Harcourts Rylstone and Mudgee and licensee/owner Stewart Adlington have been awarded on the world stage, taking out third and first respectively for Client Experience at the 2020 Harcourts International Awards - just as the office celebrates its second birthday.
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Mr Adlington who's worked property and livestock marketing in Mudgee for 20 years, picked up the 'Client Experience - Individual' state, national, and international gongs.
While the local real estate business - which was established in July 2018 and also trades as Nutrien Harcourts for rural listings - scored the 'Client Experience - Office' state award, was third for the national honour, and equal-third internationally.
To put that into perspective, the Harcourts brand has more-than 6,700 sales consultants and over 900 offices around the world.
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Although with COVID restrictions and the lack of a physical ceremony, the occasions very nearly passed Mr Adlington by. He said that receiving the state awards was "fantastic", but this was after receiving the congratulatory messages.
After getting a tip that "a little bird said" he should tune into the higher awards, he had the "overwhelming" moments of being named the national and international recipient. However, Mr Adlington acknowledged that it was a team effort, not just because of the success in the Office category, but also with the part they played in his Individual honours.
"We only took this business on two years ago, buying a local rent roll and starting our journey, so for us to achieve what we've achieved in that time just makes me so proud of our team," he said.
"It's a team effort to get this right, because when our customers are with us throughout a whole transaction they interact with a number of people - they're not just dealing with me from start to finish. And it's important that everybody excels in that customer service space, so that we get the right result for our clients in the end."
He added that the way that the awards were decided - based on customer scores and feedback - made the honours even more meaningful.
"The outcome can't be influenced, all of the our customers that interact with us have the opportunity - they're not obligated - to provide feedback good or otherwise. And we get the comments along the way and that allows us to action any changes or address any issues," he said.
"But we don't see the scores, they go through to a central person in the company who collates them. And it's the aggregation of those scores and comments that delivered that outcome we were thrilled to receive.
"That's the ultimate award, surely. Lots of businesses hit particular sales milestones - whether it's dollars or units of turnover - but to receive recognition from our customers, in my mind, is the most important measure of success.
"We're here to provide a service to them and if they appreciate what we do to that extent, then it gives me wonderful confidence going forward. And it gives our team great confidence to sit in front of our customers knowing what we've got to offer is hitting the mark."