09 May 2024
For the last eight years, the Rawson Property Group has featured on the winners’ podium at the prestigious Global Brands Awards alongside other local and international giants, including Emirates, Volkswagen and DHL. 2024 has proven no different. The recently released winners’ list placed the Group first in three categories: Best Real Estate Service (South Africa), Best Real Estate Brand (South Africa) and Best Real Estate Training (South Africa).
“To say we’re extremely proud of these results would be an understatement,” says Tony Clarke, MD of the Rawson Property Group. “It’s our fourth consecutive triple-win, and our sixth Best Real
Estate Brand (South Africa) title. That’s an incredible achievement, and something we could never have done without the hard work and dedication of each and every member of our Rawson Property Group family.”
While the strength and success of the Rawson brand is a significant source of pride, Clarke says the Group’s greatest satisfaction will always come from the success of their clients. As such, he says winning Best Real Estate Service (South Africa) for the second time in a row was by far the most gratifying of this year’s Global Brands Awards achievements.
“Our goal as an organisation has always been customer-focussed,” agrees Rawson Property Group Marketing Manager, Debbie Reabow. “Since the very beginning, we’ve been on a mission to demystify property, make it more accessible and less intimidating to the general public, and help people make easier, more informed and more successful property choices. Service plays an integral role in how we achieve this, and it’s wonderful to have our efforts in this area recognised on an international level.”
Never one to follow the crowd, Rawson has developed a unique and comprehensive approach to service excellence. One that embraces the fluidity of the property market and the evolving needs of its customers.
“We’re a full-service brand, guiding clients through every part of their property journey,” says Jeanne-Maré Oosthuizen, Rawson Property Group Director. “That includes everything from rental investment advice and management, to home finance pre-qualifications and applications, to guidance throughout the property sales and purchase processes and beyond.”
To better enable their franchisees and agents to add tangible value in all of these service areas, Rawson has invested heavily into the research and development of the award-winning technology ecosystem known as Rawson Engage. This includes the highly regarded Rawson Valuation Tool, a new version of which has recently been released.
“You have to keep up with your customer and the market, especially when it comes to advising
clients on the market value of their properties,” says Oosthuizen. “With interest rates stabilising and set to start decreasing, the market is shifting. Our valuation tool means our agents have access to the very latest data, which they can effortlessly combine with their own on-the-ground expertise to create powerful - and highly accurate - comparative market analysis. These really help sellers understand what’s happening on the market and in their area, and where their property fits into the picture.”
Of course, cutting-edge valuations are only one piece of the Rawson Property Group’s recipe for service excellence. The Group also emphasises skills development through ongoing franchisee and agent training – the success of which is reflected in their second consecutive Best Real Estate Training (South Africa) win.
“We’ve invested a lot of time and effort into our free in-house training suite,” says Thaabiet Domingo, Rawson’s National Training Manager. “It’s quickly become an essential resource for our agents and franchisees, acting as a comprehensive learning platform for every division of our business.”
With a flexible training approach, participants can use Rawson’s eLearning platform to complete a variety of programmes at their own pace, or participate in any number of ongoing live webinar courses. “Our aim is to support each and every member of our team in their professional journey,” says Domingo. “We want our people to be engaged, motivated and continuously growing, with skills that are always current, always valuable, and always in demand.”
Property sales and rentals skills aren’t the only priorities, however. The Rawson Property Group also has a home finance/bond origination division, which plays a critical role in their value-adding service offering.
“Securing home finance can be a stressful and intimidating process – particularly for first time buyers,” says Leonard Kondowe, National Manager at Rawson Finance. “We work very closely with Rawson agents to make this process as simple and straightforward as possible for our clients. Our success rates are excellent – so far we’ve helped over 16,400 families make their property dreams come true.”
And that, after all, is what it’s all about.
“Our biggest wins are not the awards, but the happy clients, the successful transactions, and the satisfaction of knowing that we’ve added real value throughout the property process and beyond,” says Tony Clarke. “Our plan is to keep doing what we’re doing – focussing on our customers and our service delivery and ensuring that every interaction with a Rawson representative is one that holds lasting value.”
