What experience do you give?

How big of a deal is the experience we give our clients? Yep, it’s a REALLY BIG DEAL! Well, how about the experience that we give the agent that’s on the other side of a transaction that we are working? I would argue that that is a REALLY BIG DEAL also.

I recently was on vacation with my wife (5 days with NO KIDS, that’s huge because we have 6 of them) and I received a call on Sunday evening around 6:30pm from an agent that sold one of my listings. OK, it was really my only listing, but that’s another story.  Our closing date was a couple of weeks out, but this agent was inquiring as to when my sellers would be moving the remaining items out of the garage.  So I think to myself, self? What’s the big deal, we have 2 more weeks before closing!?! What came out was, “well probably sometime later this week”. And then it happened, the dramatic pause in our conversation. The agent said, “I guess my closer hasn’t contacted you, because we are scheduled to close tomorrow at 3pm”.  This single statement by this agent caused my experience level to plummet at a rapid pace.  My first thoughts were: When was I going to be notified by YOU, not your closer? Why didn’t my closer know about it? Did you know that not all of the repairs were completed yet because we still have 2 weeks to go? Did anyone ask if it was OK with my sellers, it’s still their house the last time I checked? (done venting).  Needless to say, I had quite a bit of work to do that evening and the next morning to (1) Get the OK from my Sellers to close it – they were actually thrilled about it, (2) hope that they could clear out the garage by the closing time – which they did, (3) Contact Beck Mechanical to service the HVAC system and Carpenter Home Repair to finish up the other repairs on VERY short notice – these guys rock, (4) bring my closer, Charissa Taylor at Executives Title & Escrow up to speed so she can prepare everything – she is incredible and did it all with a smile, and (5) shuffle all of the repair receipts, payments, etc… so we could actually close and do it all this while I’m in a different state (Did I mention that I love my iPad?).

The EXPERIENCE for my CLIENT:  They got everything moved out, signed the closing documents early (thank you Charissa) and walked away with a little more than they thought because of the early closing. My sellers think I can move mountains for my clients (Ok, small hills.)

My EXPERIENCE:  Even though it turned out OK, I thought it was handled poorly.  There were way too many assumptions made by the other agent and their closer with absolutely NO communication at all.  It made me feel like this was their first real estate transaction (which it wasn’t).

Now I’m sure that the other agents clients had a great experience and that any of the issues that came up were pushed on me as not being prepared (I can’t be positive about this, but it’s possible).  It’s easier for us to give our clients a great experience, even when we drop the ball, because we can push the responsibility and the blame to the other agent, because our clients don’t know any different. But what does that do for our reputation in the real estate industry?

HERE’s THE DEAL – At Coldwell Banker Select, we have partnerships with Executive’s Title & Escrow, Mortgage Closing Services, and AMC Mortgage for a reason, to give our clients the absolute BEST EXPERIENCE they can possibly have when either buying or selling a home.  We have more control when these companies are utilized and we have ZERO control when an outside company is used.  These partnerships also help us look and perform more professional to our counterparts on a transaction.

So when you think about how you are going to provide the very BEST EXPERIENCE to your clients AND to the other agents that you are working with (because both are a BIG DEAL), make sure you have partnerships with companies that can get it done for you EVERY TIME!

Feel free to leave a comment or 3 or 4 on any other similar stories that you may have had (Good or Bad).