The cornerstone of any business and the lifeblood of Belvoir, good customer service continues to be top of their agenda.
Throughout 2010, consistently high service levels have had a positive impact on Belvoir’s businesses across the country. And, there’s no doubt that Belvoir’s continued commitment to delivering good customer care was also a contributing factor to their Gold Award win at the Lettings Agency of the Year Awards (in association with The Sunday Times and The Times) earlier this year.
Belvoir’s MD Dorian Gonsalves believes that good customer service “is the real essence of Belvoir” and is looking forward to the company’s 140+ offices continuing to deliver outstanding customer service in the year ahead.
“When I took on the role of MD in July, I spoke of my commitment to Belvoir’s three core values of professionalism, customer service and specialism within the lettings sector. Throughout 2011 there will be ongoing commitment to raising customer service standards by means of office audits, complaints handling and monitoring and an active working partnership with both The Property Ombudsman and Safeagent,” he says.
In recognition of the importance of maintaining high levels of service, each year Belvoir’s Central Office rewards individual offices that have shown exceptional commitment to customer care at an annual awards presentation.
Recently Vaughan and Sally Schofield of Belvoir Wrexham won Belvoir’s Gold Award for their commitment to good service.
“We do our best to give good customer service, believing it is essential to running a business,” says Vaughan. “Sally and I are very fortunate that our whole team share this ethos and, although it sounds remarkably simple and ordinary, honouring our commitments is the key to this.
“We always do what we say we’re going to do – if we say we’re going to call people back, we call them back; if we say we’ll be there by 5pm we’ll be there by 5pm. We honour every commitment and landlords, in particular, are telling us that their previous experiences with other agents haven’t always delivered this.”
On presenting the award Belvoir’s MD Dorian Gonsalves praised Vaughan and Sally’s, “high-quality customer service and old-fashioned values of keeping each and every promise to their clients.”
The Silver Award for Customer Service 2010 went to Mike and Amanda Campbell of Belvoir Falkirk and the Bronze Award 2010 was presented to Major and Bal Mahil of Belvoir Birmingham Central and Belvoir Erdington. Major Mahil, along with his wife Bal, are well known throughout the Belvoir group for their impeccable customer service and have received many customer service awards from Belvoir since they launched their first Belvoir office in 2007.
In addition to winning this year’s Bronze Award for Customer Service, the couple also won Belvoir’s New Franchise of the Year award in 2007 and the Gold Award for Customer Service in 2009 in recognition of their outstanding efforts. Major credits their high levels of service to pro-activeness, honesty and tackling problems head on.
“We always try and be pro-active, efficient and courteous at all times,” says Major.
“Honesty from the outset is very important too. We built our Birmingham success on being transparent, honest and open – transparency means the customers know exactly how much they’re paying and what service they can expect.
“As well as ensuring a smooth transaction all the way from taking on a property to letting it, honesty and transparency means a customer won’t feel let down because you’ve failed to deliver on a false promise.
“And, most importantly, we always try and overcome problems rather than ignoring them. We always tackle problems head on.” It is not surprising that Major and Bal’s offices receive many testimonials from tenants and landlords, including this recent accolade from a landlord serviced by their Erdington office.
“I must say one thing, your service is astonishing and you keep me posted on every little matter – it’s great. I have worked with numerous agents and never had service anywhere near yours,” he said.
Realising that feedback is pivotal to being able to give good levels of customer service, two of Belvoir’s offices – Belvoir Harrogate and Belvoir Macclesfield – have recently entered the ESTAS Awards (The Estate and Letting Agent Awards) 2011.
These awards ask clients to score companies on many areas of their business, including first impressions, trustworthiness and communication. The results will help entrants find out exactly what their customers really think about their service.
“Our motivation for entering was two-fold,” says Proprietor of Belvoir Macclesfield Rosemary Millican. “Firstly, it gives our landlords the opportunity to give feedback independently and anonymously. Plus, as we’re confident that we give a fantastic level of service, it gives us the opportunity to shine.”