So, the past week has been a little shaky at best!
We had to move all of our company’s web servers to a new hosting account. I’ll save you all the technical details and leave it at this: if you’re ever changing websites and/or hosting accounts, HIRE IT OUT!
At any rate, there was an interesting experience that arose from going through the process of upgrading our servers. I felt frustrated and overwhelmed the whole time and was operating in a reactive state. More than once, I simply tried to cancel the upgrade and was determined to go to another company.
I didn’t know what had happened already. I didn’t know what to expect next. I was given a lot of misinformation from different people at the company. And after A LOT of frustration, some cussing in the office, and finally a competent manager on the other end of the phone, we were able to get everything moved over. They admitted a number of mis-steps on their part including not sending me the upgrade email which actually explains in detail the timeline, each of the steps, etc. They modified things without notifying me, leading me to believe they’d made mistakes along the way, etc. The only thing they did RIGHT up until about 3 hours ago was admit that they had done an awful lot WRONG!
Then I got to thinking about my own businesses and my own companies and where we had communication glitches.
I realized that in real estate, too often we take things for granted. We don’t let the sellers and buyers know what to expect next. This is often why they get freaked out, get cold feet, and often kill a deal. It’s not that they suddenly don’t trust us. It’s that they get scared, confused or overwhelmed.
Let’s look at this with a real world example… (and then I’ll share with you how you can actually use your websites and technology to overcome this, all still while leveraging your time and resources by using your website properly).
Let’s suppose you’re talking to a homeowner facing foreclosure.
They are most likely frustrated, overwhelmed, and have been told 20 different things by 20 different people. When you’re sitting across the table, they trust you and they know that you are the right person to help them out.
They fill out all the paperwork and start the process with you. You leave and let them know you’ll update them as things go along.
Well… the homeowner doesn’t have ANY idea of what to expect. Does that mean you’ll be calling tomorrow or in 2 months? What should the homeowner expect to receive from the lender moving forward? Will the courts be serving them papers? And on and on the list goes.
As investors, we’ve got a pretty good idea of what to expect and we may even take a few minutes to let the homeowner know. But, there’s a pretty good chance they didn’t understand it all at the time you were explaining it to them and they probalby forgot a lot of what you said after you left their home.
Not to mention, when the lender sends the next letter or the court serves them papers, they entirely forget everything that you’ve just told them days or weeks before. It’s not their fault. It’s 100% natural.
So, what if you used technology to keep them posted, to help them understand the process and to communicate with them regularly.
In a recent training on real estate websites, we talked about video a bit. And if you’ve set up your websites according to the previous post, adding video is a snap. You literally just plug in your USB camera, upload the vidoe, and then highlight, copy and paste the code into your page and BOOM… you’ve got video.
So, let’s suppose you do a series of 5 videos and a PDF checklist (You can convert a Word document to PDF for free at Adobe.com). This can help you keep the seller you’ve spent an hour building trust with OR it can build trust with a cold prospect and get a deal done by simply building a relationship through online video.
Let’s look at what this might look like: (Keep in mind, you can include an optin form on your website that feeds this information to the prospect over the next 7 days and it’s on THIER terms. You can ALSO add the homeowner to this sequence after you’ve met with him or her so they can still consume this information over time and confirm the trust you’ve already established)
Day 1: Foreclosure Timeline (PDF Report)
Day 2: The 5 Options Homeowners Have When They’re Facing Foreclosure (Video)
Day 3: The Foreclosure Timeline IN YOUR AREA SPECIFICALLY (Video)
Day 4: How to Talk to the Lenders When They Call You (Video)
Day 5: Financial Consequences of a Foreclosure vs. A Short Sale* (Video)
Day 6: How to Move On From A Foreclosure, Short Sale or Deed In Lieu (Video)
Day 7: FAQs (PDF Report)
*If you can get an attorney or CPA to answer the questions for you, even better.
Now, you’ve gone ahead and really established trust with the homeowner, if they’re a cold lead from the Internet and you’ve repeated what you probably told them if you met them in person, at home. Only now… you’re giving them a resource to go to when questions come up and when they face different things throughout the process. In addition, you should have a method for them to contact you directly from the website.
There may be other things that you want to address in additional videos. You may also want to transcribe the audio portion and have it written out on your website so they can read it if they prefer reading over watching video.
Ultimately, the lesson to take away from this is twofold:
- To really help your customers and prospects understand what to expect; and
- To build the trust, credibility and relationship with them so they realize that working with you IS the best decision and they’re not second guessing your or what you’re going to do for them.
Using online video, creating PDF documents, and continued follow through is the key to success in your business.
In the Website and Internet Traffic Tactics Class, we cover how to use video on your website to establish trust and credibility and stick the sale.