The Importance of Reoccurring Customers

Back in My senior year of high school for my capstone project I had to shadow someone who was in a profession I was interested in. I chose to shadow a real-estate agent who many operated out of the Akron Ohio area. He taught me many things about selling and real estate. One of the thing he told me about that stuck with me was the importance of keeping in touch with former clients. He explained that when you keep in touch with former clients they are more likely to use your services again when the need arises again. This way every 10-15 years you would be getting the same people coming back to you looking for a new home and then over time you would need to find less and less new customers which would save money in advertising cost. The idea is to get enough people to be reoccurring customers so you can keep selling and making money without putting as much money into prospecting and acquiring new clients. This also has the added benefit of turning your clients into your best marketers. This means when you help someone buy or sell a home more than once they become loyal to you and are invested in your success. Therefore, when ever any of their friends need help finding a home or selling a home you will be recommended to them and you acquire a new customer without putting any time or money into the acquisition of that new customer. This is all fine and good but the really important thing in all this is making your customers remember you and keeping in touch with them. The agent I shadowed did this by sending out Christmas, Easter, and 4th of July cards to anyone who he had worked with in the last 10 years. Included in these cards was a handwritten note to show that it was meant for a individual and not mass produced and a business card to remind the client of his phone number and email in case he had lost that information over time. Overall, this process seemed to yield great results.