How to maintain Healthy Relationships with Past Clients
The people you have dealt with in the past, are your link to future clients.
It is always important to find ways to maintain a healthy relationship with past clients. In fact, according to the National Association of Realtors (NAR), in 2015, 88 percent of buyers said that not only would they use their agent again, but that they would also refer them to others. To confirm the importance of keeping in touch with past clients, NAR also found that 41 percent of buyers were referred to their agents and seven in 10 buyers only interviewed one agent before hiring them. Maintaining healthy relationships with your clients is the best way to ensure you are getting referred often and the one agent referrals choose to interview.
Mark Down Special Dates
The first step to maintaining healthy relationships is to try to mark two important dates in your calendar for each and every client:
Their birthday
The date they received the keys to their home and/or sold their home
Keeping track of these dates provides you with a legitimate and personal reason to contact them. You can prepare a hand written note or send them an email to send your best wishes as a little reminder they are important to you.
You can also take note of special dates such as the birth of a child or wedding that might have occurred during your work together.
Be Present, but not Annoying
You want to remain present in their lives without becoming annoying. The best way to do this is use legitimate reasons to keep in touch. Your calendar will be a big help in this area, however you can also choose a schedule to share information with them on a regular basis.
A monthly newsletter or email message works well as long as you are sharing news they can use or tips and information helpful to homeowners. Announcing you just sold a home in the area is a little boring, but sharing information such as timely maintenance tips for their home, recommended updates to improve the value of their home, fun holiday tips and recipes, etc. can be useful or provide a source of entertainment that will be welcome.
Make sure your newsletter includes a personal note so they will not regard it as spam!
Take Note of their Needs
Another important way of maintaining a strong relationship is to listen. You can pick up on some interesting tidbits that will offer you opportunities to assist them beyond the basic sale or buying of a home. They might mention wanting to get their child involved in sports and you have the inside scoop on important dates to get their kids signed up with the local teams. They might state they don’t like the kitchen counters in the home they bought so you could provide them with information on a sale you might hear about for a local, reputable home renovation or counter shop. They might be foodies or wine lovers so you could drop off a note or send them an email about a new restaurant they might enjoy. These personal touches show you care enough about them to offer your assistance as a local who knows what is happening in the community.
Remind them of your Expertise
Consider creating your own newsletter to share important news about the area. It can include home values, mortgage rates, information about plans for an exciting new mall or the arrival of a prominent retailer. These tid bits keep you top of mind and also help you to be someone they trust as an expert in local real estate so they think of you when they decide to sell.
One last important statistic to keep in mind is that over the past three years every $1 invested in email marketing to clients, returns an average of $30 according to realtytimes.com. That is a pretty good ROI.
Realtour offers you the tools you need to remain in touch with your clients. From monthly ready to send print or email newsletters, to customized marketing materials, you will find an affordable option to keep you top of mind.
