In the modern real estate economy, service clients, like lenders, insurance carriers and appraisers, are under tremendous pressure to grow business with less resources.
This reality has been magnified as the world deals with the global coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. To the best of our ability, continuing with life and business as usual – despite things being very unusual – is paramount to our mental health and well-being. This is where the value of client relationships matters most. Real estate solutions vendors should collaborate closely with service clients to understand their changing and competitive landscape. Ultimately, this will help them navigate the influx of digital tools and big data that will forever disrupt the real estate industry.
Challenging The Status Quo
Shrinking workforces and tighter budgets are forcing vendors to rethink business and marketing strategies to remain even more competitive – especially as consumers everywhere begin to pull back on spending due to economic conditions and social distancing.
In the real estate sector, property technology is booming in response and changing how homeowners buy, sell and interact with properties. Advances in big data and artificial intelligence (AI) technology have helped improve data-driven decisions. For example, an insurance carrier can do an accurate policy on a property virtually through AI-boosted imagery and aggregated data sets. It is because of innovations like this and others such as e-commerce real-estate software companies that have disrupted the real estate industry, which makes vendor and client relationships more important than ever.
These disruptive technologies have created a fierce new business model that challenge previous standards. Clients are pressured to quickly adapt to digital trends and data, and they require vendors to proactively act as trusted advisors. Doing so helps to increase operational efficiency and data accuracy by incorporating client specific best practices that help mitigate risk of financial loss or program failure. Building this rapport is especially important because the quality of client relationships can mean the difference between earning their business – or losing it to a competitor.
Knowledge Through Technology
Although creating and strengthening quality client relationships has always been a critical component of business, technology has placed customer expectations on the fast track – clients expect more for their money, and they expect things to happen quickly. E-commerce allows businesses to purchase software products and services that are either immediately accessible or delivered next day. Additionally, technology enables consumers to do research and be better informed about their purchases. For instance, social media allows prospective clients to learn about companies and their products through other customers’ testimonies. This kind of power allows prospective clients to make better decisions about doing business with you.
In the real estate world, advances in technology allow lenders, insurance carriers, appraisers and assessors aggregate data from various sources into one application in real time. Having data come together in a cohesive application can be challenging for clients, since each data provider may have their own format or nomenclature for delivering data. That said, it’s important to understand a client’s workflow and keep tabs on how the rapidly evolving industry is changing client needs. Working face to face with clients not only facilitates greater insight into their day-to-day business, it helps build a stronger bond between the parties.
Working face to face with your clients allows for greater insights that build stronger bonds. Nothing speaks louder to that point than when clients acknowledge what you do with positive feedback and comments such as these words from Keith Yamashita, Assessor with the state of Hawaii’s Real Property Assessment Division.
“CoreLogic has the knowledge and resources to help us understand the current status of our construction industry. All members of the Corelogic team provide excellent customer service and are always willing to address our changing needs -Keith Yamashita”
Customer-First Mindset
Rule of thumb: Always place the client’s needs first. Doing so enables healthy client-vendor relationships and enables them to thrive – no matter the global economic situation – harness future opportunities and raise the bar for competitors.
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