Putting Service to the Test

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Putting Service to the Test

For some people, the end of school means the end of tests-but not for those who are Quality Service Certified?.

Those who affiliate themselves with QSC? gladly put themselves to the test, offering buyers and sellers guarantees to be provided top-notch service, as well as an opportunity to “grade” their agent via Quality Service Assurance Surveys?.

K. Lee Smith, an agent for Harry Norman Realtors in Atlanta, Ga., thrives on the “report card” of sorts he’s provided as a member of the San Juan Capistrano, Calif.-based company dedicated to helping agents deliver better customer service. He’s received the QSC? Platinum designation, earned by obtaining an average Customer Satisfaction Rating of 4.2 or greater from the Quality Service Assurance Survey and having no surveys returned with a score below “Satisfied” (4.0).

“I got involved in QSC? because of its president, Larry Romito. I had been to see him when he was at an executive level at Coldwell Banker and one of the things I liked about Coldwell Banker was the guarantee for both buyers and sellers. I felt like something that was important,” Smith, 45, says. “When Larry went on his own and created this organization, I thought he was putting together something I could utilize through my association with Harry Norman Realtors, and I was excited about that.”

Under the QSC? program, an agent not only needs to live up to measurable standards of service, but is provided plans of action and systems to help achieve or exceed those standards.

Principles of flawless transaction, customer satisfaction development and increased referrals are taught in a one-day, live presentation or online course, culminating with a 40-question exam. But it doesn’t end there.

Smith and his fellow QSC? members are required to implement the processes and principles taught in the course into the way they do business every day, and are tracked through the Quality Service Assurance Survey?, which allows the buyer or seller to rate the agent’s performance on the transaction.

Mary Brake, an agent at Woods Bros. Realty in Lincoln, Neb., came to the real estate business after a career in teaching. Now she’s the one being graded, and has also received QSC? Platinum status, reflecting 100% satisfaction.

“It gives me something in writing; a designation to say to people ‘I have this as an agent, I worked hard to earn it and I’m working hard to maintain it,’” Brake says. “If I don’t maintain a level of quality service, they’ll take my designation away. With the QSC? guarantee, it shows that this service will be there for them, and it gives me some credibility and accountability.”

Brake also lauds the customized programs and service action plans QSC? provides, and says while they are similar to some she had developed on her own, QSC?’s organized programs allow her to bring a value-added set of rules to her customers.

“Now when I sit down with a listing presentation, I actually have a name for my system,” she says. “It actually makes my job easier and gives them a blueprint as far as how this service is going to help them.”

Terry Moerler of RE/MAX Gold Coast Realtors in Thousand Oaks, Calif., says she always took a “counseling approach” to her clients’ needs, and QSC? helps her continue to do that.

“This kind of goes along with the method in which I work,” she says. “Now there’s something that’s more formal I’m able to sit down and show somebody exactly what’s going to be done.”

Through the independent reviews her clients submitted to QSC?, Moerler has achieved Quality Service Certified? Gold status, a mark reserved for those practitioners or offices with a 4.2 or better average Customer Satisfaction Rating from the Quality Service

Assurance Surveys?.

And when she offers referrals, she says, QSC? allows her to find an agent with the same level of commitment she brings to the job.

“I am a very heavy referring agent. I refer a lot of clients to agents around the country and I would be much more apt to look for somebody who has the QSC? designation,” she says. “The most important thing to me would be to look for an agent that would give the same quality service I give because I would know they’d be following the same guidelines that I follow.”

For more information about Quality Service Certification, visit www.qualitycertified.org.


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