When I meet someone who defines superior customer service, I never forget them. And I’ll never forget Mr. Hutchens. Mr. Hutchens is a real estate agent working in the Atlanta area. There are dozens of reasons why I believe he delivers perhaps the highest quality customer service in real estate that Atlanta can offer. Since we’re all in the business of customer service, I thought I’d mention a few.  

1. He LOVED his job and it showed: There’s nothing more infectious than working with someone who absolutely loves what they’re doing. Mr. Hutchins was made for real estate. He cherished every minute of it — from meeting his customers for the first time to finding them their dream home and beyond.

2. He worked as hard for us as he would for a close friend or family member: There’s nothing better than getting VIP treatment. But my husband and I were not VIPs — we were average home buyers buying in an average Atlanta price range. Mr. Hutchins gave us special treatment anyway. He made us feel like important clients.

3. He took ownership of problems: During our purchase, we experienced a few problems that were not caused by, and could not have been prevented by Mr. Hutchins. Often, these problems were caused by other vendors. Mr. Hutchins was willing to address those problems – even though they were not his responsibility. He treated the home buying process holistically, rather than treating himself as one module in a series of modules that may or may not get it together.

4. He maintained professionalism in times of crisis:  Sometimes you can’t see quality customer service until you’re in a crisis. At that point, you’ve usually bought into the product or service to some extent so you’re stuck. Mr. Hutchins remained professional when problems arose. When his limits were tested, he exceeded our expectations.  

5. He frequently gave us feedback: There are a lot of steps to home buying. Mr. Hutchins gave us feedback upon completion of each step. This gave us confidence knowing that we were on track and that the deal was moving forward. 

6. He never told us how hard his job was: Mr. Hutchins didn’t get too personal. Sometimes, people in customer service like to tell you about their problems. They think that it will make you understand where they are coming from or make you more tolerant when things go wrong. But the truth is, it just makes you feel uncomfortable. Mr. Hutchins never put us in this position. 

7. He listened to us: Some real estate agents have a vision of where they think you need to be in the housing market. Not Mr. Hutchins. He listened carefully to find out what we were looking for – a house priced significantly under value in a neighborhood that was rapidly appreciating. He found us just that.  

8. He continues to follow up, to this day: Mr. Hutchins is monitoring our neighborhood closely. He sends us updates on appreciation of land value and nice notes to make sure we are still happy. 

I think we can learn a lot from Mr. Hutchins. We have so many customers. We serve our clients. We serve the vendors that our clients ask us to work with. Internally, we also serve each other. Delivery of superior customer service to all parties is vital to our success. According to Fred Reicheld, there’s only one question to ask when you want to identify superior customer service. That is…

Would you recommend this person to a friend or colleague?

Mr. Hutchins, if you ever read this post, you should know that my answer is absolutely.