Question

Assignment Instructions: For this week’s assignment, you are going to apply the information and discussions from Chapters 1 and 2 to a work situation you are familiar with. This exercise will help you identify with the issues being discussed as well as better familiarize you with applying the concepts.

Part I – Chapter 1: Identify and describe a call- center work environment that you are familiar with – do not use a specific business name, just identify the industry (e.g., fast food, retail, IT-helpdesk, medical-doctor’s office or hospital). Describe the ‘best practices’ used. Are they written down, conveyed by word of mouth, learned in training sessions, on-the-job knowledge? Or are there no formalized ‘best practices’ used? Obviously, there will be many different options to choose from, so please do not describe the entire job; instead, narrow down your options to a specific area or job. For example, if you work retail, you might want to focus on how you learned the technologies used when customers are purchasing an item. If you work IT-HelpDesk, you may want to cover the process used for handling a specific technology-related problem with a customer (use one that you frequently encounter). What did the role of ‘best practices’ play in your ability to effectively do your job or be a success in your organization? For some of you, it may have been a structured training session that was very effective in establishing a baseline in the organization. For others, it may have been a training partner where nothing is written down – on the job training. But for some of you, it may have been ‘sink or swim’!

Part II – Chapter 2: Based on the relevance to your response in Part I, identify one of the ‘Migraine Headaches’ discussed in chapter 2. (e.g., having the wrong culture in place – pp. 75-76). Explain what role this ‘headache’ played in your ability to successfully do your job. How did it help or hinder you to contribute to the success of your organization? Did you have sufficient knowledge or information to effectively handle the situation? What recommendations would you have for your organization regarding ‘best practices’? These recommendations must be focused on the success and sustainability of the organization. Therefore, clearly explain how your recommendation ties to the organization’s success. Stay focused on the issue you identified from Chapter 2 – do not include the ‘kitchen sink’! I realize that this is early in the class and we’ve only covered Chapters 1 and 2; however, at this point I’m sure you have a good idea of what you might do differently if you were ‘in-charge’

Answer 1

Our industry type will be Real Estate Consultant Company.

Any person or individual or a company starts their business and operations as a Real Estate Consultancy targets different developers and their projects in different location. Such company is based on brokerage charged for selling out each unit in a project from the respective developer or building owner. Our concern is to generate lead having the need to purchase any flat or apartment or villa or bungalow etc. Our focus will be purely on how can we find the right client for the right project based on several factors like- location, budget, flat type, society, amenities provided, status of construction and so on. Any buyer will have a specific requirement and will not like to alter that requirement given a specific consideration is involved. Hence, our major concern is to get through the targeted audience for particular property in a given location with a given budget.

We need to target all income scale people because the projects we are involved in varies from say Rs. 40 lacs to Rs. 2 cr. Hence, we will focus on advertisement and marketing activity for all income group people.

The best practices used in a Real Estate Consultant Companies are-

• Several training sessions- which includes training on how to pitch a client a certain property, how to send emails professionally that will gather all major project details, how to dress and talk smartly, the importance of operating through CRM, how to know that which client is genuine and who are fooling around wasting your time, etc
• Operating through CRMs- As every real estate market is also very competitive and there are many other consultants involved or working with same developers as we are, there is huge competition and no wonder 1 single buyer may exist with 2 or more people at the same time. Hence, by operating through CRM we create a transparency throughout our follow up process and there are no trial and error issues.
• No paper work, everything needs to be electronic via email or in the CRM
• Proper tele- calling where our team will have proper knowledge of all the properties and will know how to offer and what to offer as per the client’s requirement.

The Migraine Headache in our industry type is one successful competitor who is operating since a decade and built a massive reputation throughout the city, across all reputed developers.

Let us name such competitor consultant company as X company. So, X had been operating through CRM as well and since they are more than a decade old organization, there market reputation and branding is way too much than ours as we are 4 years old only. They have a team of more than 100 employees, one of each employee is sitting at the site office of every projects of the reputed developer to cater the direct walk-in clients according to their needs. X is dealing with all major reputed developer having sole or preferred marketing rights for their projects whether on-going or finished. Similarly, it is very much evident that their database and lead flow is much more than that of ours. They operate on large scale and have a huge database. A lead registered 9 years ago with them also exists in their CRM and there are many buyers who tend to postponed their plan to purchase a flat or unit for long duration of time. One such case happened, when we got a new client Mr A, who wants to purchase a particular flat in a locality specified by the client. Such client was a very hot prospect client and as X company was also selling that particular project and they got to know about the client’s name and number as the client reached the site for property visit before our team could and the site employee of X company got the chance to take the details of the client. Unfortunately such client was live with them in their CRM 3 years back and they immediately performed the necessary CRM action and made it live again stating that they had shown the property to the client. On the other hand we were constantly following up with the client and the client booked the property with X company, when approached the developer they stated that the lead was at first available with X and not us hence they would be the dealer maker in this case.

It was a very challenging situation to explain the developer the entire scenario and show them the clear picture, that the lead was deactivated by X long time back and that if the lead was deactivated by them such long time back and they active it now that doesn’t mean that get the deal where we had put all our efforts. The fight was going on and on & X was very much determined with the same fact that it was there in the CRM.

According to my knowledge and information, I had submitted all the snap shots of my CRM and details of the online email which showed the particular requirement of MR A and date & time of when the lead was received.

After long discussion it was decided that we would have to split our revenues with X and it would be equally divided amongst both of the consultancies. After this problem, I would always recommend my team to maintain CRM properly and follow up each client or lead as and when received. A single minute delay may lead to loss of business. Also the most important recommendation will be not to work with any projects or developer where X will have the sole right to sell a flat or unit so that our effort is not wasted and we get paid off well and be appreciated on all our good work. Success to our growth will only be when we our focused on what we need and our happy will little things. The best way to succeed is to get appreciation, that would boost our morale and show us the right path on each step.