Your Real Estate Pipeline from Your Customer's P.O.V.—5 Steps to Boost Referrals and Repeat Business

In today’s world of robocallers and iBuyers, there is more competition and less differentiation than ever. Maybe that’s why many modern homebuyers are beginning to make their purchasing decisions based on remarkable customer experiences.

As a real estate business, it’s on you to create a consistent thread of ‘wow-factor’ interactions from the beginning to the end of your customer’s home buying or selling process. From every text, call, and email to each date, deadline and signature, these touchpoints are the building blocks to the kind of stellar experience your customers won’t hesitate to tell their friends about.

There’s no better place to start than with your real estate pipeline.

In this definitive guide, we’ll share easy ways to optimize your real estate pipeline for customer experience and win more repeat and referral business for your team. But first, let's take a minute to recap the basics.

The Basics

• What Is a Real Estate Pipeline?

• Why You Should Assess Your Real Estate Pipeline from a CX Perspective

• How to Treat Your Real Estate Pipeline Meetings Like Customer Experience Strategy Sessions

• Get More Leads from Your Existing Real Estate Pipeline

What Is a Real Estate Pipeline?

If you’ve been running a real estate team for any amount of time, you already know how crucial it is to maintain a healthy pipeline. But for those who are new to the topic, let’s take a minute to define exactly what it is we’re talking about when we say ‘real estate pipeline’.

A real estate pipeline is a team or brokerages’ deal flow and volume (potential sales) at any given period.

The key elements of a real estate pipeline can include:

• The number of open deals, with detailed financial information

• The deals assigned to each real estate agent as well as the combined value of the entire team for a given period

• The various stages that make up the closing transaction process

• The status of each deal in the sales and transaction process and any pending actions required to move the contract forward

As a real estate team lead, actively managing your pipeline keeps you on top of all the potential deals your agents are working on, including the size of each deal, the closing ratio for each agent on your team, and the agents or deals that may need additional support or attention in order to keep the pipeline moving.

Why You Should Assess Your Real Estate Pipeline from a CX Perspective

We all know happy clients equal high-quality referrals but with dozens, if not hundreds, of deals in your pipeline, it’s easy to get caught up in the numbers and forget that we’re dealing with actual human customers.

Most agents are great at showing up in the early stages of the home buying process. They respond within seconds to a lead’s initial inquiry and are always there to help answer their questions, show prospects relevant listings in their area and take note of every last detail, right down to the names of their prospects’ favorite pets.

With a significant portion of your agents’ time spent prospecting and nurturing leads, it's tempting to back off and focus on refilling the pipeline once a lead goes under contract.

But be careful. The closing-to-contract stage of your pipeline is a pivotal opportunity for turning customers into advocates and if you manage it properly, the ROI can be massive.

In fact, 92% of buyers trust referrals from people they know. Many of real estate’s most successful team leaders take full advantage of this fact. One NAR report found that for members in the business 16 years or more, repeat business accounted for 40% of their sales activity and referrals were an additional 24%.

Imagine getting 64% of your business from your sphere of influence (SOI). What could that do for your bottom line?

Don’t get us wrong, it’s great to track your sales pipeline. But working just as hard to delight your clients who are already under contract is also an incredibly effective tactic for improving your ROI.

How to Treat Your Real Estate Pipeline Meetings Like Customer Experience Strategy Sessions

While thank you notes and closing gifts are always awesome, a memorable client experience shouldn’t stop there.

When you sit down with your agents to review your pipeline, look for places where you can go beyond the typical real estate customer experience to set yourself apart from the competition and become the first person your customer thinks of for any and all things real estate.

Here are five simple tips for turning your standard pipeline review meetings into client experience jam sessions.

#1. Have a Clear Purpose and Agenda

Nothing is more demotivating to your agents than a meeting without a clear purpose. Make sure you share an agenda ahead of time so your agents can show up prepared. If you need them to come with detailed information on a particular deal, be sure to ask them beforehand.

Agent Pipeline Check-in

• What progress has been made since the last pipeline review meeting?

• What do you need help with this week?

• What new script, approach or tactic has received great feedback from customers since our last meeting?

• What are the most common objections you’re running into? How can we build answers to these objections into our sales strategy?

TC Pipeline Check-in

• What delays or missed deadlines have occurred since the last review?

• How can these be prevented in the future?

• What other challenges are posing a risk to our closing pipeline?

• What are the top customer FAQs around the closing process? How can we address these proactively in order to put the customer at ease?

Client Experience Check-in

• Which parts of the sales and transaction process have the highest number of customer objections, questions and concerns?

• Which parts receive the most positive feedback and engagements from prospects and customers?

• What can we do to get more referrals and repeat business?

Nothing is more demotivating to your agents than a meeting without a clear purpose.

In Preclose, you can instantly get the bird's eye view of your entire closing pipeline. Simple, visual status tags help you see in a single glance which deals are complete, in progress, on hold or in need of your attention.

#2. Set Clear Expectations

Your prospects have sky-high expectations regarding the level of support provided by your agents and TCs — and they should. Buying or selling a home is one of the most important decisions a person will make in the course of a lifetime. It's up to you and your team to make that experience as seamless as possible.

Just as every customer in your pipeline expects the best from your agents, each member of the team needs to be crystal clear on what’s expected of them during at each point in the pre-contract and post-contract process.

Agent Pipeline Check-in

• Are you prioritizing customer service over closing? When was the last time you checked in with a value-driven offer?

• Are you taking leads for granted? Do your cold and warm leads receive high-value information from you on a consistent basis?

• Do your customers know what to expect in the transaction management process? Do they know who to contact if they need help?

• Are you maintaining an open line of communication?

TC Pipeline Check-in

• Are your prospects constantly in the loop at every stage of the closing process?

• What’s our current average response time? How can we improve it?

• What additional information and services can we offer to help establish a long-term relationship with each client?

Client Experience Check-in

• How quick and efficient is our closing process?

• Are there any speed bumps in the handoff process from agents to TCs?

Just as every customer in your pipeline expects the best from your agents, each member of your team needs to be crystal clear on what you expect from them.

With automatic deadline calculations and simple, mobile notifications, there's never any excuse to veer off track. Preclose GO! helps you hold the entire team accountable for your shared success.

#3. Review Progress on Individual and Team Goals

Unless it’s a meeting geared towards team training and development, it’s important that you and the team constantly review any progress made towards your revenue goals. If you use a real estate CRM, you’ll likely be able to access the latest numbers via your reporting dashboard. Either way, be sure to ask your agents to come to the meeting with a detailed list of each deal in their pipeline and its stage in the transaction process.

This way, you can quickly flag any potential issues, roadblocks or agents who need support.

Agent Pipeline Check-in

• What’s your goal for the week?

• Did you accomplish last week’s goal?

• Are you leveraging your sphere of influence?

• How many positive reviews did you generate last month?

• How many referrals did you generate?

• Is anything getting in your way that would prevent you from asking for 5 more referrals this week?

TC Pipeline Check-in

• What’s your goal for the week?

• Did you accomplish last week’s goal?

• Are you blocking-and-tackling your time?

• What files are about to close?

Client Experience Check-in

• Are customers reaching their transaction management milestones in a timely manner?

• Can they easily view and access the information they need?

• Are we actively listening for both the spoken and unspoken opinions on our process?

• Where can we improve?

Always inspect what you expect.

With the right tools, your team can easily track important closing milestones from week to week to make sure they're meeting and exceeding the expectations of each and every customer.

#4. Tackle Challenges and Offer Solutions

A pipeline review meeting is an excellent opportunity for your team members to collaborate in real time. Agents can swap notes on how they handle challenges at any point in the sales or closing process.

Team leads can also share tips on how to manage customer questions and concerns and provide proven follow up scripts and email templates to help get prospects over the closing finish line as painlessly as possible.

Agent Pipeline Check-in

• What did we learn from our most recently closed transactions?

• How can we boost the number of reviews and referrals after our next closing?

• What is our next touchpoint for this customer? Have we added them to a post-closing nurture campaign for past clients?

TC Pipeline Check-in

• What processes do we need to streamline or automate in order to free up more time to connect with the customer?

• Are there any standard processes we need to put into place in order to ensure a smoother process next time?

Client Experience Check-in

• How are we measuring client satisfaction levels?

• Are we running customer feedback surveys? Tracking reviews and referrals?

• What can we do better next time?

Transform your pipeline "sticking points" into opportunities to exceed customer expectations.

Preclose makes it easy to drill down into the bottlenecks in your real estate pipeline and come up with proactive strategies that put you ahead of the eight ball with your customers, lenders, and inspectors.

#5. Recognize Your High Performers

The pipeline review meeting is the perfect time to acknowledge good performance and recognize your high-flyers. For example, agents who got leads to closing in record time the previous month should deserve recognition and depending on your team incentives, maybe a nice bonus or reward as well.

Make sure to also acknowledge any repeat clients and closed referrals to make it clear that these leads are a top priority in the business.

Agent Pipeline Check-in

• What can we celebrate this week?

• How many deals did you close?

• How fast did you close them?

• How many referrals did you bring in?

• How many positive reviews did you earn?

TC Pipeline Check-in

• How many files did you close?

• How fast did you close them?

• How did the customer feel at the end of their transaction?

Client Experience Check-in

• What was the overall feedback from our latest closings?

• Did we earn any glowing reviews or testimonials?

• Did we earn any referrals?

• Did we take every opportunity to wow our clients?

• Do we have an automated process to encourage client referrals?

Recognize and reward your top-performers to create a virtuous cycle of happy team members and repeat clients.

With a simple tap, your customers never have to wonder what's happening with their real estate transactions. Preclose GO! makes it easy to be the most responsive team in your market simply by meeting your customers where they are, whether that's at home or on the go.

Get More Leads from Your Existing Real Estate Pipeline

The increasing competition from new and old players in the real estate industry has cemented customer experience as a crucial point of differentiation. Today’s homebuyers and sellers demand swift, responsive services coupled with an unforgettable real estate experience.

If you’re ready to give your customers and team members something to brag about, start by taking control of the transaction coordination process. Preclose GO! provides brokers and teams with a home buying and selling platform they can be proud of.

Try Preclose GO! totally free and start wowing your clients today!