll find that word of mouth via referrals will become your most lucrative lead source. Leaving a positive impression on your customer leads to so much more than happy a client. It will be the foundation of your successful real estate career.
