CLIENT ETIQUETTE

It unfortunately appears that many clients only see Estate Agents as disposable items that should be used and dispensed of when they have served their purpose. Estate Agents are appointed to find, manage, sell and rent properties for clients, often having to show clients many properties before they agree to take one, or in some instances do not even bother to tell the agent that they have taken another property with another agent.

I have a client who contacted me in February this year, to view a property on my books with her “oga’s at the top”. She rang me in the morning and wanted to view the property by midday. She was insistent her oga’s had to travel out of the country that evening and had to see the property before they traveled. She rang me at least five times in the space of an hour to confirm that the appointment would go ahead. I on my part dropped everything I was doing to contact the landlord, arrange pick up of the keys and hot foot it to the property by midday. I got there on time, had a quick check to make sure viewing would be smooth and waited. The potential clients turned up, but without the lady who had made the arrangements. The two expatriate gentlemen proceeded to examine the building with a fine tooth comb. After an hour they left promising that the lady who had contacted me earlier would contact me with an answer in a few days.

After a week of no news, I rang the lady, who said she cannot guarantee anything and will get back to me when she has news. I did not hear from her for a month, then out of the blue I get a call from her saying someone else wanted to see the property within an hour. Luckily the property was still on the market. She rang every five minutes to check if I had arranged the viewing, I had to tell her to give me the phone number of the person who wanted to see it so I could arrange with him directly. The viewing was arranged and I never heard anything again. A few weeks later, she contacted me again to say that she wanted another inspection from the worldwide oga who was in Nigeria for a short stay and wanted to see the property that day! I told her I was not too happy with the way she rang up to arrange inspections immediately then did not get back to me afterwards. She was quite defensive, but said she would get back in a few days with his final decision. I asked her to send in a letter of her interest for the landlord who wanted to know who this client was. She sent the letter and the appointment was made. She rang the next day to say he liked it and they wanted to measure for fittings that day, this was duly arranged. That was three weeks ago!  To date, she has not contacted me, picked her calls nor returned my emails!

This happens regularly and makes you wonder why clients feel that they can behave this way with Estate Agents. Even though I am an advocate of Estate Agents improving the way they work, so also should clients respect Agents sufficiently enough to let them know when they will not be using their services again. It is a symbiotic two way relation that must be based on trust and respect.