In a recent study, researchers documented some surprising changes concerning the typical consumer’s interaction with the customer service departments of prominent companies.
 
Researchers found that consumers…
 
Are Less Patient: More than 60% of consumers say that they will stop buying from a brand after a poor customer service experience. This is up from 33% two years ago.
 
Want Answers Quickly: Gone are the days where consumers tolerated lengthy hold times, inefficient messaging tools, and drawn-out resolutions for their issues. Over 50% of consumers give up on companies who don’t provide answers to their problems within 10 minutes.
 
Are More Vocal: About 40% consumers say that after a poor customer service experience, they will share that experience online. And 49% also say they will tell their friends and family to stop buying from the brand.
 
Love Turnarounds: The resolution of a problem from a dissatisfied customer makes that customer more loyal than if the brand had never made the initial mistake. An incredible 97% of consumers say that if a brand turned a poor experience into a positive one by solving their problems immediately, they would do business with that brand again.
 
If you’re in the business of providing agents a service for a fee, the same attitudes showing up in this research will be present in how agents make their retention decisions.
 
There’s a lot of pressure for brokers to respond quickly, customize responses to problems, and find creative solutions.
 
But there’s a special place of redemption for those who notice missteps and stick with a problem until it is truly resolved. 
 
In the end, those owners who super-service their agents have a significant advantage because most of their competitors can’t operate at this level.

It’s common for real estate companies to lose 25% of their agents each year.

Retirements, new agent attrition, losses to competitors, and other factors all naturally contribute to a diminishing base of productive agents.

Much can be done on the retention side of the equation to reduce your attrition percentage, but nothing can fully replace the role recruiting plays in replenishing your ranks.

It’s why most brokers track a “net hire” metric. From an agent count perspective, you can quickly tell if you’re growing or shrinking.

But some leaders are not stopping there. They’re adding a per person productivity (PPP) metric.

One CEO I spoke with last week said,

In the last week, we broke even on net hires—25 hires and 25 losses. But the average agent leaving was doing 4 transactions/year while the average new incoming agent  was completing 11 transactions per year.   

Since 91% of our business is done by the top 50% of our agents, it’s important that we’re constantly upgrading our agent base to meet our customers’ desire to work with competent agents.

Do some quick math on your hires for the year.  

Calculate net hires and then go a step further and calculate your “net PPP metric.”

Quality matters, and you can’t improve what you’re not willing to measure.

Forrester Research conducts an annual consumer satisfaction survey called the Consumer Experience Index.

In the survey, they ask customers to rate their experiences with various companies from 1 (very bad) to 7 (very good).

When collecting the data, they categorize the responses into three groups:

Group A (champions)—clients with a score of 7.
Group B (positives)—clients with scores 4 – 6.
Group C (negatives)—clients with scores 1 – 3.

When presented with this data, companies either attempt to eliminate the negatives (turn 1 – 3s into 4s or higher) or elevate the positives (turn 4 – 6s into 7s).

Which is a better strategy?

On almost every performance metric, spending time and effort on “elevating the positives” produces better results.

In fact, Forrester estimates that companies earn 9 times more revenue by “elevating the positives” than by attempting to “eliminate the negatives.”

Is it possible this consumer retention principle would also apply to agent retention?  

I don’t know of anyone who has specifically researched this topic, but I suspect it would.

Since you only have a limited amount of time to spend on retention, dedicate it on trying to convert your positives into champions.

It will produce a better return than trying to save your negatives.

In a post from the archive, Dave Mashburn reminds us of the natural tension between innovation and stability.
 
At times we emphasize the topic of stability and the unchanging fundamentals of human nature, and then we refer to the vital importance of innovation. 
 
How could these seemingly contradictory messages co-exist?
 
They can be viewed as opposite ends of a continuum, with blind innovation on one end, and rigid stability on the other.
 
Psychologically, the need for more stability is often driven by fear. 
 
Whereas a constant need for innovation is often driven by impatience, lack of persistence, and impulsivity.
 
When developing your recruiting message, it’s helpful to understand where you and your organization falls on this continuum.
 
Are you always fighting for stability and resisting change? 
 
Or are you always on the search for innovation to make things work better? 
 
Where you personally fall on the continuum will affect your recruiting message and this is where a disconnect can occur.
 
Pitching an innovation message to a recruiting prospect who wants stability will feel scary.
 
Pitching a stability message to person who’s passionate about innovation will sound stale.
 
As always, it’s important to become a student of your prospect’s mindset.

Adjusting your message to mirror how the other person is experiencing their work and would potentially experience change, will result in a deeper connection.

In a recent newsletter, executive coach Todd Herman explained the typical growth stages of a business.
 
Before leaving the build-up stage, operations should have been systematized and you will start feeling like you’re no longer the hamster on the wheel.
 
One of the most common experiences for the business owner at this stage is more time! Remember that?
 
But you can only move on to the scale-up stage once you’ve built a solid infrastructure and you’re confident you can grow the business without breaking it.
 
This transition point is scary because it requires you to invest time, resources, and money on attracting talented people into your business.
 
In turn, your profit percentage will decrease (those people and systems cost money), but your revenues should grow because of the increased working capacity of the team.

The objective of the scale-up stage is to build a system where you’re getting a smaller percentage of a growing revenue pie. In the end, you’ll put more money in your pocket.
 
But this whole concept falls apart if you’re not able to recruit and develop talented individuals.
 
Your personal performance and execution skills got you through the build-up stage. 
 
Your personal leadership skills will be what gets you through the scale-up stage.
 
If you’re starting to scale-up, you must make the execution to leadership transition. Or, you’ll fail.

According to Gretchen Rubin, expectations come from two sources.

There are external expectations (what others are asking you to do) and internal expectations (what you’re asking yourself to do).

Individuals tend to respond to expectations in one of the following ways:

1. Some tend to readily meet both outer expectations and inner expectations without much drama (…just tell me what needs to done, and I’ll do it.).

2. Some tend to question outer expectations, but readily meet inner expectations (I’ll comply, if you convince me why).

3. Some tend to readily meet outer expectations but have trouble meeting inner expectations (…you can count on me, and I’m counting on you to count on me).

4. Some tend to resist outer expectations and also resist inner expectations
(…you can’t make me, and neither can I).

From an expectation perspective, Rubin would suggest that each of your agents is going to primarily fall into one of these four categories.

While this may be an oversimplification of how individuals view their work, it is a viewpoint worth considering.

How an agent responds to expectations will have a significant effect on issues such as training, coaching, and accountability.

Because setting and meeting expectations are so critical to business success, it’s helpful to have a framework for understanding yourself, those on your team, and your recruiting prospects.

Lane Sutton is the employer brand strategist for Walmart, and he recently shared his thoughts on the importance of communicating your company’s story with recruiting prospects.
 
You can be the coolest company, coolest tech, or have the coolest recruitment marketing, but the company with the best story usually wins.
 
Story sells. Story convinces. Story tells the why and speaks for itself. More than any perks or fun office space.
 
People join companies for the leadership and the people with whom they’ll be working.
 
They want to hear about the career growth they can have, the impact they can make, and the projects they’ll be working on.
 
They want to see themselves there and feel like they can “fit” with the culture.
 
Having a great story and being a great storyteller levels the recruitment playing field.
 
With a bit of creativity and some passion for your unique place in the real estate industry, you can successfully compete against anyone.

In a recent podcast, Steve Murray explains how the real estate industry is becoming increasingly segmented.
 
It used to be the segmentation was that brokers offered a graduated commission plan…or a 100% commission/flat-fee plan.
 
Now, agents have 8 to10 brokerage models from which to choose.
 
Even 10 years ago, the traditional brokerage model offering to agents (technology, marketing, office space, managerial oversight, deal doctoring, coaching, mentoring, etc.) captured 70% of agents. 
 
But this is no longer the case as the market has segmented like never before.
 
What does this mean for recruiting? 
 
The competition for productive agents will continue to be intense.
 
Agents will be more educated than ever and aware of what’s being offered in the marketplace.
 
Your ability to win will depend on how well you can carve out and dominate a small recruiting niche inside a large market.
 
A recruiting niche answers the question: We ___________ better than anyone else in the marketplace.
 
For example: We help part-time agents transition to being full-time professionals better than anyone else in the marketplace.
 
There are dozens of recruiting niches available, and they’re all waiting to be claimed by leaders who understand the importance of focusing on something clear and specific.
 
As Steve put it: 
 
Don’t get caught in the middle without any clear differentiation in what you’re offering. It must be clear. It must be distinct.

Most recruiters view their talent pipelines as just a passageway for prospects to move from a passive to an active state. 
 
It’s a repository of agents who occasionally get pinged with the ‘are you interested in making a move’ message.
 
Limited to these types of interactions, the attrition rate of your talent pipeline will be 40% or more.
 
It’s a lot of work to keep your talent pipeline full if it’s leaking at this rate. 
 
So, how do you stop the leaks? 
 
In a post from the archive, Peter Weddle describes a better way to think about your talent pipeline.
 
Talented individuals are already engaged with another company, so to recruit them, you must get them to do the one thing we humans most hate to do—make a change. 
 
You must get them to leave their current broker, turn down offers from other companies, and buy into your value proposition.
 
That outcome will rarely occur with hard-sell promotions. 
 
In fact, research indicates that the single best trigger for motivating change among passive, high caliber candidates isn’t what’s contained in the offer.
 
It’s a reality that working with you might be a better fit. 
 
And this reality takes time to recognize and appreciate.
 
The best talent wants to know what it’s like to work with your team and get a sense of what their work experience will be like. 
 
They must be assured that their personality and principles are aligned with the organization’s culture and values so they will be comfortable in its work environment and be able to continue their career success by performing at their peak.
 
If working with you is the best kept secret in town, use your talent pipeline to get the word out and change this perception.

In a recent newsletter, recruitment marketing expert Jeff Dickey-Chasins pointed out how most companies source recruiting prospects.
 
In broad terms, employers fall into one of two camps in their recruitment efforts: ‘posters’ and ‘hunters.’
 
Posters* are more than happy to post their jobs and wait for candidates to respond.
 
Hunters search out candidates and contact them.
 
Posters historically make up about 70% of all employers, versus 30% who are hunters.
 
In traditional companies, posters have more success in an employer’s market (low number of jobs available and lots of candidates who want them).
 
And hunters have more success in a candidate’s market (high number of jobs available and low number of candidates).
 
But real estate hiring does not operate on this traditional cadence.
 
New agent recruiting is best done with a ‘posters’ mentality and experienced agent recruiting is best done with a ‘hunters’ mentality.
 
Because they hate hunting, some recruiters pretend experienced agent recruiting can be done through posting.
 
Because of budget constraints, some recruiters pretend new agent recruiting can be done without posting.
 
Like most things we pretend to be true, these mindsets produce disappointing results.
 
*Note: ‘Posters’ doesn’t just mean posting job ads. It’s any recruitment marketing activity that attracts candidates and produces a flow of inbound recruiting leads.

One of the most important open-ended questions you can ask during an interview is:

What problems are you trying to solve?

Having problems is part of the human existence and trying to get them solved is part of what makes life worth living.

Working on a problem focuses an individual’s life energy, and it’s often the well-spring for motivation.

What problems are you trying to solve?

When asking this question, you’re also gaining important information about what could cause a recruiting prospect to make a change.

Until you clearly understand the problem, your solution will not be relevant.

What problems are you trying to solve?

Finally, when you coach someone through solving a problem, a connection is built.

If the problem is big enough, you’ll have hired someone who has endeared themselves to you and your organization.

It’s a simple interview question with lots of great upside.

If you’re going to set a direction for your team, Seth Godin suggests uses two approaches.
 
One approach, which is tempting in the short run, is to wait until people are on the bus and then ask each person where they want to go. Seek to build consensus. Try not to leave anyone out.
 
The other approach, which works far better if you have a fleet of available buses, is to announce in advance where the bus is going. That way, anyone who wants to go where you’re headed can get on board.
 
In an industry where many brokers are desperately trying to serve the needs of their agents, many offices use the first approach.
 
This could possibly work if the real estate industry was not so competitive and fragmented.
 
In reality, there is a constant fleet of buses available—your office plus the offices of all your competitors.
 
It’s better to focus on the second option.
 
Do the hard work of defining your destination, then recruit those who want to join you on the journey.
 
Great leaders set a destination. Great agents are anxious get on board.

In a post from the archive, Dave Mashburn explains how the brain processes change.

If you’ve ever tried to teach a child to swim, you know how important it is to let that first step be their idea.

If you force the issue, children often resist getting into the water for months to come.  

Establishing the perfect conditions to get the child to take that first step is the primary problem to solve.  

The recruiting prospects you’re attempting to engage will initially display the same type of resistance.

Rather than forcing the issue, you must make your initial objective self-activation.

If the prospect doesn’t self-activate, you’ll be stuck in the very weak position of wanting something more than they do.  That never works.

How do you get someone to want to take that first step towards you?

According to Dave, you must identify the unique pain the prospect is experiencing and get them to believe you may have a potential solution.

The initial steps must be easy, involve small commitments, and demonstrate there’s path towards the pain relief they’re seeking.

This type of recruiting takes a high level of emotional intelligence, the ability to listen effectively, and a lot of patience.

It isn’t for everyone, but it’s remarkably effective.

In a recent forum, Roy Mauer of SHRM made the following observations.
 
The recruiting experience is, in essence, a communication experience.
 
Communicating with potential candidates throughout the candidate journey via more-direct channels leaves lasting positive impressions.
 
The goal is to communicate with transparency, responsiveness, and intuitive ease.
 
According to Mauer, you’ll best accomplish this goal by implementing candidate communication tools such as texting software for recruiters and chatbots for careers sites.
 
These tools foster better engagement among people who consider traditional forms of communication, such as e-mails and phone calls, to be inconvenient and cumbersome.
 
Of course, recruiters and hiring managers have been texting candidates via their personal phones for many years.
 
Do you really need special software to do this? Mauer thinks so.
 
Texting in an unstructured, ad hoc way could actually end up harming the candidate’s experience. 
 
Text messaging software allows companies to personalize communications at scale, keep outreach organized, and analyze the performance of text-based campaigns.
 
In the hyper-competitive real estate employment market, it’s increasingly hard to get a recruiting prospect’s attention and keep them engaged in the recruiting process.
 
Don’t make it harder by ignoring one of the most responsive and personalized communication channels.