Comments on: Handling email enquiries

By: Alistair Helm

Alistair Helm — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 08:22:06 +0000

Faye

Could not agree more – an oversight on my part. I will actually amend the copy so others can benefit from your highlighting of this.

By: Faye Parfitt

Faye Parfitt — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 07:00:22 +0000

Good evening Alistair,
When I was at school – many years ago – it was the norm to end a letter with either ‘Yours Sincerely’ or ‘Yours faithfully’. However, things have changed today and the the salutation ‘Yours sincerely’ should only be used in a very personal letter i.e to someone you know. A response to an email is a business matter and only ‘Yours faithfully’ should be used – or ‘Regards’ is probably even better.

By: Ariel Levin @ Bayleys

Ariel Levin @ Bayleys — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 20:12:46 +0000

AMAZING!!!

These is the result I have received after using your format…see below

From: V
Sent: Wednesday, April 22, 2009 12:36 PM
To: Ariel Levin
Subject: Re: Listing enquiry from realestate.co.nz

Hi Ariel,

thanks for your email.

yes you are right. we have just started looking for a house in Parnell. Was looking more into Remuera, Greenlane, and Epsom. Didn’t look into Parnell as I heard about how land in Parnell is leasehold. Not too sure where the line start and end.

Anyway, thanks

On Wed, Apr 22, 2009 at 10:49 AM, Ariel Levin wrote:

Dear Vivian,

Thank you for your email.

The BC is approximately $3700 per year.

I recognise that you may be at an early stage of looking for a house in this area,

however if there is any further information you may require on this property

or any other property you may be interested in please contact me.

Kind regards,

Ariel Levin Residential Sales Consultant

By: Alistair Helm

Alistair Helm — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 11:26:32 +0000

Janice

I would on reflection completely agree with you – an email has a degree of informality and therefore Regards is appropriate – thanks for that.

By: Janice Quigley

Janice Quigley — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 21:50:56 +0000

I am not in favour of signing off with ‘Yours sincerely’ if you do not know the person who has sent the email, personally. A business letter should be signed ‘Yours faithfully’ but emails are less formal and ‘Regards’ serves

By: Alistair Helm

Alistair Helm — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 04:31:15 +0000

Cathy,

Just so there is no confusion, I am not saying that you must respond in 2 hours. All I am highlighting is that from research into the attitudes and experiences of those searching for property – their own expectation is that an email should be answered immediately – or at least within 2 hours.

Now this is a challenge for an industry that is so mobile – technology is getting easier to have emails forwarded or received on a phone.

There is also no way of “conditioning” email enquirers as in sending you an email on one of your listings they have no knowledge of who you are or how you work.

We want to help the industry and are keen to work to help the industry through such aspects as research to see how we can help you build your credibility and the great likelihood of converting more leads. Equally we do not have all the answers, so if you have an idea about how we could help you more then please let us know – we want to make the website better for you and the public looking for property.

By: Cathy

Cathy — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 04:17:05 +0000

Hi Alistair,

Feedback regarding email response timeline.

Speaking as a lifestyle realestate salesperson, I feel the 2 hour expectation for a response is far too short – I check my emails in the morning and can be out showing property all day and may not get the opportunity to respond until later in the evening when I get home.
This does not mean that I am not giving my vendors / purchasers good service, it just means that I am busy on behalf of vendors (which has to be good, in this market…)
I believe if you put pressure on salespeople to respond in that timeframe, then generally speaking, something will suffer as a result.

Those salespeople who are out there actively doing the work, will already be aware of the need to respond to emails at the earliest point in time…Employing An Admin assistant would be the answer, but this is not always possible.

I have found that if you build up a good rapport with your email clients, they do understand that often you are actually out there, being active on their behalf and therefore are prepared to accept a response that may not happen immediately, as they know one will come, sooner, rather than later.

Kind Regards, Cathy
Ray White, Kumeu