Personalized Service, Creative Marketing Leads to Success

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Personalized Service, Creative Marketing Leads to Success

By Beth Bresnahan

Chalking it up to groundbreaking marketing programs and truly remarkable service, Peggy Doepper, president of Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage in Connecticut and Westchester, New York, describes how the company increased overall revenue by 40% in the last four years. Looking back, she says that a sharpened focus on operational excellence initiatives set the stage for the company?s organic growth and its acquisitions of 16 independent real estate firms in the area.

Doepper, who was appointed president and chief operating officer of Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage in Connecticut and Westchester two years ago, says, “I strongly believe that our clients continue to come back to us because of the superior level of personalized service that they receive from our sales associates.”

Doepper was convinced that raising the bar on service delivery would have a positive impact on the company?s bottom line. She wasn?t wrong, apparently. This year, Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage in Connecticut and Westchester, as a whole, increased its market share faster than its primary competitor.

“With new companies entering the real estate industry at a rampant pace, I felt it was important for my sales associates to be held to the highest standard in customer service,” says Doepper. “In setting that bar, I turned to a company that many consider to be the gold standard in customer service?the Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company.”

Doepper brought the Ritz-Carlton customer-service training program to the real estate company and required her sales associates to participate in the intensive program.

Doepper said, “The training instills in our sales associates the knowledge to anticipate a client?s next need, the preferred demeanor in responding to them, and the thought process for going the extra mile beyond what is expected. This is so important in the real estate business today when clients are examining their options.”

Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage provides clients with a full-service marketing system that includes concierge services, mortgage services, a home warranty program, advertising, direct marketing and online marketing on the company?s Web site (www.coldwellbankermoves.com). The company also provides corporate relocation services, and has an extensive New Homes and Land Division, Commercial Division, and Previews International for the marketing of select luxury homes and estates.

One of the marketing campaigns that Doepper?s firm pioneered drew record numbers of consumers to Coldwell Banker listings. The “Opportunity Knocks” program was introduced in the fall of 2001, with full-page local newspaper ads that featured open houses sorted by location, rich with driving directions for each listing. Other real estate companies later emulated the program across the industry.

Today, Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage in Connecticut and Westchester has more than 1,200 sales associates across 31 sales offices. Cendant Mobility named the company principal broker in 2002. This further strengthened Coldwell Banker?s ability to expand its pool of relocating buyers and sellers.

“I am so proud of the sales associates and managers of Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage in Connecticut and Westchester,” says Doepper, who joined Coldwell Banker seven years ago, initially as regional vice president for the Connecticut area. “Not only are they high-achievers in their delivery of excellent customer service, but they also devote their personal time to important causes in their communities.”

In 2002, the Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage team raised more than $100,000 for the Children?s Cancer Fund through the sale of specially designed teddy bears at all of their office locations, and by participating in sponsored walks and runs for the Fund. “Simply put,” says Doepper, “our sales associates work extremely hard for their clients and for their communities.”

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Sunday, March 21, 2010