Real Conversations can Change the World … or find you an awesome Agent!

The humidity was intense yesterday but that didn’t stop me from enjoying a nice cold brewed coffee at my favourite Leslieville roaster, Pilot Coffee Roasters formerly Tearo Coffee. Was engaged in great conversation with friend and writer/multimedia journalist, Amanda Cosco (check her out, she’s dynamite).  We wrapped up our convo, said our good-byes but here’s what I noticed during my stay on the patio and what happened after.

Being a Broker, my spidy senses are always on the look out for people talking or searching real estate. Of course I notice that the woman sitting next to us is searching the mls (our search tool is better by the way…try it now). Clearly a property piqued her interest so she called up the Agent. While on the phone with the Agent representing one of the properties she seemed to get frustrated. I continued to eavesdrop (sorry couldn’t help it) and it became obvious that she wasn’t receiving the answers to her questions as she had hoped (expected). Based on her responses it seemed as though each question about the property was met with a “let’s meet up and talk about it”   Perhaps this agent felt that if he gave too much info over the phone then this “Lead” would just go away. If he could convince her to come to the property then maybe he’d have the chance at wooing her and potentially selling her a property down the road if that particular one wasn’t a good fit. To him (actually it could have been a her but well stick with him) his only value was the information. He was holding on to this info so tight that he wouldn’t even answer basic questions about the home over the phone.

Not sure if you’ve noticed a massive shift in the way people expect to receive information but we certainly have. The days of hoarding piles of info and slowly releasing it only to those ready to sign on the line which is dotted (name the movie that line is from!) are over…done…kaput!  The fact is, if you make an effort to provide exceptional customer service and occasionally throw in some awesome, you will be successful in any business. Give the info to the caller/open house visitor/guy on the street for FREE, yes for free. Have a real conversation with the potential customer, you know, like human to human not Agent to Lead. Nine times out of Ten, that level of REAL connection and simply giving, instead of taking, you’re likely to have a more positive response to your questions and you may even earn yourself a new client.

Now back to my nosy eavesdropping: As you may have guessed the call didn’t end well. She hung up, turned to her friend and I quote “stupid a** realtor”. Great, way to raise the bar buddy. Had this guy (or gal) acted like a human being, given info, and tried to make a real human connection, the conversation may have ended differently.

Sorry Amanda, I was actually paying attention to you the whole time (minus the 7 minutes it took for this to go down). Anyway, we said our goodbys and walked away. As I got to my car, I thought that I had a duty to right this wrong and make an effort to show these women that not all Brokers and Sales Reps see people as “Leads”. I worked up enough courage to just walk up and introduce myself. Turns out I knew about the property they were discussing, they were open to talking and I’m happy to say that Spring Realty is now working with a fantastic NEW Buyer client! How does that saying go again? One small step for man, one giant Leap for Spring Realty 🙂

Want to be treated like a human being? We’d love to hear from you! Get in touch or just check us out on Facebook and Twitter.

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