The Biggest Website Mistake You’ll Make This Year

What will be your most costly mistake this year? Vacationing at the wrong time? Not working hard enough to lower your sellers’ expectations? Being late for a big meeting? Not being on Twitter? Guess what… it’s none of these.

The biggest mistake you’ll make this year is not being reachable by your customers.

You’re probably thinking:

“This doesn’t apply to me – I’m always reachable through my office; I even give my cell phone number to serious customers…”

Don’t be fooled:

Definition of Reachable: “… To succeed in getting in contact with or communicating with …” (courtesy of The Free Dictionary)

The key word is, “succeed.” Unless your customer succeeds in getting contact with you, then you’re not reachable. Ask yourself honestly, “how many times during the day am I TRULY reachable.” I bet the answer will surprise you.

Top Producers look at things differently – though they themselves might not be reachable, their “services” are. For example, when you call the office of a Top Producer you’ll always get someone on the other end of the phone. In most cases they’ll be able to help get the basic information you’re after, and if not they’ll be able to tell you when to expect a call back from the Realtor™.

Many Top Producers take, “reachable,” to the extreme:

• They put their cell phone numbers on their listing signs and websites, and rarely use answering/paging services at all.
• They provide a wealth of information through their real estate websites including listing information, detailed explanations of the entire real estate process (looking/listing, moving/mortgages, etc.), MLS® Searching, and much more.
• They are fluent in, “E-Language“.
• They are efficient and know when to cut to the chase.
• They rely on systems in their businesses to keep them, “reachable.”
• They set explicit expectations for themselves and staff about, “rechability.”

Here are some simple things you can do TODAY to make yourself more reachable:

• DROP THAT PAGING SERVICE!!! Make sure your office gives out your cell phone number and/or website URL
• Be accessible on the internet – Realtors™ without websites are dead in the water
• Keep your cell phone voice mail message short and sweet, but make sure the caller knows when you’re going to call them back