Agent’s Secrets to High Customer Satisfaction

By Dianna Kawell
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One thing that stands out about broker Young H. Kim’s Web site is the large number of glowing testimonials from past clients, as well as some impressive statistics: “Over 1,000 satisfied customers. Ninety percent retention rate for new clients. Eighty percent of all homes listed are sold within 30 days for an average of 98 percent of the asking price.”

Adam Zengel of Zengel Construction has worked with Young H. Kim, ABR, CIPS, CRB, CRS, GRI, PMN, SRES, of Young Kim Realty in Dayton, OH, for about 30 years, starting as agents together in the early 1980s. Zengel has bought and sold homes through Kim, as well as recommended her services to his family and many friends.

“Several people I referred to her had difficulty selling their homes through other agents. She was able to get the house sold quickly several times,” Zengel said. “Anybody can sell houses in a good market. In a challenging market or with a unique home, it takes a lot.”

A common theme in the comments from her past clients is how Kim really goes above and beyond the service of the average REALTOR® and makes buying a home “fun.”

“I think you take care of clients like they are your own children,” Kim explains. “I don’t sell a house today to make money today.” Kim has assisted two and three generations in some families to find their homes.

“First of all, the time you spend with a REALTOR® can be an intense and stressful time. I make sure this time is enjoyable. When they come here, I make them feel comfortable and make sure there are no surprises except something beyond my scope.”

“Some agents just want the commission,” Zengel said. “She listens well and is extremely smart. She guides people along using her experience. If somebody wants to buy a house that's not right for them or there are problems, she lets them know. She’s not afraid to speak up, and she gives advice based on her experience and not her personal preferences.”

Starting Out in Real Estate

“Becoming a REALTOR® was never my life’s agenda,” according to Kim, who moved to the U.S. from Seoul, Korea, in 1971 to attend UCLA. “I came seeking higher education. I never thought 40 years later I’d be a real estate broker.”

After meeting her husband, John, who flew from Ohio to California to meet her, she followed John and became a resident of Dayton. Despite her degrees in French literature and education, Kim chose real estate as a career because of the flexibility it allowed her when raising her children. With much of her family living outside of Dayton (her 92-year-old mother is still in Seoul), it’s taken discipline and hard work to balance her role as a parent and her professional responsibilities. “My children grew up in real estate,” she says. “My children went everywhere with me, and all my clients loved it.”

Kim got her broker’s license in 1984. “At that time, I just sold houses and I was a mother,” says Kim, who shied away from industry involvement. “My hours were flexible so I could manage my time. I got my broker’s license but didn’t want to open my own company,” according to Kim, who says she succeeded through efficient time management.

She and John will soon be celebrating their 35th wedding anniversary, and their children are now successful professionals in their own right. John Jr. is a lawyer in Los Angeles, and daughter Judy is a marketing director in New York City.

Starting Her Business

After her children graduated and moved on to successful careers of their own, Young Kim, who calls herself a “late bloomer,” decided to open her own real estate business in 2004. Kim says that high ethical standards are the cornerstone of her boutique brokerage, which includes three agents and a receptionist (all of whom have bought homes from Kim).

Kim’s success is not based on one ingredient, but rather she is the whole package—from extensive appraisal experience to her training in staging. There are “a lot ways that she brings so much more information to the table,” Zengel says.

“She’s extremely detailed-orientated. When she takes on a listing, she has a system in place and does extensive research. She gets the right marketing together, and gets it staged well. She does a lot of work before it goes on the market,” he said. “There are no little details that would cause a buyer to walk away from it or hesitate. She actually does a great job on photographs. All those together are the reasons for her success.”

With her children grown, Kim also has more time to focus on association involvement with Women’s Council (where she will serve as 2010 President-elect of the Ohio State Chapter) and her local board in Dayton, as well as her love of music—even developing her own CD of original songs (www.YoungKimMusic.com).

What characteristics make a good broker? “Hard working, number one,” according to Kim, “although a lot of hard working people cannot succeed in real estate.”

Professionalism and high ethical standards are also key ingredients. As Kim says, “you carry your name in this business.” For Kim’s clients, her name is synonymous with customer service. When she polled past clients about choosing a name for her new company, the consensus was “just Young Kim Realty.” With more than 90 percent of her business generated from referrals, it was clear that Kim’s name could stand on its own.

And finally for Kim, who got her start in education, knowing the business and knowing the client’s needs are essential to success. Kim has more than 10 designations, including a home staging certification and NAR’s new GREEN certification focusing on eco-friendly living. For Kim, the three-day-long classes are just the beginning. After she returns home, her education really starts as she researches as much as she can about the topic. “In this industry, we are lucky to have a lot of contact with a lot of people,” she says. “We can teach people to be green and how to find an energy-efficient home.”

The same focus on education assisted with her transition from real estate agent to business owner. “It’s a rather serious decision. I wanted to make sure I knew everything I needed to know before starting my business,” Kim says. This is when she decided to take all the CRB classes.

Kim makes sure her clients are educated as well in market conditions to assist in making their real estate decisions. “Being in the business a long time, I have saved local market statistics from 1982,” Kim says. “At a listing appointment, I can pull out all kinds of statistics from the past and today. I put this in front of them, and sometimes I don’t have to say much.”

For Kim, educating your buyers and sellers and representing them with the highest ethical standards are essential for today’s real estate broker. She is so focused on the quality of service that she does not believe in closing gifts. “When you go to a doctor for a medical procedure, you do not receive a gift afterwards,” Kim says. In fact, Kim says she has often gotten gifts of flowers and gift certificates from her clients after successful transactions.

Kim has succeeded in real estate for more than 30 years—through the real estate boom times, as well as the tough markets of the early ‘80s and today. Whatever shape the brokerage of tomorrow may take, Kim believes customer service will remain the central force.

Dianna Kawell is editor of Women’s Council’s eConnect e-newsletter. She is a freelancer specializing in Web content development for associations and small businesses.