The French and their real estate agents: a lasting reconciliation

By pursuing the objective of restoring the confidence of individuals in a profession whose reputation had deteriorated over the years, this event laid the groundwork for a questioning, unprecedented in the sector, on the quality of the experience offered to clients at a particularly stressful time in their lives.

A saving paradigm shift with beneficial effects since the relationship of the French with their real estate agents has continued to improve since then. And if despite the current context, their favorable opinion has been maintained for two years at a score of 7,3 / 10 after several years of progress, the score achieved by the professionals committed to a quality approach, through the management of customer satisfaction , borders on excellence with an average performance of 9,4 / 10, up 0,2 points compared to 2020.

In a real estate market where competition is increasing, will best practices in terms of customer relations make the difference? This is what tends to confirm the 6th edition of the annual barometer of customer satisfaction in real estate carried out by Ifop for Opinion System, French number 1 in verified customer opinions on the real estate sector, independent third party certified three times. by AFNOR.

Customer experience in real estate: digital is reshuffling the cards

The health context does not seem to have slowed down the enthusiasm of the promoters of real estate projects. Thus, contacts initiated with a professional in 2021 were first motivated by the purchase (46%) and sale of a property (27%), then by a desire to rent (16%). And to find their real estate agent, while digital has become more anchored in the daily life of the French, real estate ad sites like SeLoger.com, leboncoin or Bien'ici have risen, in the space of one year, from third to first (20%) of the channels used by individuals who are increasingly independent in their research. A reality moreover more marked for the tenants who precede the owners here by 10 points.

Visiting the agency (19%) as well as recommending a loved one (18%), the main means previously used, are respectively in second and third position ahead of the websites of real estate networks, which recorded an increase of 8 % to 11%.

Search engines, for their part, remain relatively unconvincing (9%) in the choice of an agency and direct marketing actions (leaflets slipped into mailboxes) rather anecdotal (4%).

For the French, the efforts made by the profession over the past 5 years have not gone unnoticed since their assessment has significantly improved on all the assessment criteria:

• general reception (7,8 / 10, +0,4 points),
• the skills of the interlocutors (7,5 / 10, +0,6 point),
• quality of service (7,4 / 10, +0,7 point),
• support and follow-up (7,2 / 10, +0,7 point),
• and even on that of the fee / service ratio, "weak link" in the profession (6,7 / 10, +0,7 point).

This level of overall satisfaction hides some disparities, however, the provincials being more generous in their rating than the Ile-de-France residents (7,3 against 7,1), the inactive than the active (7,6 against 7,1), the 65-year-olds and more than 25-34 year olds (7,8 versus 7,1) and owners than tenants (7,4 versus 6,7).

Customer satisfaction: a paying differentiation tool

While traditional agencies face increased competition with the explosion of "low-cost" online agencies, standing out becomes essential in order to establish itself among individuals. If in choosing a professional, the price of the services offered is a crucial point of attention for only 8% of French people, the fact of developing a customer satisfaction strategy is more decisive: between an agency that has opinions customers and an agency that does not have one, nearly 2 in 3 French people would prefer one that has customer reviews (61%), 1 in 2 also deeming their absence uncomfortable (51%). A phenomenon firmly anchored in consumption habits, 73% of French people believe that for a company, collecting and displaying the opinions of its customers should be a systematic practice.

Professionals are not mistaken and are more and more likely to engage in this process to offer a guarantee of transparency to the customers (98%), to create an additional bond of trust (96%) or to gain in commercial efficiency (95%). If their motivations are plural, the perceived impact on their activity is very real for 74% of them, whether in terms of notoriety (84%) and overall dynamism of their agency (75%) but also more broadly. of personal motivation in the exercise of their profession (81%), the space for dialogue created by the mere existence of customer reviews pushing them to subscribe to a continuous improvement process (89%) in order to be better (86 %). Because criticism is constructive and it is also rewarding: more than 8 in 10 French people find reassuring an agency that responds in a detailed and personalized way to negative opinions, nearly 6 in 10 do not see themselves asking for one that ignores them (59% ).

A strategy that pays off quickly and over time: the clients of real estate agencies engaged in a process of measuring and managing customer satisfaction would give them a recommendation score of 9,4 / 10 (versus 9,1 in 2016) when the French nationally would give them a score of 7,2 / 10 (versus 6,3 in 2016).

For Jean-David Lépineux, founder of Opinion System: “What a long way for real estate agents in the hearts of the French for five years! The entry into force of the ALUR law fostered general awareness of the challenges of customer relations in a world where this concept did not exist and was a catalyst for the various developments underway. Today, in an increasingly competitive environment shaken up by digitalization, real estate agents have no other choice but to put clients at the center of their strategy by ensuring their level of satisfaction to make them their best ambassadors. This is a still young trend but which is developing quickly under the effect of changing uses and consumer expectations who are starting to discover that in real estate too, customer reviews can make it easier to take decision-making process and make buying or selling a property a little less stressful. In the process of democratization in the sector, the approach to improving customer relations is a win-win with individuals who feel they are better supported and professionals who enhance their image and their expertise with tangible effects on their activity. "