Lately I’ve wondered if some of you have noticed the same thing I have. I’m talking about the how the concept of service has been elevated to somewhat of a deified state. Giving superior service is always part of an excellent business plan, but it seems to me it’s reached critical mass as it relates to the profitable use of our time.
For the record, one of the most repeated observations we hear from prospects and new clients is how much time we spend with them answering questions, both asked and unasked. Or for how quickly they receive responses to emails or voice mails. How we take care of Murphy when he shows up. Though we do serve some damn fine coffee in our office, our clients understand where our real value resides. We get them from Point A to Point B — a lot easier said than done. They don’t waste our time, and we freely give them ours. They know we’re available to them without explanation, and it’s much appreciated. When there are problems, we don’t look for who to blame, we solve it. Then we locate the culprit. 🙂
Last week I wrote a quick post about The Eight Hour Day which generated comments taking the topic on a side trip — not an uncommon occurrence here. It was a worthy detour, as some Bloodhound contributors chimed in with their thoughts. The spinoff topic was time spent servicing ongoing clients. Tom Vanderwell asked this question — How do you balance the “maintenance” of clients with the need for marketing time?
Sean Purcell jumped in with this answer.
You don’t.
I know that sounds flippant, but the two do not balance. One is an absolute necessity, like breathing, and the other is something you do as part of your job — for now. They truly are that far apart in importance.
Marketing is the life blood of your business… (emphasis mine)
I don’t know how to say that any better. Truth is what it is.
But my gripe with all the talk about giving ‘world class’ service, or, ‘we spoil our clients’, is that in my opinion it puts the emphasis on the wrong syll-A-ble. If I hear the hackneyed cliché, “We’re in the service business after all” one more time I’m gonna lose my lunch. How ’bout this instead?
Do your job, don’t say the ‘F’ word in the process, and produce your client’s desired results in a timely, professional manner. Did I mention the dreaded ‘R’ word? Are agents quaking in their boots at the mere thought their value might be measured by the results they produce and not the service they provide? Oh, the humanity.
Sellers wanna sell, buyers wanna buy, and if you can get it done without insulting their mamas, 95% of them are gonna be happy as bugs in rugs. Answer their questions in rich detail. Answer the questions they don’t know to ask. Explain the process thoroughly. Let them know what to expect as far as your time. Here’s another nugget from Sean, an example of what he might say to a new client.
In the interest of full disclosure, I must tell you there are agents out there who have lots more free time, if you know what I mean. If you’re not as interested in a dedicated professional as you are someone who can hop seven days a week to look at homes you’ve found on the internet, I’ll give you some good names.
Let’s take this out of real estate and use your doctor as an example. His staff is pleasant as you call and set an appointment. His waiting room is comfortable. He meets with you in a private room, doing his best to diagnose your problem, and begin a proper course of action. He does his job, which is taking you from feeling bad to feeling better — if he can. If not, he does his best to ensure you’re put in the hands of someone better equipped to deal with your malady.
Where’s all the extra service? What, no choice of coffees from around the world? No freshly baked cookies? I demand better service!! That doesn’t cross your mind, as you came in on Monday with a bacterial infection, and you’re walkin’ on the beach Saturday afternoon enjoying the sunset, feelin’ fine as wine.
Getting R-E-S-U-L-T-S is the name of the game people. Service is doing our best to make the process less stressful than lancing a boil. I’m being a bit sardonic here, but you get the point, right? Giving great service with mediocre or no results doesn’t cut it. Giving service to the point it negatively impacts your bank account is just plain stoopid.
Of course, and I say this mostly seriously, there are those for whom receiving praise for their wonderful service is the equivalent of a commission check. That’s a good thing, since in the long run there are checks they’ll never earn due to the time wasted giving superfluous service. There’s nothing wrong with that if it’s what floats your boat. But if dead presidents under your control are a more attractive option…
There’s a segment of real estate professionals out there who consistently pound home how great their service is, as if service equals excellent results. How much time is wasted doing unnecessary things in the name of service, when the front end of your pipeline is being neglected? Results suffer when the go-to guy, um, that’d be you, begins spending inordinate amounts of time ensuring their clients are treated as if they’re at a day spa.
There’s a difference between doing your job, and turning that job into one more suited to a hotel concierge. Your job, boiled down to its essence, is to produce the results for which your clients have promised to pay handsomely. If your operation isn’t built upon your consistent ability to produce timely professional results, you’ll find a large portion of your rewards have little to do with dead presidents.
There — I feel much mo betta.
James Boyer says:
I have known Realtors like this and they tend to be an unhappy lot.
April 8, 2009 — 5:38 pm
Scott Grace says:
The has to be a balance between marketing time and everything else. I find that team situations work very well in this regard because one team member can do more of the marketing and others can do the followups and appointment setting. At least that is my opinion on how more time can be spent on the vital marketing. Although I do get sick of being the one that is marketing all the time.
April 8, 2009 — 6:43 pm
Jeff Brown says:
James — Now that you mention it.
April 8, 2009 — 7:08 pm
Jeff Brown says:
Scott — You’re right, of course. But until agents without teams can afford to hire assistants, or join/create teams, the value judgment between the two must be made.
That said, even with full time assistants doing nothing but providing service. it’s my contention much of that ‘service’ takes up time better spent doing other tasks. There’s a point at which you’re cleaning a sparkling window.
April 8, 2009 — 7:14 pm
David Stejkowski says:
Jeff:
In your end of the game I would agree with what you have to say. That said, I have worked with some “results” oriented folks who would have been better off just staying out the way once the deal was negotiated. Why? All they did was subtract value by delaying deals and putting monkey wrenches into things. It’s a matter of knowing your function.
In my world, however, you can’t just deliver results. You also have to deliver on the service side in my opinion. If I were a client and contacted a lawyer on a deal and did not hear from that person within 24 hours (or less if warranted under the circumstances), wanna guess what I’d be doing 999 times out of 1000? Hiring another lawyer! Of course, that is part of what separates me from a crowd, and I am able to do it by being selective in working with clients and not taking too much on.
April 8, 2009 — 9:16 pm
Richard Stabile says:
Getting results has much to do with assessing the project at hand before you commit to the task. If you take on a sale of a property, over priced by 30%, you are setting yourself up for failure. The seller will ultimately blame the agent for lack of results and not the price. The seller will probably lower the price latter with another broker, and ultimately sell the property. The broker that ultimately sells it gets the accolades and the first gets trashed. Results can often be measured against the probabilities of the relative tasks assessment realities. Simple put never promise what you don’t have any hope of delivering.
April 8, 2009 — 10:23 pm
Mark Green says:
Very compelling article Jeff, but I respectfully disagree with a couple of your takes:
1) Although the doctor analogy makes a lot of sense on the surface, the general public doesn’t perceive real estate agents and doctors in the same way – never will.
2) I’ve always believed that people don’t do business with whom they trust, or even whom is most competent… those are “givens”. Ultimately, people do business with whom they like. And when a five figure commission is on the line, my sense is that most consumers are looking for a lot of hand-holding.
3) I’d argue that I’ve seen an extremely high correlation between customer service level and refer-ability after the transaction has closed.
Please know that I’m speaking in generalities here, and there’s a market for every model and every personality type. Obviously, your model is working for you and that’s fantastic.
April 9, 2009 — 6:21 am
Jeff Brown says:
Hey David — You and I agree on pretty much everything you’ve noted. Promptly returning calls/emails is nothing if not professionalism in action. My experience with you tells me we pretty much interact with our clients in much the same way, using similar approaches.
It’s the obsequious, pandering service to which I’m referring. It reminds me of a needy high school girl afraid of not having a date for the prom.
April 9, 2009 — 9:21 am
Jeff Brown says:
Richard — I assume agents are doing their job correctly, though I realize that’s a huge benefit of the doubt.
But then, behaving in the way you’ve so correctly pointed out would obviate almost any level of service, wouldn’t it? Nothing replaces timely results.
April 9, 2009 — 9:25 am
Ashlee says:
Great article.
April 9, 2009 — 12:55 pm
Jeff Brown says:
Mark — Thanks for contributing. Here are my thoughts on your points.
1. I wasn’t comparing doctors to real estate agents directly. I was comparing patients and clients. They both come in wanting the status quo to change. They wanted a result. That’s all I was trying to illustrate. In that light, the seller needing to move to another state wants his house sold for the highest price possible by around 4:30 yesterday afternoon. The patient wants the searing pain in their throat to go away every time they swallow.
2. I think your observation saying folks do business with people they like isn’t as true as it once was. The days of listing a property, slammin’ a sign up and gettin’ it on the MLS are over. The public has now learned the hard way, that knowledge, experience, expertise, and competence trumps the fact that ‘Charlie’s a member of my gym, and he’s a good guy’. They learned the hard life lesson that those factors are anything but a ‘given’ at this point. I know in my side of the biz, investments, that’s been the reality for quite some time now. In fact, I think it’s almost the rule these days. Folks come to me because I’ve demonstrated to their satisfaction I know more than their Optimist buddy.
3. I couldn’t agree with this point more. But I really think we’re talking in terms of degree here. You can give superb service without it costing you future business you would’ve done but for the lack of marketing/prospecting. I don’t care how many referrals we may receive, they don’t replace new business generated directly from other sources. We don’t want the income derived from a referral to become a de facto cost of doing business due to time wasted providing ‘service’.
Am I making sense? Thanks again.
April 9, 2009 — 1:17 pm
jim canion says:
Jeff:
Excellent post. To me this is one of the most important dilemas any small businessman faces and as you see there
are differences of opinion of which is more important. The future looks bright for both marketing and client service since technology is finally catching up to its
original promise and allowing a regular person to become
a marketing machine and a provider of quality service.
Yes, I know it takes hard work,dedication and some savvy
but there are many with these traits waiting for the chance to apply what they have and achieve heoric results.
Jim Canion
April 11, 2009 — 7:08 am
John Michailidis says:
I think that you’re spot on on both counts:
* Marketing is the life-blood of any real estate business.
* In the end it’s all about results.
I’ve just jumped back into the real estate investing game after deciding that trying to turn-around the “pity-party” that was the 80 agent real estate office I took over the management of back in August ’08 just wasn’t worth the energy and stress, especially since ownership was my primary stumbling-block.
Real estate is a real simple game:
* Know what it is that you need to do.
* Tell “lotsa” people what is is that you do.
* Then do what you say you are going to do.
* Repeat . . .
To me, customer service isn’t a special thing we “do.” It’s something we “are.” Either you “are” a professional, or you are not. If you don’t have time to be a professional, then hire an assistant(s). If you can’t afford an assistant, then you must not be selling anything, which means whatever it is that you are doing that is keeping you so busy is completely wrong and you must STOP doing it.
The formula is quite simple:
* Lead generate for a minimum of three hours a day — first thing in the morning (9-noon is perfect).
* Do everything else for the rest of the day.
That said, I’m now a full-time short-sale investor and I’m loving it!
April 11, 2009 — 10:48 pm
Jeff Brown says:
John — Simple truths put forth through the mind of experience. Thanks
April 12, 2009 — 10:50 am