New laws and innovative technologies have broadened a title agent’s ability to facilitate real estate transaction closings in a multitude of ways.
While in person closings are still the preference of some real estate agents and homebuyers, hybrid closings, eClosings in person, and remote RON closings are growing in popularity and offer title agents an opportunity to attract new customers through these diverse offerings.
But first, an agent needs to explore what his customer prefers and why, in order to know how to properly position these options for future transactions.
Don’t guess. Ask!
Sometimes in marketing we make the mistake of stereotyping what we think our customers want based on their age, location, income level, or education. But the only way to know for sure is to ask their preferences, and then dig deeply into the “why” of that preference.
For instance, we may suppose that a young homebuyer wants to do everything remotely and online because they tend to be comfortable with technology, versus an elderly buyer whose past experience may lead them to expect – and be more comfortable with – an in person closing with paper and pen.
However, we don’t actually know what appeals to our customers until we ask.
As an ongoing practice in your title agency, there are three steps you can take to ensure you are providing your customers with the kind of closing that most matches their needs:
- Provide your customers with an explanation of each type of closing you offer
- Ask their closing preference and inquire why that type of closing appeals to them
- Survey them after the closing to assess their satisfaction and identify issues
To be useful to the marketing department, feedback from customers should be captured in a concrete way that can be accessed as your marketing professionals are developing their campaigns and communications with customers.
Closings are emotional. Messaging should be too
One of the benefits of gathering feedback from your customers about their closing is that closings can be emotional and stressful. Your marketing should focus less on explaining the technical aspect of the various closings and more on the emotional impact of those choices.
For instance, an in person closing allows the homebuyer to ask a lot of questions and provides that reassuring human touch you cannot access via a computer. If you are getting feedback from customers that being in person was calming, reduced their stress, or was a pleasant and momentous occasion, these are real human experiences you can weave into the marketing messaging.
For others, a remote closing may be a necessity because they live out of state or can’t take time off of work, so there may be a completely different marketing approach for that type of client.
To appeal to the broadest audience, an agent should have a variety of ways at their disposal to close a transaction. But once those options are in place, don’t forget to make them an integral part of your marketing effort.
Some agents are concerned about how they can manage a wide variety of closing options. At NTS, we are here to help! We can manage eClosings for you as one of our many service offerings that help you streamline and simplify your operations. Contact us today to learn more!