As a home inspector, you technically have two categories of customers.
Category #1: Real Estate Agents
Most home inspectors invest the majority of their marketing efforts into engaging with the real estate community because real estate agents are traditionally the most active source of home inspection referrals.
Category #2: Homebuyers, Home Sellers, and Homeowners
While referrals may come from real estate agents, most often the transaction is between the inspector and the homebuyer, making the homebuyer your customer, too…a customer with whom you’ve now developed a level of trust.
Yet many inspectors miss out on the potential for additional revenue coming from those homebuying customers as they begin their journey of home ownership.
“What potential?” you may ask. “That customer may not buy another house for ten years!”
That may be true, but there are other areas that represent potential, including referrals to friends, family members, coworkers, and others who may be ready to buy a home. If your customer was impressed with the home inspection you delivered, they’ll be happy to tell their contacts about you…provided they remember you. And it’s virtually guaranteed that if you don’t proactively stay in touch with even your happiest homebuyer, they’ll forget your name in a matter of months.
This is where email can be helpful as a tool to maintain contact and top-of-mind awareness with past homebuying customers. Here are a few ideas for using email effectively to interact with homeowners with whom you’ve already had a successful relationship:
Email Ideas for Homeowners
• Homeownership brings with it home maintenance requirements. Some homeowners may be clueless about how to properly maintain a home, while more seasoned homeowners may have a better handle on what needs to be done. But EVERY homeowner can benefit from reminders of maintenance items that should be completed seasonally. This represents a good opportunity for you to stay in front of homeowners and provide friendly, useful information.
• Some inspectors offer ancillary services, such as maintenance inspections, mold inspections, radon inspections, and the like. If you provide services like these, it’s a natural opportunity to offer them to past customers with whom you’ve already developed trust. With email, you can provide reminders, offer limited-time special deals, and recount stories about other homeowners you’ve helped. For example, if you helped one of your customers discover and mitigate mold in their house, that story would likely have an impact on your other customers, especially when a limited-time discount on a mold inspection is offered in conjunction with the story.
• The simple practice of staying in touch with home inspection customers can be enough to give you a competitive advantage with those customers and possibly their contact network, as well. That can help you maintain your status of “preferred home inspector” long after the inspection is performed.
Of course, a consistent communication plan with real estate agents is important. But communicating with your homebuying customers can yield good results too – and for a very modest investment of time and/or money.
Contact us for more ideas on using email effectively…we’re always glad to help.