Customer connection
BY SHANNON COOK
Karyn and her team now deliver 1,500 Christmas puddings .
SOMETIMES THE BEST WAY TO CREATE A CUSTOMER TOUCH POINT IS THE THING THAT SO MANY PEOPLE OVERLOOK , LIKE THE HUMBLE CHRISTMAS PUDDING .
Ray White Robina sales agent Karyn O ’ Dea is a self described “ people person ” and an expert at building and maintaining relationships within her local community . So much so that she ’ s come to be known in her core Gold Coast market for her Christmas pudding delivery .
Every year in the lead up to Christmas , she delivers 1,500 puddings to her clients across the Gold Coast . It takes her over a week to pull this off but what she ’ s found is that it works ! In return she gets hundreds of messages of thanks . And then on Christmas day , people say ‘ Guess who gave us this pudding ?'
With a background in the people-focused hair and beauty industry , she ’ s been in real estate for 16 years and her team last year sold in excess of 70 properties . Karyn is famous for her customer care .
Karyn loves to surprise people and lift her customer experience offering to the next level each year . She focuses on being consistent and relating to people . There ’ s 17 touch points with her pipeline , which includes DLs every week - with just listed and just sold . She includes a lucky letterbox inside her market updates which includes movie vouchers and gift boxes .
She gives anniversary gifts to all her buyers in her core suburb of Robina . There ’ s 3,400 homes in her community and she sends gifts to everyone , even if they ' re not her buyers . She does this to delight people and welcome them to Robina , and it also helps her to expand her database .
“ I have several non-negotiables including 17 touch points per annum with everyone who goes into my database . I assign them an action plan so I don ’ t ever have to be reminded ,” Karyn said .
“ I call them each quarter , then send a once a month market update email , I recognise anniversaries of when they bought a property , and Christmas .
“ I put ‘ Karyn O ' Dea ' in the subject line because even if they delete the email , they are still thinking about me . And then I do a letterbox drop every week . It ’ s layer upon layer .
“ It takes me nine full days to deliver the Christmas puddings , I started at 300 and it ’ s just grown .
“ People expect it now and I don ’ t do it for anything in return , I love seeing people ’ s faces . It ’ s so popular that I get some people calling me asking where their pudding is .”
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