As a household name in Australia and New Zealand, LJ Hooker has been pioneering real estate since 1928 when it opened its first office in Sydney. In 1996, it expanded into the New Zealand market and has continued to grow into one of the largest residential and commercial sales and property management networks with offices across the country.
LJ Hooker’s ethos is built around people. As the often quoted company founder, Sir Leslie Joseph Hooker, famously said, “Real estate is not about houses, it’s about people.”
With this philosophy guiding the company, it should come as no surprise that LJ Hooker’s core values follow in the same footsteps: Commitment, Ambition, Responsibly and Excellence (CARE).
Which is why, in 2018, LJ Hooker wanted to get a deep dive into the experiences their customers and clients were having, from a head office/overall company point of view right through to their individual agencies.
For this, they turned to Perceptive.
Real estate is not about houses, it’s about people.
— Sir Leslie Joseph Hooker, Founder of LJ Hooker Group
In response to LJ Hooker’s desire for a deeper understanding of their customer experience (CX), Perceptive developed a bespoke research programme to survey, collect and analyse customer and client feedback at two key moments in their buying journeys: post listing and post settlement.
Every fortnight, a survey goes to residential sellers who have listed their property with LJ Hooker. Similarly, a second fortnightly survey also goes to both purchasers and sellers (i.e. new owners and past owners) who have settled their property via LJ Hooker in the last two weeks. By surveying at the start and end of the customer/client journey, LJ Hooker has been able to gain a more holistic understanding of their customers’ experience and expectations from start to finish.
“This dual approach helps us identify any areas for improvement,’ says Allaine Burkett, Head of Operations at LJ Hooker New Zealand. “And by surveying clients at the start of their journey with us, we’re able to course correct very quickly if anything is amiss early on.”
Results are analysed and displayed in Perceptive’s in-house platform, Customer Monitor. Agency leaders and individual salespeople can log in to the platform to assess how they’re performing in their areas while LJ Hooker’s head office gains the group oversight they also needed. Moreover, because the surveys are sent on behalf of the Group rather than individual salespeople and offices, clients feel more comfortable being candid in their feedback.
As part of the programme’s implementation, Allaine and her team did extensive engagement with the LJ Hooker franchises across New Zealand.
“We wanted the programme to be an opt-in for our franchises, so we held workshops to communicate the value of the programme to them and to foster ownership and enthusiasm from our stakeholders,” says Allaine. "Perceptive really helped during this stage; they came on board and helped run the workshops with us.”
As a result, LJ Hooker has successfully collected customer feedback from thousands of sellers and purchasers across New Zealand over the course of the programme.
“It’s good to know how your customers feel, but knowing what to do is better,” says Allaine. “The programme gives us a comprehensive view of their experience. We’ve found the research uncovers lots of key insights into customer preferences and their pain points as well as identify our successful practices and the things that are going really well.”
In September 2024, Perceptive updated its Net Promoter Score (NPS) Industry Benchmarks for New Zealand, revealing the overall benchmark for real estate to be +19. That same month, the LJ Hooker Group achieved an NPS of +89, a worldclass result according to Bain & Co, who created the methodology.
Allaine cites the Customer Monitor platform for playing a major role in their success.
“At a glance we can see where we’re excelling, what makes people excited to do business with us and what made them have a good experience,” she says.
Conversely, they can also see when customers may not have had the best experience and can look at training programmes and implement changes to improve that experience.
“We’re always trying to address any gaps,” says Allaine, who credits this mindset as a key factor behind LJ Hooker’s NPS result.
LJ Hooker’s Voice of Customer programme has also led to the creation of their monthly and annual customer service awards for offices and individuals. These awards have not only galvanised LJ Hooker’s salespeople, but also ensured even greater buy-in to the programme.
“Real estate salespeople are absolutely competitive,” says Allaine. “While they know and do strive to provide customers a great experience, when we gave them chance to earn a certificate and a shoutout on top of that, they got so excited.”
The awards have been running since the start of the programme in 2018 and continue strong to this day.
“We’ve had one salesperson who has won the annual individual award for four years in a row,” says Allaine. “Without the programme in place we would never have identified her. Now, we have her talking to the network about how to give outstanding service.”
Friendly people, helpful and with local knowledge.
—Settled Purchaser, LJ Hooker Mosgiel
In addition to gathering customer and client feedback, the programme also allows LJ Hooker to capture testimonials from customers and clients who have scored LJ Hooker highly in the feedback survey.
“An extra question comes up for high-scoring customers that prompts them to leave a testimonial, which our offices can then use in their marketing,” says Allaine.
I found the agent I am dealing with was very upfront on first meeting him on all the costs involved, and what the process would be as far as marketing.
—Seller, LJ Hooker Palmerston North
By having a tailored programme that surveys customers and clients at the start and end of their journey, LJ Hooker has not only gained the ability to rapidly respond to negative feedback mid journey, but also a tool and insights they can use in multiple areas of their business.
From customer service initiatives and staff training to marketing, these insights are set to empower LJ Hooker to deliver on its values and the people-focused promise of iits founder well into the future.
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