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While face-to-face meetings have been touted as the best way to communicate with clients, it might not be as effective as people think, according to one industry trainer.
“Face-to-face is a very effective form of communication, but it will take the most amount of time and is the biggest cost to your business,” said Michael Sheargold, CEO of the Real Estate Results Network.
“If I don’t have something significant to discuss with a client, and I request a face-to-face meeting, that’s going to frustrate them,” he said.
Bob Walters, managing director of Leading Property Managers of Australia (LPMA), agrees with Mr Sheargold, adding that time poor property managers can’t take the time to travel to clients.
“While we say face to face is best, a quick phone call to let the owner know that you’ve done the routine inspection on the property and that it looked fantastic is more than sufficient,” he suggested.
“Face to face is still the most important form of communication, but sometimes that’s not possible for a property manager who is in charge of a massive portfolio.
“Plus, the geographical boundaries for property managers are getting bigger, thanks to technology.”
Instead, Mr Sheargold suggests shorter, more frequent, touch points of communication.
“One of my favourite sayings is ‘frequency builds trust’, and normally in the real estate process, the frequency is lower than it ideally needs to be,” he said.
“There are high-frequency communication times, like when someone is selling a property or if a landlord is considering joining your rent roll.
“The challenge is that outside of those times, the frequency drops off to a level that doesn’t resonate with the client. Sometimes I refer to it as the real estate orphanage – the clients are dropped off and eventually we’ll be back to pick them up again – which is not a good look.”
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