When a customer walks into a restaurant, the owner has one opportunity to make an impression. The food matters, of course, but so does the welcome, the attention, the atmosphere and, ultimately, whether that customer leaves wanting to return.
For Harcourts Victoria CEO Adam Fiteni, real estate should operate on exactly the same principle.
Yet he believes too many agents have spent years chasing transactions without giving enough thought to the experience they provide along the way.
And in a more challenging Victorian market, he says the consequences of that approach are becoming increasingly apparent.
With a background in hospitality, Adam has long viewed real estate through a different lens, one in which every interaction is an opportunity to build a relationship that extends well beyond the immediate sale.
He believes customer service alone is not enough; agents need to create experiences that turn one-off transactions into lasting relationships.
For him, the distinction between service and experience is fundamental.
Service is what an agent is expected to deliver, but experience is what makes a client remember them, recommend them and eventually return.
It is a philosophy he took to the Harcourts network at its HX conference, where his presentation explored the difference between customer service and customer experience.
“One is transactional, and one is not,” he said.
The problem, Adam believes, is that real estate has become accustomed to the immediate reward of a successful transaction, particularly during periods when properties were selling quickly and business was relatively easy to secure.
Too many agents have concentrated on winning the next listing rather than investing in the relationships already within their reach.
He describes it as a “catch and kill mentality”, where the focus is on securing the immediate deal rather than considering the long-term value of the relationship.
That approach can produce results when the market is moving, but it offers little protection when conditions change and agents can no longer rely on a steady flow of new enquiries.
Adam argues that those who invested in relationships five or 10 years ago are now better positioned because they have an established network of people who know and trust them.
The restaurant lesson real estate is missing
To explain what he means by customer experience, Adam uses a simple restaurant analogy.
Imagine two couples arriving at a busy restaurant and being shown to an undesirable table near the toilets, where people are constantly walking past.
In the first scenario, the waiter seats them, hands over the menus and walks away. The customers immediately notice the poor location and feel forgotten.
In the second, the waiter acknowledges the situation, explains that the restaurant is busy, offers to move them when another table becomes available and asks whether they would like drinks in the meantime.
The table has not changed, but the experience has. For Adam, that difference is precisely what agents should be thinking about when dealing with buyers and sellers, particularly when circumstances are less than ideal.
A vendor might be selling because of a difficult personal situation, financial pressure or a major life change. A buyer might be frustrated after months of unsuccessful inspections.
The agent cannot necessarily change those circumstances, but they can change how the client experiences the process.
Adam believes the starting point is understanding why someone is buying or selling, rather than simply concentrating on the transaction itself.
“There’s a reason behind it,” he said.
The lesson is that people remember how they were treated, particularly when something does not go according to plan.
In hospitality, the goal is not simply to serve a meal; it is to make people want to return and tell their friends.
Adam said someone entering a restaurant might have no existing relationship with the business, but the experience they receive can determine whether they return or recommend it to others.
“Anyone that walks through a restaurant door, I have zero relationship with,” he said.
“But they need to come in. They need to have an experience.”
He sees no reason why real estate should be different.
An agent might help someone buy or sell only once in several years, but that single transaction can create a relationship capable of generating referrals and future business for decades.
The commercial opportunity lies in understanding that a successful sale should not mark the end of the relationship.
Why buyers deserve more attention
One of Adam’s strongest criticisms of the industry is its tendency to prioritise vendors while treating buyers as a secondary consideration.
He believes this is a significant missed opportunity, particularly in a market where agents need to work harder to generate competition and secure sales.
“Buyer work” is something he believes agents need to do considerably more of.
For Adam, genuine buyer work means more than collecting contact details at an open home or sending automated property alerts.
It means understanding what people want, knowing their budget and preferences, maintaining regular contact and actively matching them with suitable properties.
Too often, he says, agents spend considerable time and money attracting buyers to inspections, only to lose contact with them when they do not purchase.
Those same buyers might eventually purchase through another agency, but that does not mean the original relationship has no value.
“A buyer will buy from anybody,” Adam said. “Because they just want the property.”
However, an agent who consistently provides useful information, arranges inspections and takes a genuine interest in helping someone find a home can still become that person’s preferred agent when they eventually decide to sell.
Adam believes agents need to stop measuring the value of every interaction by whether it produces an immediate commission.
His approach is to treat buyers as future sellers, providing assistance without expecting an immediate return.
The commercial opportunity is considerable. An agent might spend months helping a buyer who ultimately purchases elsewhere, but if that person remembers the experience, the relationship can still generate future listings and referrals.
It is a longer-term approach to business development, and one Adam believes the industry needs to embrace more seriously.
He also questions the industry’s reliance on attracting fresh buyer enquiries when agencies already hold extensive databases of people who have expressed an interest in purchasing.
Rather than simply advertising a property and waiting for enquiries, he believes agents should already know which buyers might be interested before a campaign begins.
Those relationships can help agents match buyers with properties more effectively while demonstrating genuine value to their vendors.
Stop chasing strangers and start nurturing relationships
For agents looking to grow their business, Adam’s advice is straightforward: spend less time trying to meet new people and more time looking after the people they have already met.
He points to the enormous amount of information sitting in agency databases, often accumulated over years of open homes, appraisals, enquiries and transactions.
Yet much of that information remains underused while agents continue making cold calls in pursuit of new opportunities.
“We meet all these people at Open Homes. They’re potential buyers. They’re future sellers,” he said.
Rather than constantly adding new contacts, Adam wants agents to build meaningful relationships with those already in their network.
That might involve a quarterly phone call, an update on recent local sales, useful market information or simply checking in to see how someone is going.
The important distinction is that the contact should provide value rather than serve as another attempt to secure an appraisal.
“They expect every phone call to be a payday,” he said.
Adam believes this short-term thinking is preventing agents from recognising the longer-term commercial value of maintaining relationships.
He uses the example of an agent with 1,000 people in their database who is determined to add another 1,000, despite having done little to nurture the original group.
His question is simple: what is the point of continually expanding a database if the people already in it are not receiving any meaningful attention?
His argument is not that agents should abandon prospecting or stop looking for new business. Rather, they should be more deliberate about where they invest their time.
“Narrow your focus,” Adam said.
A smaller group of well-serviced clients can become a powerful source of repeat business and referrals.
He believes agents who consistently nurture a smaller group of contacts can turn those people into advocates who recommend their services to others.
It is an approach that requires patience, but Adam believes the rewards can compound over time.
A different approach to growing an agency
Adam’s focus on customer experience also forms part of a broader message he is delivering to the Harcourts Victoria network about how to operate in a more difficult market.
With businesses facing pressure from changing market conditions, rising costs and regulatory demands, he believes principals need to concentrate on the things they can actually control.
“There’s media noise. There’s real estate noise. There’s government noise. There’s legislation noise,” he said.
Rather than spending excessive energy on circumstances beyond their influence, Adam is encouraging business owners to examine their own operations, identify inefficiencies and strengthen the processes that underpin profitability.
He says some businesses may be generating substantial commission income without necessarily operating profitably, making it important to examine overheads, subscriptions, team structures and the allocation of responsibilities.
When transaction volumes decline, understanding gross commission income per deal and ensuring staff are working efficiently becomes increasingly important.
But he is clear that improving efficiency does not automatically mean reducing headcount.
“I’m not talking about redundancies. I’m not talking about getting rid of people. I’m just talking about making people more efficient,” he said.
That includes ensuring staff understand their responsibilities and avoiding unnecessary duplication of work across teams.
For Adam, there is also a connection between the way an agency operates internally and the experience it delivers externally.
A business cannot consistently provide exceptional customer experiences if its people are overwhelmed, disconnected or struggling to manage competing demands.
It is one reason he has introduced a different approach to training within the Victorian network.
Rather than concentrating exclusively on KPIs, sales figures and performance targets, Adam has introduced workshops focused on managing stress, avoiding burnout and developing greater self-awareness.
The sessions bring together sales agents, property managers, administrators, directors and marketing staff rather than separating them according to their roles.
Adam believes that shared experience is important because it encourages people to recognise the pressures faced by their colleagues.
He points to the example of a busy salesperson placing a pile of paperwork on an administrator’s desk without considering the workload that person is already managing.
By bringing different departments together, he hopes to build greater understanding and respect across the business.
It is also about recognising that sustained performance requires more than relentless activity.
Even something as simple as taking a walk without making phone calls can help people properly disconnect and return to work with greater focus.
The workshops are not intended to provide an instant solution, but to give staff practical tools to manage the pressures of the industry.
The relationships that survive a downturn
Ultimately, Adam believes the difference between agencies that struggle through challenging markets and those that continue to perform often comes down to the strength of their foundations.
Businesses that have operated for decades have experienced changing conditions before. They understand the importance of adapting, maintaining sound processes and continuing to invest in relationships even when the immediate rewards are less obvious.
The same principle applies to individual agents. Those who have built their businesses around transactions alone can find themselves exposed when enquiry levels fall or buyers become more selective.
By contrast, agents who have consistently delivered valuable experiences have a network of former clients, buyers and advocates who can continue to generate opportunities.
Adam acknowledges that even established agents may be working harder to achieve results, but believes their existing relationships provide a considerable advantage.
His message is not simply about being friendlier or providing better service. It is about recognising that the experience an agent creates today can become a source of business years into the future.
And he believes the industry needs to stop thinking of the customer journey as something that begins with a listing agreement and ends at settlement.
“The journey is before they need you, when they need you, and then forever,” Adam said.
That means providing useful information before someone is ready to transact, delivering a memorable experience when they do need an agent and maintaining the relationship long after the deal is complete.
It is a principle that has served the hospitality industry for generations, and one Adam believes real estate would do well to adopt.
Because in a market where winning the next listing is becoming more difficult, the most valuable opportunity for an agent might not be the stranger they are trying to reach.
It might be the person they helped three years ago, who still remembers how they were treated.
As Adam puts it, “Our clients deserve more than just service. They deserve an experience.”