Several months ago I wrote about my dentist in Boston and how impressed I was with them. Not just the service, but the entire way they marketed themselves. I was so impressed, I called them back to find out how they knew my wife and I so well. I mean, really, after our first couple of visits they were able to recall six months later everything we told them. It turns out that every visit the assistant went back to the file on the computer and wrote down all of the things that we spoke about. They were big on writing down dates of things as well, birthdays, anniversaries and so on. Any date that they write down goes into another spreadsheet so they can send appropriate correspondence.

A similar thing happened to me when I went into get my haircut at Sportsclips. "Matt, do you want us to use the 2 on the sides like last time?" Cindy asked me. Then she asked my how my wife was doing with the pregnancy. Again, this was a person I remembered but hadn't seen a few months.

It got me thinking. How many of us actually take the time to record personal notes about the clients with whom we have worked. What does it do for our business when we can reach out to each and every one of our clients in a totally unique and personal way?

Unfortunately, many real estate agents these days don't even keep up to date blue lists, let alone going above and beyond to create notes on life events. There's no better time to change a habit then at the beginning of the year.

Matthew S. Gosselin is the author of My Blue Goose, Exploiting The Wow Factor In Real Estate Marketing. The book can be purchased on MyBlueGoose.com or Amazon. Stay tuned for more information about his new book, "Stand Out, Stick and Stay. Transforming Real Estate Marketing"