Two major concerns of the real estate agent are to find business opportunities and to know their clients. These tasks are becoming increasingly difficult. Here are some of those difficulties:
Clients are less loyal than they used to be. This is especially true to all the business activities, including the real estate one, that were affected during the financial crisis.
Increased competition makes it easy for clients to contact different real estate agencies that commercialize the same property.
The number of potential clients increases whenever a client gets in touch with you. Therefore, “customer care” and “segmentation” are keywords.
Nowadays, most people use the internet to contact real estate agencies. As there’s no personal contact, it will be more difficult to understand your clients.
With such a big number of real estate agents who have lots of properties, those who have a smaller amount will be less contacted by potential guests.
To get closer to these demanding clients, you’ll have to understand their needs and to show them the property they are really looking for.
Here are five ways to do it:
1. Place yourself in his position
Look at the client who is standing behind the business opportunity. Try to understand what he is looking for: type of property, type of deal, number of rooms and range of prices. Note down his preferences and be aware of the properties that he might be pleased with or that you may need to list. These steps will help you to improve your knowledge about your clients and will help you to organize your commercial area.
2. Assign clients to specific co-workers/sellers
Each client should be followed by the same person so that he may know all the business details. Get to know the key-clients, the ones that are at a specific stage of the deal process or almost closing a deal. It is easier to give priority to the most important client with this type of management.
3. Get feedback from your clients
Having different types of means to get feedback from your clients is a very important aspect: newsletters, satisfaction surveys, chats or forms on your real estate website. Identify which type of properties was most seen on the newsletter, which property features were most searched on your websites or which ones have generated more visits or information requests. Using such mechanisms will make it easier to understand the trends and to support your strategy in terms of property listings.
4. Keep your clients close
Schedule events like an ‘open day’ and invite those clients who are interested in that type of properties. These events help agents to understand which features are taken into consideration when buying a property and will, at the same time, remind clients that that property is still available.
5. Always be one step ahead
Focus on tomorrow’s clients wishes like Steve Jobs and Richard Branson amazingly did. Try to imagine different future possibilities using all the tools that help you to read and to understand search trends (ex. Management Software). Then, learn how market tendencies can influence the type of properties your clients look for. A good example of this is when clients start looking for properties to rent instead of buying them because it is getting difficult to get housing credit.
Try to be all ears and to use tools that may help you in this process. It will be easier to know what your clients are looking for. If you keep up with the trends, it will be easier to close deals.
Please remember that sometimes you need to be “out of the box” to see the deals and to understand the clients.
We know that it is easier to focus on your aim – more deals – and to forget your clients’, but if you do that, you may be losing important opportunities and the chance to be surprised in the future.
