Consumer Expectations, the Forgotten Child

As a consumer, I've had multiple experiences lately with a bank, a doctor, and a government agency that make me wonder what century I'm living in. Every transaction was paper based with tons of duplicate information and just a whole lot of inefficiency all over the place. Completely unsatisfying experiences meeting my consumer expectations.

Consumer focused brands, systems, and efficiencies are everywhere these days. If you're not taking advantage of them and making consumer expectations part of your value proposition, you're operating your business at a disadvantage. So what should you be thinking about?

Here are a few ideas that can help you meet consumer expectations:

• Streamline! All your processes need be designed around delivering a better consumer experience both online and offline;
• Go paperless! The more paper in your consumer-facing functions, the more hassles you're creating and the more you're exposing this weakness;
• Digitize! Part of being paperless is digitizing everything you do, especially your marketing. By doing so, you're creating better consumer experiences with the added benefit of being able to track everything that is going on;
• Mobile! You MUST have mobile-friendly (this means RESPONSIVE) websites and other systems to not only deliver a better consumer experience, but to make sure Google and other search engines can see you; and,
• Modernize! Appearances matter, especially in real estate. Your office should look and feel similar to high-performing, consumer-centered brands like Apple and Starbucks.

Consumers dictate everything these days. They're educated, have easy access to information, and, most importantly, have very high expectations of everyone they do business with. You're not only competing with your local Realtor or other developers, you're competing with every other company that delivers a better experience that a consumer is going to compare to you. If you satisfy consumer expectations, you'll have a happy customer, if you don't, you might still have a customer, but they'll be looking for every reason to find the real estate person that can make them happier.

Connect with me, if you'd like to learn how you can satisfy consumer expectations in 2016.

To view the original article, visit the PCMS Consulting blog.