For all the talk about how to get clients in real estate, there’s little conversation about how to keep them for life.
The stats speak for themselves: About 90 percent of clients say they’d happily use the same agent again just after they close on their new home. But sadly, only about 10 percent actually do, according to statistics from the National Association of Realtors.
Maybe that’s because buyers (who will be sellers when they move) aren’t in love with the process of buying a home. For most Americans, who move every seven years, buying a home is confusing and difficult.
It’s true that a lot of things that happen in the closing process are out of the agent’s control — but they still color the entire experience.
Not only do buyers have to get a loan (a process fraught with anxiety under most circumstances) but they have to deal with the process of closing on a home.
Deliver2014 • Free Eight11 & Amitree Event • Tank 18, San Francisco • May 6, 2014 • 7-9:30 p.m. • Register NOW
That can include mundane things like changing addresses and locks to ordering home insurance or digging up old paystubs. Whatever the task at hand, it can feel like a long, tedious and obtuse process (even if it all happens in less than 30 days).
In an era where you can pretty much do almost anything electronically, clients are still printing out copies, faxing things to various parties, and manually arranging most aspects of their home purchase.
All of that makes it hard for even the savviest agent to ensure customer satisfaction throughout the home buying process.
What’s more, some 90 percent of agents never contact buyers again after the close. So is it any wonder that when those buyers decide to sell they call someone else?
So what can brokers and agents do about it?
A Deep Dive into Customer Satisfaction
That’s the subject of Eight11’s very first event series, which is co-sponsored by Amitree (the makers of Closing Time).
My goal is to engender honest conversation about how we can bake-in amazing customer satisfaction into the entire real estate transaction.
Given that some 40 percent of agents’ business comes from repeat and referral clients, this is a mission-critical conversation. And that’s why I agreed to put together this free event for the real estate community with Amitree.
We’re going to talk theory, strategy and practice, and learn from each other. Although I’m certain some will mention various products in the discussion, we will not focus on any real estate brand or product (and, in fact, pitches will merit expulsion from the event).
The format of the event is simple. It’s a 60-minute panel discussion with influential local brokers and agents, followed by discussion. There will be plenty of wine and snacks to ensure no one is hungry or thirsty.
Our first event is in San Francisco on May 6 from 7-9:30 p.m., and features Bob Dadurka, broker, Paragon Real Estate; Eric Boyenga, agent, Intero Real Estate; Matthew Borland, managing partner, Zephyr Real Estate; and Jonathan Aizen, CEO and co-founder, Amitree. I’ll moderate the discussion.
If you’d like to attend, please register here. Or, if you’d like us to come to your city (we’re planning more of these events through the rest of the year) please let me know.
I hope to see you there!
I agree with you that most every real estate transaction is a cluster of disasters headed on a swiftly moving timetable towards impending doom. But somehow, amazingly, most always there is a silver lining – closing. I commend Realtors for the fortitude it takes to work in our profession. Getting buyers and sellers together and moving them through the process of a real estate transaction can be a tremendous drain on a Realtor’s self-esteem, as well as, testing our character at every turn. Because the easy solutions too many of those challenges that occur during a transaction are not always honest and or best in the long run. And the solutions that require honesty and integrity (two very over used words) also require a great deal of
guts. It is not uncommon in the course of our business to be yelled and cursed at one moment and hugged and complemented the next. (Wanna talk about mixed signals?) Most all of the Realtors I know, and I know a lot, do their job very well and they do it with grace and dignity. Each and every real estate company, that I know, has a series of check lists that get their Realtors, buyers, and seller through every transaction. So saying that buyers don’t return to the Realtor they used when they purchased their property because the process is hard doesn’t ring true with me.
You hit the nail on the head with your statement towards the end of your article. “Some 90 percent of agents never contact buyers again after the close.” Even though it cost us business here’s why. Have you ever completed a task, that once it was done, you sat back and breathed a huge sigh of relief to be finished? If so you have experienced what it is like to complete most every real estate transaction. But the nature of the real estate industry requires us to constantly work within that environment. Not complaining! We love it or we wouldn’t do it! But it’s that one moment. That one spot where we sit back and breath that we drop the ball. What we need is something that can be put into place prior to closing, that can be used over the course of the next seven or so years to stay in touch. My answer: A simple extended drip-campaign that includes email, snail mail, video and reminders for personal calls. It needs to have elements of products like “Contactually” to pull in a clients social media trail so that before the Realtor makes that call he or she can brush up on what’s going on in the now homeowners life. It needs have a platform based on something like “Feedly” so you can monitor everything in one place, file it under the clients name and address and of course data storage so you can house all that categorized info. Bet Austin Allison, Chris Smith and Seth Price could create it. If it already exists tell me where. I want to start recommending it yesterday.