As a real estate professional you have an important task of keeping your clients satisfied. One of the key factors in keeping your clients satisfied requires you to be available to your client when they are available. After all, they've chosen you to work for them. (I know, I should be nicknamed "Captain Obvious"!) However, there is a fine line that can be crossed, and that's the line between your personal and professional life. When that line is crossed, it can eventually cause small sparks that lead to a fire in the relationship between you and your clients down the road.
It's important to clarify your professional schedule with your clients, immediately. Let them know exactly when you are available for receiving and returning phone calls, emails, text messages and appointments. Breaking your own rules can lead to the following:
1. If you communicate with a client outside of the schedule you initially gave them (or didn't give them for that matter), they may expect you to be available at all times. People become comfortable with routines. If even once you communicate business with a client outside of your set schedule, it can set the expectation that it's acceptable for them to continue that and builds a routine for them. When routines are broken, people often become frustrated and discouraged.
2. If clients make a special request for time outside of your set schedule, clarify with them that although you normally don't make appointments during that time, you would be happy to do so in this particular circumstance. Although it may sound a bit harsh at first, if you word it the right way, your clients will respect your time and know that you are going above and beyond your duties.
3. Giving clients "optional times" to meet, similar to as a Dr's office would do, gives them the feeling you are busy; aka successful. This can be a struggle to manage. If your schedule is perceived to be TOO full, they may think you aren't giving them enough attention and you are spreading yourself too thin among other clients.
3. Telling clients your schedule is "wide-open", gives them the perception you may be desperate, have no other clients to deal with and you are at their beck and call. Maybe your schedule isn't so full right now, but remember, you need to make yourself time to do some prospecting and listing presentations as well! Imagine if you were to drive past two restaurants every day; although never have been to either. Every day Restaurant A is packed with cars; whereas Restaurant B never has more than 2 cars in the parking lot. You feel like stopping for a nice meal on your way home from work one day. Are you going to choose Restaurant A or Restaurant B? Restaurant A; you might have to wait a while, but obviously people like it a lot more than Restaurant B! This also goes back to rule #2. It may cause clients to expect you to return their correspondence much faster, since you obviously have nothing else to do.
4. Feel free to tell your clients you may be checking emails while on vacation, but also tell them you may not get back to them until you return. As your clients are your business, you do have to work at a time that fits for them, but that doesn't mean ALL the time. It can burn you out and give you a negative perception on your job, ultimately driving your will to work into the ground. After all, that's why you're on vacation! You know those "Out of the Office Notifications", they work a charm :) Be sure to tell your clients ahead of time you will not be available, but you have found a person to fill your shoes while you are out.
5. Don't pack your schedule so full that you don't have a minute to spare. Let's face it, things happen and get in the way or take longer than expected. Give yourself some time between appointments. It's better to have a few extra minutes in a day than show up a half hour late to an appointment! Make yourself block off a couple of hours here and there that you DON'T make public to your clients but that you still consider work hours. It gives you time to catch up if you have gotten a bit behind in paperwork; the fun stuff that can sometimes lead into all hours of the night. If you have an unexpected client emergency, this is a great time to help them out without interrupting something else.
Everyone has a personal life. Keeping it real with your clients can only lead to gaining their respect for you managing such a demanding, yet efficient schedule.
How do you manage your professional and personal schedules?
Erika
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