25 Tips, Tricks and Resources for Keeping Past Clients

You've likely heard that old bit of business wisdom: it's more costly to find a new customer than to keep an existing one. Acquiring new real estate clients typically means spending on marketing and advertising — and it also requires a whole lot of hustle.

Your existing clients, however, already know you and trust you, and with a bit of effort to stay in touch, they're likely to hire you again. But what are the best ways to stay top-of-mind and what tools can help?

Those are the questions we've been tackling this month. During the month of October, RE Technology has been running a series of articles every Tuesday aimed at helping you retain more clients. It's part of our "Tips and Tricks Tuesday" series. This month, our theme has been "Never Lose Another Client."

Below is an overview of the topics we covered, compiled in one convenient place:

• 6 Ways Digital Home Management Platforms Help Agents Keep Clients Forever
• 3 Ways to Create Forever Clients Using Your Real Estate CRM
• 4 Tips to Ensure You Never Lose Another Client
• How to Attract Customers... and Keep Them: Think Like a Healthcare Network
• Unlock the Secret to Keeping Clients

We hope these articles were helpful to our readers. However, you should know that great advice about keeping clients isn't something we share just one month per year — we do it year-round! To help round out our client retention-focused month, today we want to share more resources that we've published over the years. Let's dive in…

First things first

Before you can lay out your approach to client retention, you need to understand why clients forget their agents and what they want from you after the sale. According to What Do Past Real Estate Clients Want?, they want to know that they can approach you in the future if they have questions or need contractor recommendations — basically, by being a reliable source of homeownership information, you inspire long-term loyalty in your clients.

That helpful approach can start immediately with something as simple as sharing a New Home Checklist for Your Clients: 11 Things to Do After Unpacking.

Tools and strategies for client retention

There are plenty of tools out there that can help you maintain client relationships. Before you look to plunk down serious cash, however, don't forget to look to your MLS. Here's a simple way you can use your MLS to stay in touch.

One emerging client retention strategy is called "homeowners under management," which leverages home management platforms. These platforms support homeowners throughout the homeownership lifecycle by providing a single place for them to track their home's equity, store important documents like mortgage docs and insurance policies, learn about maintaining a home, and much more. These platforms are typically branded to the agent's or brokerage's business, which puts your real estate business front and center whenever the client accesses the platform. HomeZada and Milestones are two major players in this space.

Another way to stay-top-of-mind with past clients is by tapping into their innate curiosity about their home and neighborhood. CoreLogic's ePropertyWatch automates this process for you by sending out periodic neighborhood and property reports to your contacts.

For a more personal touch, we've always been partial to the annual equity update. You can use RPR or your MLS's public records tool to create a home equity report, and then reach out to homeowners on their home purchase anniversary to share that report. It's a great reminder to past clients of the value you provide and of your market knowledge.

Of course, keeping track of that anniversary date means relying on perhaps the most important tool in your client retention arsenal: the CRM. But we think that deserves a section of its own…

Working your database

Your real estate CRM is a veritable goldmine. If you're not taking advantage of it to stay in touch with past clients, check out the following articles to learn how to:

• Build a healthy repeat and referral business
• Create a follow-up process
• Use your CRM like a top-producing agent

Email is one of the easiest ways to keep in touch with former clients, especially when automated, and most CRMs offer email functionality. Here are some email campaign ideas you can try to retain existing clients:

• Example of a Homebuyer Follow-Up Campaign
• 6 Emails You Can Use to Stay in Touch with Past Clients

Communication is key

We've talked a lot about keeping in touch with past clients, but if that's something you've let fall by the wayside, never fear! It's never too late to reach out. In fact, one agent didn't reach out to a client in 12 years, but when she did, she earned $10,000 from a personal note!

If you need a little help in reaching out to contacts you've fallen out of touch with, see: The Ultimate Script for Reconnecting with Past Real Estate Clients.

For more strategies for staying in touch, see:

• 6 scripts to keep in touch and get more business
• The 8-step outreach plan to use with buyers during their first year of homeownership

Finally, what you don't say is sometimes just as important as what you do say. Learn how to avoid a communication faux pas in 5 Things an Agent Should Never Say to Leads and Past Clients.

More tips and tricks for your real estate business

Catch up on our previous Tips and Tricks Tuesday series:

• 52 Resources for Making Money with Your Phone
• 40 Tools, Tips and Scripts for Finding More Listings