You know what will ruin your day? A bad Quality of Service Survey…

Generally I love seeing that a client has filled out a QSS (Quality Service Survey) after they have bought or sold a property with me and I can’t wait to read them. I’m very proud of the fact that I’ve earned the Quality Service award from Century 21 four years in a row. In 2008 I had a 91% Quality of Service rating, in 2009 & 2010 it was 97% and in 2011 it was 93%.

So last night I was excited to see two emails alerting me that two clients that had recently closed on properties had filled out a QSS. I quickly signed in to Century 21 and brought up the surveys. I opened the first one… a 41% rating? What? No! Must be something wrong…

My first reaction was  it must be wrong, then I got defensive. How could this be? I had done everything I could, the house sold quickly and for a good price, what on earth could they be upset about? So I decided it wasn’t my fault and I went on to read the other QSS which was highly complimentary and then I felt better. But not really because it just kept nagging at me, a 41% rating? And they didn’t plan to use me or Century 21 again or recommend us. Really? What had I done?

I finally went to sleep but it was the first thing I thought of this morning. I went over & over the transaction in my head… the house had sold for asking price within 7 days, the inspection had been a little tricky but we had come to an agreement I thought everyone was happy with and it closed quietly and without incident.

I guess the moral of this story is that what may seem normal to me in this crazy game we call real estate is probably a scary, confusing, complicated mess to the “normal” person. I obviously can’t fix what  has already been done but I’ve contacted the client and I’m going to try to learn from this and make sure it never, ever happens again.