You didn't exhaust all the customer service you had in you to get your latest sale to closing. There's still a little more you can do that will help insure that all your clients will call you again when it's time to sell their homes.

As you did before the closing, you can inform your clients of vital information they need to know - after they move into their new homes. Since they may be in their homes a long time, your info/reminder services can be invaluable. What homeowner wouldn't want to know when to put pre-emergant weedkiller on their lawns or when to wrap their outside faucets for the winter storms ahead? This kind of did-you-know data is particularly useful to first-time homeowners.

But you don't have to cater only to newbies. You can also be the leading information provider to people who have bought into a new lifestyle - like condo or beach or ski resort property owners.

In other words, use your imagination! What you want to do is provide tidbits that will make your client say "I didn't know that!" Not only are you a well of information yourself, but data that is relevant to homeowners is available everywhere, especially on the Internet. Here's a short list of ideas that will help you use information as the best way to stay in front of clients:

Get organized

Write key data about your clients down and then key it into your client manager software. Do this as soon as you get a prospect so that you can automate your contacts. Even if you do nothing more than send your clients an anniversary card - of when they purchased their home, of course - you'll be glad that you have this information. And contacting them periodically to make sure your information is current is a wonderful way to stay in touch.

The real purpose is to be able to demonstrate your usefulness after the sale and to show the client that not only will you not forget, you see it as your job to insure that the client enjoys his or her new home.

Editor's note: Be sure to back up all data that you have on your computer. Many manufacturers are making computers with cheap components that fail easily, and you could lose your whole "business life" in an instant.

Use links

You need personal information so that you can personalize your e-mails, notes or calls to your clients, and say, "How is Jeremy doing at his new school? Did he make the team? Here's something I found on the Internet that you might enjoy." Then put a link to a story or Web site you found that is relevant to the family.

No Web site objects to their links being forwarded, and you may find it a great way to show that you care.

What can you use for topics? Anything that will help maximize your clients' enjoyment of home and/or save them money.

For example, let's say that your clients have down-sized from a large home to a condominium run by a homeowners' association. Your clients should be very interested in learning how condominium home associations work. A great list of story links to forward to these clients is just about any story in Realty Times by Richard Thompson, a Homeowner's association expert.

Realty Times offers free headlines to your desktop daily, and many other news services such as CBS MarketWatch and The New York Times do, too.

Know sources

Keep a list in your browser of favorite sites for information. From Realty Times, to the Wall Street Journal, you'll find something every day that you can forward to clients. Most stories will have an e-mail or print-friendly version that you can forward.

Newsletters

Provide your clients with a newsletter. Make sure you put a great homeowner's tip in the subject line or greeting whether you are e-mailing or snail-mailing a newsletter.

You can personalize your e-letters by general homeowner interests or a theme that fit your interests. Are you a gardener? Then you would be able to tell your homebuyers about local pests, or where to get great deals on flats of flowers.

What if you are more interested in finances? A great source of information could be books. You may have read The New Homeowner's Handbook, by the Nehemiah Corporation with Barbara B. Buchholz and Margaret Crane. The authors recommend that homeowners keep a safety cushion of three to six months income on hand. Another way to look at it is to save one percent to three percent of the purchase price of the home annually.

Just remember to give appropriate credit. Don't copy and paste stories when you can send the link instead. If you quote from a source, give the author's name, the title of the story, and where and when it was published.

When you are the provider of the information they need and want, clients will have an easy time remembering you when it comes to time to move again or to refer a friend.

Published: December 10, 2002

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