Original Sign Used By Fillmore 1966

When dad was placing lawn signs on properties back in the 60’s, I can remember what the old stationary had printed on the top of it.  It said, “Our Sign is A Symbol of Our Success,” and situated next to that saying was a picture of a Fillmore for sale sign with the word sold across it.  There was a particular marketing piece that comes to mind that spoke about this logo; if you will, and it had testimonials from the many satisfied clients of Fillmore at the time.  Dad referred to the sign in this piece as “The Symbol of Satisfaction.”  There was nothing more satisfying for an agent then to place the sold sign up on a property.
As a matter of fact, we never used signs to attract buyers back in the 60’s,  but rather to announce that we sold a property.  For some strange reason signs were not placed to attract buyers, but to show that you were a quality broker to list your home with.

Brokers at that time held the information about what homes were available close to their vests, and buyers had to call on ads in newspapers and/or mailouts and  come to the office to find out more.  This was when the broker held all the marbles.  Today, it’s a totally different world out there…or is it?
Actually, back in the 60’s Fillmore focused on providing excellent customer service to each customer or client that walked in the door or called on the phone.  Dad always said to treat the customer like royalty, and that is what I believe helped to grow Fillmore into such a strong and well respected company over the years.  Dad would add, “treat each customer as if they were your only customer, ” and he would continue saying, “treat them as you would want to be treated.”  Now all of this sounds so simple and basic, but that’s what it IS all about.

Today, I can say that our customers that call and walk in the office are still treated like royalty; at least most of the time, but I am a little nervous as to how the internet customer is handled.  Fillmore has initiated a huge customer satisfaction initiative to discover how the online consumer is being handled, and I am sorry to say that they are just not handled as good as they can be.

1) Are you treating your online customer like royalty?
2) Are you treating them like they were your only customer?
3) Are you treating them as you would like to be treated?
Come on, let’s be honest here.

As an industry, we have a  long way to go with satisfying the consumer as they want to be satisfied.  It is those brokers who realize this current weakness and take action to correct it that will benefit and gain customer loyalty, satisfaction and market share.
We are now in the process of contacting each and every client that calls, emails and/or texts a Fillmore agent to see if they were handled properly.  We will begin the process of screening random calls, and taking the information back to the agents.  New leads will be assigned to agents that receive a high customer satisfaction score.
This is still a work in process, but it’s about time that real estate companies focus more on customer satisfaction.
It’s about time that real estate companies become more professional..that’s my opinion and I know that we need improvement too.
They say that realization is the first step.   To those of you out there who have already championed customer satisfaction in real estate, my kudos are with you.  To those of us who haven’t yet started, let’s get going.