As a real estate agent or broker, you don’t need to be told that you aren’t in the real estate business as much as you are in the people business. Keeping your clients –and potential clients – satisfied with your service and attentiveness to their needs is a critical part (and quite possibly the most critical part) or running any successful realty. In today’s day and age, a big part of that is being able to respond to your clients’ calls immediately. We live in a world where clients expect to hear your voice – or at least the voice of someone who represents you – any time of day or night that they call.
Real Estate Agents Sleep, Too… but a Good Answering Service Doesn’t
Unfortunately, the real estate agents who work for you are real people, too. They sleep. They eat. They (hopefully) carve out a little time to spend with their families. Just because today’s technology makes it possible for us to be on the clock 24/7 doesn’t mean that it’s healthy to do so. You’ve undoubtedly seen good real estate agents burn out simply because they felt like they had no time for themselves and their families.
That’s where quality telephone answering services can help. Most realtors aren’t in the position to have someone on hand to answer the phone all day, every day. However, when you have a phone answering service, there is always someone there – a real, live person, not just a recording – for your clients to speak with. If you’re working with one of the better answering services, it’s a lot like having an administrative assistant on the clock around the clock, screening your calls and determining what needs your attention immediately and when to pass on the message. Either way, your client knows that their needs are being addressed, even when their agent isn’t available directly.
Specifics to Look for in a Real Estate Answering Service
It’s one thing to have someone available to answer the phones. While having a live person in and of itself can help keep clients happy on some level, it’s much better if the person answering the phone has at least a rudimentary knowledge of the services you offer.
For realtors, that means having a real estate answering service that understands the real estate business. Now, realistically, no answering service is going to be quite as knowledgeable about real estate in your area as your agents are (and that’s why we still need real estate agents), but an answering service company who has trained their operators to have some basic knowledge of real estate and the kinds of questions your clients are likely to have is a big plus. Basically, you should look for a real estate answering service that has given its personnel the kind of training you would give to a receptionist before having her answer phones in your office.
Answering Service Care provides telephone answering service for real estate agencies and brokers. Our phone answering service operators are trained in the basics of real estate so that they can answer your clients’ questions accurately and intelligently. When you have Answering Service Care in your corner, it’s like having a receptionist at your realtor’s desk 24/7.
