Every business person, at some point in their career, must face and deal with
negativity. Whether it is a negative person in the office that rubs you the wrong
way, or a client who is unsatisfied for one reason or another, rising above these
challenges is a must for any real estate agent who wants to survive the tough
competition in their chosen marketplace. Hopefully, if any of your clients are
unsatisfied with your services, it will not end in a defamatory comment or even worse!
The bad news about having clients who are unhappy is that your competitors may
capitalize on this and see it as an opportunity to post negative comment about
your business on their websites. This is a very real possibility, yet there are
several ways to deal with this if it happens to you.
The majority of the time, it is hard to know what you did that upset the clients
and resulted in their negative testimonials. It could be something as simple
as the fact that they were devout vegans and were upset by your leather
belts. Or perhaps they thought you should have done more to get them into
their dream home, lost to a faster buyer. Sometimes there are issues with the
home that are not apparent at first (a roof that leaks, a furnace that is inefficient),
and the easy thing is to blame the real estate agent, rather than the home inspector
who should have noticed these flaws. Judging by their positive reviews, if you scheduled with a professional you would have received a thorough and detailed report of the entire property.
Keeping tabs on the people that you work with, including the home inspectors,
accountants, banking representatives, the estate agent (Canada based or otherwise)
and everyone else is a great way to follow up with these people who help finalize
the sale of the home. Making sure that your clients are treated the way you
want them to be treated by all of these individuals is a great way to ensure
their satisfaction throughout the entire process. For every unsatisfied client,
there are bound to be just as many (or more) customers who are happy. Focusing
on the testimonials of these satisfied customers is a great way to refute the
negative comments that may appear on other people's sites.
In order to further negate this negative feedback, you could contact the individuals
that gave these testimonials to determine what went wrong, and how you can avoid
this in the future. Get the facts straight without getting defensive, and try
as best you can to remedy the situation. Perhaps this will show the client that
you care about their satisfaction, and they will change their mind about their
experience. Whether your market is Burnaby British Columbia or Mississauga Ontario
real estate, making things right with your clients who are unhappy is a great
way to mend your reputation and ensure that your business will continue to thrive.
Your unhappy customers may even contact your competitor to remove their negative
comments from their website. This, of course, is a best case scenario. Nevertheless,
nothing but good things will come out of your follow-up with the clients who
were unsatisfied. Perhaps it was that elderly couple that you sold the used car to. Stopping by their new home or giving
them a quick courtesy call to review their problems with your services will
reinforce how much you care, and this thoughtful
gesture may persuade them to change their opinion. Additionally, Business News Daily has put together some helpful tips on how to handle those negative customer reviews.
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