Notorious R.O.B.

Few months ago, I asked “What Makes an Agent Good?” and triggered a bit of a conversation.  I was after an objective standard of quality by which a particular real estate agent can be measured, but ended up in a discussion (which is still ongoing one way or another) about professionalism, understanding technology, perspectives, and viewpoints, and so on.

Marc Davison, of 1000watt, even wrote a post somewhat in response and concluded:

A bad Realtor is one whose marketing effort for a six figure listing pales in comparison to a seven-year old’s playful regard for his $11.95 pet dinosaur.

A good agent is one who says “no problem, I’ll take care of that” when asked to compensate for the bad agents job.

As much as I like that colorful description, it still raised more questions than it answered and didn’t provide a framework for analysis.  In what way does a bad Realtor’s effort pale in comparison?  If comparing two Realtors with each other, does the one who puts out more effort automatically trump the one who doesn’t?  Would the agent who hires a skywriting airplane be “better” than the one who doesn’t?

Over the weeks, I’ve been turning the question over in my head.  Then I found the answer today.

What Makes A Realtor Good: Ease of Use

The answer came from a law blog I read periodically. Dan Hull of What About Clients is one of the finest commentators on issues of client service, from a lawyer’s perspective, but other service professionals can learn much from him.

His post, Ease-of-Use for Services: Will we ever get there? is an eye-opener.  Read the whole thing.  Dan posits that companies in every sector are competing more and more on concepts of ease of use, and advocates that services companies also embrace the concept, as difficult as it is:

Law firms, of course, have always sold services. And we are a small but powerful engine in the growth of the services sector. We strategize with and guide big clients every day. While that’s all going on–day in and day out–what is it like for the client to work with you and yours? Are clients experiencing a team–or hearing and seeing isolated acts by talented but soul-less techies? Do you make reports and communications short, easy and to the point? Who gets copied openly so clients don’t have to guess about who knows what? Is it fun (yeah, we just said “fun”) to work with your firm? How are your logistics for client meetings, travel and lodging? Do you make life easier? Or harder? Are you accessible 24/7? In short, aside from the technical aspects of your service (i.e., the client “is safe”), do your clients “feel safe”?

What if law firms–or any other service provider for that matter–”thought through,” applied and constantly improved the delivery of our services and how clients really experience them?

And then competed on it…? (Emphasis added)

A lightbulb went off in my head.

Following Dan’s lead, I am ready to advocate that what makes one realtor superior to another is ease of use.  Her services are easier to use for the client than another realtor’s services.

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In part 1, I argued that we are living through a “post-middle” era as far as marketing is concerned, where consumers can be divided into either Thrift-minded, or Aspirational.  Then in part 2, I examined some ideas for how realtors might think about marketing homes for sale given that consumers are either driven by price or by lifestyle aspirations.

In this next part, I’d like to look at how service providers — the real estate agents, the mortgage brokers, the appraisers, etc. — might think about marketing themselves.

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