30 June 2022
The much-anticipated announcement of the 2022 Global Brands Awards winners has seen the Rawson Property Group sweep the decks in a total of three categories - yet again! This marks the fourth consecutive triple-win for the Group, and the fifth year of recognition in this prestigious and competitive international event.
This year’s wins once again include Best Real Estate Marketing Brand (South Africa), Most Innovative Real Estate Brand (South Africa) and the all-round Best Real Estate Brand (South Africa). Having successfully defended all three of these titles since 2019, Rawson Property Group MD, Tony Clarke, says the brand is not just proud of their repeat achievements, but also their ability to remain consistent in their commitment to service excellence. What makes this years’ wins even more special, is that they can be celebrated along with the brand’s 40th birthday.
“Sharing the Global Brand Awards stage with brands like Google, Apple, Samsung and other prominent South African real estate brands such as REMAX is always a humbling experience,” says
Clarke, “but for us, it also drives home the importance of innovation and the power of technology in every industry. I genuinely believe the Rawson Property Group’s investment in innovation and technology has been the key to our ongoing success as a brand, and our ability to keep delivering value to buyers and sellers in an ever changing local and global landscape.
Rawson’s technological innovations include an award-winning website, a critically acclaimed valuation platform, cutting-edge virtual tour and showhouse capabilities and an exclusive customer relationship management tool available to all Rawson agents. While technology is certainly central to their strategy, however, Clarke says the intention behind these tools is not to remove the human touch, but rather to facilitate an even more personal service.
According to Jeanne-Mare Oosthuizen, Director and General Manager of the Rawson Property Group, Rawson clients have been an equally important ingredient in the organisation’s recipe for success.
“We’ve always been deeply focussed on customer-centricity,” she says. “At the end of the day, our biggest wins come in the form of happy clients, successful transactions, and knowing we’ve added real value throughout the process and beyond.”
To better enable this level of service, the Group invests heavily in continuous training and ground-breaking proprietary technology.
“Our award-winning Rawson Engage tech ecosystem has been designed to give agents access to everything they need to deliver an exceptional property experience,” says Oosthuizen. “The agility that comes with being tech-enabled has been absolutely key in navigating the changing real estate landscape. It’s enabled us to turn challenges into opportunities and, regardless of circumstances, offer ever-increasing value to our franchisees, agents and clients.”
Whether it’s Rawson’s customer-centric attitude or tech-enabled and growth-positive environment, the brand has certainly gone from strength to strength in recent years. Agent numbers have grown by 43% in the last 3 years, group sales revenue has increased by 44% since 2019, and rental units have increased by 27% in the same period.
This focus on customer-centric experiences and obligation-free support is also central to the Rawson Property Group’s award-winning marketing strategy.
“Modern customer service is all about empowerment,” says Debbie Reabow, the Group’s Marketing Manager “As a brand, we’ve always believed in providing free access to advice and knowledge on all
aspects of the property market. We’re now using technology to share that knowledge more effectively, and with a wider audience than ever before.”
Not only has this enabled Rawson to build a reputation as an industry thought-leader, it’s also created a large pool of clients who consider the brand to be a real estate partner, rather than just a once-off service provider. It’s this trusted position that, according to Clarke, has allowed the brand to keep connecting buyers and sellers for mutual benefit, despite the logistical challenges of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Sales are only one facet of the group’s core objective, however.
“Ultimately, our goal is to help make property more accessible and less intimidating to the general public, and to empower our clients to make the best possible property decisions,” says Clarke. “We’re always gratified to receive acknowledgement for our efforts in the form of awards like the Global Brands, but our real satisfaction comes from the success of our clients.”
Despite their achievements, Clarke says the Group is not about to rest on their laurels.
“Our work is never done - not even after 40 years’ experience,” he says. “The real estate landscape is one of constant shifts and constant changes. We need to stay agile, stay innovative, and stay ahead of the curve to make sure our clients are at the forefront of every opportunity.”
