10 Ways to keep your clients coming back, year after year

Quoting Keith Hockin - Top Producer:

Past Customers, Future Customers:
10 Ways to keep your clients coming back, year after year

In his book "Loyalty Rules!" Frederick Reichheld demonstrates that acquiring a new customer can cost 6 to 7 times more than retaining an existing client. In real estate, those costs can be advertising, lost revenue, lost referrals, and lost repeat buyers and sellers.

To make sure you're leveraging your most important asset - your current client list - we've developed the following 10 tips for taking care of your customers:

1. Get to know your customers. Relationships aren't built in a day, and they aren't built on one conversation. Take the time to record your customers "hot buttons" so you are ready with the perfect opportunities. Based on your customers' preferences, you could send special mailings promoting neighborhoods, home types, or even just home maintenance tips. The key is to make it personal.
   
   
2. Respond immediately. Don't let your customers go too long without thinking of you. A good rule of thumb is to connect with your contacts every four to six weeks. There are a variety of methods to deliver your message: postcards, letters, e-mails, phone calls. If you have too many people in your database to keep up that schedule, you could consider a contact management system that will create the schedule, provide templates, and send communications on your behalf.
   
   
3. Stay in touch on topics with which you are involved as well as others. Stand out as the REALTOR - and you always include that in your signature line - who takes pride in her/his community, and actively participates to make it a better place for everyone.
   
   
4. Give customers something personal. Calendars, note pads, and fridge magnets can be potent and popular tools for staying "top of mind". But do they get noticed? To really get your contact's attention, give your contacts personalized information that they'll really use: how about a market report showing the effect of their recent bathroom renovation on their home price. Or maybe an update on the home prices in the neighborhood they've been thinking of for the last few years. Or, how about sending handwritten notes in the mail? You only need to write three sentences to have an impact.
   
   
5. Set yourself apart. Don't just be the neighborhood expert, be the "Dutch Colonial expert" or the "loft-conversion expert". Are there trends, communities or neighborhoods unique to your city? Highlight them in your bio, or even better, register a new domain such as www.dutchcolonialrealestate.com and create a discussion around that single topic. The great think is, you're not limited to one topic. If there are different niches that you excel in, take a little time to showcase it. It'll be a bit of work up front, but it'll pay off in the long run.
   
   
6. Follow up after the sale. Contact your customers after the job and find out what they think of your service. You can do this by phone, or even an electronic survey. Why? If your customers are happy, you can ask for referrals. If they're not, you're the first to know and have a chance to set things right going forward.
   In fact, don't think that "if I ever make a mistake, I've lost a customer". If you consistently follow with customers and show genuine interest in their feedback, they will probably be even more loyal because they know you care.
   
   
7. Make your clients' lives easier. There's no getting around it, people are busy. If you can make their home search or the listing process an area of calm in their hectic lives, you'll guarantee rave reviews, referrals and future business. How can you accomplish that? How about providing anxious sellers with automatically updated activity reports that show all of the things you are doing to promote their home? Or, how about answering your buyers' desire to understand pricing in a specific neighborhood by providing current market reports, in real time?
   
   
8. Be explicit about your value. Today's consumers have access to more information than ever. They know list prices, they can get full property details, they can find open houses, all without a REALTOR's assistance. What they don't have is the expertise to put all of those pieces together, and that's where you come in. By combining your knowledge and the current market, you can help your clients make confident buying and selling decisions.
   
   
9. Give customers more than they expect. Whether it's spending a few extra minutes helping a client research neighborhood schools, taking others to coffee a few times a year, or becoming the expert they can call for market research, go above and beyond what your customers are expecting and they'll come back to you time and again. Generate a reputation of being a "one-stop" resource, and the approach will pay off in repeat business and referrals.
   
   
10. Reward your customers. From Champagne to promotional calendars, there are all kinds of memorable ways to say "thank you". Often, it's these small touches that will make you stand out in the long run.

I loved your article. Even though I feel I do these things for my client I think for those of you out there who don't , this will also make you more popular with your client but I think I would rather work with another agent on a transaction that also works like I do. This makes us better Realtors and better people in general.

Thank you for putting this article together,

Deborah - Realtor