Good customer service (or bad) usually conjures up an image of a hospitality or retail setting. However, as the City of Norwood Payneham & St Peters is highlighting through its Eastside Business Awards, customer service is vital  within the professional services sector, just as it is in any other sector.

Three professionals – a real estate agent, an osteopath and an architect – shared their views on what makes good customer service.

Linda Baker, a director at Barry Plant, Norwood, has been working in the real estate industry for almost twenty years. Linda, together with her co-directors Elesa Wood and Michael Duff, are committed to delivering the best experience for their clients, whether it is buying, selling or simply renting a property.

Director of BarryPlant Real Estate Linda Baker.

“We’ve got a thing we say – that it’s always about the customer, not about us,” Baker said.

“In our industry we’re often dealing with people who are in a stressful situation, such as dealing with a relationship breakdown or a change in circumstances.

“We have to listen to what they want and respond to that with expertise, guidance and kindness. Most of all expertise.”

The real estate agent was adamant that in her profession, it is about the experience and delivering the best outcome for the client. Pleasantries should not be mistaken for good customer service. “It’s no good being nice to your customer if you don’t get things done on time.”

When asked if she had any examples that she was willing to share, it didn’t take long to smile and fondly remember one of her elderly clients, who had no family support.

“What you might normally do to get a property ready for the market in terms of cleaning it out, decluttering and painting, you can’t do in this situation because that would just cause her too much pain,” Baker said.

“She hasn’t got an alternative way. She’s very anxious. So, we worked out a way to work around her house in the best possible way.

“Normally I get the photographer to help with how we arrange furniture and identify key features while keeping everyone’s stress levels to a minimum.

“I say to people, there’s nothing easy about buying or selling a house. Even when we make it as easy as possible,” she explained.

“It’s still not an easy process. [Customers] are often frightened or anxious, so you just have to help.”

Barry Plant Norwood has organised mini skips, surveyors and lawyers when selling properties. There is nothing that they can’t do to get the property sold.

“It does take time. And it’s really easy to spot the [real estate] agents that don’t want to spend the time.

“That is where our customer service can provide us with a point of difference.

“We have people in the office that work hard, they often work late. They’re good at – once they’re selling a property – undertaking a sophisticated level of negotiation.

“They’re getting outcomes and good prices. So, we have a huge amount of referrals coming to our business.”

Bounce Back Osteopathy director Anna Griffin said most of her business came from referrals.

“The thing I really love about this clinic is you see colleagues and co-workers or gym friends run into each other in the waiting room, because they’ve referred each other to us.” Griffin said.

“Because they’ve referred each other in, or there’s been a bigger community around them.”

The clinic has five osteopaths, a massage therapist and a receptionist. Griffin aims for customer service that is “warm and friendly, so it doesn’t feel like a clinical experience.”

“We try and make our customers, whether they’re unwell, injured, or feeling good, as welcome as we can,” she said.

Similar to other health businesses, COVID-19 forced the practice to change how they achieve this. The welcoming herbal tea has been sidelined in recent years.

“Until a few months ago, we were having people waiting in their car, so our customer service was affected quite significantly by COVID.”

Griffin said they worked to ensure clients felt well communicated with and appreciated.

“We messaged them in the car to say, thank you for your patience, please come in, your practitioner is ready for you. We made sure that those little experiences were still above and beyond.”

“Now that things are easing up, we’re basically starting afresh [from]where we left off a couple of years ago.

“It has led to some quite big meetings around how can we go above and beyond and make up for that lost time of good customer service and good face to face communication, now that the challenges of the last three years have almost finished.”

Architect Ink director Marco Spinelli.

Architects Ink director Mario Spinelli could rest on the award-winning firm’s laurels and place less emphasis on customer service. However, for him it is an important part of the business.

“Delivering, being approachable and being contactable – not returning calls three days later – it’s all part of that customer service,” Spinelli said.

“And, you know – happy clients, happy life.”

He said he is a “bit of a people person”, a quality that, combined with his experience, ensures most of the first enquiries from potential clients are directed to him.

Repeat clients are also important to the studio. “We are always making sure that clients are number one.”

Fellow directors Tony Lippis and Mladen Zujic also set the tone for high levels of customer service within the studio. Projects often take two years from the first meeting to completed build, and they have found that client relationships change over time.

“It’s always sad when the project’s finished because we’ve become friends by then,” Spinelli said.

“The house we’ve designed, or the addition we’ve delivered for them was our baby and then we have to hand it over, and we can’t go visit it every weekend.

“But we do try and go back there on a regular basis to catch up.”

“For example, on Saturday night, we’ve been invited to dinner by clients, whose house we finished last year.

“Then on Sunday, other clients that have finished their house last year, they invited the builders, the architects, interior designers, the whole group.

“That’s a testament to, you know, making that whole process of designing and building a house, a pleasant one.”

The Eastside Business Awards are based on votes from the public and recognise and celebrate exceptional and outstanding businesses located in the City of Norwood Payneham & St Peters. There are 11 categories for businesses to enter with voting now open.