Estate Agents – Advising on Communication Skills.
November 25, 2015
The formal communication that you have with your customers is a vital part of what you do. As an estate agent you may not think that much of your communication with clients is either form do or written but the parts that are firm an important part of your relationship. The amount of time that you as an estate agent spends on the phone or the internet starts to get you thinking that your communication isn’t often that formal. But the are important facets of the conversation that are just that. The type of things that are included here are-
- The contract
- Confirming an offer in writing
- Acceptance of offer letters
- Termination of contract
- Instructions to solicitors
- Any other regular formal communication you may have
There are two important aspects of this communication – the fact that it needs to be clear in it’s message and the fact that it needs to build or cement the relationship. And it’s really important to remember both of these factors with every piece of communication.
Clear in it’s message
This should be obvious but I’m making a case here for shortened forms and messages. The amount of estate agency contracts that run into two or three pages and cover absolutely every eventuality seem to have grown over the years. I can’t see that any customer reads down to point 17, clause 3, paragraph 8, line 2. I think that the practice of these super-long contracts has come about as a result of estate agents trying to protect their business from each other. When I’m active in the estate agency social networking websites a common theme is not losing vendors to other agents. If every estate agent spent as much time and energy in keeping their existing vendors happy as they did in fighting off other estate agents then there would be no issue here. Every vendor would be happy and every estate agent will get their full contract length without challenge.
Build or cement the relationship
There’s a great benefit in using every piece of communication you have as a marketing tool. Not over-the-top in-your-face shameless pushes for more business but good quality reminders of what you do.
By asking someone to sign up for home selling tips, to join your mailing list for the chance to win a prize or to refer friends for a reward then you are taking your marketing towards the permission level.
To this end I’m putting together a series of contracts, standard letters and documents for estate agents. They can be bought individually or as a whole package directly from me at this blog in early 2016.
Contact me now to get an insight into what will be available and be one of the first know when the documents are available.
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