Good follow up makes sense, for everyone involved
I wasn’t going to write this, but my wife reminded me that I always feel better when I get things off my chest and of course, I can always delete it before it is sent out.
It is all to do with follow up. I recently had a frustrating experience with a Manchester based agent who had a property for sale. We were interested in it so I emailed to tell him and also to request some additional information. I listed out what we needed and waited for a reply.
Three days later and no reply. Mmmm, I thought to myself, perhaps his email isn’t working so I had better send him another one. Another day and still no reply so I tried texting him - still nothing.
Finally, I had to resort to that long forgotten method of communication that no-one under thirty seems to have heard of - I called him on the phone. You guessed it - straight to his answering service.
We didn’t end up buying the property and it appears it had gone under offer at the same time as we expressed our interest. I assumed the lack of reply was because he felt there was nothing to be gained by responding. Short sighted? Definitely, as I won’t use him in the future. (In fairness, I should say here that not all agents are like this.)
As our clients will hopefully agree, I really believe in good follow up. Even when there is nothing obvious to be gained by doing so, responding quickly to people is common courtesy. People may not always like the reply, but at least they get one and are treated with a degree of respect.
It works on both sides of the fence. It is frustrating to meet a prospective client for the first time, spend forty five minutes with them and then have them not bother to reply my follow up emails.
Ah, I can hear some people thinking that it must be tough being a developer and adviser (well, perhaps not….), and yes, I am probably just an old fashioned guy who is having a bad hair day and a bit of a moan.
The reality is that our clients seem to appreciate our prompt follow up and the vast majority are good at responding to us. For that we are grateful and thank them for their support. However, I do need to find a way of getting some agents and prospective clients to respond, as buying the coffees doesn’t always work.
I feel better for writing that and since I always do what my wife says, I had better find the delete button before this goes out…..
Managing Director at St David Group
5 年Thanks Keith.
PRINCIPAL CONSULTANT - WayMaker. Ethical Project Management; Experienced Design Manager: Wayfinding and Signage; Consultant in Corporate Identity/ branding (inception - implementation +). Award-winning Graphic Designer.
5 年Tony. A thoughtfully put together piece. This is now a very common feature of a great deal of so-called Modern life. Common courtesy, like Common sense, is rapidly becoming (read: more like already become) far from common.