GREATEST RISK TODAY - LOSS OF EXISTING CUSTOMERS

We are finding the greatest risk in today’s business is the loss of existing customers. And we all have known the best opportunity for growing sales is through your existing customers... would you agree?

You must know who are your core customers and find out which satisfied customers can become loyal customers. There is a big difference between satisfied and loyal.

Nothing beats meeting a loyal customer for breakfast, lunch or a cup of coffee. Second is picking up the phone and talking for a few minutes with your grade A customers. Third and just as important is a consistent way to create value added benefits and consulting services for customers to differentiate you from those trying to erode your customer base.

But first you must know your customers well enough to know which are "core loyal customers" and which could be "cultivated" to become core loyal customers. How do you accomplish that? "DEEPER" KNOWLEDGE OF YOUR CUSTOMERS BEYOND THE "OUTER SHELL"

Your customers do not always want to hear about real estate! In fact most of the time you they do not have any interest in real estate. You must trigger their work-life interests, home-life interests and lifestyle interests.

There are companies that offer services and or programs to help you accomplish just that. Seek them out and find companies that specialize in customer relationships.


Arnie Goldberg, co-founder and Vice President with Loyalty Builder,LLC. Arnie says, "Loyalty Builder is a relationship management and marketing firm that I believe is dramatically different from the standard industry focused firm. We are driven to generate relationships to grow your real estate business."

REALTOR CUSTOMER BASE MARKETING

Realtor Customer Base Marketing
Important information
A National Association of Realtors Technology Survey in 2007 found that REFERRALS, REPEAT BUSINESS and INTERNET were the main sources of leads.
And I have found in realtor surveys that the majority of realtors are still spending more of their marketing budget on soliciting new clients than on their customer base. Why?
The traditional brokerage office is still hiring as many agents as possible, hoping for as many sales as possible, and using old techniques like open houses, floor duty, and email. I include email because email is now a marketing tool that is loosing it’s value.
New technology and a new approach
The advent of the social media boom, the massive availability of information on the Internet, the younger generation of multi-tasking and fast paced living have dictated a major shift in the way realtors approach their business.
The information below reviews the need to consider a shift from traditional marketing budgets to a new approach. The low cost of advertising and publicity and information gathering allows realtors to allocate more to customer base marketing than prospect marketing.

Marketing Costs Per Closing
Assumptions:
• The realtor tracks their commissions (If they don’t I bet the IRS does)
• The realtor tracks marketing costs
• The realtor tracks revenue from repeat and referral business closings (Although many do not, we suggest they begin immediately as it takes more and more knowledge of their business to survive and/or grow today’s climate.)
Realtor tracked - customer value
• Original commission earned on purchase of a home $ 3,200
• Referral to a neighbor for a listing which sold $ 3,800
• Listing customer’s home/repurchase of a new home $ 8,200
• Referral to a home builder (2 sales in 2 years) $ 5,500
• Listing of older parents moving to assisted living $ 3,100
• Introduction to HR person where customer works
(value undetermined as of yet)
Total $ 23,800

Economics

Closings per year (assuming) 30
Commissions $90,000
Total Marketing Costs $6,000
% of Referrals 70% or $63,000
Marketing cost on Customer Base 30% = $ 1800.00 (typical)
Marketing on Prospecting 70% $ 4,200.00

Marketing Costs New Prospect Closings $4,200.00 or $466.66 per closing
Marketing Costs Referral or Repeat Business Closings $1,800.00 or $85.72 per closing


Re-alignment of marketing dollars

If your referral and repeat business is 70% of your income, why spend only 30% of your total marketing investment on your customer base.
We strongly suggest you reverse the marketing investment and allocate 70% of total budget dollars toward your customer base.

Customer Service Retention Trends in Social Media

By Arnie Goldberg

Faculty, John Sperling School of Business, University of Phoenix Website Article

Keeping a client year after year requires attaining customer loyalty which involves fitting together several pieces of a relationship puzzle. There is a science to understanding client loyalty. This includes recognizing the value of loyal clients, and creating and maintaining those loyal clients.

Research surveys have held the position that customers who were satisfied were more likely to remain loyal to a company (Klein & Einstein, 2003). When organizations delivered a customer experience that met their needs, customers returned to that organization more frequently than to its competition. However, current thought reveals only the top echelon of satisfied customers remained loyal to an organization.

I have found while teaching a course on customer retention, the best starting point is to have the students answer a few questions. This process helps a person realize the many factors that affect customer loyalty, and how these factors play on purchase decisions in his or her life. The survey thought process also shows how we are all different and have different motivations, which is important in developing customer loyalty strategies and programs.

Introducing Social Media

Today, there is a swing back to gaining knowledge of the customer and his or her behavior patterns as a key element in designing loyalty marketing plans and strategies. With the viral expansion of social media, and the younger consumer demographic’s use of social media as a daily communication tool, this phenomenon becomes an opportunity for businesses to maintain contact and provide current information to existing customers.

Traditional means of advertising and flows of providing information to existing customers are losing their effectiveness. Advertisers are not seeing positive results from newspapers and print media and have reduced expenditures in those media outlets. Social media provides free platforms and the advent of “permission-based” communication, with a huge word-of-mouth, viral scope.

People are now in a hurry—not only the younger generation but their parents too. The fastest growing segment of social media platforms is said to be those from ages 40 to 55 (Corbett, 2009). They read news on the Internet in brief “tidbits” of information, and they are multi-tasking with several software applications open at the same time. Often they are switching in the middle of a news article when a message arrives and often they never return to the article.

While surveying several social media users, I found they build trust within their social media friends and rely heavily on these friends for purchasing information and company reputation. Positive flows of purchase satisfaction can provide a major component of customer loyalty programs by company marketing departments.

Three Factors that Influence Customer Loyalty

1. Customer satisfaction–involves prior expectations of quality and customer service, and the comparison of those expectations to actual performance received.
2. Perceived alternatives–have to do with the difficulty and/or the cost of moving to a new vendor or service provider.
3. Business relationship–relates to how strong the business relationship is perceived.

Trends in the growth of social media are providing platforms to aid in all three of these customer loyalty influences. Businesses must begin and continue to use this important avenue of communication to increase customer service retention.

References

Corbett, P. 2009. 2009 Facebook Demographics and Stistics Report. Retrieved May 13, 2009 from Istrategylabs.com

Klein, M. & Einstein, R., 2003. The Myth of Customer Satisfaction. Retrieved May 13, 2009 from Strategy + Business; Booz & Company.

Ideas Essential For Future Offerings

If you do not predict the future, your sales and your whole business in today’s fast paced business atmosphere can decrease in a hurry.

Today, a young person with an idea, can start a business for very little money, create a credible website, position the business idea correctly on the internet, get traction on Google and other search engines and the result could be:

Your sales all of sudden belong to that young person operating out of his home office!

Constant “research and development” becomes a necessary part of any business planning.

Any website must always be a work in progress

New ideas and new concepts have to be considered

Prime Example: Social Media as a Business Tool, as a Marketing Tool

Arnie Goldberg, VP Business Development, Loyalty Builder, LLC. agoldberg@loyaltybuilder.com

PEOPLE BUY FROM PEOPLE

People must feel comfortable to purchase anything. And the key word is "CREDIBILITY." There are three types of credibility:

1. YOU

(believe it or not first impressions count) How are you dressed, do you wreak with confidence so it is evident, do you smile

2. Your Company

(always have two or three statements that just roll off your tongue) Example-"The real estate industry has changed so much since our company was established in 1992" or "My staff is dedicated to servicing clients before the sale, during the sale, and after the sale."

3. Your Product or Service

My goal is to create not just clients, but life long friends, and referrals account for a major part of my success

More Biz in a Tough Market: The One Question More Realtors Need to Ask

by Brian Hilliard (direct quotes from Brian)

"Of all the people you've talked to this week, how many have you made feel like they should give you their business? In other words, a lot of times we can be so busy talking about what we've done, and are going to do for people, that we lose track of first creating an environment where this prospect (or Referral Partner) actually wants to work with us, or pass referrals in our direction. And when you think about it, that makes sense."

"There are plenty of choices out there for people looking to buy a home. And if we accept the fact that you're not the only Agent this person is talking to, then getting her to feel like she wants to work with you is absolutely crucial to closing the sale.

I'm talking about things like:

* Does she feel comfortable with your expertise in the area?

* Is she confident that you'll do what you said you do?

* Does she feel "listened to", even though she might be asking "stupid" questions?

* How confident is she that you'll take care of her even after the sale?

All of this comes together to create a general "feel," or "vibe" someone has about working with you. And the more positive you can make that initial feeling, the more likely you are to close the deal.

So what can you do to generate the right "feel"? Well, you'll first want to make sure that you always "Do What You Said You Would Do." That means sending out an email, returning phone calls in a timely fashion and showing up to meetings on time. A lot of times we can be so busy doing so many other things, that some of the "little stuff" can fall through the cracks."

Business Sitting At Your Doorstep

It is time to remind everyone once again.... When was the last time you picked up a phone and called your top five clients? your top ten clients? ... More business is sitting at your doorstep through your existing clients than spending lots of time and funds to find new clients.

I like the following from Betty Kincaid's Blog:

The recession has set the housecats free. It’s time to let your dormant instincts kick in. Like the alley cat, it’s time to work to fill your belly – in your case, by ensuring a steady stream of clients.

Where do you get those customers?

Order them by phone.

Call everyone you’ve done business with in the last 5 years to update their contact information, ask for the order & find out how you can help them succeed in 2009.

Start right now. Contact everyone in your database within 6 weeks. As you make the calls, the energy in your office will rise. The phone will begin to ring and orders will start to flow. You’re going to get busy, but don’t stop making your calls. Once you get to the end, start again.

Improving Your Quality of Life

Often one of the reasons people don't take the time to improve their quality of life, is that they think things will somehow just get better. They live their life in hope that their job or business will somehow improve. They hope that some lucky combination of circumstances will come about and as a result, they will finally be recognised and rewarded. Unfortunately this isn't how life works. How life works is; for things to get better, we must first get better. For things to improve, we must first improve. If we want to become more successful and happier in life, we must adopt a more effective approach.

The starting point of all change is in the mind, or more precisely, in how we think! Am I saying all we must do is improve the quality of our thoughts and we will improve the quality of our life? Yes! In fact, everything pivots around this fundamental truth. Success comes from results. Results come from actions. Actions come from thoughts. So, when we think more effectively, we take better actions, and produce better results. As you are the one who is responsible for your thoughts, you must decide how successful your life will be. It is always your responsibility, because only you have control of your mind.

Beliefs are magical things, they are at first thoughts and yet they are more than thoughts. Our beliefs comprise; how we come to know and understand things, give meaning to things, and create energy, emotions, and actions. Meaning doesn't exist out there in the world. Meaning exists only within the mind as we connect and link ideas with experiences. At birth, we have no beliefs. They develop as our perceptions, understandings and learning's grow and become a form of focused awareness. Beliefs develop over time from our experiences. We construct them via the ideas, thoughts, feelings, and meanings that we develop about various concepts. Beliefs are very powerful, helping us to have a sense of certainty and direction in an unpredictable world.

So if we wish to get better we must start by developing better beliefs. And you can chose to change any one you want to by first identifying a limiting belief, and then creating a new counter-belief that better supports you. Then become willing to let go of the old belief, and adopt the new. Simply accept any resistance, and then repeat the process until you can state the new belief congruently. Manifesting your dreams and desires into reality does not depend on your education, your ethnicity, your cultural heritage, or your current environment. It is solely the result of how you think and what you believe. One of the most important beliefs we can adopt is that in order to succeed and be happy we should be constantly improving the quality of our lives, by constantly growing and expanding our thinking.

Lew Smallwood