I honestly can’t remember the first time I ordered from Amazon, but now I can't imagine my life without it.
Who knew that a company that started by selling books online could transform the way we all shop today?
I heard a story about how Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos started the company many years ago. It began with a crazy idea of selling items online. Bezos went to a hardware store and bought a wooden door and four 2-by-4s to build a desk. He then wrote 500 ideas on a whiteboard, stepped back to look at all of them, and then organized the ideas 1 through 500 in order of priority.
He kept the idea for Amazon simple, allowing the customers to get what they want, when they want. E-commerce has forever changed thanks to a 2-by-4 desk and a whiteboard full of 500 ideas.
This article is the third of 7 blogs in a series that examines 7 companies that have shaped the consumer experience, ultimately impacting the title and escrow industry. As I mentioned in the first 2 posts in this series, customer experience can be broken down into 3 main things that I call the QCCs:
- Quality product or service
- Customer care
- Customer control
If you want to learn more about the QCCs, you can check out our first blog in this series, “How the Domino’s Pizza Tracker Changed Consumer Expectations.”
As we mentioned in our first blog post of the series, all the companies we look at have mastered the first QCC, quality, so we won’t spend much time talking about that. Amazon has also done a great job giving the customer control over the online shopping experience. But, for the purpose of this blog, we will focus on something that Amazon excels at more than anything else: customer care.
Customer Care in a Commoditized Industry
While customer service is reactive, trying to solve a problem, customer care is all about being proactive, anticipating the customer’s future needs. If you’re interested in diving deeper into the difference between service and care, you can check out our blog, “Moving from Customer Service to Customer Care.”
Amazon is great at providing proactive assistance.
For example, if you buy a DVD of The Notebook (but I mean, who buys DVDs anymore?), Amazon suggests that you also buy a box of Kleenex (or two).
Or, when you order a wireless mouse, Amazon suggests that you also buy a wireless keyboard.
Being Proactive Shows the Customer that You Really Care about Them
Amazon offers customer care by allowing customers to:
- Order whatever you want, whenever you want … and return it if you don’t like it
- Pick the date that your items will arrive
- Chose the Amazon Prime service option, which includes special deals as well as free shipping and returns
- See suggested items related to those you just purchased (like recommending tissues when you buy The Notebook)
- See reviews from other customers in order to validate or invalidate a product (this allows you to proactively read about an item before you decide to buy it)
Amazon takes it further by giving their customers a sense of control at every step of the ordering process.
Customer Control Means Allowing Your Customers to Give Unbiased Feedback
If you think unbiased feedback -- like Amazon reviews -- are insignificant, this next story might blow your mind (I almost couldn’t believe it when I first read about it).
During the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, people were ordering candles on Amazon and other online stores because they were stuck at home and wanted something to freshen up their home offices/classrooms/gyms and yoga studios. (Who knew a house or apartment could have so many uses?)
Since one common symptom of COVID-19 is a temporary loss of smell, some people who bought candles online couldn’t smell, so they gave a bunch of bad reviews! As one article put it, “It turns out that the pandemic has not been kind to the scented candle business” (that’s an understatement).
Of course, these customers didn’t realize at the time that they had lost their sense of smell. Instead, they thought their new Citrus Mango Breeze or Vanilla Bean candles were just poorly made. So many people wrote negative reviews of candles on Amazon, Yankee Candle, and other popular candle-selling sites that candle sales went down! (I could have never predicted that a global pandemic would make scented candle reviews affect nation-wide candle sales).
Customer Control Means Making Returns Easy
Like I just mentioned, at the height of the pandemic, Amazon encountered something that no one could have anticipated: bad reviews for scented candles that actually smelled good.
What did Amazon do to deliver great customer care and control during this crazy time? They allowed customers who bought a candle and didn’t like it to return it without any hassle.
Amazon seems to know that sometimes you buy things on a whim.
Maybe you had a rough day and thought that buying a 5-pack of Nicholas Sparks novels would fix it. Then, the next day you realize you might have been a bit dramatic and that you don’t actually want to or have time to read 5 sappy romance novels.
Or, again, maybe you bought scented candles then found out you had COVID and couldn’t smell anything for a month, so you decided to return them.
No sweat. Amazon gets it and they let you return your spur-of-the-moment or retail-therapy purchase. Amazon proactively presents you with the resources to return items if you decide you no longer want them.
What Does This Mean for Your Title Company?
We have to put ourselves in our customers’ shoes.
Amazon has totally reshaped the way that e-commerce is done. Amazon lets you buy and get your package the next day, lets you join Prime and get special deals, and lets you rate and review items.
Amazon set the bar for buying and returning online.
Amazon has proactively done the work, so you don’t have to.
When working with your title company, how much do realtors and consumers even know about the closing process? Do they feel like you’re a resource and advocate for them or just someone telling them where to go on signing day and where to sign on documents?
Maybe you’ve been in the industry for a long time and have come to view the closing process in terms of a commodity, thinking something like “well, as long as we close on time and accurately, telling the consumer where to sign, that is good enough.”
While that may actually be good enough for today, it will not be good enough for tomorrow when the competition decides to raise the bar.
If you are operating with a transactional mindset, then your role is simply that: transactional.
But transactional doesn’t leave a lasting impact on the realtor or consumer.
Living with a transactional mindset creates a business where the customer will switch title companies the next time they need a title company and there is one that offers faster or cheaper service.
How about if you decided today to stop playing that game?
While Amazon can afford to be the cheapest and fastest (seriously, no one can do it better than them with the volume they do), that is a game that you and I probably cannot win. However, delivering better customer care is a game you can always win.
Realtors and consumers will switch from using the transactional title company to the one that provides proactive customer care; that begins by helping them actually understand what is going on during the closing process and making the process easy.
Text Message and Email Automation for Title Companies
Proactive care means letting the realtor and consumer know:
- Where they have been
- Where they are
- Where they are going next in the closing process
CloseSimple helps you communicate this by allowing you to send realtors and consumers proactive email and text message updates. CloseSimple’s email automation for the title industry along with text message reminders makes sure that nobody is left in the dark and your clients really feel cared for.
We Make You Look Awesome Without You Having to Put in Extra Work!
There are five common steps in the closing process and CloseSimple has templated automated updates for each step (automated to send directly from your current title production software). And, these steps and messages are totally customizable, so they fit your company. To read more about the 5-most templated updates, you can check out our downloadable pdf.
The Best Title Closing Software is One that Provides Customer Care
Since a hallmark of customer care is allowing potential customers to read reviews from current and past clients, I always recommend that title companies include a link to their Google reviews page in their welcome email to new clients.
This allows realtors and consumers to read what others have said about your company, so they know what kind of customer experience to expect from you.
To learn more about how to set up your Google Business page, ask for reviews, and to see sample emails you can send to new clients, check out our blog, “Google Reviews Can Really Help Title Companies?” and our downloadable ebook, “The Strive for Five: The Definitive Guide on How Google Reviews Can Help Title & Escrow Companies Increase Their Online Presence & Gain Business in a Crowded Market.”
And when you’ve completed the closing, CloseSimple helps you earn more great reviews. The automated message CloseSimple helps you send for the last step in the closing process asks for a review and includes a link to your company’s Google reviews page, allowing your clients to rate and review their customer experience. If you don’t have a Google My Business page you can easily set one up.
Just like Amazon does the work so that customers don’t have to, CloseSimple does the work of templating automated text message and email updates so that you can focus on closing files!
