“Are you talking to me?”

One of the aims of any consumer facing businesses is to interact with a target customer group and win their trust, which should ultimately lead to winning their business or them giving you a recommendation. We do this in numerous ways, so let’s consider one of them

 Take for example a client making a visit to your estate agency office:-

 If a client walked in to your office and had a look around at the displays before leaving having not been spoken to by a member of your team, I doubt you would be very impressed and your team would know about it pretty quickly. You would no doubt drill into them that  good customer service involves sitting a client down, maybe offering them a drink, listening to their requirements and qualifying their ability to move. During this conversation we demonstrate our credibility by understanding their needs and showing our understanding of how they can be translated into a move, be that through area knowledge, property types or styles etc. The longer the client stays with you and the more actions they take in terms of committing to view or have a valuation, the happier we are with the session and the more likely the client will be happy too. 

 When it comes to company web sites however, most agents settle for a brochure style site, which gives no opportunity for interaction. As a result, on a daily basis, we have visitors to our site and we allow them to leave without trying to interact with them.

 With consumer expectations of their web experience changing to reflect the nature of social interaction it is now increasingly important for agents to provide ways for visitors to engage online and social media tools can be used to facilitate this. By writing a blog, posting and communicating on twitter or facebook and joining relevant forums, an agent can build a social media strategy that will enable them to meet this challenge.

 So if you don’t already have a strategy in place, now is the time to act and take advantage of these lost opportunities.