Everything and Anything - Important or Not?

What is important.  Three words that most of us would wrestle with for a few seconds before instinctively answering.  Then a minute or two later after some reflection we may add to the initial response or even modify it.  I would guess that after a solid 10 minutes most of us would be satisfied with out response, and only one thing would be certain: the collection of responses would be hugely diverse.

So what is important within the context of the Real Estate industry? Based on a combination of personal experience and time spent within the REW Community Forum apparently a lot of things.  Technology.  Foreclosures.  Marketing.  Conversion.  Content.  Search engine rankings.  Response time.  Doing enough.  Doing too much.  Not doing enough.  Contracts.  Networking.  Hours in a day. 

Something very valuable was intentionally left out of the preceeding ramble (of course, why spoil the punch line that early?).  The single, most complex variable that any Broker or Agent must deal with in the Real Estate business.  That variable is the customer.  The customer is integral to this system and the system falls apart without it.  So integral that the customer is easy to overlook and leave to non-attentive thought.  Do we really focus on the customer, or do we focus on the needs and wants of the customer? Are we proactive and thinking from the perspective of the customer, or are we reactive and focusing on the symptoms and by-products of the customer?

Everyone deserves a pass on this one.  Of course we focus on the customer.  Unfortunately, it is easy to avoid the customer's perspective due to the complexity of individuals and the amount of effort required.  But nothing great ever came out of easy.  I challenge myself to simply be aware of this every day, let alone try and improve my skills and abilities.  Heck, I'm a guy - I hear someone talking about a problem and I am naturally programmed to spit out a solution.  End of story. 

I would challenge everyone who reads this to take a minute out of one day and think about a customer you were just in contact with.  Think about anything, but look from the customer's vantage point.  There is always something noticed that wasn't seen, heard or understood the first time.  And quite often those tid bits pay off in spades.

Now, here is the best part: we are all customers, each and every day.  Enjoy it, because it isn't going anywhere.  Someone great at some point said that it isn't about the result but about the journey.  Think customer and improve the journey - results will take care of themselves.

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To conclude this post, I want to say "what a great community here at REW".  My time on the forum has been limited to the past few months but has been a great education, people-wise and technology-wise.  As an insider with an outsider's perspective I can say the staff and atmosphere both in the office and on the forum is great, and it is all shaped by our customers.  Keep doing what you do, the place wouldn't be the same without you!

RW

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