22 years ago, I had some internet-related business cards printed with only an email address contact. Besides untethering me from a much-despised phone, I saw it as a simple way to filter out the (then) tech-challenged. It worked, but it also caused a shitstorm reaction from a fair number of recipients. They were indignant/outraged that they couldn't just call me.
Flash forward:
In what remains of the real estate business, we've slowly morphed to the same filtering process, but for different reasons. (more on that if interested). I just built a 'For Lease' sign with only a unique, somewhat memorable email address as contact info. The long and the short of it, though, is that if you don't do email, we're don't want you.
>The long and the short of it, though, is that if you don't do email, we're don't want you.
Add SMS/text to that. Perfect.
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I got collegues, clients and family emailing me just to call 5 mins later to "talk about it".
When that happens, I don't pick up the phone. Period.
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(more on that if interested)
I'm ALWAYS interested in Real Estate related STUFF
>I got collegues, clients and family emailing me just to call 5 mins later to "talk about it".
>When that happens, I don't pick up the phone. Period.
Same. Lately, Craigslist sellers want to call and talk. Screw that.
>>more on that if interested
>Add SMS/text to that. Perfect.
Not for real estate. We want to force all interactions with tenants to be in 'writing' (email is sorta-kinda recognized as legal in NC, like fax). While sms could be saved as well, it's cumbersome and an additional process on our side of the transaction. Email has all sorts of add-ons now to file stuff away, ranging from gmail archives to Trello forwarding.
>in writing
We've had several tenants who have simply not read/understood their lease. They come back with all kinds of "you said we could do such-n-such" excuses. Nope, we said 'in writing' from the git-go right in the lease and in person. Now we have the email requirement to flog them with.
>morphed
Since the recession, we've had a plague of small tenants that are simply too dumb to live. Every one of them -100%- have turned out to be a PITA. One of their most consistent attributes is that they've been non- or anti-tech. Then I remembered my old business card trick and thought it might apply.
AND it's likely to provide better/faster service for a tenant. The shopping strip is over an hour away from the office. On top of that, we travel a lot. When a situation arises and we're emailed, we receive it asap and can react quickly.
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>Add SMS/text to that
And then they have your phone number. Invariably, tenants will try to wiggle around the 'in writing' requirement and just call you. I'm thinking that the only phone number given out (if any) should be the company's main number, where the receptionist screens the calls and/or tells them to email.
> screens the calls and/or tells them to email
BTW, telling a cold-calling salesman to email the info stops them dead in their tracks. We've been using that method for screening calls a few years now.
Quote from: Rumbas on May 18, 2017, 02:06:35 PM
I got collegues, clients and family emailing me just to call 5 mins later to "talk about it".
The flipside is the people who insist on extended chat/SMS conversations (the worst) or email, when a 5-minute phone call in real time would do it. This particularly drives me nuts when there is an actual attempt to synchronize and around here there is no way to know whether someone received your message, but with an actual voice call, I can verify in real time.
Every tool has its job.
Good point Tom. However if they can't convey their message in a text it's probably not important enough :)
..but that's just me.
Skype is my hated item for people in the same country.
RC is this your ad?
>your ad?
It will be.
Quote from: Rumbas on May 19, 2017, 09:01:32 AM
However if they can't convey their message in a text it's probably not important enough :)
Well, that's where I find asynch communication problematic. I have to go to my quiet spot when I'm waiting for someone and ask the person organizing this meetup "Are you sure he knows where we're meeting?" and the answer is "Well, I texted him."
Around here, that text message might get to me two days later. The worst case of this was when Dean Potter died. When they retrieved the body the next day and flew it out, his text messages all sent when the body finally got into reception... and some friends thought the reports of his death were incorrect. I would call that important.
I agree. I've received text message two, sometimes three days later. Email works though.