Managing customer relations is crucial to the home-building business
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Customer relationship management (CRM) is a prerequisite for every company to keep its relationship with its customers intact, preserving its good image and reputation.
When customers feel good about a company, it is easy to build brand loyalty. Good customers can be the company’s best public relations agents, as they can recommend the firm to other people.
Peer reviews tend to have more influence on customers’ choices than other media.
At the heart of CRM is openness, good listening and good service – a kind of willingness to serve and help customers find what they need.
In practice, the company must establish a convenient channel of communication with customers such as telephone, fax, e-mail, website and social media to enable people to contact the company or to foster two-way interaction.
It is also necessary to assign a person with proper qualifications to handle CRM and to act as a go-between with customers and at the same time as a buffer for the company when conflicts arise.
In the home-building business, customers’ expectations are quite high, since this business deals with house design and services such as construction, and coordination with government agencies, banks and so on. The house itself also has high value.
There is also a long decision-making process to choose the right home-builder, the construction period and details and procedures from the beginning until the completion of the house. Dissatisfaction and misunderstanding can arise at any time.
The way to prevent dissatisfaction is to be sensitive to the customers’ feelings. If they show they are unsatisfied with the company’s work or service, the staff must quickly dispel misunderstandings and correct the work in question.
Such problems must not be left unattended until they become a big issue or the work in question has been completed beyond correction. The more time passes, the more unhappy feelings grow beyond repair.
Seacon Home has always put emphasis on CRM, and a department for this purpose has been set up as a front-line unit to deal with customers from the outset.
Coordinating with customers when they need assistance and informing the executives and staff involved of problems and trying to find solutions helps neutralise dissatisfaction from the beginning.
For example, the company will phone customers to ask how the work is progressing in order to see if schedules are being met and if there are any contentious points, as the clients may be reluctant to speak up.
This is to some extent the nature of Thai people, who would rather not be straightforward until the dissatisfaction grows strong.
The faster the company learns about the problem, the faster action can be taken to defuse it.
As pointed out, CRM is necessary for home-building business because a healthy relationship between the company and customers helps smooth over any problems arising during the construction period and ensure the house meets customers’ needs once delivered.
It is a win-win situation – customers are happy with the house they have been dreaming of and home-builders are happy too.
