In our last blog post, we shared a chart with you and explained that while 89% of buyers and 85% of sellers say they would recommend their agent or use their services again, a very small percentage actually do.
We promised that we’d share our thoughts with you on today’s blog post about why we think this is.
Here’s the bottom line: many real estate agents simply fail to keep in touch with past clients after the transaction ends. These agents likely aren’t using a CRM for Agents.
The close of your first transaction with a buyer or seller shouldn’t be the end of the relationship with them. It should be the beginning.
[stextbox id=”info”]”The close of a transaction shouldn’t be the end of the relationship w/ a client, it should be the start.” [Click to tweet][/stextbox]
You’ve likely done a whole lot of work to get the client in the first place. Maybe you’ve paid for ads, a website, lead generation services, made cold calls, and given a presentation or two.
And once you’re hired, you do even more work to service the client and make sure they’re happy.
If you fail to keep in touch after the initial transaction, you miss out on “easy business” in the form of referrals and repeat transactions.
You’ve done the hard work of getting the client and taking care of them. The easy work is keeping in touch. Remember, studies have shown that it takes a lot less time, money, and energy to retain an existing client then to acquire a new one.
Ask yourself these questions right now: “Am I taking care of my past clients and sphere of influence (SOI) as well as I should be? Am I making the most out of the existing relationships that I’ve spent so much time building?”
If you answered “no” to either or both of these questions, you need to look at what you can do to improve; to snag that “low-hanging fruit.”
You need to be communicating with past clients in a consistent and personalized manner.
There are a number of ways you can do this. As you’ll learn below, a CRM for Agents is key.
Here are some suggestions:
- Send out a monthly real estate newsletter.
- Set-up all of your clients on drip marketing campaigns (a real estate email marketing campaign).
- Send periodic Just Listed/ Just Sold e-Cards or e-Flyers.
- Make quarterly keep in touch calls to your best clients.
- Plan events like client appreciation nights and/ or home expert seminars.
- Send Happy Birthday greetings and/ or acknowledge your clients on their home purchase anniversary date.
Do these ideas sound like they’ll be hard to put into practice or manage all at once? With a CRM for Agents, you can easily implement all six of the suggestions above without a big time commitment involved.
IXACT Contact’s CRM for Agents includes a professionally designed and written monthly e-Newsletter created by real estate marketing experts. The system also comes with drip marketing campaigns with a library of email templates, including Just Listed/ Just Sold e-Cards and e-Flyers.
What are you doing to keep in touch with your clients? Leave a comment below!