Christian Real Estate Blog

Are you Worthy of a Referral??

The title speaks for itself. Put yourself in your client's shoes for a minute... would they refer you to a family member or a friend?

It is an important question every real estate agent needs to ask themselves. Are you earning your business through excellent customer service? In my opinion, a good agent should be able to make a living purely from referral customers after 5-10 years of being in the business. Easier said than done of course, but I believe that this should be the goal of every agent (heck, of anyone in a service based business!).

The 2nd followup validating question is: How often do you actually receive a referral? And I'm not talking about from a lead/referral generating source. A qualifying referral in this case would be from a past client or from someone that knows about your great service.

I've seen so many agents that really stretch for referrals... and sometimes go a little too far. I mean, I don't think it's a bad thing necessarily to offer incentives to people that refer you customers, or to constantly ask your current clients to refer someone. But is that the only way that you can generate referrals for yourself?? If so, it may be time to re-evaluate your business model.

The ideal referral is from someone that was so overwhelmingly pleased with your service, that they can't help but shout it out to everyone in their sphere of influence. That is the kind of business I want.

So... back to the original question: Are you worthy of a referral?

posted by Justin Smith @ 9/14/2006 09:32:00 AM