The 15-Minute Rule That's Revolutionizing Real Estate Customer Service

Speed and Service: The Make-or-Break Factor

Speed and service can make or break a campaign in the fast-paced real estate industry. Vendors expect swift decisions, agents juggle deadlines, and suppliers must keep up or get left behind. For Michael Cardillo, director of Floorscape, customer service is not just a slogan—it's the operating system that drives everything.

"In this industry, the speed of the whole ecosystem is so quick," he explains. "Often we'll talk to people in other industries about how quickly we reply to emails or turn around things, and they'll say, 'No way, that's crazy.' But that's just how this industry works."

Why Service is the Ultimate Differentiator

Reliability is the real competitive advantage in real estate. Agents are accountable to vendors and buyers and need partners who remove friction rather than add to it. "Having suppliers they can rely on is one of the most defining things to them... how easy and quickly can they get properties on the market?" Michael emphasizes. "It's the most important thing."

While Floorscape produces high-end floor plans, what truly defines the business is the experience that surrounds that service. "There are time constraints to getting a property sold," Michael notes. "Especially in auction campaigns, there's only so much time. But it's about being clear and upfront and being very systematic with people."

Systems That Make Service Measurable

Floorscape has turned communication into something measurable and accountable rather than leaving it to chance. "We reply to everyone within fifteen minutes," Michael reveals. "They need to know they can get on to us... the biggest thing for an agent is that if something's wrong, even if it's something small like a room being labelled incorrectly, they're going to get a call from the vendor. That just cannot wait a day to be fixed."

The company's systems are built around a principle Michael calls "bridge the gap." "You'll never solve someone's inquiry instantly always, but that doesn't mean you don't reply," he explains. "We call it 'bridge the gap.' You reply instantly and say we received what you've asked for or we acknowledge this, and we expect to get back to you in this amount of time."

Floorscape also tracks reply and resolution times through dashboards and alerts to ensure nothing slips through. "Most matters should be sorted within that sixty to ninety minute time frame during business hours," he says. "We have alerts and timers on all sorts of stuff that notify us when things are going out of time."

Talk Like a Human

For Michael, tone matters just as much as timing. He wants every email the company sends to sound human and genuine—something an agent can forward to a vendor without needing to explain it.

"Good communication is about empathy," he states. "We make sure that we don't talk in jargon—what's the point of that? It's industry talk that no one else really needs to know. You want to be straight and to the point."

This philosophy shapes how new staff are trained. "No one says warm regards. I actually ironically say warm regards to people as a joke because I think it's funny that people write that," he shares. "Your grammar and communication should be your tone of voice as you, as a human, would talk to someone. It should be very conversational."

That warmth extends beyond email. Floorscape's team actively follows their clients on social media, keeping an eye on milestones and achievements. "We monitor all of our agents on social media all the time," Michael says. "We'll always pop in something and say, like, 'Congratulations on this.' Or we'll call out something in the property just to make them know, we see you. Like, we understand what's going on here, and we respect you."

Own Mistakes and Fix Them Fast

Michael's approach to service runs counter to the corporate instinct to deflect blame. While many businesses are taught rarely to admit fault, Floorscape does the opposite.

"We are the exact opposite," he declares. "If we make a mistake, we will void the invoice before someone even asks."

With thousands of products completed each year, he knows that errors are inevitable but believes honesty is what builds long-term trust. "You just own it," he says. "You say, we have made this mistake, we're going to fix it like this. You do not take someone's money unless you've delivered what you told them you were going to."

That openness, he adds, is part of respecting the agent's position. "An agent has no control over where we're going to take dimensions from," he points out. "They trust us to do it. They need to know that they can rely on someone who's going to own up."

The Client Advocate

From the beginning, Michael understood that great service couldn't depend solely on culture—it needed structure. One of his earliest moves was appointing a full-time client relationship manager whose job is to represent the customer inside the business and ensure their experience remains consistent.

"In this type of industry, it's sort of the glue that holds everything together," he says. "I always say to them, your job is to be better than me. I want you to advocate more for the client than even I would."

That person oversees quality assurance, understands each client's preferences and deadlines, and ensures that communication between production and client remains seamless. "They're the advocate for the clients," Michael emphasizes. "Because as a business, you can become very internally focused and forget that the reason that you're here is because of that."