Customer Relationships

I am a big believer in customer relationships.  At the end of the day (to use a much overused expression) I want to do business with people that I like and trust.  I preach to my students that they need to get to know their suppliers and customers.  It’s all about sharing information.  If I trust you, I am happy to share my plans and it’s easy to get my concerns addressed.

One example I use frequently is a customer planning a big promotion.  If he gives you sufficient notice, it will be much easier for you to ramp up production then if you suddenly receive an unexpectedly large purchase order.  Similarly, when the unexpected does happen, you want your supplier to care about your needs and help you to respond.  Try getting the attention of a supplier you know only through the internet.

An area that is notably lacking in the implementation of this concept is residential real estate.  My wife and I are in the process of purchasing a new home.  We have found this process difficult and relationships are prevented or discouraged.

Playing Telephone:

Everyone enjoys the kid’s game of ‘telephone’.  If you need a refresher, the point of the game is to find out how garbled a message gets as it travels from one player to the next.  The first player whispers something to the person next to her and that person repeats what he heard in a whisper to the next person.  The last person in the chain then says what she heard out loud.  Inevitably, especially if the chain has more than a couple of players, the message spoken out loud is very different from the one originally whispered!

Real estate transactions seem to be set up to work the same way but there is nothing fun about it.  Instead of being able to speak directly to the seller, my words have to travel through a chain that includes, my lawyer, my real estate agent, the sellers’ real estate agent, the sellers’ lawyer and of course the sellers themselves.  Questions that could be resolved in less than 5 minutes can take hours or even days to answer.  In the case of our transaction, the sellers’ real estate agent nearly scuttled the deal by making up an unfavorable response to our request for a later closing date.

One Time Hit:

Because of the infrequency of the transaction (my parents bought one house 62 years ago) the players fail to recognize the benefits of developing a relationship with their clients.  My lawyer does only real estate law (I think, I never actually met him).  We spoke on the phone once or twice and are conducting our business exclusively via email.  I will meet him only once at the closing and then probably never again. 

I cannot tell you the name of the lawyer I used to buy our first house in 1978 and he (or she) has made no effort to keep in touch.  For our second house, I remember where the lawyer’s office was but can’t recall his name, he has made no effort to keep in touch.  For our third house, we used a very large firm, I know the name of the firm but again not the name of the attorney who helped us.  For our fourth house, we used a close friend, who we know and love, to represent us.  Sadly she is no longer practicing law and referred us to someone else.

By the same token, I can’t remember the name of any real estate broker we used on any transaction, with the exception of the homes we sold and purchased in 2008.  I remember him only because he was also our painter and we had developed a relationship.  He let the relationship drop and I never even considered using him for this current transaction.

Moral:

The message should be clear.  These people, by failing to make the effort to develop and maintain a relationship with me, did not get my business the next time around.  Stay in touch with your customers and stay close with them.  Even if there is no business today, why would you let someone else supply them the next time?

Getting to the source of your supply chain, (in my case the sellers), can make a world of difference in making sure the transaction is completed smoothly.