Why Relationships Are Important

In most service-based businesses (at least, most service-based businesses that care about repeat business, anyway) you will hear people talking about the importance of establishing and maintaining relationships with their customers. I have actually met members of a customer service department whose title is "Relationship Manager," and who are charged with staying in touch with the company's better customers, specifically so those customers will have occasion to interact with the company that don't involve complaints, refund demands, or litigation meetings. It's even possible to purchase "relationship management" software that will track all of your customers, remember their birthdays, anniversaries, children’s' names (and birthdays), and advise you when it is time to call, write, email, send flowers, or whatever.

Some of you, I'm sure, have been subjected to these attentions, and have wondered if they really do any good; or at least if the company makes back the cost of taking such measures in the first place. If so, I really need to introduce you to the Realtor who sold us our house back in 2002. Her name is Martha, and she is amazingly good at what she does. Technically, I suppose, the people who used to own the house sold it to us, but we would never have found them (or they us) without Martha's help. And we would never have found her if I hadn't played a hunch; we met her at an open house one Saturday when we decided to stop and look around, even though the house in question was clearly out of our price range.

Martha was the agent showing the house, and she was busy enough that afternoon that she really could have told us she was too busy to talk just then and would get back to us later, and we wouldn't have minded. But she didn't; despite the time requirements of dealing with the dozens of people walking in and out that afternoon, she made a point of asking us what we were looking for, what our preferences were, what we thought we could afford, and what we might be willing to settle for. The house we met her in was taken off the market a few days later when the owners changed their minds about selling, but Martha showed us some others, and after a few setbacks (sellers who wanted too much, being out-bid by other buyers, and so on) we eventually arrived at the house we ended up buying in North Redondo.

You'd figure that would be it, right? Maybe a thank-you note the day the sale closed, or something, but then we'd all move on. And, in fact, a lesser talent might have. But Martha didn't. We continued to hear from her once or twice a year, either by telephone or by personal letter. We kept her posted about the passages in our lives, and we sent a couple of friends who were considering buying houses to her; we also told her about useful services in our neighborhood, like Precision Fence, our wonderful picket fence company (better AND cheaper than any of the competition!). And of course Martha put us on the mailing list for her online newsletter, but that's elementary stuff; if there's a Realtor out there who ISN'T doing an electronic newsletter, he or she should have his or her head examined.

It might well have seemed futile, and but for a million-to-one chance, it would have been. When we moved to Redondo we had no intention of selling the house, or moving, at least before the mortgage was paid off. I did point out at the time that we might want to trade the place in for a one-story residence when we retired, and after seeing the problems my grandmother had with her three-level condo after about age 95 or so, my wife reluctantly agreed. Still, it seemed unlikely that Martha would get any more business from us directly before the year 2032...

And then the Eli Broad College of Business at Michigan State University decided to accept me for their Ph.D. program, effective Fall Semester 2008, and all of a sudden, we needed to sell our house. Anyone want to guess who we called? Good thing she maintained her relationship with us, wasn't it?