A real-estate entrepreneur explains how he shifted from chasing sales to building client experience. He sends brownies before listing appointments, stocks buyer-agent comfort items, and argues the industry needs to act like Nordstrom, not TJ Maxx. Offshoring inside sales, he says, kills the experience that turns clients into raving fans.
All right, so let's get after it here. I want to give some perspective to this. You know, how I grew my business and when I really started focusing on the client experience, you know, I have to admit it was not in the first, like three years. It was, yeah, probably three years where I really was just so fast and furious and so focused on sales that nothing else mattered, you know, And I'm not really advising everyone to do it that way. I think I could have put some things in place to have a better process there in terms of giving a better experience or at least serving our clients earlier on. But, but we really only started serving our clients probably in the last three years or so. So we really went the first four years without surveying our clients, which is not good. I do believe that our industry is going to change at some point. I think it's an awesome industry because all of these little monopolies in our markets are. MLS boards protect us in such a cool way. And they don't protect us like being the people that are going to grow teams, but they, they protect the average agent. And in doing that, they just make it so lucrative to be a non traditional team. The teams that we're building, they make it really, really exciting to be a team because we can operate in the that market. But there will come a time where, you know, you're going to be a Kmart or TJ Maxx or you're going to have to decide if you're going to be a Nordstrom or, you know, where. What value do you provide in the transaction? Even if it's just perceived value? Right. You can buy clothes at TJ Maxx and you can buy clothes at Nordstrom, but the service you get at Nordstrom and the perception of value is, is one that people pay for and they pay a lot more for that service. So I do believe our industry is going to change as more information kind of goes out there. You know, consumers are more demanding. I don't feel like. I know I didn't. I don't feel like many of you think about the experience your clients receive from you and your team. I think a lot of the decisions that everyone in the industry is making revolve around how can I get more transactions or make it easier on me. Not so much how can I make it a better experience for my client. One easy example is, in my opinion, there are maybe 5% of people that are doing it, but offshoring inside sales, to me, it doesn't feel like that is a move to improve the client Experience. And you know the saying, well, I can't get my agents to do it, so I might as well pay someone eight bucks an hour. In the Philippines, their second language is English, but surely they'll do a good job, you know, pointing out, you know, helping. Helping someone that calls my team. And I just, I don't think that that's part of, you know, you know, what if you were to design the best client experience possible from all the way from lead to raving fan, I don't think anyone would have that in their process. So really spend some time thinking about what you want that experience to be, really down to the point. And we're spending time with this now. You know, what are your buyer agents? How are they equipped when they go out with buyers to show homes? Do they have a cooler in their car with cold water beverages or not alcohol beverage, obviously, but. Or snacks? Do they have any toys for kids that come in properties? You know, what could you do to make the experience memorable for your clients? Is it an average experience you just get through transactions, which is what I did for years, or do you make it truly extraordinary? And it's all systems driven, and I'm the ultimate systems guy. So if something, you know, there are things that we will implement that will be delivered by people. But a good example for us, on every listing appointment we book, we send out brownies through sendout cards, and it doesn't take but maybe two minutes. You know, once we get the appointment notification, it's tracked on the listing appointment tracker. And we send out brownies and they're like 8 bucks, or I think like 6 or maybe 6, 7, 8 bucks or something like that. But they're really, really good brownies. And that gets them. They either get them before we get there or just after. And we word the note in a way where either we took the listing, we didn't get the business, or we're following up to earn the business. And they're just written in a way, thanks for the opportunity to earn your business.
