Bad Coffee Blues

I enjoy a good cup of coffee, but every week I attend a couple of Realtor Marketing Association meetings where they serve commercial mediocre coffee. If I have time, I will stop at Starbucks or Peet’s for a cup to take to the meetings, but even then, I usually need a warm up from the pot of mediocrity.

My friend Barclay Law, Decorator and Feng Shui Practitioner in Asheville, NC, is much more serious about her coffee than me. One thing you learn when dining out with Barclay is – don’t ruin a good meal with a cup of mediocre coffee.

Have you ever had that experience – had a great meal only to leave with the taste of mediocre coffee in your mouth? A bad cup of coffee can ruin the best of meals and the best of service.

This got me to thinking about transaction follow-up. When the deal is done, what we serve up for the client can make or break the whole relationship. It doesn’t matter how great the transaction process was, if we leave the client with mediocrity as their last taste of us, that is what they will remember and that can cost us a lot of business.

When we give the clients the keys, where do we go from there? Do we tell them Merry Maids is coming over to clean up the place or do we give them a potted plant? Do we put them on a premium drip campaign or something canned bland?

And speaking of coffee, when clients come into our office, do we serve them coffee in a styrofoam cup or do we serve it up in a real ceramic mug?

The genius of building strong, long-lasting relationships is knowing and showing the client that they are more valuable than the transaction.