I am honoured to talk to you all from my hub in West Bridgford, Nottinghamshire where I run a small niche lettings and sales company called Nook & Cranny Nottingham Ltd, our strategy is threefold.... local local and local, with a strong tendency towards exceptional customer service!
Today's musings will be on the subject of how easy it is to make a big difference to your tenant, landlord, and profit, just by using great customer service. I feel, as a landlord and letting agent, that it is pretty easy to float to the top of the rankings for service just by using my God given brain and putting myself in the place of the potential tenant ...oh and thinking before we speak. And this is what I was thinking about when the phone rang last week....
"Hello", dejected but posh educated voice said (was that an Aston Martin I heard purring in the background?) " I'm looking for a fabulous 5 bedroom house with a large garden in West Bridgford or Edwalton but I've got a dog". Classic well healed families don't open with budget, length of contract, criminal records, credit ratings or appliances - it's the well loved dog which is the deal breaker here, and after the 3 kids and the private school the dog is an obligatory next step.
"Will you consider taking our dog? I've tried 6 agents before you and no-one will even show us a house, and we're hoping to come up from London to sign on something tomorrow."
So, do I take a sensible view, show them round the house which I know they will love, make my own judgement about whether they will be good tenants overall, including the large lollopping (sp?) quiet old dog, or do I say "no" like everyone else? Well, I have to say I've seen 3 year olds who will be worse wear and tear on a house than most dogs! So I decide to swim against the tide.
Well the way I look at it, they won't try to negotiate on the price, the length of contract or anything else, and I can take double the usual deposit as money is not the issue here, and I will have no void, a very happy landlord, and very grateful well behaved tenants, assuming that when I meet them I decide that they are decent folk. If they are not decent folk I wouldn't take them dog or no dog.
So there we are, many of the properties I look after have well behaved, well looked after dogs in them, oh yes and the well behaved family that brings them here too. They stay longer than average, pay on the nose, they look after the house, and Nook & Cranny grows a great reputation in the canine community!
That's all for now.....off to walk the dog....(joking)
Katie
www.facebook.com/nookandcranny
2 comments:
Do you mean well heeled?
Ah, yes, anonymouse I think I must! Luckily my customers value my service hopefully ahead of my spelling!! Sorry, will try harder....
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