Your most important real estate client is…

Do you know who your most important real estate client is? The answer is easy.

The one you’re working for right now is your most important real estate client.

Last week master copywriter Bob Bly wrote about treating every copywriting client as the most important – no matter the size of the job or the amount of the paycheck. He’s right – and the same is true for real estate.

Here are six good reasons why:

First, if you agreed to list that house or help that buyer find a home, you knew approximately what the commission would be before you said yes. If you took the job, you have no right to complain – or to slack off in your service.

Second, all clients have the right to expect good service. They hired you believing you would do right by them.

If they have behaved in a manner that you can’t tolerate, then it’s time to end the relationship rather than limping along doing a poor job.

For more about firing a client – or declining not to work with them in the first place, read this article.

Third, always doing superior work is the key to building a positive reputation. People do talk, and the unfortunate truth is that they talk more about bad service than good service.

Is that because they go into the relationship expecting good service, so it doesn’t stand out in their minds? Whatever the reason, when the service is poor, they’ll take their disappointment out on your reputation.

Fourth, when you’ve made someone feel that they were your most important real estate client, they’ll be happy to give you referrals and references, and even to write testimonials for you.

Fifth, satisfied clients will come back when they need your services again. That is, if you’ve stayed in touch. As much as they loved you when you helped them buy or sell a house, if you forget them, they’ll forget you.

If you aren’t sure how to stay in touch with all those folks, read this article.

Sixth, you owe it to your own pride and self-respect. When you know you’ve done a poor job for someone, it tarnishes your view of yourself. Even while you give yourself excuses about why your poor service was justified, you’ll know you were wrong.

Why a low-dollar client can still be your most important real estate client:

I’ve known agents who simply refused to list a house or help buyers at the low end of their market. They say it’s just not worth their time.
I’ve also known agents who took on a low-dollar client simply out of an impulse to help, and that client became a gold mine for them.

In one case, the clients were a young couple with a small budget. The agent worked hard to find them a good house at a price they could handle, and she felt good about it. She felt even better when it turned out that the young couple had wealthy relatives and encouraged them to use her. She got 5 or 6 high-dollar referrals just because she made an extra effort for those young people.