Lai-san Kwok and Eileen Mary Hastings - Hong Kong Institute of ...

Surveying and Built Environment Vol 17(1), 27-34 June 2006 ISSN 1816-9554The resulted ranking of branding attributes canbe read from another angle. The brandingattributes which have higher ranks are, in reality,those having direct and easily observablebenefits to the company, for example turnoverand volume of transaction to the company.Moreover, these benefits can be identified bythe customer and affecting their choice of serviceeasily. For example, people would like to buy“expertise” service instead of “responsive” staff.High quality service is an important benefit tothe customer which increase willingness to buywith no doubt. “Reputation” attract customerinstead of long company history. As a result,high rank branding attributes is worth promoted.Even so it is built on top of low ranked attributes.High branding attributes are just like the building,while low ranked branding attributes are actingas a foundation which supports the building.Promotion is another important step in marketing.Apart from advertisement in various media, largescale “branded” real estate agency companiesadopted public relation as another importantcommunication channels. The reason is of coursedue to resources constraint for agency of smallerscale. Public relation is a long term investmentwhich helps to develop a long term relationswith customer by reinforcing the company’s brandin their mind.After discussing about the attributes andcommunication channels, source of business forthe real estate agency companies are to bediscussed. From the study, it is found that “referralbusiness” is the major source of business for realestate agency companies of different scale. Thischaracteristic of the real estate agency industryimplies that relationship between the companyand the customers is very important. One canimagine if the serving process is not satisfactory,the customers will certainly not employ the serviceagain. They, of course, will not recommend thecompany to others. Therefore, it is crucial to makethe existing clients satisfied. But it is not enough.A relationship has to be built in order to get thereferral business or repeated buying.As mentioned by Lovelock, Patterson and Walker(2001)“Person delivering the service becomesinseparable from service as a trusting relationshipbetween the client and service providersometimes develops a large extent. The trustingrelationship developed is essential in gainingcustomer satisfaction and loyalty.”Therefore, the key for trusting relationship is“personnel”. Referral business being the majorsource of business implies the importance ofpersonnel in the real estate agency industry.Furthermore, it also implies the use ofcommunication channels to promote the servicemay not be put in a very important position,especially for small scale company establishedfor a long time.CONCLUSIONHong Kong real estate agency is a highlycompetitive industry. One cannot deny theimportance of marketing in this industry. Somereal estate agency may have a marketingdepartment, while some may have no knowledgeon this area. But it is not arguable that they allhave implemented marketing, though to differentextent.Further to previous discussion, there are a fewpoints that the author would like to reiterate. First,real estate agency is a typical service provision.It encountered the same challenges as otherservice provision industry. Intangibility has to besolved in service marketing. In a service industrylike real estate agency where high interactionsbetween company personnel and the customeris required, personnel become the most importantasset of the company. Moreover, it is found thatreferral business is the major source of business.It enlarges the effect of personnel on companybusiness. The key to referral business is buildinga good relationship between the customers andpersonnel. Personnel reflect the service qualityand are one of the crucial factors in drivingSBE31