I pride myself for how connected I am to my clients! However, on some days, I wonder if that is a bad thing?
I consistently tell my students in the various real estate classes that I teach, that it is important to relate and communicate with your clients on THEIR level. If you receive an email, respond via email; calls require calls back; texts should be responded via text; etc. However, when does the information age become information overload?
Some people don't appear to have much patience, so when they want to reach you, they want you now! They are like Geppetto pulling on Pinocchio's strings, making him dance for their amusement. The strings today are made up of phone lines, internet connections, CAT-5 wiring, fiber optics and even wireless connections. All this digital technology helps enable people to pull your strings, almost simultaneously.
For example, someone calls and if I don't answer, they leave a message, then send me an email and then a text message all within a one or two minute time span since their issue, in their mind, deserves immediate attention! Apparently, if it is not immediate, it isn't fast enough.
However, if I have been in a meeting, or with clients for an hour or two, I need to check most of my messages before I return any of them, so I can prioritize them. Today alone, I had four separate clients leave me messages on no less than three different forms of communication!
If I am driving or in a meeting with a different client, I can't respond immediately. That appears to prompt them to try the next communication option, but since I am still driving or in a meeting, they go onto option #3 or #4 or #5! Then when I call them back, they will typically say "Did you get my message?" Am I rude to ask which one? Do I respond to only 1, and if so, which one?
My main email account still has 25 emails that I haven't even opened yet today and yet I did respond to 39 separate email threads! My secondary email account and my primary spam account and my general spam accounts are not even factored in. As I write this blog, it is now 10:51 pm and I have had 34 text messages in the past 2 hours with a single client!
Today, I had four separate people use at least three forms of communication to try to resolve their questions/concerns. I feel like the Abbott and Costello comedy "who's on first"! My first real estate transactional text message came in at 6:59 AM, my last at 9:29pm. My first email came in at 12:09 AM and I am still receiving them as of 10:38 pm. I will receive a few more before midnight, but I am done checking them for the day, finally!
We have let the technology communication genie out of the lamp and I don't think we will ever get it back in. I feel like Pinocchio, with Geppetto pulling my strings. Some days. in my role as Pinocchio, I wish I was just a "real boy" with a "real job" (8-5 on Monday - Friday with paid vacations and benefits.
I am in the process of hiring two more agents and an assistant. I know that will help, but in the meantime, my phone is ringing, my email notifications are popping up and someone is using speech to text again as I just heard my phone ping me with about 5 or six nearly simultaneous texts.
When I became a Realtor 25 years ago, you could flip a coin to determine if you were going to answer the office phone or your home phone. Then, we got cell phones, email, text, etc., so I tossed my coin, and bought a dice set so I could roll the dice to determine which one to take first. Things are still changing with more and more ways for people to connect. As I look toward the future, I realize it is time to upgrade my dice set to an icosahedron set since each has 20 sides / possible outcomes!
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