ScreenDreamer LLC Success Notes

Good Customer Service Never Goes Out of Style

2007-10-22T14:45:42-04:00

Online All the Time

In a business like real estate, you are well aware by now that your customers will attempt to contact you at all kinds of crazy hours. Make yourself readily available by using your website to communicate with clients and prospects 24/7.

Have a form on your website where site visitors can ask questions. Make sure you set up an auto responder that will tell the person who filled out the form when you will be getting back to them.

You should also post a question and answer page with typical questions about searching for homes on line, your neighborhoods and more.

You may also want to put an alternate phone number where prospects can reach you when you're out of the office.

Online All the Time

Have a form on your website where site visitors can ask questions. Make sure you set up an auto responder that will tell the person who filled out the form when you will be getting back to them.

You should also post a question and answer page with typical questions about searching for homes on line, your neighborhoods and more.

You may also want to put an alternate phone number where prospects can reach you when you’re out of the office.

Contact Customers During the Good Times

If your only contact with consumers is them constantly calling you to complain or calling you with questions, you will start to develop a bad reputation. Take the time to call clients and prospects while things are going well. Ask them how they are doing and if they could use help with anything. A little good conversation can go a long way.

Extra Credit

Go above and beyond what your clients expect. It may technically only be your job to help them buy or sell a home, but a good real estate agent can do much more. Bring your clients a gift at the closing. Send them a Christmas card during the first Christmas in their new home. Ask them if they need help finding a moving or storage company. During the showing period, give them some curb appeal tips. Going the extra mile can turn you from just a real estate agent into the agent of choice for that client and their families and friends.

Get Feedback

No matter what other customer service practices you do, the most important thing is to get feedback. After the closing of each transaction, send out a customer feedback survey.

The bottom line is, every customer is different. The surveys will provide you with a good picture of what a majority of customers like and dislike. Continue with the practices that you score well on and see where you can improve in the areas where you received low scores.

If your customer service is up to par, prospects and clients will recommend you to others. Buying a home is probably the largest purchase most people will make in their lifetime. Word of mouth marketing from your clients is some of the best advertising that you can get.

Success Notes Bonus Tip:

A little thank you goes a long way. No matter how you are communicating with a prospect: phone, email website etc. Make sure to always say thank you. It’s a small way to make people feel largely appreciated.

In the next Success Notes:

Are you scaring your prospects away? Don’t let your efforts turn into nightmare on marketing street or a real estate marketing massacre. In honor of Halloween, we’ll discuss marketing practices you shouldn’t use.

Turn on the Green Light: Increase the Flow of Traffic to Your Site

2007-10-15T10:21:32-04:00

Turn on the Green Light: Increase the Flow of Traffic to Your Site

Having a great website is one of the most important steps to increasing your business. However, what is the point of having a great site if prospects can’t find it?

How many visitors are you getting on your site?

After you create your website, you need to make sure that you optimize it so that it’s search engine friendly. You should also make sure to spend time promoting the site and getting your web address out there.

Is your website putting you on the fast lane to success? Or is your traffic slow because no one can find you?

Here are five tips for getting more visitors to your website.

Banner Ads

Banner ads are a cost effective form of web advertising that can drive more traffic to your website. A typical banner ad is a graphic, usually resembling your branding, that can be placed on some other website that you think your target prospects frequent. When they click on the banner, they will be taken directly to your site. Many banner ad programs will allow you to pay per impression, meaning that you get to set your own budget based on the number of visitors you’re are looking to receive.

SEO

SEO or search engine optimization is one of the best ways to increase your place in search results. When consumers search for real estate agents on a search engine such as Google, they are more likely to contact those companies who have websites that pop up on the first page of search results. If your site is listed on page two or an even higher number, you could be losing visitors.

SEO optimization includes many components such as keywords, content, coding, site layout and much more.

Campaigns / Newsletters

Sending out email marketing campaigns or a company newsletter is a great way to keep the attention of prospects and customers. When you are doing an email campaign, ALWAYS make sure to set up landing pages that will drive traffic back to your site. The best approach to doing this is to begin writing an article or promoting an offer in your campaign, but make readers click a link to learn more. Once you have them on your site to see that article, there is always the chance they will look at listings and take other actions.

Promotion Through Other Campaigns

Are you currently using other mediums besides the internet to promote your business? Are you advertising your listings in newspapers or magazines? Doing non-internet marketing campaigns gives you one more place to promote your site. Make sure to say “Visit Us Online” and post your web address on all these campaigns. Consumers who may only know you through your print ads might be driven to visit your website for the first time.

Get Listed in Directories

In a business such as real estate, many consumers are looking for a local agent to sell their home. This means it would be beneficial for you to be listed in as many local directories as possible. Superpages, Yahoo local and the local Yellowpages are just a few of the top directories out there. Listing your website in these directories will help you to get more local, qualified buyers to your site. Contact ScreenDreamer today to find out more about Local Connect, a solution that can get you listed in many of the top directories in no time.

Success Notes Bonus Tip…

Do you have any friends in the moving business? Storage business? Or any other business that a person in the process of moving could benefit from? See if your contact would be interested in doing a link exchange program where you promote their site for free on your website and vice versa.

In the Next Success Notes…

In a world filled with so much technology, sometimes we forget that simple things, such as great customer service, is what can keep our businesses in a good name. Are your prospects recommending their friends to you? Are you getting repeat business? In the next Success Notes, we’ll discuss tips that can improve your customer service.