New Condos Downtown San Diego: Developer Customer Service

One good thing about these blogs is that I can write about whatever strikes my fancy or is revelant to our business. Sometimes I like to write about neat San Diego places. Sometimes I write about the marketplace. And sometimes I write about something in our day to day business experience.

This leads me to customer service which is one of the most talked about and least practiced activities, or so it sometimes seems to me. We have a perfect example in our two recent experiences. We have two separate out of area clients who are purchasing downtown San Diego condos as second homes. Their customer service experiences have been as different as day and night.

One of the sellers is Bosa. Our buyers settled on a unit at The Legend. From the beginning, the Bosa sales reps went out of their way to accomodate our buyers. Service was first-class. We were kept in the loop and we were made to feel a part of the transaction. Normally developers take over from the realtor, but in the case of Bosa, they made us part of their team. There were ups and downs in the transaction. There always are ups and downs. However, Bosa efficiently handled all issues and everyone working at Bosa knows the customer/buyer is the most important part of the transaction. Our buyers have closed escrow on their unit, and Bosa customer service continues as good as the sales service was during the transaction.

I only mention Bosa because our second experience with another downtown San Diego developer was and continues to be a very frustrating experience. The sales staff does not coordinate well with the developer. The lender does not play well with the sales staff or the escrow company, while our buyer is left in the middle trying to figure out what's up and what's down. We find ourselves pushing the developer to complete their part of the transaction. We don't think the developer is bad.  We just think that customer service is not the priority it could be, especially in this marketplace. One would think that developers would go the extra mile. Quality service hasn't been our experience with the  second developer and we have been sadly disappointed.

What we have learned from the comparison of Bosa and the second unnamed developer is the concept of dedicated customer service that leads into future referral and repeat business.  Passion and excitement cause second home buyers to purchase. Second home buyers are affluent and are able to purchase a second or third home. These buyers are savvy enough to expect first-class treatment.  They want good value for their money, a smooth transaction and want to be appreciated.  Our goal after these comparative experiences is to make sure we continually offer superlative service. Second-best service is not sufficient.

We would love to hear about any of your developer customer service whether Downtown San Diego or not.  I will blog the worst story, if there is one.  Perhaps mine is the only "worse" story.  If I were United Airlines I wouldn't want this video United Breaks Guitars to be my swan song.


By Sharyn & Victoria Crown, Downtown San Diego real estate brokers

This is part of a series of articles entitled, New Condos, Downtown San Diego Style


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