How to Generate Repeat Business in Real Estate
As a real estate agent, your business is about getting people into their ideal houses but it is also about customer service and negotiation. To be successful in real estate, you have to establish a great reputation and build a recognizable brand. A large part of your business success hinges on the ability to encourage your clients to return to you for any future buying or selling needs.
Keep in touch after the sale through email.
Chances are that your past clients will be looking to make another home purchase in the future. Because of this, it’s important to keep in touch after the sale is final. You want to make sure that you’re the real estate agent at the top of their list when they are looking to buy or sell again.
A great way to keep this relationship current is through email. Emails are an easy way to connect and will not take much of your time. There are lots of excellent email tools available to you which make it easy to create the messages you want to send to our past customers in advance and schedule their delivery.
It’s important to tailor your emails to your clients. You don’t want to send the exact same thing to each of your clients as each client has different needs and preferences. Most email tools can help you create dynamic email content based on the information in your client list.
Keep client preferences in mind when developing content marketing.
When crafting your emails, it’s important to tailor them as mentioned in the previous point. Your clients will have a wide range of preferences, a good practice is to segment the clients by their preferences in order to build content specific to each group. Segments may include first time home buyers, investment property buyers, retirees, etc.
If a family just bought a home from you, you don’t want to send them information on nearby listings. They won’t be looking to buy or sell right away and this information won’t be relevant to them. They may start ignoring your emails, which will make it more difficult to gain repeat business from them in the future. Instead, send them information about local schools and parks. They may also be interested in tips on gardening and how to winterize their home.
Reach out for referrals.
Asking a client for their feedback on your performance can really enhance your relationship as it tells them you care what they think. Most real estate professionals live by the motto “Your referral is the biggest compliment I could receive” and asking them if they would and can recommend you to a family member, friend or colleague is a great way to build trust with your clients.
Reaching out to your client for a referral also gives you the opportunity to touch base with them on their current situation. You can have a pleasant exchange and may learn that they will soon be looking to sell or buy a home. By maintaining this personal relationship, it will help you generate repeat business.
Connect with current and former clients through social media.
Social media is a great way for you to stay in touch with current and former clients. It’s important to interact with people on a regular basis on each of the major platforms (Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram). By staying connected, you may also learn of new business opportunities with your clients as well as their connections. You could also consider building a business page and invite your clients to Like your information as well as provide comments.
No matter what you do on social media, important for you to make sure your responses are professional and fast.
If anyone makes a comment or interacts with you or your company, you should really respond within 24 hours. People need to know that you care about interacting with them, so it’s important to acknowledge as well as respond.
Partner offers to keep you top of mind.
While your clients may only need your services once or twice every couple years, home maintenance is a huge priority and a major endeavor for most home owners. As a real estate agent, you are very well positioned to assist your clients with this aspect of their lives, and as an added bonus, there may be some incremental income in it for you as well. Plenty of companies have partner and/or affiliate programs and home buyers are often a key target. Insurance and warranty companies, home services companies, telecommunications companies, etc.
Here are some examples of the types of programs you should be looking into:
https://www.hellosuper.com/realtor
https://business.comcast.com/partner/authorized-connector-program
Thank you for reading our blog! If you like this content, check out our guide for the Top 10 website features for selling real estate.