Customers for Life: Winning the Long Game
Your real estate career needs to be built on long-lasting, sustainable, and scalable success. You work with a lot of different personalities, not just different property types, because real estate is a people-centric business. In this industry, having a career that stands up to the test of time centers around one core element: your relationships and how you manage them.
The relationships you create, build upon, and maintain with your customer base help make up the foundation of your business, long beyond the close. Let’s take a look at strategies to tap into relationship-building so you can earn consistent repeat and referral business.
Once the sale is over, the last document is signed, and the transaction is marked “complete”, your relationship with your client isn’t finished. You need to keep in touch post-close to maintain that personal touch. With some careful planning and plenty of help from technology, doing this is easier than ever.
To start, you don’t want to reach out to your clients when you need something; instead, you want to continue to demonstrate your value to them by being someone who cares and is still invested. Maintaining your client relationships can look like setting a calendar reminder every month to text them and see how they’re settling into their new digs, and gradually spacing out the texts over time. Then, you can pre-schedule emails covering topics like home maintenance reminders, seasonal emails, or check-ins to stay top of mind.
It’s also a good idea — and a nice touch — to drop a handwritten postcard or greeting card in the mail for major events, like their sale anniversary, holidays, birthdays, or their wedding anniversary. Some agents also enjoy doing “pass-bys” during the year, where they stop by their client’s home to bring a small gift, or hosting exclusive client appreciation events. All of these efforts keep you top of mind and also keep various lines of communication open between you and your clients.
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- Helps keep track of home maintenance tasks, and uses local, trusted expertise for any referrals, questions or quotes.
- Uses local, trusted expertise instead of automated valuation models to provide a more accurate home value.
- Provides a snapshot of neighbourhood real estate using local, trusted expertise to keep you informed of your market.
- Makes moving a lot more organized using local, trusted expertise to get quotes, track boxes and make sure you’re asking movers the right questions
Techniques for Encouraging Referrals from Satisfied Clients
Like we said, you don’t want to reach out to your past clients only when you need something from them. First, you need to ensure they’re satisfied by offering exceptional customer service. By going above and beyond, being transparent, and committing yourself to your clients every step of the transaction, you’ll be able to foster loyalty much more effectively — and easily. By offering outstanding service, you can feel confident your clients will be thrilled with your performance and far more likely to refer other customers your way.
Once you reach the final step of the transaction and close, it’s the ultimate sweet spot to ask your clients for a testimonial or referral. They’re excited and abuzz with a major win, but not yet in the throes of moving logistics and adjusting to a new home. If you’re past that point, no problem — this is where maintaining client relationships and keeping in touch is key. The more often your satisfied clients hear from you consistently over time, the more likely they are to feel open to sending someone your way.
If your customers know they can expect to hear from you soon, or that you just shared your contact information in your latest email or postcard, they’ll have a much smoother entry point to getting in touch and sharing referral information.
Whether you’re using digital tools or going old-school with snail mail and pass-bys, personalization is key in your follow-up outreach. Always be sure to address messages (regardless of format) to your past customers by their names, mark down key dates and milestones on your calendar, and time sending any messages or mail accordingly.
These small details of personalization go a long way. In a digital-first age where broad groups of consumers are seeing the same message, you can help your outreach be seen, ensure it lands more effectively, and nurture your customers so they still feel appreciated.
Juggling all these opportunities for customer communications might seem a little overwhelming, or at the very least, like a sheer battle for calendar space. Thankfully, there’s a solution: a customer relationship management tool, or CRM. This type of software tool is a must for keeping your real estate business running smoothly and helping you manage your client database more effectively. A good CRM helps you keep track of client interactions and preferences, before, during, and after the close. By investing in one, you can manage and master your client outreach plans with ease.
Winning customers is one thing to contribute your wins now, but winning them for life is how you build up your wins over the long-term. To leverage the strategies and techniques we shared most effectively, you need a strong CRM to support you every step of the way.
You can make your CRM goals and aspirations a reality with BoldTrail, a next-generation front office platform. BoldTrail offers a first-of-its-kind homeownership tool appropriately called Home. BoldTrail’s Home was designed specifically to help agents like you keep leads engaged long after the transaction, helping to drive more engagement and repeat and referral business. Home is jam-packed with tools to keep you top of mind, in touch, and consistently demonstrates your value to your clients.
With deep intelligence, an AI-powered CRM, and a tool to support your customer communications to ensure you win the long game, you need BoldTrail.