It seems that people are so busy with their careers, family and all the extracurricular activities that we have lost sight of how we must still respect others. Respect should be shown in many ways thorough out the day.
Voice mail is one of the best time management tools available today. Not everyone has time to accept every call that comes into the office. No one would be able to get any work done if they were constantly interrupted. The problem is that these phone messages are important to the caller and many are not being returned. One idea would be to inform callers the time of when you check voice mail and return calls.
E-mail is another tool that can be properly used for time management but can be very impersonal. The messages are generally in bullet format for ease of reading. The problem is when messages are communicated in this manner rather than face-to-face.
Recently, a large company notified many of its employees that they no longer had a job by e-mail. When you’re over-using e-mail you are creating a need for personal contact and your competition will be happy to fill that void. Can anyone think of a past customer they lost to someone else?
Lack of preparation for an out-of-town buyer has forced you to make showing appointments from your car phone. You attempt to overcome the embarrassment by treating the receptionist very rudely as if you are the most IMPORTANT person and they MUST help you immediately! I’m sure most of us have to confess to being disrespectful like that in the past. But have you ever noticed a direct correlation to how rude you are to the receptionist to the amount of time you spend on hold?
Showing respect is often confused with weakness. Sometime our egos have gotten us in so much trouble that it is hard to back pedal out of a bad situation that we created. Can you see how this might apply to a cross-sale with another REALTOR/Site Agent? Have you ever had a cross-sale go bad because of the other agent? It’s ALWAYS the other agent right?
I remember one evening at a fast food restaurant there was a man who was dressed in a suit and tie picking up his usual dinner to take back to the office (so he could work until the wee hours) treated me and my son (we just finished ball practice and not very well dressed) like we were very important people he encountered that day. He didn’t have to do that but it was “his way,” and he has built a very large company through earning people’s respect by giving his first.
I think the message is pretty clear. You’ll earn a lot more respect when if you have the courage to show respect for others first. Try it for 30 days and I’m sure you’ll walk away with a much greater appreciation of how people really do appreciate being treated with respect.
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