Think back to the last time you used a really great product or service. Perhaps it was your first encounter with an iPod, which buried forever the notion that you’d “click” a fast-forward button or “insert” a compact disc into something. Maybe it was the experience of sliding open a new Google G1 cell phone that caused your face to light up along with the touch screen. Recently, it was the all-wheel-drive system on my Acura RL. The day started out rainy and gray, but I was determined not to let it wear me down. Even with a light drizzle, I opened the sunroof and blasted the radio, and pushed the throttle to a fun-even-without-the-sun pace. The RL is one heck of a ride, so much fun, sometimes, that you frequently look in the side mirrors to see if it has wings. Of course, with that kind of power, it’s a good thing the navigation computer reminds you that your exit is coming up in a quarter of a mile. Usually, I wish it would tell me a half-mile in advance, especially when I’m driving at Star-Trek speeds. No matter, however, because even if you hit the exit curve at a “you’re gonna be in trouble” speed, the all-wheel drive system kicks in and takes you ’round the bend tighter than a roller coaster. It was one of those product moments that makes you yell, “That’s (Bleeping) Awesome!”

When was the last time one of your customers said that about your products or services? Yes, I’m sure you have lots of surveys that say customers rank you “highly” or “excellent.” Some even say they “would” refer you to a friend. But they never do, so let’s not overstate it. Do most of your customers just “like” your service? When you ask them for feedback or to fill out a  survey, are they really just being polite? Would you say that, deep down, most might even keep an appointment for a root canal before jumping in the car to tour more homes with your agents?

When was the last time your customers yelled out, “That was (Bleeping) awesome!” about your products and services?

Too much of the real estate industry still revolves around “just get by” levels of performance. It seems like we’re never going to see the day when the majority of listings actually look good online: filled with accurate data, stuffed with photos, bristling with multimedia videos. And that’s just the online marketing product. What about the rest of the real estate service experience?

Somehow, “it’s good enough” has become the norm. And customers (especially Gen X and Gen Y) are starting to know it.

To be sure, there are some exceptional agents, companies and services out there. But why is it that so few of us have customers who say, “That’s (Bleeping) awesome!” about our company? We seem stuck in the Age of Mediocrity, where the coolest, bestest, fastest, neatest, most exciting things in the business are as hard to spot as a UFO.

And as infrequently believable.

Imagine if we put all of the time wasted on the dull and mediocre in our business and into making our products and services Bleeping Awesome! No more effort on wasted office meetings, struggling with overpriced listings, carting buyers around without contracts (or money) and recruiting agents who can’t even sell lemonade. What if we just cut it all out, and focused on what it will take to make consumers scream, “Wow! When I worked with that company, the experience was Bleeping Awesome!”

Would it really be that hard to design services that thrilled customers, just like going around a curve at 80-mph? Yes, perhaps harder than we think, because, so far, very few of us have been able to do it. The starting point would just be fixing all of the little stupid stuff that makes customers shake their heads in disbelief – bad listing data, silly-looking websites, unresponsive agents, being ignored at an open house, pathetic ink-jet listing sheets. Those are just the clean-up items the industry needs to address to claim it is keeping up with the times.

But delighting customers is not the same as saying, “Our services suck less than our competitors!”

Try to remember what it was like the last time a product or service caught your breath. Made you smile – or even laugh out loud. It was more than just the “expected” level of service and definitely more than what you’d expect from “everyone else” in the business. Getting a fast cup of coffee in the drive-through should be the standard, not the delightful, level of service. Flights leaving on-time should be the norm, not the “thank-goodness” experience. In real estate, companies must first make sure their people and products meet the norms.

But they must also strive to create the Bleeping Awesome experience.

Some of us have given up on that effort these days. We’re locked into just “keeping the lights on” or getting through the month. Even with our feet out stiff, we’re slowly sliding back. But is it really the market’s fault? Or could it be that once you stop striving to move forward, there really is only one place to go, which is back? Going forward will require creating Bleeping Awesome experiences; and that means it’s time to get our heads out of the sand.

There won’t be one way to do it, either. There will be many different approaches to making customers’ toes curl. Ritz Carlton makes it happen one way; Godiva chocolates does it another way. Some companies never do it (think phone company, Amtrak, registry of motor vehicles, Medicare). The way a hospital like Lahey Clinic does it isn’t the same way a car company like Acura must do it. But you know the experience when you have it.

In fact, we don’t want everyone to do it the same way: There shouldn’t be a “standard formula of delight” for the brokerage industry. We’d just be back to a level playing field, like choosing any Ford you wanted, as long as it was black. But until we get our industry focusing again on the customer experience, we won’t begin the hard work of creating the next generation of real estate professionalism. And profits.

The future of the real estate industry shouldn’t depend upon mortgage rate fluctuations or inventory cycles. Plenty of people are always buying, always selling. Success or failure shouldn’t depend upon a few extra or a few less units, or rising or falling appreciation and commissions. Real success comes from delivering an experience that creates customers, in any market.

Success depends upon delivering products and services that can get your customers to yell, “That was Bleeping Awesome!”

- M