What's the importance to a firm of feedback? Ben Rivett, of Savills' Norwich residential team, discusses.
It's hard to buy anything or use any kind of service these days without being asked for feedback. What was your experience like? Would you recommend it to a friend?
If you've ever wondered what actually happens to the information you supply then for us at Savills it's a fantastically useful way of making sure we meet - and hopefully exceed - our current and future clients' expectations.
Property sales are only partially about bricks and mortar, gardens and grounds. Property is personal. Your house is likely to be your most valuable asset; it may also be charged with emotion, especially if it's a much-loved family home.
The decision to sell can be very tough, for all sorts of reasons, and so, of course, the way in which a sale is handled by an agent is incredibly important.
Finding a buyer and sealing the deal is the ultimate goal, but how complications, stresses and strains are dealt with along the way is vital. There are many things you can d as a seller to help avoid unwelcome delays - things like gathering together papers and guarantees relating to any building work, for example, and instructing a solicitor as soon as possible to check for potential problems or ambiguities over issues like rights of way or covenants which can be sticking points.
Sometimes hold-ups and hiccups are just unavoidable though, and a good agent should be able to anticipate these problems and know how best to keep the deal on track.
Feedback is a constant reminder of the things people value: professionalism, knowledge and efficiency, yes, but also regular communication, friendliness, problem solving and a willingness to go the extra mile.
One of the ways in which firms evaluate their performance is through what's known as a Net Promoter Score or NPS which gauges customer relationships.
I'm immensely proud that the client feedback the Norwich residential team has received currently stands at in excess of 80, which is reassuringly high.
But we're not planning to rest on our laurels – feedback also keeps us on our toes and reinforces the resounding message that such an important asset as someone's home deserves to be handled with great care.
Ben Rivett, Savills Norwich, can be contacted on 01603 229 229 or see www.savills.comSavills has sponsored this column.
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