The buyer who first e-mailed you from your web site, eventually came to your
city and ultimately had his offer on a home accepted with your guidance. Now
the home is in escrow and the buyer is back in his home state preparing to
either sell his house there or, it’s already sold and he’s packing.
You’d like to include something useful in your e-mails to him other than
periodic recaps of escrow progress, but what? Well, why not a list of links or
phone numbers for services he’ll need after moving in? You already know much
of what he’ll be needing from past conversations in which he said he’d be
replacing the window coverings, carpeting, roof, landscaping, or paint, etc.
Maybe he has to locally store belongings for a while until escrow closes.
These are your hints for what web sites might be useful. These are also
valuable links that you might permanently place in your web site for
everyone.
To find local web sites of vendors for any service, use any search engine.
Say you want "window shutters." You’d enter the following key words: "(city
name) (state) window shutters." Seek familiar franchised brand names for
services, such as Standard Brands Paint, U-Haul Storage, etc. In most cities
you’d get a list of retail stores and decorators, inclding the web site of the
local franchisee for Budget Blinds, Inc. at http://www.budgetblinds.com. (For your
off-line clients, give local phone numbers instead. ) For Budget Blinds it
would be 800-420-5374. Do the same for other services. Be sure to include
contact information for local utilities, too.
Why focus on nationally-known, full-service franchised firms? Because such
firms generally make it a "no-brainer" for your client. Nationally-backed
franchisees carry all the major national brands in almost all styles and price
ranges, the latter being comparable to prices of the big Home stores. As a
result, your client gets expert shutter measuring and installation basically
for free. The client avoids a frustrating experience during the hectic
transferring period, and ends up with a guaranteed window treatment job that he
likely couldn’t do so well himself. It makes the client more comfortable.
Above all, in selecting your links, focus on firms that can save your
client time as well as money while he’s busy getting settled. When
possible, offer a choice of several vendors and let the client choose.
Should something go wrong, you don’t want to be blamed for recommending one
source over another.
Sending such useful links (or phone numbers) to services lets the client
pre-arrange many needed tasks even before he moves in. This saves him time and
makes you stand out in his mind. Ideally, when he gets ready to move
again in a few years, he’ll return to you because of the extraordinary help
that you gave him during a tumultuous time.
Related Articles:
How Virtual Agents Use E-mail
E-mail - Use It or Lose It
Seven Annoying E-mail No-No's
How To Personalize Your Online Business With E-mail Merge
E-Etiquette: How to Keep Your Prospects from Hitting the Delete Button
Published: May 5, 1999
Use of this article without permission is a violation of federal copyright laws.
Bill Koelzer is a Web marketing consultant to web-proficient agents nationwide. He is co-author, with Barbara Cox, Ph.D., of the Prentice-Hall books, 