Courtesy, Phone Calls, and Showings

One gripe that I repeatedly hear from just about everyone is that people are too casual about returning phone calls.

Hmm… So I’ll start with disclaimer #1. I’m guilty. I can be slow to return calls. There, I admitted it. When someone leaves me a message (especially on my cell), it may be awhile before I get back to them. But I DO return the calls.

Early last week I sent a client some potential properties that met their search criteria. They did not get back to me until Friday, and did not tell me which homes they wanted to see (on Sunday) until a follow up conversation Saturday morning.

Which leads us to disclaimer #2. Last minute showing requests can be a pain. We were just over 24 hours away from our first potential showing, the clock was ticking down and we were running out of time to schedule showings for Sunday. 24-hour notice may sound reasonable, but when we may be dealing with a family that has made plans for the weekend — it might not be enough time.

There were 4 houses that we needed to see on Sunday.

Agent #1 confirmed our request within 30 minutes (!).

Agent #2 picked up when I called her and had a confirmation back to me in minutes (!!). Very impressive.

Agent #3 was back to me within 2 hours and told me the house could not be shown at all over the weekend due to family commitments. Bummer. But a good call-return, nonetheless.

Now we get to the reason for my rant… er, blog.

Agent #4? Agent #4 was an Epic Fail. Oops. A cell number, a direct office line, and a general switchboard number were all posted on the MLS sheet. 3 numbers to call for a speedy response, right? Not so much. A total of 5 messages, a personal conversation with a receptionist at Agent #4’s office, and NO RESPONSE for over 24 hours. The first call-back from was at 4pm on Sunday. And the return call did not address ANY of my messages (which I had been leaving since Saturday at 10am.) And please understand, my messages were very cordial.

Her message back to me said that her clients were not able to show the house at all over the weekend because they were having a huge party. The problem with her message is that my clients and I drove to the house when we finished with our other showings so they could see if they liked the location and setting (They did, very much). There was one car sitting in the driveway, and no cars parked on the street. When she left her message (hours after we drove past the house) I laughed out loud. If the Sellers were having a huge function all weekend, where were the cars parked? Oops.

As real estate professionals, we are at our best when we are serving our clients promptly and professionally. This means that we must check our messages at least once every 24 hours, and return calls to colleagues as soon as is possible.

What do you think is an acceptable time to return business calls? By the end of the day? End of the week? Or, by the end of the month? Leave your comments below; I’d love to hear your thoughts.