Sometimes I get philosophical about the idea of service and what does it really mean. Is doing our job well the same thing as serving our clients well? I think that most of the time the answer is yes. Clients hire us to sell their homes, doing that quickly and for the highest possible price is the same thing as good service.
The occasional disconnect is the difference between filling their transactional need, which earns us a paycheck, and filling their emotional need, which earns us an advocate for life. So, what does this look like?
1) Strong communication. Even if you are doing things beyond what any other agent has ever done for their clients, if they aren’t aware of it they can’t appreciate it! Do something and tell them you did it. Always keep them informed of what is going on. This is the number one complaint that people tell the National Association of Realtors when they do surveys – they want to be communicated with more.
2) Listen. There are some things that always make up good service, but there are many pieces that you just need to ask the client what good service looks like to them. Do they like to talk on the phone, get emails, or text? It doesn’t matter your communication preference, listen to theirs. Do they want to maximize sales price with staging or would they rather take a bit less and sell it as-is? What’s most important to them? What are their expectations of the experience? And then ask another question, and take notes. Then ask another, and then another. Taking notes let’s them know that you heard them and are paying attention.
3) Be the expert. When people start getting frustrated that their home hasn’t sold yet, they start giving you marketing ideas. However, they don’t actually want to be the one with the ideas, they want you to do that. Tell them your marketing plan, why it works, and then make sure they know if it’s not working it’s because of pricing.
These are big areas that are easy to talk about but take diligence to actually do consistently. But it is worth doing!