I recently had a frustrating experience with a Manchester-based agent who had a property for sale. We were interested in it so we emailed him and also to request some additional information. I listed out what we needed and waited for a reply.
Three days later and no reply. Mmm, I thought to myself, perhaps his email isn’t working, so I had better send him another one. Another day and still no reply, so I tried texting him – still nothing.
Finally, I had to resort to that no-one under thirty seems to have heard of – I called him on the phone. You guessed it; it was straight to voicemail.
Good follow-up is good business
We didn’t end up buying the property and it appears it had gone under offer at the same time as we expressed our interest. I assumed the lack of reply was because he felt there was nothing to be gained by responding. Short-sighted? Definitely, as I won’t use him in the future. (In fairness, I should say here that not all agents are like this.)
As our clients will hopefully agree, I really believe in a good follow-up. Even when there is nothing obvious to be gained by doing so, responding quickly to people is common courtesy. People may not always like the reply, but at least they get one and are treated with a degree of respect.
It works on both sides of the fence. It is frustrating to meet a prospective client for the first time, spend forty-five minutes with them and then have them not bother to reply to my follow-up emails.
Ahh, I can hear some people thinking, it must be tough being a developer and an advisor. And yes, I am probably just an old-fashioned guy who is having a bad hair day and a bit of a moan.
The reality is that our clients seem to appreciate our prompt follow-up and the vast majority are good are responding to us. For that, we are grateful and thank them for their support.
However, I do need to find a way of getting some agents and prospective clients to respond, as buying the coffees doesn’t always work.
