Once I clicked on the headline and opened the full article, though, I swung right through the author's curveball: "Let's face it, brokers get more out of it than their clients." Really? REALLY? She states that "I can make more money with less effort by taking advantage of technology." That sounds like a good thing, right? Well, not so fast! She goes on to note that in our drive to be more efficient--whew, at least she recognizes that being paperless can certainly make one more efficient!!--that we may be putting distance between ourselves and our clients when we insist on doing things electronically, missing out on potential opportunities for some good old fashioned face time to get their signature on that fifth counter offer.
Okay, I can buy that. But only to a point. Of course, she's correct in the larger sense that for each of our clients, we have to find out how they'd prefer us to communicate with them--face to face, phone, email, text, handwritten note--and then do our best to please them in the context of getting things done and making sure the transaction doesn't fall apart--and not wasting their time, either. We covered that in my post on Leading with Questions, and it's an approach that can prevent a lot of misunderstandings. But the author seems to miss the point that, as technology develops and electronic signature capabilities have improved, that efficiency she seems to disdain is also of huge benefit to our clients!
And that sounds to me like excellent "customer service!”
For example, I've told the story several times of one of our top agents who was too busy last year to fully incorporate electronic signatures into their toolkit, so had to send the typical email with "Please print out the counter, sign it, scan it, and email it or fax it back to me" directive to the client. Within a few minutes after the email was sent, a response came back with the counter signed, clearly electronically! The agent called the client and asked how they'd done it. Turned out the client was sitting in the airport ready to fly out on vacation, got the email, had one of the signature apps on his iPhone--it's not just for real estate, you know--signed it and sent it back. Talk about efficiency! Unfortunately for our agent, the client then of course asked why we didn't use such technology to make our clients lives a lot easier! Can you spell embarrassed?
At any rate, the article's author then steps into silliness as she notes that her clients would be very upset at her paperless approach if she refused to put flyers in the yard box! Okay, she's making the point that we still need some paper, but I wonder if she's never seen those riders where one can text a number and get all the info, or those QR codes that one can scan and bring up a ton of info on one's smartphone or tablet? Hmmm, I wonder which way we're headed on this one?
So, yes of course, we should never force a paperless approach--or any other approach, frankly--on our clients. But why not be leaders in helping our clients learn how a cutting edge firm and masterful agents can speed the process and save them time on relatively simple, mundane things like signing a document, while we focus our face and phone time on strategy and positioning? Then, with that highly efficient and thus totally effective transaction closed, you and your client will both have plenty of time to toast the closing at your favorite restaurant, or even the cigar bar.
Talk about means to an end!
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