by Sean Hess (Sean@StAugTeam.com), Broker and Manager for St. Augustine Team Realty (www.StAugustineTeamRealty.com). Join us on Facebook.
Leave a message, I'll call you back. Unless you're a telemarketer. Or that crazy lady from Portland.
Why don’t Realtors answer the phone?
I can’t speak for anyone else but here’s when I don’t answer the phone:
Typically I don’t answer the phone while I’m driving in the city. Sometimes on the Interstate I’ll take a call when the road is long and straight, relatively empty and I can see for a long ways. My sister called while I was driving the other day (I don’t get to talk to her much), I let it go to voicemail and I called her back seven minutes later when I arrived at the office.
We can be on the road a lot. We are in a unique industry where all of our inventory and customers are anywhere but our place of business. They are spread out all over St. Johns County and into Jacksonville.
On Sundays. I’m pretty much available 60-70 hours a week on the phone during normal business hours, but Sunday is my day off.
Plus, Sunday mornings I’m at church. Once a month a looky loo Realtor will call me at 10:30 on a Sunday morning and be peeved I’m not immediately available. Tough.
I understand when a customer shows up at the last minute. I am human and will get you showing instructions. But don’t get out of sorts if I don’t get back to you right that moment. Travis McGee once said, “He may not get much else, but a man deserves his weekends.”
I don’t answer the phone when I’m with a customer or in a meeting with another Realtor. When I used to work in retail management it used to drive me almost to the point of madness when one of my employees would answer the phone when there was a line five-deep. When that employee answered the phone it was like letting someone else cut in line. If I’m with you face to face, you get all of my attention. Please, I have voicemail, leave a message and I’ll call back as soon as I’m finished.*
Between 5-6 pm on weekdays. What might I be doing between 5-6 pm on weekdays? Eating with my kids. So again, I have voicemail. When I’m finished with dinner we’ll talk.
After my kids bedtime. Which usually means I’m not far behind. For that you’ll have to wait until the next morning. There is nothing in real estate that can be solved past 7 pm anyway: no title company, no attorney, no clerk of courts, no lender answers the phone after 5 pm or on weekends, and most Realtors shut down by 7:30.
*If you’re a telemarketer you won’t get a call back. I don’t mind telemarketers. They’re salespeople too. But, I don’t buy anything on the phone. And, since so many of the telemarketers are trying to sell the latest internet gadget my question is…if your internet gadget is so great that millions of people will flock to my website, how come I’m in your key sales demographic and yet have never seen your website? Your web gadget is so un-findable you have to sell it on the phone? Puh-leeeeze.
**If you’re that Crazy Lady from Portland, Oregon, who beat up my profession on the phone, told me how she could sell it better, that I was just a cog in the wheel, a neccessary evil, etc. I knew it was you calling over and over again, but I still wouldn’t pick up.
Contact St. Augustine Team today, a group of Realtors who will always respond to text, voice and email. Or just call Broker Sean at (904) 386-8327 and leave a message if he’s not there…he will call you back. Unless you’re a telemarketer.