Realtor: A Case Study
Welcome to our second client case study of 2020! Last month, we introduced you to Samantha, a financial planner who was in desperate need of administrative support. Samantha was so busy handling appointment bookings, fumbling with meeting notes, template creation etc., that she wasn’t spending enough time doing what she does best - serving her clients. She knew the importance of a solid backbone (i.e., administrative support) and hired Admin Slayer to be the bosses of admin!
Introducing… Adam
This month we’re excited for you to meet Adam. Adam is a busy real estate professional with a strong social media presence and a hefty stack of followers. When he came to us looking for help, it became immediately clear that Adam is highly dedicated to his clients. As his business continued to grow, Adam realized that by juggling all of his tasks on his own, his ability to do what he loves (and the most revenue-generating activity) - working with clients - would slowly deteriorate.
Adam was feeling burnt out and lacking the mental energy he needed to keep up with the social media and administrative/paper-pushing sides of his work. His main focus when it came to gaining administrative support was to fiercely protect his time so that he could continue to provide top notch customer service. This is truly what sets him apart in the competitive real estate world.
Adam works in eastern Canada and his days are jam packed with many tasks, including:
Client meetings and paperwork
Maintaining updated contact lists using a CRM
Working with stagers to ensure his listings look top notch
Facilitating seminars (for people like first-time home buyers)
Creating live videos to educate his followers and clients on best practices for selling their homes quickly
Sending out newsletters with new listing information
Keeping his followers up to date as new houses come on the market
Setting up and being present for open houses
With all of this and more on his plate, Adam found himself needing support in order to keep things running smoothly. He was eager to get started with his new Admin Slayer team and quickly willing to delegate the nagging tasks that were eating up his precious time.
Social Media Management
Maintaining a strong online presence is an important part of how Adam connects with clients - new and prospective. He would often spend his mornings crafting the perfect message to caption images for new listings or open houses. Once he had the caption (and all of the emojis!) perfect, he would send out these posts separately among his various social feeds (Instagram, Facebook and LinkedIn).
In order to get this off of his plate and free up more of Adam’s time, we focused on his social media efforts. We created a shared space using Google Sheets for us to communicate with Adam. Within the spreadsheet, we include the content we are suggesting (including the image, text, and hashtags), based on his previously set parameters around what he wanted to share, and how he wanted to share it. Using this simple curation tool, Adam is able to review the content, edit, and update everything- all in one place - and then approve what he wants to send out on all of his social media platforms. This tool also allows Adam to review what has been shared in the past, when, and how, to ensure his communications remain consistent in tone and quality.
We then set Adam up with Buffer, a social media scheduler. This scheduler connects to all of his social media accounts in one place, so that we can easily add content, schedule it in advance and watch as his feeds fill up. How efficient, right?!
Implementing this system and process allows Adam to continue to feel engaged with and connected to the content he posts, while saving him tons of time (and ultimately, money!).
Delegate, Delegate, Delegate!
Soon after we started working with Adam, he quickly realized just how capable his Admin Slayer team was. He regained his time in the mornings to focus on client service, rather than racking his brain to come up with engaging content. He was able to invest more time planning customer appreciation events and thinking about ways to do even more for his clients (like remembering special occasions with cards). He also leans on his team for proofreading, saving him even more time.
Adam has grown to trust his team and greatly values his administrators’ input when it comes to client-facing activities, giving him more confidence when making decisions. He began to feel as though he was regaining momentum in his business where it mattered the most - building customer relationships. Adam loves having a team that he could rely on to free up his time, thus creating a hunger for even more help! Delegation came very easily to him, so in addition to managing his social media platforms, we were happy to take on more.
Fast forward a few months and we now:
Draft listing write-ups
Edit his tutorial videos by adding subtitles
Create branded social media content for his feeds
Prepare list and sell forms using CREA WEBForms
Follow up with leads
Market new listings using Listings to Lead and Bomb Bomb
Use Send out Cards to ensure client milestones (like birthdays, house purchase anniversaries, holidays, etc.) are remembered and celebrated
Help plan large events to thank his clients
Like any business, the pace of the real estate market can ebb and flow. To manage through slower times, we work to update existing systems and procedures so that we are ready when the markets are soaring again.
As Adam’s Virtual Assistants, when we’re not tackling his social media posts or working on listing write-ups, you can find us:
Checking emails (once in the morning and again in the afternoon)
Working in Agent Locator to check on new leads - A CRM that notifies us of new interested clients
Completing forms for new listings, sales or purchases
Working on daily social media videos (adding subtitles and posting on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and YouTube, ideally before 9:00am ET)
Providing support on projects, follow-up and events
Reducing Burnout
Adam’s team told us that he “delegates like a champ!” but sometimes, even champions need a little extra help. Like many business owners, Adam often struggles to shut down and stop working. As a real estate professional, he doesn’t have “normal” business hours and often works evenings, weekends, and whenever his clients need him. By implementing time blocking into Adam’s calendar, we work together to help prevent burnout and to provide meaningful down time for him to spend with his family. By creating a healthier work-life balance Adam can better serve his clients with a clear head and without the rushed feeling of having to “do it all.”
A Winning Formula
Adam has been an excellent delegator. By trusting his team to manage the things about his business that he least enjoys, he finally finds himself with more time to focus on building strong relationships with his clients. We worked with Adam to understand his goals, put a team in place, and worked together to exceed those goals and take even more off of his plate!
“I would not have been nearly as successful during the 2019 year without the help from you two. ”
At Admin Slayer we are so passionate about helping small business owners. It truly delights us when we’re able to work with clients like Adam to get them the help they need so that they can focus on their core competencies while we run (and keep well oiled) the behind-the-scenes machine. If you think you could benefit from administrative support, get in touch! We can’t wait to hear from you!