Enchant Your Customers

In his recent blog post, Guy Kawasaki gives up 10 ways on How To Enchant Your Customer, which is written to appeal more to retail businesses but has several tips that Realtors need to keep in the forefront.  I'm not going to list all 10 items (you're going to have to go through the strenuous process of clicking the link and reading it yourself), but I do want to highlight some points that really struck a chord with me.

So here's a few:

Put likeable, competetant and passionate people on the front line. In reality, we ARE the front line. Don't our customers deserve our competetancy and passion?

Go deep in a segment. By this, Kawasaki means to specialize in one area and become the Zen master of that segment. Too often I hear a Realtor say "I specialize in everything." That one sends my BS meter to full tilt! That is a contradictory phrase. Or how about, "I specialize in all properties in California." Does anyone realy believe you when you make such a claim? I have a hard time keeping all the models straight in a neighborhood much less, knowing everything about real estate in the 159,000 square miles of California.

Deliver bad news early. Wow...totally on point! Has any Realtor, buyer or seller ever hand a hitch in a transaction? Everyone has and I can assure you that they don't go away by themselves.  What would happen if our physician failed to deliver the "bad news" about our condition? Nobody wants to hear the bad news but dealing with it early in the process always lessens the impact.

Consider all the influencers.  This is a biggie! We're showing properties to our client, making our list and checking it twice and Jones-ing for that commission check when mother-in-law (who happens to be gifting the  substantial down payment), all of a sudden, becomes the one who really has the veto power. And we haven't hardly acknowledged her is the several times she sat quitely in the back seat.  Oops!

Look to the top level companies to see how they enchant their customers. Adopt the Nordstrom mentality with all of your clients; apply these 10 ways to enchant your customer and let me know how it works out.