After the contract is signed, the agent launches the standard process of finding the right match, and the client only has to wait. Sometimes, this awaiting takes forever, especially when the contract is about selling or buying property.
While the agent keeps working, the client remains dubious about what is going on and is growing impatient about results. For example, some properties can get as few as 1-2 calls a month because they are overpriced, which is no secret for the agent. But the owner would usually be of different opinion: to his mind, the agent is doing nothing for the money he was paid. This misunderstanding might lead to a conflict. At some point, the client might just lose it, and initiate his own search or resort to the services of another agent leaving an unpleasant comment about your company, for example: "I found the buyer/seller and closed the whole deal all on my own, while the agent was just wandering about". Such sort of reviews can significantly impair the reputation of your agency obliging you to seek conclusive evidence for new clients proving they still need agent's services.
In order to reduce your clients' anxiety and prove to them you are really processing their requests, you need to send them regular reports.
what data your clients are interested in
FOR BUYERS
- Statistics on calls, conversations, real estate market news (prices, demand, dynamics).
- Weekly list of properties processed by agents with comments like "sold", "deposit", "negotiations" (in case there are several owners with shared proprietorship), etc. and the list of properties it is worth viewing because of their favourable price, interior finishing, or quick exit to deal.
- After the property is chosen and the deposit is made, a report from lawyer about the transparency of proprietorship documents and the reliability of the owner is expected.
FOR SELLERS
- Report on your advertising activity: an overview of the advertising platforms you posted the owner's listing on, including links to posts and schedule of renewals. You can also use seller report emails to discuss the advertising banner and other marketing tools.
- Report on the number of calls and showings, including their results and agent's comments about what customers liked and disliked, what questions they asked and what discount they would like to get.
You can report either in writing, or orally.
Compiling such reports is an excessive routine load for agents. In order to provide property owners with timely reports without having to distract the agents from their major activities, you can automate this business process in APRO CRM.
Create a business process to generate and send reports about specific events following a certain logic. For example, you can:
1. Send a report to property owner after each showing, specifying the result and agent's comments:
2. Send weekly reports on matching results, calls and negotiations statistics:
3. Send reports to property owner each time their deal shifts to a new stage:
You can adjust the frequency, the content, and the logic of these reports as you find appropriate.
To sum it up
- As a rule, the most important part of agent's work remains invisible to property owner, which gives rise to distrust and sometimes even claims.
- In order to make this process transparent, you need to keep property owners posted about the volume of work you are doing about their property.
- You can report to property owners orally, over the phone, for which you have to set regular reminder notifications and allocate the time for the conversation with each property owner. Alternatively, you can get APRO CRM to send automatic regular reports to property owners by email.
- You can either send weekly reports on the number of listings posted, calls, conversations, and showings made, or reports triggered by certain events, such as property showing or shift of deal stage.