A Communication Lesson From Gizmo
Okay, so the other day I was watching our new Guinea Pig, Gizmo. (Ya, our son named him.) He was an absolute mystery to me when we first got him. We out him in the family room because we are always in there and he gets a lot of face-time with the family. At first, he was jumpy and scared, but now he's simply one of us.
My sons looked up information on guniea's when he started making noises and we couldn't figure it out. They do things like that, look up things for much more detail than I care about.
Gizmo apparently whistles when he is excited to see someone he loves. He whistles at my dog Belle and he whistles at me. (I truly think he only whistles at me because then I bring him his favorite - carrots.) And he chatters all the time now. But we also learned that he makes almost the same type of noise when he's scared or doesn't like something. And he jumps - nearly scared Belle to death the first time he did it. (HILARIOUS!)
SO WHAT CAN WE LEARN FROM GIZMO?
He communicates! Have you ever had a buyer or seller that didn't say what he/she was thinking and it backfired? No, we don't want that house seems pretty easy to me. We decided the bedrooms are too small, is relatively simple. Gizmo would yell and hide. Some buyers simply hide and don't answer emails or phone calls. We never find out what actually happened. And if you are an agent, don't be a hidden agent. Call you owners/buyers at least once a week to check in even if there is no news. It stops them from thinking you have dropped the ball!
Have you ever noticed that in some parts of the country the smallest courtesy of saying hello has all but vanished? It's like that a lot here in the Greater Los Angeles Area. You say hello and people look at you like you want something from them. Gizmo runs to the gateway of his cage everytime one of the family comes home - his way of saying hello... he's so excited.
When you do something Gizmo especially likes he jumps. He jumps at Belle all the time, and when you give him a treat, he jumps - his way of saying thank you. What happened to our common courtesy of saying thank you or writing a thank you note, whether it be email or snail mail. Or if you are a client, write your Realtor a recommendation if they did a good job for you!
Just think, all those lessons from a simple house pet. It's built into their persona and it should be in ours as well. How well do you shape up next to Gizmo?
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