According to statistics from the Direct Marketing Association and the United States Postal Service, approximately 18% of the population change their personal and/or business contact information every year.
That means if you haven’t been keeping your real estate contact management database up-to-date over the past year, the information you have on one out of five contacts could now be incorrect!
That’s why it’s so important to take a few minutes each week to update contact information.
In fact, according to the Referral & Repeat Marketing Book, “The number one reason that most agents are not successful with Referral & Repeat Marketing is that they fail to adequately maintain their databases.”
Agents often think of contact information only in terms of an address. But there are many other things that can change in a client or prospect’s life. For example, phone numbers, email addresses, employment, marriage, divorce, births, deaths, mortgages, etc.
Keeping Your Real Estate Contact Management Database Current
If the information in your real estate contact management software is not current, it is very difficult to build loyalty.
What if one of your clients has had their in-laws permanently move in? They might now be interested in a larger home – perhaps with an in-law suite. But if your real estate contact management database doesn’t have that information, you may lose the opportunity to find them a new home.
Here’s another example: Let’s say a client tells you about his promotion, but you fail to record the details in your real estate database. You might forget to send a congratulatory card. Or worse, the next time you see him, you might forget about the promotion altogether – making the client feel like you don’t care.
Takeaway point: Your real estate contact management database is the most important business asset you have. The people in it, and all the referrals and repeat business they represent, are your future. Isn’t it worth a few minutes each week to keep it up-to-date?
When’s the last time you’ve updated your real estate database? Leave a comment below!