It's my fault. It's my grievous fault.
I have broken one of my own cardinal rules - Thou shalt be consistent in thy posting.
It has been almost 2 months since I last posted, and that is not acceptable. It is not a valid excuse that I have been hit with a series of family health issues. It is not a valid reason that I have been traveling back and forth to Virginia. That does not matter. What matters is I have not been consistent with my blog posts.
What should I have done? Clearly, in the midst of a family crisis I am not advocating that you stop everything, put the family on hold, and devote an hour to writing a blog post. Instead, should something happen that will prevent you from posting regularly, TELL YOUR AUDIENCE. Not with a post that seems targeted to garner sympathy or to create undue drama; simply with an "I'm going to be busy for some time. I'm not going to be as available as I want to be. I will post as soon as I can" type message.
I failed to do that. I'm sorry.
Anyway, enough of the rendng of the garments, here is a mini-post to help get me back on track:
Don't Forget the Personal Touch
As wonderful as email, the Internet, and automatic notifications are, agents must never forget that nothing takes the place of meeting someone face to face. Take this real life example:
Buyer Smith contacted Agent Jones by email. Agent Jones responded via email and engaged Buyer Smith in a brief electronic dialog. Agent Jones even went so far as to sign Buyer Smith up for automatic email notifications of new properties. Then, Agent Jones sat back and waited for a property to come on the market that fit Buyer Smith's stated parameters. Agent Jones never met Buyer Smith face to face, even though Buyer Smith lived locally.
Three weeks later, Agent Jones happened to overhear Agent Dough talking about having sold a home to Buyer Smith. It seems that while Agent Jones was waiting for a house to come on the market that met what Buyer Smith had said were her "must haves," Buyer Smith had gone to an Open House Agent Dough had held and bought the house.
Agent Jones did nothing "wrong." He just relied too heavily on electronic communication, and forgot the power face to face contact has in establishing rapport with a Customer and increasing their loyalty.
All of the research shows that the "personal touch" is even MORE important in the electronic marketplace. By the time an Internet consumer has asked to be introduced to an agent, they have passed the point where they are still concerned about their anonymity. At this point they want a real person to talk to them, not a faceless email name. No buyer will develop any sort of loyalty to an email address. They will only bond with a person.
Continue to build your technological skills, but never forget the power of your face!
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