There seems to be a shift for real estate agencies to train their rental agents in customer service. Years ago, in 2006, when I was looking for a rental place after arriving back from Japan, it was very noticeable that rental agents did not seem to know the concept of customer service. Any questions from potential tenants were answered abruptly and most of the times, very rudely. I wasn’t really sure if I was trying to inspect a property or trying to get into a club. This kind of behaviour does not happen with any agencies sales team where the commissions are larger. I guess money does buy happiness, even if this only holds true with agents.
In late 2011 , when I first started running my company, I was astounded by the chirpy rental agent of Metro Property Management. What? A happy rental agent? No way. This doesn’t happen. If I was geeky enough, I would make references to Dr. Who, the Tardis and some time machine. But I still do not get Dr. Who. And no, you MAY NOT explain it to me.
The agent who showed me the property was friendly, got back to me within the day with a question about the property she did not know and that was a Saturday! I thought her affable demeanour was because she was new to the job so I did not put any expectations on the rest of the employees in her agency. But I was wrong not to put any expectations. When I visited their office, the reception was professional and accommodating. Even if I had to wait, I was offered something to drink and was informed of how long I had to wait. This is a big difference with other agencies I had to deal with when the receptionists act like they all graduated from the Centre for Door Bitch Excellence. Rental agents hide behind the labyrinth of cubicles and couldn’t care less about prospective tenants. You’d think that since they are acting on behalf of the landlord, they would want to meet the people who are applying to live in the accommodation they are flogging to lease. But no, you technically are not their client so no soup for you.
However, there has been three other agencies last year and this year that I have dealt with that had rental agents who treated rental inspectors with interest. To name them: Caine, Leasing Melbourne, Melbourne Real Estate and Melbourne Boutique Property. Their agents were absolutely reliable and trustworthy and were really interested in showing the properties they were representing. I guess they have realised that they can represent a property and to make sure that their income from a rental property is steady, there needs to be a tenant who deposits money into their bank accounts.
It is a business and success is judged by the bottom line. No one needs to apologise for that. But it wouldn’t kill the rest of the agencies with snooty employees to get the sunshine out their holes and realise they need all parts of wheel to make it turn.
