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The real estate industry is a fast-paced world where customers come and go. More than that, “customer” doesn’t just cover those clients who buy or sell properties; customers can also mean job seekers and passive candidates who may want to become part of your brokerage.
Keeping up with each and every one of them can prove to be tricky. You might end up forgetting someone or else get messages mixed up. All of these can affect your business relationships in a negative way. To help prevent these from happening, you should invest in your brokerage’s customer relationship management or CRM. This way, nothing will slip through the cracks and you can cultivate professional and build impactful relationships more effectively. Here are some tips to help you get started on building or strengthening your existing CRM.
Find A Suitable Software
Nowadays, there’s software for practically everything and that includes CRM. You should Get Brokerkit if you want reliable CRM software that can keep track of both past and current clients, set up automatic email campaigns, and communicate with leads. You can even monitor your SOI through this CRM software. What’s even better is that software like Brokerkit can be integrated with other programs that you may already be using, including your email client and hiring software. You’re also able to import data from sources like MLS, so you can make more informed decisions.
Define Your CRM Strategy And Philosophy
What you have to understand about CRM is that having the best software won’t mean anything if you don’t have a driving strategy and philosophy behind it. You need to define your business processes, what steps you’re going to take, and what you plan to achieve with better CRM. You also need to have measurable goals both for your CRM program and the aspects of your business affected by CRM. You should also be willing to change your mindset, making the conscious decision to put all forms of customer relationships as one of your top priorities. This way, you can better engage and promote customer service. If you aren’t as committed, then developing your CRM program won’t matter in the end.
Involve Everyone
One of the biggest reasons that CRM projects don’t succeed is that not everyone is involved. Without ample support, any endeavor can fizzle out even before it begins. To strengthen your brokerage’s CRM, everyone should be involved right from the start. “Everyone” here literally means everyone, including and most especially those in leadership job. Their commitment can help inspire others, driving and living the culture for the entire group. Their enthusiasm will then trickle down to everyone in your brokerage.
Aside from the involvement of top management, there should also be a lead person or a “champion” of CRM. Think of them as the cheerleader, the one who knows everything about your CRM programs and the one who can help out if someone has a question. This person will also serve as the main contact of any and all third-party vendors, so that there’s a centralized flow of information about any updates.
Use Data To Fine-Tune Tactics
There’s still a lot of space for intuition in real estate. Seasoned agents, in particular, who have come into contact with hundreds of customers in the course of their career have pretty good hunches about people. Still, it’s undeniable just how big of an influence data has on modern marketing and real estate processes.
Data allows you to personalize communications, not to mention time your messaging right so that it reaches customers right when they need it. It pays to pay attention to customer intelligence, especially behavioral data that can be used to predict trends. Data can also be helpful in guiding strategies and fine-tuning approaches to guarantee good results.
Seek Feedback
CRM is inextricably linked to small business customer service. If you can’t provide the best services to your customers, then you can’t expect to build and maintain a relationship with them. Thus, it’s important to always seek feedback straight from the source. It would be ideal to gather feedback from both past and current customers (whose contact information you can easily gather from your CRM software). When creating feedback forms, try to be as specific as you can so that you’ll also get clearer insights. Usually, rating scales are the most common form of feedback and can help you gauge the effectiveness of your programs. The 1-to-5 scale is arguably the most frequently used but you can also use the 1-to-10 scale for more nuance. It’s also a good idea to include a text box where customers can further share their comments and suggestions.
Of course, customer feedback means nothing if you don’t act on them. Together with the data you’ve gathered from your CRM software and other sources, use customer feedback to fill the gaps in your program. You should also use the information to determine which aspects are already successful and try to replicate those.
In the end, the success of your real estate brokerage depends on people: your team of real estate professionals and your customers. With a great CRM, you can address the needs of everyone concerned.
