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Here at Best of Suffolk, ensuring our customers and clients’ happiness is at the core of what we do. Having recently received Feefo’s Gold Trusted Service Award for the fifth year in a row, we could not be happier! What do we put our success down to? Our dedicated Customer Service Manager, Rebecca Keeble, chats about what makes Best of Suffolk customer service the BEST.

Customer friendly Suffolk

So what makes a Best of Suffolk property stand out when it comes to quality?

Well, it’s really simple. If you’re going to stay in Suffolk, stay the Best of Suffolk way! We hand-pick our stylish places to stay in fab locations and they get rave reviews. We’ve found during our 13 years of operation that it’s the little extras that make the difference.  So as standard you can enjoy 100% cotton linens, large and fluffy bath sheets and designer toiletries.

We give our owners an extensive guide when setting up their property to let with Best of Suffolk that covers every element of holiday letting based on years of experience, from light fittings to carpets and linen to crockery. All that detail ensures our consistently high standards are met.

How do you ensure all your 380 properties meet your exacting standards?

One word; communication.

All our housekeepers sign up to our Housekeeping Agreement, which puts in black and white the standards and expectations we require when they service a Best of Suffolk property. We also update our Housekeepers with a newsletter, providing them with tips and hints according to the season such as extra roasting pans for Christmas stays and setting porch lights to come on when the clocks go back to avoid arrivals in the dark. Any new housekeeping companies that wish to work for Best of Suffolk complete a trial clean to ensure our standards are met, if not exceeded!

How do you make guests feel particularly welcome when they arrive?

To make our guests arrival as hassle-free as possible, we resend arrival details automatically seven days before their visit. We found an increased number of calls on a Friday asking for key codes was due to the arrival instructions being sent when the guest paid their balance and it got lost in amongst other emails in a busy inbox.

Upon arriving at their property of choice, our guests are greeted by a welcome folder full of everything they need to know for their stay, including how to get in touch out of hours should things not be as expected. As an added treat our guests get some local biscuits and a decent bottle of wine to enjoy during their stay.

According to Feefo “Your business has provided the best experience for your customers and you met the criteria of excellence, as voted for by your customers.” How important are customer reviews?

They’re essential! I use them all the time outside of work when deciding which vacuum cleaner to buy or restaurant to choose, why should our guests be any different?

Within one week of their return home, every guest is emailed inviting them to complete a Feefo review both on the property they stayed in and the service they received at Best of Suffolk. Reviews are published without editing or restriction. It provides honest, real life feedback from customers who have stayed with us, and customer feedback through reviews is used to make any improvements needed.

You just need to look at our star rating on Feefo to see that all our hard work is worthwhile. (Rebecca proudly opens the Feefo website on her laptop). See? To date, Best of Suffolk have received 1867 four and five star reviews, compared to 26 one and two star reviews, speaks for itself!

Award winning customer service team

What happens when things don’t go to plan? How do you put things right?

We hate it when things go wrong! It doesn’t happen often, but when it does our guests have a dedicated customer service team, on hand to react quickly and efficiently to any issues. There is a 24/7 on call phone, making it as easy as possible for our guests to get in touch.

We have a number of local suppliers and tradesmen to call upon should a maintenance issue occur whilst a guest is staying in a Best of Suffolk property. These relationships mean we can easily handle both routine maintenance as well as rare reactive emergency issues.

On the rare occasion we receive a complaint, we take ownership of the complaint and give our name so our guests have a single point of contact, making the service as efficient and customer-centric as possible.

How do you measure success?

For me and the customer service team, it’s really simple. We have a loyal customer base with many customers rebooking the same property, year after year.  We have so many five star reviews on both Google and Feefo, and an industry-leading return customer rate of 42%. They wouldn’t come back if we didn’t do a good job!

Let’s finish on what you think is the best review Best of Suffolk have received so far this year.

Oh! I know just the one. (A quick look through Feefo later and the review is found).

“Excellent, friendly, helpful staff. A couple of queries raised were dealt with very promptly. Cottage was immaculate, comfortable and in a lovely location. Would highly recommend Best of Suffolk, a pleasure to deal with.”

To read the Best of Suffolk reviews for yourself, take a look at our Feefo page.