Now that I have everybody's attention let's take a moment to examine this exact statement. In a statement that we see all too often in the industry; what message does it actually send? I will admit to using this very statement or variations of this very statement. "Client for Life" can mean many things. As a consumer, if you sit back and think about it, this may mean ownership. I am bound to same professional forever. It could deliver the message that says expect impecable service. It most often means for the professional; I will do such an outstanding job that you won't think of anybody but me when it comes to Real Estate Sales or Finance. The problem is not the statement. I can think of several professionals that uphold the level of service that represents this statement. However, everyone knows someone who was fly by night in the industry that made loans or sold Real Estate to someone and is no longer here. Who does this client turn to now? If they were a client for life you would call and refer them to a professional. Also, if they did not make it in the industry what kind of mess did they leave to clean up.
There are also clients that I would prefer not to have for "life" for various reasons. We as professionals get to pick and choose who we deal with also. We don't have to keep our clients and we have all had the client that we rather not have call us in the future.
If you choose to use "client for life" please do me a favor and deliver the service. Please get to know your clients as a whole and not just a sale. Ask yourself do I know how many children they have, when they were married and what loan or home I put them in. If you know this then Congratulations I applaud you. Some may say they have too many clients for this and for them I say two things:
1) get a database manager
2) Imagine the potential for referral business if you knew these things. You would have to have a staff to process the business while you manage the database and the relationships.
I see this statement all the time and it gets watered down. Initially, I understood that most clients have the same mechanic, hairstylist, CPA or attorney their whole life and we should be in this category. Yet I have never seen any of them say client for life in their descripitons. "Clients for Life" are built from relationships. Great relationships have ups and downs and we work through them together. I now believe that I do not need to advertise "client for life" if I focus on the core of the statement: a relationship that delivers more than a service.
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