Help me out here... what's up with real estate agents and lenders that are relentlessly committed to service providers that are HORRIBLE?
We have a unique vantage point in many real estate sales and refinances. FIRST, Let me be VERY CLEAR....we see many great companies and people that focus on customer service, quality and timeliness.
But not always.
Interestingly, even in this hungry market, we see companies and individuals that could not care less about their customers. For example:
- Late, error-filled title insurance binders... repeatedly,
- Mortgage brokers that wait until the last minute and then expect everyone else to respond in minutes to the crisis they created (else the borrower will lose out on the loan),
- Surveyors that beg for business, then miss the committed date of completion... by days with no explanation or warning,
- Closing attorneys that sign off on error filled documents... then stall requests for corrective action,
- Home inspectors that believe they are financial advisers... and disrupt deals.
I know any industry will have good and bad apples. What I find SO INTERESTING are the number agents and brokers that will fight you to stay with these companies with horrible service ON DEAL AFTER DEAL!
And this horrible service causes pain, delays and wasted effort for the agents each time. But they go back!
I suspect some of this is just helping a buddy (at a cost to everyone, including the clients). And some may be due to, um, shall we say "financial arrangements."
But come on... at what point is the pain worth fighting to keep. Is a "Bad" better than an "unknown?" Is it battered-business syndrome?
And how much damage does it do to the agent/lender/brokers reputation each time their deals struggle needlessly?
What do you think? When have you had to deal with this?
Glenn, I really like what you have to say here. I can tell I'm going to spend a lot of time reading your posts. I have a situation where I'm going to be putting links on my homesbyowner.com/williamsport site to local providers. I'm being really choosy in who I approach. I have to know them, like the way they've treated me and guesstimate how they will treat other clients. It is advertising that is really affordable at the moment, but we are just getting started. Thanks for the tip.
Kari L. Greenaway
Kari Greenaway (Seconds 2 Spare, LLC) Hi Kari! You are smart to be choosy in your associations. Reputations are contagious, whether in business or personal or even kids in junior high. So many people want every customer and every contact. That is rarely smart business. Thanks for posting!! G
I can't help but wonder Glenn if there just aren't very many good service providers out there.
A number of years ago, I got a bit fed up with the fact that finding good service seemed almost impossible. I decided to create a referral company to help promote those businesses that took pride in their work. I developed a teaser list and started surveying people like crazy, especially at business functions etc. I worked it into conversations so as not to be pushy.
I was shocked Glenn...time after time after time I kept getting people tell me that they just didn't know anyone who provided good enough service to put on my list. They were disatisfied with their service people, and had sort of given up on finding good people and were settling for what they could find. Did I mention already how shocked I was...this repeated itself over and over again. I finally gave up on the referral business idea....not that it was the best of ideas, but I figured I would at least find a few good business referrals out there. Were these people lazy minded, or were they telling me the truth? I didn't push myself on them, and I tended to believe them after I kept hearing the same old story repeatedly.
Ugh... this makes me crazy! If we can't rely on someone we don't rehire them. We've had to make some tough choices, but ulimately this is still our reputation on the line.