After my last post about Why Are You Ignoring Your Internet Customers, I received a comment from a real estate colleague that included a great acronym that I will incorporate into The Internet Squeeze. The post was about the urgency required to assist customers online, because even though they take the time to leave a comment or ask a question, they are not necessarily sticking around waiting for an answer. The window of opportunity is brief and it closes rapidly, so our response time to internet customers must be fast.
After reading the post, “Kevin” gave this concept a great title and acronym stating:
You must’ve offered superb training to establish the IRT in your brokerage Joe. Wherever I venture on the web, needing information, if their Immediate Response Team is on break so will be my further communication there.
The concept of creating an Immediate Response Team (IRT) to handle the leads coming in to the company is not unique here, but the title and acronym are. Every company leader needs to recognize the importance of response time on the internet. Consumers are surfing from site to site, and they have a very short attention span. They will ask the same question on multiple sites in order to gain the information that they are seeking as rapidly as possible.
It is my belief that if you are the first to answer, then the business is yours to lose. Establishing first contact with the consumer allows your company to have the best chance of gaining an internet customer’s business. All you have to do is treat them the way customers want to be treated and offer a valuable solution to their problem. Customer service through the internet is really no different than it has been in the past with respect to what we need to do to win their business; the great change is the entry point in the relationship building process.
With an IRT, we know we can establish communications with potential customers faster. Faster contact means a better chance at winning their business, so do not let this simple but important concept pass you by.
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