I get a call from someone, who is reading my blog, and now want to look at condos. They tell me what and when and where, and we start working.
1. Looking for all condos fitting the broad criteria, narrowing down to few condos so that our customer really knows his options.
2. Prepare sheets with all pertinent information with details, nuances… Way more than they may expect and even think of… So, that customer knows what no other agent would tell her/him/them.
3. Start calling agents arranging showings. Many of them require a 24-hour notice, so you need to start setting it up 2 days before the showing.
In nicer condos lockboxes are not allowed, so every time it is an elaborate arrangement, where you have to go and pick a key from the office, and then sometimes give it to another agent, and with a bunch of units to show, and some agents coming at certain time, and some of the tenants expecting us at the certain time, it becomes quite complex…
And once set, it has to be followed like a Swiss clock.
I communicate with the customer via email or text messaging or on the phone, and everything is fine. Until the last 30 minutes…
Something came up and they are not coming today.
– We can do it some other day, right?
The other common scenario is when customers come 40 minutes late. All my complex planning goes down the drain. Agents, who came to open the doors are not happy but at least they understand… Tenants are gone… Salvaging showings takes a lot of effort. You have to skip some, and the customer seems to be annoyed with piling up problems.
For me now it is not so much about condos, but rather a race and I am Dale Earnhardt, Jr. trying to win Daytona 500 with badly damaged right side in earlier crash… Adrenaline is at all time high, tension is in the air, getting into a condo is like winning a lap…
I try to have my wife with me on all showings. Sometimes she becomes a full-time dispatcher constantly on the phone trying to resolve the scheduling…
But we are not saying a word… Customers are always right… Right?
We want to be punctual. After all, some people come on time and then thing go smooth. Then it is always a pleasant experience… We are relaxed, we concentrate on important stuff and not on driving at double the speed limit because the Tenant would otherwise leave, or the agent, who is there for an hour, has another appointment…
It affects not only me, but many other people and if it happens on weekend, it may ruin your and their weekend. There were times we would not join friends on a out-of-town trip because we have a customer… And then we don’t…
They are mostly good people. They simply do not think about it.
It is not a big deal, is it?
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*Image by Michael Pardo via Flickr.com Creative Commons
