If HGTV taught us anything, it is that real estate can be complicated. Each aspect of real estate has its challenges, whether you’re buying, selling, renovating, managing, or building a home.
It can be a particularly difficult landscape for those who work directly with clients or provide services. They must manage expectations and act as trusted advisors. They must help clients to see what is possible and rein them in when their expectations are too high.
Good service can look different for each person, given the wide variety of roles in real estate. We believe that there are five pain points that almost all real estate professionals face. We will cover these pain points in this article and provide 13 tips for giving great customer service to your clients.
Pain Point #1: Building Trust with Clients
Real estate is a major part of a person’s daily life, whether they are buying, renting, renovating, or doing something else. It’s a safe and familiar place for those who are fortunate to have one. A place where they can create memories and shelter from the storm.
Real estate is a high-stakes business. A lack of trust from a client can make the whole process more difficult. One study found that only 11% of respondents felt they could trust a real estate agent.
Tip 1: Communicate proactive
There are many moving parts in real estate transactions. It can be hard to keep everything straight. If information is not communicated in a timely manner or falls through the cracks, it may cause a client to feel distrustful.
Commit to communicating proactively with clients in order to avoid these situations. It would be best if you informed your clients as soon as you receive any important news.
Another great way to be proactive is to schedule weekly check-ins when you are actively working on a particular project. You can be sure that they will always have the latest information and have a chance to ask questions.
Even though you might have several clients, you are likely their only contact. You’re essentially their lifeline in real estate. You can reduce their anxiety by being accessible and communicating with them.
Tip 2: Be empathetic
Empathy is an important trait for almost everyone working in support. Empathy allows you to put yourself in another person’s shoes and better understand their perspective. While no one actively avoids empathy, certain aspects of work can become normalized when you’ve worked in a particular industry for many years.
If you sell real estate, for example, buying and selling homes becomes routine. You see it every day, so you may become numb to the pain that a buyer or seller is feeling.
Be sure to address your client’s emotions as well. Ask them how they feel or if everything is okay. Listen to their answers. You’ll give them a chance to speak up and also gain a better understanding of their point of view.
Respond from their perspective after you have heard their concerns or questions. You can relate to your first experience of buying a home or doing a renovation. You can build trust by showing you know what they are going through.
The second pain point is to understand your needs accurately
If you do not fully understand someone’s requirements, it isn’t easy to provide a positive customer experience. Since your ability to serve clients depends on your understanding, you should invest some time and effort into it.
Tip 3: Focus on transparency
Real estate is fundamentally a commodity. It’s not uncommon for people to become emotionally attached to a home over time, particularly when purchasing and selling real estate. However, they may hesitate to tell the whole story to maintain leverage.
As pragmatic as it is in some respects, it makes it more difficult to provide great service. How can you meet a need that you do not know about?
Transparency with your client is one way to get around this roadblock. If you are open with your clients, they might be more open to you.
According to research, people are worried that being honest could have a negative effect. The same study found that being honest is the best thing to do and can improve long-term relationships.
A great way to promote transparency is to empower clients to search for information themselves. A blog or Knowledge Base is a good way to achieve this. You can make posts that break down agent fees or answer common financing questions.
In the past, real estate agents were the gatekeepers for listing information. This is no longer true with the advent of MLS(r), the internet, and other systems. Home buyers today are better informed and do most of their research themselves before contacting an agent.
” Websites for real estate who openly display every listing from the MLS(r), and not only to agents, know that buyers are able to find this information easily elsewhere. It’s therefore better to keep it on their website. When the buyer is ready, they will not only be better qualified but also more likely to reach out to the agent who provided value to them first.
By actively educating your clients, you show that you are not hiding anything, and you want them to be as well informed as possible.
Interview your clients
Asking questions is the best way to learn what people want. Listen carefully to your clients and build on the information they have shared.
Ask if they are first-time home buyers or if this is their third or fourth. This initial assessment can guide your subsequent questions.
You may want to inquire more about the financing arrangements for a first-time buyer. However, people who have purchased homes before are likely to know these details already.
It’s a good idea to keep track of information for future and current use since you may be working with several clients at the same time. Help Scout allows you to create a customer profile and view previous conversations, store notes, and contact information.
Create a set of refined questions. It can also be helpful to have different sets of questions for different types of buyers. Mix open-ended and closed-ended question types. Open-ended questions will help you get more information and closer answers to a particular subject.
Record conversations if possible, and only with the consent of your client. A recording is not only more detailed than taking notes, but it allows you to remain present and focused on your client during the conversation.
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Tip 5: Practice active listening
Understanding and hearing are two different things. We don’t necessarily understand what the speaker wants to say just because we heard the message. We may be distracted or thinking of a particular point that we wish to make.
Active listening is an act of presence. You are focused on what the speaker is saying. It’s much easier to say than do.
Start by creating a conducive environment for active listening. Put your phone on silent and out of sight. Switch off the computer monitor or move away if you are in front of it. This will prevent you from being tempted to look at your email or calendar when someone is speaking.
You may miss important information if you don’t give your full attention. This will make you less prepared to satisfy your clients’ needs. Active listening is a skill that takes time to master, so don’t get too frustrated if you aren’t perfect the first time.
Pain Point #3: Accommodating client schedules
Real estate transactions can be high-stakes and require a lot of time and consideration. Even if someone can steal an hour from work, it won’t be enough time to look at a property and discuss renovation plans.
You will likely need to meet the client outside of the usual Monday to Friday 9-5 time frame. It takes some finesse to make this work while still being accountable to your staff and avoiding burnout.
Consider using an autoresponder.
People like quick responses. Shows that over one-third of customers expect to receive a reply within an hour. If they are forced to wait more than six hours, many will take their business somewhere else.
It can seem impossible to reply to everyone on time, as people contact you at all hours of the day. Although every client is different, the initial questions that they ask are often similar.
You could use an automatic responder to contact someone quickly and efficiently. With a tool like Help Scout, you can create automated responses that are based on subject lines or create conditions based on the time of the day the message was received or the length of time the message sat unanswered.
Although an autoresponder can’t handle complex issues, it is useful for sending out knowledge base articles related to the problem or to let clients know when staff are available to answer a question.
