“We are ultimately in a relationship business, and the better the relationships we create, the more business we will get down the line through referrals and reviews.”
– Olaf Wrzesinski, Chicago Real Estate Agent
At its core, real estate centers around the relationships an agent builds with their clients. In other words, their ability to establish and maintain human connections, and the stress on humanity in this process, no matter which branch of the industry an agent works in, cannot be overstated. So, while we offer practical advice for providing exceptional service in the real estate industry in the paragraphs that follow, that human element always belongs in the number one spot on any list of suggestions.
However, to provide the best real estate customer service, an agent first needs clients to serve. Thus, great customer service starts with finding qualified potential clients and responding to them as quickly as possible when they reach out. From this initial stage of the client journey all the way to maintaining relationships well after closing a deal, successful real estate agents envision client relationships as a long-term commitment. After all, buying or leasing a home takes much longer than checking out at Target’s cash register, and a repeat client, or someone willing to recommend their agent to a friend can make all the difference when building your personal business.
Related: How Much Do Apartment Locators Make per Lease?
Establish the Right Real Estate Customer Service Mindset & Attitude
When asked for their best customer service strategies, our agents responded with recommendations about showing up with the right attitude in their interactions with clients. They advise behaviors that come from within and emanate outwards, in particular patience and genuine care for the person, the human, preparing to make a major and expensive life decision.
When asked, Atlanta real estate agent Jamara Johnson responded without hesitation, saying that “The #1 thing for me is having patience. This can be a lengthy process. My priority is to make clients feel comfortable and not rushed. They are depending on me to help with making a huge decision in their life.” Johnson reinforces that patient mindset with good listening skills: “Pay attention to your clients needs so that you can nail down exactly what they are looking for and not waste their time. And, be consistent because it lets your client know they are important to you, you care, and you’re serious about this business.”
In support of Johnson’s advice, Olaf Wrzesinski, an agent in Chicago, replies, “Put your clients’ interests ahead of yours. Like Jamara said, patience. Don’t rush someone to close on a deal if you know there is a better one out there for them.” He also explains why envisioning client relationships in the long term matters so much, pointing out how “3 deals closed at a later date from referrals you received after helping one happy client eager to spread the word about your dedication is a better scenario than a single deal from a person that ended up realizing they can’t trust you because you just wanted money faster.” So, always consider the bigger picture, and always work from a client-first mindset.
Keep in mind, though, that a client-first mentality only truly works for agents who actually mean it. The relationships you build as an agent need to be real and heartfelt, or the client will sense it. Thus, the real estate agents who thrive in this business tend to enter the profession because they genuinely want to help others.
How to Provide Excellent Customer Service in Real Estate: Practical Matters
Independent Lead Generation
Some brokerages, AptAmigo included, will offer in-house leads (i.e.– potential clients) that come from the company’s marketing assets, such as social media accounts, website pages, online forms, blogs, and any other publications they might distribute. If so, definitely take advantage of those leads, but know that they alone will not be enough to sustain your business. With or without that company support, you will need to generate leads on your own by marketing on multiple digital platforms, networking in real life, and anywhere else you can find a place to connect with your target audience.
In fact, real estate jobs require a great deal of marketing effort, and high quality content coupled with consistent and sustained output will not only generate leads, but will also shape these potential clients’ first impression of you as an agent. So, you will need to convince your audience that you deserve their business and, especially, that they can trust you to provide excellent real estate customer service.
To learn more about how to generate leads independently and create good marketing materials, you can start with these resources:
How to Generate Leads in Real Estate
How to Market Yourself as an Apartment Locator
Social Media Marketing for Real Estate: Basic Principles
Best Social Media Tools for Real Estate Marketing
Best Tech Tools for Real Estate Marketing
How to Write a Good Rental Listing
Speed to Lead
“Speed to lead,” the oft repeated pithy motto of Danny Wolfson, AptAmigo’s CRO, means exactly what it sounds like. Whenever a potential client fills out a form, sends an email, calls, texts, or reaches out in any way, respond as quickly as possible to demonstrate your commitment and reliability.
Responding quickly shows clients that you want the job, that you will work hard for them, and that you know how to provide the best service. In addition to demonstrating your dedication, your fast reply will build some initial trust. Besides, the longer you wait, the more likely they will choose to work with someone else.
However, don’t fall into the trap of feeling like you need to stay awake all night in case someone reaches out at 2 am. As a general rule of thumb, aim to respond within the first 24 hours, but if a lead hits your inbox at 10 am and you see it pop up, answer it immediately and really impress them with your promptness.
First Impressions Matter
Once you get a lead on the phone, you need to convince them to say yes to your help, and their first impression of you will determine how much they trust you. Show your professionalism and expertise right off the bat, ask the right questions, listen carefully to what they say, and assure them that you will meet as many of their demands as you possibly can. Stay positive and encouraging, and, most importantly, make the call about them, not you. You can reference your qualifications and previous experience when relevant, but explain it succinctly and bring the focus back to the client. This conversation should focus on their journey and why you are the right person to support them.
Self-Discipline & Self-Determination
As the leads roll in, only some of them will end up working with you. People will say no thanks for any number of reasons; some will even go with another agent. However, you will also win clients. Self-discipline, determination, and keeping a positive outlook will get you there. Prepare for the daily challenges because pushing through them day in and day out leads to overall success.
Do whatever it takes to maintain a high level of discipline – set schedules, close your social media apps when attending to clients, follow through with your to-do list, and develop any other routines and habits that keep you focused. Hard work pays off in this role, but it can take time to see those returns manifest.
Flexibility & Adaptability
No single home search plays out in exactly the same way, and unpredictability, perhaps, remains the most consistent thread that runs through most client journeys. In a transaction process that requires the cooperation of multiple parties, a lot can happen that will threaten to alter the course of the search at best, or derail a deal altogether at worst. For example, clients may change their minds about what features they want in a home, how much space they need, or how much money their budget can handle. Leasing managers can decline applications for potential renters, sellers can pull out of a home purchase midway through a sale. Negotiations can fall apart.
Even smaller challenges, a parade preventing you from arriving at a showing on time or a client canceling their tour at the last minute, can create a rockier path forward. Expect each client journey to go in new directions as it progresses, and prepare to cope with these changes as they arise. Flexibility and adaptability enables agents to manage the unpredictability inherent in real estate transactions.
A Good CRM
If your brokerage doesn’t provide access to a good Customer Relationship Management (CRM) program, invest in one. CRM software allows you to organize, stay on top of tasks, and manage your clients as they proceed through each stage of the sales pipeline. A quality CRM will help you to automate workflows and emails, track your progress with each client, and keep track of transactions and analytics. It will even signal when the time approaches to follow up with previous clients. These days, you can find many CRMs tailored or tailorable to the real estate sales pipeline, such as the CRM that AptAmigo built for its own employees’ specific needs. Basically, the better your CRM, the better your customer service.
Follow Up
Maintaining good communication throughout the client journey will show clients that you care and leave a lasting impression. So, always follow up with potential, current, and former clients before, during, and after the sales pipeline.
However, this task requires more than simple quantity. The quality and timing of your communications can make or break a deal. Take care to craft well-written and thoughtful correspondences, timed to match their current stage of the home search process. The same applies for verbal communication. Plan your phone scripts or conversation touchpoints ahead of time to ensure that you collect all of the information you need to do your best work and build your client’s confidence in your abilities.
For example, after closing a deal, you might send your client information about their new neighborhood or recommendations for moving companies (bonus points if you can also supply discount codes or coupons). If a client takes a longer than average time to get back to you about the apartments or homes you showed them, check in and ask if they have any questions or concerns. Over time, you will learn the amount and types of communication outlets that work best for you and fine-tune those interactions based on experience.
Independence: Take Control of Your Own Success
Not everyone works well under conditions that require them to take charge of their day-to-day responsibilities, setting out what they need to do to get from point A to point B with each client and then following through. Like any profession, the real estate industry works to some people’s strengths better than others. In this case, if you love being your own boss and know how to manage your time (and your client’s) wisely, that level of freedom and organization will go a long way in helping you build your real estate business, so long as you muster the healthy dose of self-discipline and self-determination mentioned above.
However, the ability to work independently, but also to accept mentorship, learning opportunities, and good advice coalesce into the ideal recipe for success. In other words, independence doesn’t mean that you go it alone; it just means that you exert a great deal of control over how you operate in your role. Without the drive to work independently and to take initiative as you guide your clients through the real estate process, you won’t deliver on your promises of timely and high quality customer service.
Coaching, Mentorship, & Team Support
Although it may seem counterintuitive on the surface, independence and a team mentality go together because a professional community will provide support and, in doing so, help you to maintain your independence. Nobody knows it all, especially in the early years of their career, and your mentors, coaches, and colleagues can encourage you, teach you new skills, offer advice based on their experience, and lift you up through rougher patches.
Thus, achieving success and building long-term independence depends on you surrounding yourself with the right people. Some brokerages will operate with a cutthroat, survival-of-the-fittest approach, but that benefits nobody, least of all clients, who will often sense, on some level, a tense company culture through their interactions with you. After all, a brokerage is only as good as its team. (Remember that adage your high school coach used to repeat incessantly: “There’s no ‘I’ in team.”) However, your customer service practices will improve immensely from the feedback you receive from peers and mentors who care about you. Plus, in the process of mentoring and advising you well, they give you a model for how to become a good mentor and colleague yourself so that you can pass the kindness forward.
To provide the best customer service, you need the best training and support to carry you through each day, and that means a great team. AptAmigo, for instance, emphasizes a team environment over a cutthroat one because everyone’s success grows with the kind of reinforcement that comes with teamwork. If that sounds like an ideal work environment to you, check out our collection of career articles to learn more about apartment locating at our company and real estate careers more generally.
Learn more about How to Find a Great Real Estate Mentor.
Take a Break: Don’t Burn Yourself Out
Real estate careers are demanding, and many agents feel the need to remain “always on” so that they can answer their clients’ every need immediately. However, nobody can survive, let alone succeed, without taking breaks to recharge. A good night’s rest, short breaks throughout the day, and occasional holidays and vacations will go a long way in sustaining you throughout your career. You want to build a long-term, maybe even lifelong, career, but that won’t happen if you burn yourself out. The physical and mental consequences of overwork are well documented, so don’t fall into that trap. Your ability to provide the best real estate customer service will suffer for it because you are no good to your clients when tired, frustrated, and fatigued. Find the right work-life balance for you, and adjust it as your life circumstances evolve over time.
The Takeaway
Your ability to provide the best real estate customer service depends on a whole slew of behaviors, habits, and attitudes, some more obvious than others. How you operate behind the scenes matters at least as much as your face-to-face interactions with clients, so approach your work holistically, tending to every step of the client journey with care. And, to bring this point full circle, use every stage of that journey to build and maintain relationships because the human element sits at the heart of this profession.
Looking for a Brokerage?
If you want to work at a brokerage that gives you all of the resources you’ll need to provide top-notch real estate customer service, from a custom-made CRM, to mentors with loads of experience, consider AptAmigo. We always look for agents prepared to build great relationships with their clients and colleagues. Explore our job board, and apply today!
Read Next: Why Experienced Apartment Locators Choose AptAmigo
AptAmigo is proud to be an equal opportunity workplace and does not discriminate based on race, religious creed, color, national origin, ancestry, genetic information, physical or mental disability, medical condition, marital status, gender, age, sexual orientation, gender identity, veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by applicable law, in connection with any aspect of employment at AptAmigo.
