When Do You Stop Paying Attention?

Over the last week or so, Dan has been discussing putting customer service first on your website to best serve your web visitors.  As a result, I’ve been thinking more about relationships — whether they be business, personal or a mix. 

So when I recently came across an article by Todd Kashdan (twitter @toddkashdan), author of Curious? Discover the Missing Ingredient to a Fulfilling Life, I again thought about relationship building.  In his article entitled “Five Tips for Creating Happiness and Fulfillment,” his first tip is, “Nurture meaningful relationships.” 

Thinking on excellent customer service, I can’t help but think about intertwining meaningful relationships with getting to know the customer more to serve them well.  Getting to really know the customer of course means listening to the customer.  Listening means understanding their concerns and problems and trying to help solve these issues.  All obvious things. 

He continues under this first tip, “As soon as we think we know everything about someone, we stop paying attention.”  I think this is a point that needs to be examined in the real estate realm as it’s not obvious. 

We’re all guilty at some point of over-generalizing and putting all buyers into the same category and having the same concerns.  We do the same with sellers.  Yes, we do sub-categorize them slightly at times:  first time buyers, move-up sellers, relocating buyers, motivated sellers due to a job change, downsizing buyers (or sellers), investor buyers, distressed/pressured sellers and so on. 

However, every single buyer and seller is different.  Think for a moment about the same home buying family that is looking for a three bedroom, two bath home.  You can show them a myriad of houses with that spec, but different homes appeal to different people due to who they are, their needs, their wants.  Some only want ranch-style homes, some won’t look at a home on a busy street, some desire the kitchen configured a certain way, others only wish for the house’s front door to face east, etc.  How did you learn these things?  You listened.  Closely. 

Think more about how you’re building relationships with your customers.  It will help you personalize your service, solve your customer’s problems and meet their needs.  Whether you’re face-to-face, deep into social media (or just getting started), returning a phone call, answering an email inquiry, or advertising anywhere, you need to examine how you pay attention to your customers.  Don’t be quick to categorize and never stop paying attention.