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Retain your customers for life!

By
Real Estate Agent with Coldwell Banker Realty CalBRE #01248430

It’s important to remember that as a society we seem to become more and more transient every year. The process that began when the Model T ford gave everyone the option of traveling is still going on today. It seems like no one lives his whole life in one place anymore. I bring this up because unlike realtors in the 1950’s we are potentially selling multiple homes to the same buyer if we play our cards right. In the 1950’s a young couple moving out of the “family home” might have realistically expected to buy a home that they would live in until they retired. Somewhere along the line the concept of “starter homes” crept into the vernacular and people soon became comfortable with the idea that they might buy and sell a fixer upper before finding and buying their dream home, but the idea was essentially that a family bought a home and they lived there. People moved of course, but mostly due to changing circumstances and not strictly as a matter of choice.

Fifty years ago there was still an expectation that success involved finding a home and settling down. Now, not so much. Now more and more people move not necessarily because they see their next home as an upgrade, but because they see their current home as unrealized income. Consequently a savvy realtor should maintain an ongoing relationship with her clients. One of the best ways of doing that is to provide small but valuable services that might not necessarily come under the heading of the realtor’s job. Anybody can maintain a page of useful links and helpful tips, but there’s no guarantee that anybody will read them. No, a better solution is to initiate and maintain contact with your customers yourself. For example you might send information on child-proofing the home to new parents. Information on obtaining locally sponsored or lesser known scholarship opportunities would be of interest to home buyers with teenaged children.

One convenient way to maintain contact with your customers and disseminate information is on social networking sites like MySpace.com or Facebook.com (Keeping in mind that their rules for commercial memberships are different from standard memberships and vary greatly from site to site. Be sure to read the terms of use carefully.). People hate spam email, but they don’t mind seeing that a friend has posted a bulletin on MySpace.com. That’s because they choose to go to a social networking site and spam email is a nuisance that is thrust upon them. Maintaining your relationship with your current customers is also important because even if they have no plan to sell their home in the foreseeable future due to an uncertain market they can still be a valuable source of referrals.

Above all though make sure any information you send out is useful. They won’t be interested in a post card that says you’ve just sold your millionth home  but a postcard that tells them where they can get a discount on lawn care may just fascinate them. Anything you can do to create the impression that their realtor is a source of useful information and that keeps them returning to you for advice is likely to bring them back to you when they are ready to buy their next home. It might seem like those things are above and beyond the call of duty for a realtor, but most people aren’t in the market merely for a house, most people are looking for a home, which implies—to me at least—a sense of community as well. Anything you can do to foster that sense of community is going to bring your customers back to you again and again. After all if they think of you as family, why wouldn’t they buy their next house from you?

Comments (4)

Alan Kirkpatrick
Austin Texas Homes - Round Rock, TX
Alan in Austin

Angelica:

Great points. Good post. Keep up the good work. Thanks for visiting my blog and commenting. Hope you have a great week.

Mar 31, 2008 08:23 AM
Mesa, Arizona Real Estate Mesa Arizona Realtor
Homes Arizona Real Estate LLC - Mesa, AZ
AzLadyInRed

Angelica, we are definitely more transient now. There was a day that we all wanted to pay off our homes. The average move time nationally "was" every 5-7 years. In Arizona, every two years. Once the market settles down a bit, that'll be what starts to happen again. ;-) Welcome to the Rain. ;-)

Pepper

Apr 04, 2008 05:04 AM
Blatt + Cutino
Coldwell Banker Realty - Monterey, CA
Broker-Associate 831/206-8070*Call today*
Hi Teri, Thanks for comment! I appreciate it! Have a great Friday.
Apr 04, 2008 05:40 AM
Yoana Toth
Toth Real Estate Group, Inc - Sunny Isles, FL
P.A.

Angelica:

So true,

FUNNY my slogan is "Creating Clients for Life....One Closing at a Time"

yoana

 

Apr 04, 2008 05:55 AM