Non-stop Relationships

When you or someone you know needs a particular product or service, who do you think of first? For example, most people are not always buying or selling a home or property, but when it’s time to buy or sell that big ticket item, the first person who comes to mind is likely the agent who has stayed in touch. Even though a specific project or transaction may have ended, there is always value in keeping up the communications and fostering an ongoing relationship for the future.

 

We find that rather than having hundreds of projects with five to ten people in a project, what is more common is a series of multi-tier relationships. For instance, a nationwide  real estate group has about a dozen people that help agents learn how to navigate technology, and coach and help the agents on high-end commercial and personal residential deals. They don’t have 72,000 agents as customers; what they have is 72,000 individual relationships with their agents. Another example would be a bank, that may have hundreds of customers in a branch, but every one of those account holders perceive an individual relationship. Those relationships need to be direct, persistent, and positive to retain customers.

 

Just like with TV or the Internet, there are so many choices—instead of the three original broadcast channels to tune into, the consumer can pick and choose, and wants to know why any option is the best. He or she doesn’t care about the other 20 million people and their selections. It’s a key component of the Youniverse: if you’re competing for my attention, how do you speak to me, over time and distance, not as a member of a market segment, but to me as a unique customer who wants to establish a long-term relationship?

 

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