Talk to anyone working in real estate, and they’ll likely tell you that one of the biggest challenges faced by agents is staying relevant to their clients once a transaction has closed. According to studies from the National Association of REALTORS®, while 90 percent of homebuyers say they would use their agent again, only 12 percent of a typical agent’s business comes from repeat clients.
While agents and brokers understand the need to stay in touch with clients, actually doing so is often difficult and time-consuming—until now. Lucinda Brasington, the head of Operations at ERA Wilder Realty in South Carolina, says that ERA Real Estate’s new program, ERA® Moves,* has been a game changer.
ERA Moves is a tool that offers agents two ways to stay top of mind with their clients, positioning them as local market experts. One of its components provides relevant homeowner discounts through agent-branded, automated emails during the home-buying process and beyond.
“Since it’s automatic, it doesn’t require much additional work for our affiliated sales professionals, but the value-add is incredible,” says Brasington. “The program understands and knows what products and services will be needed in the next 30, 60, 90 days. After that, ERA’s follow-up programs continue the outreach for the life of the relationship. At each of those points, it sends clients targeted messages with opportunities for greater savings and convenience, making homeownership more affordable and less stressful.”
The program also has a dedicated concierge service, which allows clients to connect all of their utilities to their new home in just 30 minutes.
“My agents are telling us that the clients are just blown away by the fact that someone can handle that process for them,” says Brasington. “One agent shared that while at the closing, the closing attorney offered to make recommendations about providers in the area, and the client responded, ‘ERA has already taken care of all of that for me.'”
Brasington says ERA Moves has boosted morale and enthusiasm among ERA Wilder’s agents, which is positively impacting other brokerage-wide goals.
“For the past couple of years, we’ve been focusing on capturing more client data,” explains Brasington. “Unfortunately, we haven’t always done the best job. But looking at our records, during a four-month period last year, we captured and compiled the information for 160 contact profiles. This year, in the same amount of time with ERA Moves, we’ve captured 620.”
Another early ERA Moves adopter is Jessie Lizardo, managing broker for ERA Reed Realty in Plainfield, N.J. In addition to leading a team of 27 sales agents, she independently manages almost 160 properties and still works with her own clients to buy and sell homes. With a decade of experience in real estate, Lizardo knows a good tool when she sees one. So, when ERA Moves became available, she immediately implemented it into her brokerage.
Lizardo describes the culture of her office as one big family. Everyone has each other’s back, and the most experienced agents never hesitate to help those who are just starting out. ERA Moves, says Lizardo, provides a way of extending that feeling of family into the agent/client relationship.
“It’s every real estate agent’s goal to leave a memorable impression and foster a lasting relationship with their clients,” she says. “ERA Moves provides an innovative way to create this connection while offering an authentic, real-world benefit to the consumer.”
*ERA Moves is just one component of ERA® Beyond, a community of national and local companies committed to providing the ERA network of affiliated brokers and agents with products and services focused on productivity, profitability and delivering value for consumers.
For more information, please visit www.era.com.
Zoe Eisenberg is RISMedia’s senior content editor. Email her your real estate news ideas at zoe@rismedia.com.
