Using data to make business decisions: An NPS case study
Having a Net Promoter Score (NPS) gives you a snapshot of your customer experience, but the right way to approach NPS is to use the insight it gives you to make further business decisions.
In this NPS case study we look at how one of Australia’s largest agencies, Place Real Estate, used NPS to identify and improve their client experience.
Overhauling the Property Management department
David Sparksman has an extensive background in Information Technology and had been consulting for Place Real Estate for several years when they approached him about creating a role around innovation.
Early on in this new role, he was handed the unenviable project of overhauling the Property Management department.
The brief was simple; get a complete picture of the people, processes, and technology within the agency, then identify key areas for improvement.
David said in his findings, “from pre-list to settle there was a disparity not just in the experience, but in the capability of the individuals and therefore the result.”
“We just weren’t delivering as good a customer experience.”
This insight was not based on a hunch, it was based on verified NPS (Net Promoter Score) data.
“We measure using NPS so we can actually validate the experience.”
The NPS score confirmed what David had suspected, that the overall customer experience that Place had been delivering was being negatively affected by the inconsistent levels of service that they were receiving.
This told David that Place needed to focus on its processes so that the less-experienced Property Managers could do the role as effectively as more senior staff.
Implementing change and creating consistency
By working with STAFFLINK to implement Property Management processes and workflows, Place was able to eliminate the simple human errors that can often have a negative impact on a customer’s experience.
In Real Estate there are dozens of tasks that can get missed, whether it’s that phone call to the landlord to thank them for their business, or that social media post that was supposed to go out the same day as a listing goes live.
Each missed task increases the risk of damaging the client experience – and now these missed tasks are “not an issue” according to David.
“It’s either happening in the work or it’s being identified as a training issue to that staff member really quickly and addressed.
Place has 4500+ properties under management, so eliminating missed tasks for a portfolio of this size is no small achievement.
However, the impact on their customer experience has been notable.”
Again, this is not a hunch.
David effectively used NPS to identify areas for improvement and subsequently evaluate the impact of the business decisions he took.
David Sparksman (Place) talks about his STAFFLINK journey and NPS metrics.
A new level of service
The result has seen Place being able to improve their client experience, and they can demonstrate this with actual data.
“In the last five years that’s really turned around. Now our NPS score is between 72 to 82 which is for a non-product company is very high. So that’s been a bit of a turnaround.”
“So, we think there are enormous efficiencies, for the offices with a better customer experience.”
A lesson for other agencies
So what is the lesson of Place’s NPS-driven journey?
The big takeaway for other agencies is the importance of making data-driven decisions.
David Sparksman wasn’t acting on a “hunch” when he proposed streamlining their workflows and processes.
They were making NPS-powered decisions.
Despite the complexity of Property Management, Place understood that ultimately the success of their operations is largely dependent on their client experience.
They partnered with STAFFLINK and implemented new workflows that empowered their property managers, not burdened them.
They made data-driven decisions, they approached their NPS score not as a vanity number, but as a crucial metric on the health of their business.
And they have seen incredible improvements in the quality of their client experience as a result.
If you want to know more about this NPS Case Study, how NPS works or how STAFFLINK can empower your Property Managers to give a better client experience, talk to our team today.
