It happens too often that after an agent closes the deal that he gets out of the way and moves on to the next customer. Happy to have closed the deal that took months to complete, commission check in hand, looking for other opportunities that will pay off immediately.
After a deal closes, there are a number of things that an agent can do to maintain the relationship with the client that will leave a positive impression on their customer so years down the road they’ll only come back to you.
Help your customer move. No, you don’t have to physically pack boxes and load them on a truck! But what you can do is help you customer find a moving company that can help them move their items. You should already have a relationship with a moving company that you can refer your customers to. Buying or selling a home is an extremely stressful event. Even when that is done, moving can be just as stressful. Here are 12 Tips to Make Your Move Simple and Stress-Free
Send a thank you card. Most agents already do this, but don’t do it in an effective way. About a month after the sell you want to follow up with your customer to make sure that they are happy with their new home. More importantly, you want to identify if there are any outstanding issues that you can resolve. Most agents will just send a thank you card for their business and say they “hope” they’re enjoying their new home. A better way to position the card is to ask if there is anything else you can do to make sure they truly love their new home. This should always be followed up with a telephone call a day or two after they receive the card. Most customers won’t mention any outstanding issues unless they are asked in a professional and polite manner if there are any issues that the customer is upset about.
For example, one home buyer purchased what they thought to be a great house. Unfortunately, they didn’t realize there was a bad pet odor in the house because the sellers used candles to cover up the smell during the open houses. The buyer was upset at everyone involved in the process from the seller, the home inspector, to even you the agent! The agent followed up with the customer to make sure that the buyer was happy with the house. With some questioning the agent found out about the pet odor issue from their customer. Once the issue was discovered, the agent was able to get the seller to pay for carpet cleaning for the entire house. This agent just turned into a rockstar agent! Guess who just became the only go-to agent for this customer when they make their next purchase. Yep, this agent discovered a major issue from their customer and was able to resolve it and the relationship was built that the customer will only go to him when he goes to sell his house.
Follow up constantly. This doesn’t mean you have to call every other day, but when you do follow up make sure it’s consistent. A lot of successful agent will have a newsletter marketing program with local news and events in the area. The customer receives that email each and every month. Then the agent will call the customer every 6 months. It goes back to the old adage of “out of site, out of mind”. You want to make sure that your customers know that you are still there to support them for any of their real estate needs.
If you have a sporadic newsletter that you send out whenever you get around to it, it will quickly become an afterthought for you and forgotten about by your customer. Then when you only make your calls when you need more sales, it will come through from your tone and be a turnoff to your customer.
Keep it simple, keep it constant.
Be unique and creative. The sky’s the limit. You have to stand out from all the other agents that can do everything you do…some better, some worse. Really Rotten Realty has things that other agents have done that you should NOT do…plus you’ll get a really good laugh reading the website.
Here are a couple of items that you can go with or use to spark your own creative ideas:
Home by Design
I Love Commission
Real Estate Marketing Tools
Your Coloring Book
Creative thinking pays off for local Realtor
Have fun, be creative!
You can also share your stories in the comments below.
