We’ve all been there: On a Sunday afternoon a couple drives past a home for sale and gets so excited that they call their agent because they want to look at the home right then. A Loan Officer is at his/her child’s baseball game and they get a call from an agent looking for a Prequal because they are ready to write an offer now.
We are part of an industry whose clientele expects immediate response for their spontaneous decisions. Everything appears urgent.
Oftentimes, it truly is, when one buyer is seeking to outbid another, and an agent is in the mix of the negotiations.
However, there has to be a better way to live out this profession well. We are not “on-call” like doctors are – it is not a matter of life or death.
Because of that, we should strongly consider which systems we can put in place to communicate our involvement and leadership, and yet not have to leave a special family event at a moment’s notice.
If you continue doing business this way, it can be demotivating and burn you out.
Here are a few ways to set up an experience and way to connect with clients that are urgent, emotional and demanding:
- Set up a virtual answering service. It’s cheap and provides a professional, courteous first touchpoint for a customer. Business professionals such as lawyers and doctors use this tried and true buffer to manage the customer experience and their own time and attention.
- Build a team that works shifts. You can rotate who is responsible for different hours of the week and weekends.
- Redirect numbers for a cloud phone tree. You can control a digital PBX system that redirects your main number and various extensions. You can even automate the rules based on the hours.
- Build an online chat presence. When it is live, people can chat with web visitors from their iPhones and iPads while working remote. Furthermore, if you are not online, the online chat can auto-capture inquiries.
The important thing is to think about how your customer experience process works. Map it out and think about how the customer feels emotionally. This will allow you to think deeply about how to create continuity for people that feel the need for urgency. You can meet this expectation with well-thought out steps.
If you need some help, feel free to contact me.
How do you handle inconvenient demands on your time?
