Word-of-Mouth: makes or breaks.

In real estate, like any other business, word-of-mouth can either make or break you.  When I think about what it is I want people to be saying about my work, one personal experience comes to mind.  I am going to share that experience with you.

A few years ago, I had a car that the heater core broke in.  It happened on a Saturday morning, and in the Valley most repair shops close early on Saturdays.  I called around to a few shops, and one had space available to take a look at it and get it fixed up so the car would be driveable until the middle of the week when a replacement part would arrive.

To replace this particular part, the entire dash has to be removed, so it's quite a lengthy (and expensive) job!

The middle of the week came, and I dropped the car off in the morning back at the shop.  I picked it up later that day, paid the (very expensive) bill, and headed for home.  Sitting at a set of lights I noticed there were huge scratches on both the panels between the windsheild and side windows.  very scratched as well.  Then I noticed the center console was This was not acceptable to me, I had just paid nearly $1000, and now my car was damaged.. so what did I do?  I called the shop and spoke with the manager.  He was very understanding, and asked if I could come back to the shop and show him.

Upon arriving back at the shop, the mechanic who did the work on the car earlier that day was still there, and not very happy to see me back.  The manager however, took a look at the damage and offered to pay for the repairs.  We went to a local auto detailing shop to see what could be done.  Unfortunatley, nothing, the scratches were too deep.

So he (the manager) asked me what it would take to make me walk away a happy customer, and I told him I wanted the damages repaired.  Seeing how the damage was irrepairable, the only other option was to replace the panels and center console.  So he ordered the parts (brand new) from Ohio.  He (the manager) called me when the parts were in, and installed them for me.

The moral of this story is this:  even though I got off on the wrong foot with this business, the manager did everything he could to make sure I walked away a happy customer.  Still, more than three years later, I go to that very same garage.  Some people might think I'm crazy, but the way I see it is that the replacement parts the manager paid for actually cost more than the work I had done.  He could have told me to go pound sand; tough luck.  But he didn't.  He wanted me to walk away a happy customer.  Because of that, I consider myself a customer for life there. 

I'm not saying every wrong can be "righted", but if you can make an effort to show the wronged person that their review (personal opinion) is worth more than a doller figure, that really goes a long way.

I recommend that garage to everyone.  All because I was taken care of; not just a source of income.  


As an agent, my biggest goal is to deliver exceptional service to my clients.  Each day I'm finding more and more ways to make that possible.  For most clients I have already dealt with, returning phone calls in a timely fashion and staying in communication consistently seems to be more than enough.  But with me it doesn't stop there.  In dealing with clients and potential clients, I'm not pre-screening for that commission cheque up ahead in the near future - I'm listening, and doing everything in my power to deliver appropriatley.  This is a business where it might take a while to get that commission cheque - so in the meantime you might as well do the best job you can, and build a solid relationship with that client, because there's more than a hundred other agents who'd love to have a crack at it. 

Leah Conrad - the best is the least I can do.