How did we get here?
There are a number of business and industry forces and factors that contribute to the current perceptions and state of quality of service in the real estate industry:
- Value crisis regarding consumers' perception of fees and services performed
- Real estate organizations all viewed as the same—essentially undifferentiated
- Increasing pressures to lower fees
- Supply of service providers and practitioners exceeds demand
- Declining number of new licensees entering the industry
- The "biggest army mentality" (lots of sales people with relatively low productivity) remains the conventional path to profitability and market share
- Increasing independence of independent contractors
- Majority of promotion and advertising focuses on professional identity rather than consumer benefits and needs
- Technology decisions are more complex, product life cycles are shorter, and training needs are greater
- Aging broker/owners and sales force becoming less congruous with its core market
- Treating sales people as customers has impeded the process of focusing on and serving the real customer—the consumer
- A sales-associate-defined service process and personal standards of service have led to the inconsistent delivery of service
- Industry service processes, practices, and policies are driven by sales associate preferences and competitor strategies rather than consumer needs and preferences
- Industry and organizational awards, recognition, and rewards are all focused on production—no service orientation.
