Digital Communication Overpowering the Personal Touch
Email, texting, twittering, facebooking, skyping and all the other forms of social media have overwhelmed us and taken over the way we communicate, including myself.
We seem to be so caught up with technology and instantly acknowledging others through blanket responses that we’ve lost our way to communicate with a personal touch.
Being that my time is just as valuable as the next person, I started using an online automated greeting card system to enhance my business and stay in touch with friends and family.
What friend would not love to get a personalized card in their mail box saying “Thinking of You!”.
What client wouldn’t want to receive a personalized card in their mail box saying “Happy Home Anniversary!”
My family and friends adore getting these terrific greeting cards. Receiving them not just on special occasions but when I think I need to reach out to them. The system also provides many gifts to send with my cards. Tokens of appreciation that brighten their day!
I also use this system to connect with clients and prospects to strengthen my business. There’s a card for everything or I can upload my own design. Showing my business associates how much I appreciate them helps me to stand out from the rest. I know this because when they receive their cards in the mail, they let me know how much they loved receiving it!
These greeting cards are a fabulous way to show that you care or stay connected with your business relationships. The best part is that it’s so simple, inexpensive and I love sending them. It makes me feel good that in some way I made others feel good too.
I’m so excited by this service and the results I’ve received that I’d like to share it with you. All you have to do is email me at admin@vacontact.com and I’ll send you access to try it for free on my dime.
SHOW THAT YOU CARE TODAY!
Open House Ad That Didn’t Happen
by Lori Isachsen
You know when you have that nagging feeling you forgot to do something? Well, mine hit me at 4:00 in the morning.
“Oh my gosh! I never received the advertising proof for my client’s open house this weekend”.
How could I have missed this? I emailed the ad, like I always do to the newspaper rep and bcc’d my client. Plus I put a confirmation of email delivery. I was sure I got that at least. Maybe they just didn’t send the proof for some reason.
Can’t sleep now, I think I just may have screwed up. I get out of bed, wait for my computer to boot up and went right to my email ‘sent items’ folder. There it was and “OH NO!!” That horrifying feeling started coming over me as I looked at the email message and realized that I sent it to my client AND DIDN’T SEND IT TO THE NEWSPAPER. The confirmation did come but I didn’t open it and read it.
Now, I know, I have missed the deadline for the newspaper publication as it will be out today. To top it off, I didn’t have a proof ad reminder set up in my scheduler. It’s my way of making sure I cover everything off for advertising.
How could I have let this happen? I recall, in my mind, what was I doing when I typed this ad and why I didn’t follow through on my process. Just as I completed the ad and was filling out who was to get the email, I was distracted by a phone. Dealing with the phone call, at the same time, completing the recipient names on the email (both recipient names start with the same letter and appear in my list one right after the other). It all made sense now. I didn’t use the proper order for my recipients.
Once I clicked ‘send email’, I completely forgot to set up my reminder and moved on with the issues that I needed to deal with from the phone call.
Now I have to fess up and somehow make things right with my client. I forward an email to the newspaper rep, making a last ditch effort to see if somehow, someway I can still get the ad in. Then I send my client a text message advising what I had done and my sincere apologies, so it can all be handled first thing in the morning. Yes, all at 4:00am. I’m not one to let things carry on.
There’s nothing more I can do now but go back to bed and deal with the fall out tomorrow. I’m upset and frustrated with myself because not only have I just let down my real estate client but also their seller, which is a direct reflection of the realtors service. One little mistake has impacted many.
When I awoke again to face the music and call my client, to my pleasant surprise, I had a text message from my client “Oh well…stuff happens”. What a trooper! So understanding and great to work for!
The advertising rep asked me to call her right away, which I did. She called the realtor already via phone, (she is a super rep) and offered to put an ad in, just not in the normal Open House section. My client declined. The rep just wanted to know if I actually sent her an email at 4:00am and couldn’t believe that my clients were this important to me.
I’m proud to work with my clients and gain much gratification in not making mistakes, still from time to time, I do. All the organization, reminders, processes that are in place, are not perfect. Nevertheless, things happen and do, it’s how we cope with these challenges and mistakes.
Real estate assistants are human too, we can make errors, we do get overwhelmed and distracted. It’s just nice to know that when things do go wrong our clients are supportive enough to get past it.
I hope this has helped you in some way and please share your comments and experiences.
Author Bio: VA Certified and passionate about helping entrepreneurs succeed. As President and Owner of VA Contact, Lori Isachsen works directly with real estate professionals for over 5 years coupled with 25 years business experience in management, administration, accounting and computers in both the public and non-profit sectors. My clients enjoy the advantage and benefits of gaining their time to focus where they want to. Lori is skilled and highly proficient in organization, attention to detail, maintaining deadlines, establishing systems and strategic planning. Our goal is to listen to you and what you need in your business through communication and client satisfaction.
Copyright © 2010 Would you like to republish this article? You are free to do so as long as you include a link back to the full post, attributing the author, Lori Isachsen
It’s Time to Give It Up!
Time-sapping administrative tasks are a distraction for any real estate professional. But when you’re accustomed to doing the work yourself or think that no one else can do something as well as you can, it’s often hard to delegate.
“Only I have the extra, special, super skills to do this task”
“By the time I teach someone else how to do it, I may as well have done it myself!”
While these are valid reasoning’s, don’t let these barriers hold you back from greater success. Get rid of the idea that you’re the only person who can do anything right. Other people have skills that you don’t have.
Most realtors fail to realize that you must focus on results in order to reach the next level.
You need to be aware of the fact that as a professional real estate agent you just don’t have one job. When you are doing too much by yourself, or you’re spending hours working on a large number of different projects, this is a sign that you will need to begin delegating tasks to an assistant.
Here are 5 Key Tips that will help you get over those barriers and take a well-planned and logical approach to delegation:
1) Figure out what needs to be delegated – Choose tasks that you tend to drag out because you don’t enjoy doing. These tasks that are stressing you out are only sabotaging your chances of personal and professional advancement.
2) Be picky when choosing the correct person – It may take time, but by having thorough discussions about your expectations and the other person’s ability, will allow you to make a good decision about who you choose to assist and support you.
3) Provide Clear Instructions – Having clear documentation outlines the details of the work and provides all of the necessary information that is important. But don’t leave it at that. Once everything has been reviewed take time to answer any questions that may arise. An experienced and trained assistant will guide you through this process.
4) Follow the work and provide feedback – When you have found help don’t simply write them off and forget about them. Follow up to ensure its being done correctly and to your specifications. This will allow you to monitor the work and provide feedback for improvements.
5) Keep checking on what needs to be delegated – Business responsibilities change, so your delegation needs will also change. Regularly check what you have coming in and who you are delegating it to in order to determine if you need to outsource more work. This will help you anticipate any changes as they occur.
It is difficult to excel at multiple things simultaneously.
Your time is valuable! With delegating, you can enjoy more time and flexibility to focus on bigger responsibilities such as planning and strategizing, coming up with new ideas, pursing business prospects and ultimately allowing you to focus on the bigger picture.
Let go and your real estate business will grow! Contact us today to find out how a Virtual Real Estate Assistant can be that support for you.
Share your comments with us!
Author Bio: VA Certified and passionate about helping entrepreneurs succeed. As President and Owner of VA Contact, Lori Isachsen works directly with real estate professionals for over 5 years coupled with 25 years business experience in management, administration, accounting and computers in both the public and non-profit sectors. My clients enjoy the advantage and benefits of gaining their time to focus where they want to. Lori is skilled and highly proficient in organization, attention to detail, maintaining deadlines, establishing systems and strategic planning. Our goal is to listen to you and what you need in your business through communication and client satisfaction.
Copyright © 2010 Would you like to republish this article? You are free to do so as long as you include a link back to the full post, attributing the author, Lori Isachsen
Why Categorize Your Contacts
Every contact database, whether you use Outlook, Top Producer, IXACT Contact or others, has a feature called Contact Type or Category.
Working with many Realtors, this seems to be an area, with management of their database, that either gets over used, never used or is just plain used incorrectly. I’ve seen many contact database systems set up with so many categories or types that they become too confusing or categories have the same meaning. Having a process on managing how a contact is set up, right at the very beginning, will save loads of time down the road.
This feature is used to easily view and manage the way you interact with the contacts that you set up within your database. When doing mass emails, letters or postcards on the fly to specific contacts, the category or contact type will make it easier and faster.
Here are a few tips on how to organize your contact categories or types.
1) Make a list of the types of contacts that you associate with, right now, in your real estate business.
(These can be your buyers, sellers, prospects, active listings, other Realtors, Realtor referrals, banks, lawyers, business associates, personal, etc.)
2) Think of the different types of marketing that you do or may want to do in the future. Information you will send to your various categorized contacts.
(Will you send a monthly newsletter or possibly schedule weekly emails of your new listings or sending out yearly Christmas cards)
3) Determine if you need to separate the names on your list into more defined categories based on how often you need to access their information AND if it is necessary to market to them.
(For example, do you need a category for lawyers because you frequently contact them for transactions. Or maybe you may combine a category for banks and mortgage companies. Possibly put insurance companies, home stagers, management companies into your business associates)
You can always refine your contacts as you need or as you grow your real estate business. The one thing to keep in mind is that it does not have to be complex and confusing to use your contact categories or types. Keep it simple!
Contact us if you would like to know more about how you can get help with your contact database management.
Please share your comments!
Author Bio: VA Certified and passionate about helping entrepreneurs succeed. As President and Owner of VA Contact, Lori Isachsen works directly with real estate professionals for over 5 years coupled with 25 years business experience in management, administration, accounting and computers in both the public and non-profit sectors. My clients enjoy the advantage and benefits of gaining their time to focus where they want to. Lori is skilled and highly proficient in organization, attention to detail, maintaining deadlines, establishing systems and strategic planning. Our goal is to listen to you and what you need in your real estate business through communication and client satisfaction.
Copyright © 2010 Would you like to republish this article? You are free to do so as long as you include a link back to the full post, attributing the author, Lori Isachsen
Ready for a Massive Leap Forward?
Running your real estate business without a contact management system will create a massive amount of work later down the road. That is, when you decide that it’s finally time to ‘get on it’. As realtors, in a busy time of year, this is one area that requires constant attention, which you just might not have time for. Contact management is all about relationship building, which creates the “know you, like you and trust you” factor that leads to repeat clients and referrals.
A Real Estate Assistant provides solutions, supports you in maintaining the database and keeps you moving forward to stay connected all year long with your clients. It’s easy for us, we do it all the time.
Having someone to support you with experience, proficiency and organization can give you a huge stress relief and THAT is important. It’s our job to know how to use it and work with it.
We want you to delegate and share your ideas on what system is best for you. Communicating and working with you during the process and beyond is what you need in your real estate business to be successful with a contact management system.
Don’t let all your hard work with your clients go to waste just because you’ve closed the sale. It needs to go beyond! Top Producing realtors do this and so can you!
Contact us to find out the right solutions for you.
Author Bio: VA Certified and passionate about helping entrepreneurs succeed. As President and Owner of VA Contact, Lori Isachsen works directly with real estate professionals for over 5 years coupled with 25 years business experience in management, administration, accounting and computers in both the public and non-profit sectors. My clients enjoy the advantage and benefits of gaining their time to focus where they want to. Lori is skilled and highly proficient in organization, attention to detail, maintaining deadlines, establishing systems and strategic planning. Our goal is to listen to you and what you need in your business through communication and client satisfaction.
Copyright © 2010 Would you like to republish this article? You are free to do so as long as you include a link back to the full post, attributing the author, Lori Isachsen
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