Relationship building, education and advice are all themes that I've posted on a few times in the past; today, guest blogger Claire Hose of move management company MoveMinder writes along similar lines.
"Removal firms, cleaners, plumbers, electricians, handymen, decorators, house finders, move management companies... the list goes on. All are services that would benefit your customers when they move. Estate agents are an integral part of the moving process, if they were able to recommend good, reliable services to assist clients, surely this could smooth the whole thing? But would you be prepared to recommend some or all these services to your clients? And how would recommending them be of any benefit to you?
I run a move management company, the whole aim of which is to make moving easier for my clients. For me, like the services mentioned above, estate agents are a direct link to potential customers, so asking for recommendations is obvious. However, recommending services doesn’t appear to be a matter of course for many agents. Of those I have approached, some can see how it will benefit themselves and their customers, others can’t. Their reasoning is logical:
If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. You’ve come this far without recommending people left right and centre, so why start now?
With the growing popularity of internet house sales, it’s that personal service that will make the difference. If your competition has reliable partners to boost service provision, it could give them an edge over you. They might be the ones who produce a directory of local services, listen out to clients moving concerns and ask where they need help – it makes them look as though they have the clients’ best interests at heart.
Why should you go out of your way when you don’t need to? You have a job to do and you’re busy doing it. Continuous sales calls from the many services that might want you to recommend them are annoying and you don’t have time to pick out the good ones from the cowboys.
It might take time in the short-term to create a database of reliable services, but could more than make up for it in brownie points down the line. You negotiate for a living so once you have found suitable suppliers, make them prove their worth. If they want your business they should be willing to bend over backwards, especially for the first few jobs. I know I would be, because I know how hard it is to make potential referrers pay any attention to me over all the others.
Why should you recommend someone when you don’t know them from Adam? If they perform badly it makes you look bad and ruins your reputation.
Ask within your networks (real and virtual) for recommendations. ‘Bad’ companies can’t hide in these days of online reviews. Do a trial run with a few select customers to see how it works. All being well you will both be in for a long and fruitful relationship in the form of referral fees and recommendations. To protect yourself from recriminations give clients a choice of two or three similar companies that you have personal assurances as good, then let them choose which company to pick for themselves."
Claire Hose
MoveMinder
020 7101 9796
enquiries@moveminder.co.uk
http://twitter.com/moveminder
Making life easy for your customers and being a resource they can turn to is an important part of building genuine long term relationships - and positioning your company as the default choice estate agent for the next time they move.
1 comments:
thanks for an interesting read Clare.
I think it's human nature that we will always trust a recommendation from someone we trust (whether friend, colleague or business) than any amount of marketing or advertising. Maybe a bit old fashioned but still holds true for me.
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