Are you standing out from the crowd when it comes to real estate client appreciation strategies? Don’t expect to receive referrals from your buyers and sellers or to earn repeat client business by putting your relationship management and real estate client appreciation activities on cruise control.
To build a business like Real Estate Rockstar Russell Rhodes, who has around 25 referral closings each month, you must do more than thank your buyers and sellers after a successful closing with a bottle of wine, a handshake and a request to have them send you 5 referral leads. If you want to get more listings from past clients who are ready to sell a home, you must go beyond the typical customer retention strategies such as using keep-in-touch marketing systems via marketing newsletters, postcards, and regular personal contact.
There are too many real estate agents going above and beyond to ensure they receive a steady diet of repeat business and referrals. If you don’t get creative, expend some energy and focus on building strong bonds and relationships with your buyers or sellers, then they may just refer their neighbor, family member or coworker to another Realtor.
But don’t worry! A couple of our awesome real estate agents who are doing a ton of real estate referral transactions and a steady stream of repeat client business shared their real estate client appreciation ideas with us here at Pat Hiban Interviews Real Estate Rockstars. And we are now sharing those strategies with you.
But before we go there, let’s take a look at some statistics sharing the importance of referrals and repeat clients for agents who want to get more listings and close more deals for buyers.
Importance of Real Estate Client Appreciation, Referrals and Repeat Business
Check out these statistics about real estate referrals from IXACTCONTACT.com.
82% of all real estate transactions come from repeat and referral business.
92% of consumers trust recommendations from friends and family above all other forms of advertising.
25% of agents generate more than 50% of their business from repeat clients.
21% of agents get more than 50% of their business from referrals from past clients.
Don’t you want to be one of the agents in the 25% and 21% mentioned above? Start by using the following ideas.
Real Estate Client Appreciation Strategies Proven to Reel in Referrals and Repeat Clients
Let’s start with Real Estate Rockstar Jack Barry out of Philadelphia. Referrals are the majority of his business and here is one way he gets those real estate referrals. After every buyer closing, Jack’s team throws a buyer appreciation housewarming party.
However, it’s not just a party for Jack’s team as they use these parties to continue to build a relationship with their client, to get handfuls of referrals and also to get the contact information for dozens of leads. It all starts with Jack controlling the invites to the party which come in the form of email addresses, names and phone numbers provided by the buyer and which immediately go in his marketing database. Next, he uses the 10/10/10 strategy inviting 30 neighbors in surrounding households to the housewarming party.
His team offers the food and is allowed to be at the party where they mingle with the crowd (not in a pushy, sales way) and introduce themselves to all guests. This alone often leads to a handful of referrals and secures his team 2 – 3 solid appointments per party. Jack also uses a Retrace strategy which he explains in his interview with Pat – a strategy which is responsible for the majority of his referral clients.
Next, we have Russell Rhodes who we mentioned above as doing around 25 referral and repeat client closings each and every month. One of the creative real estate client appreciation strategies his team uses for his Dallas-Fort Worth buyers and sellers is a client appreciation loyalty program. His company owns a stable of items which it loans out to past clients. These items include moving trucks, margarita machines, karaoke machines, air compressors, large tables, popcorn machines, etc. which are available at no cost to buyers and sellers their real estate team has represented.
The company already owns these items and instead of letting them sit in storage, they put them to good use. Not only do their clients feel appreciated and grateful for this program (which helps client retention and leads to a steady flow of referrals), but all of the items include Russell’s company branding so the program also increases brand exposure and adds to their marketing efforts. Make sure to listen to Russell’s interview for more on this real estate client appreciation program and his other strategies for earning repeat business and referrals.
What creative real estate client approval strategies do you use effectively to capture referral leads and retain clients for future business? Please share with us in the comments below.
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