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The cold, hard fax
Machines don’t take the place of etiquette, courtesy, and common sense
by Gordon T. Gorychka The other day, I arrived at my office to find an offer on my fax machine. What an outstanding way to start the day, you say. Not so fast.
The offer supposedly came in the previous evening, but the fax itself was the first I’d ever heard about it. The document was a fax of a fax of a fax, so what might have started as clear 10-point type was beginning to look like "six-point mushy," if you know what I mean. The seller was out of town, so the offer presentation and response would involve two more faxes. Each fax reduces the original approximately 7%, so a fifth-generation fax would be about 65% of its original size.
When I read the contract, I noticed a page was missing. I had no info on the option fee or a closing date. No problem–things like this sometimes happen. I phoned the agent only to get his answering machine. I then called the agent’s office–one of those automated offices–and reached his voice mail. I called the office an hour later and this time pressed the option for speaking with a receptionist. Instead of a receptionist … you guessed it: voice mail again. This would be frustrating enough, but I was racing a response deadline of 5 p.m. that day.
I am not making this up, and that’s what scares me. The frequency of these types of encounters seems to be increasing as we rely more on technology. Don’t get me wrong. I believe successful and smart agents use cell phones, PDAs, e-mail, voice mail, fax machines, and other gadgets that connect us with our clients. But smart, successful agents don’t neglect the human element so critical to great service.
A professional does not send an unannounced fax and leave it at that. How will the potential buyer feel when her agent explains that she didn’t get the house because the fax didn’t go through (or wasn’t readable or had missing pages or any number of other possibilities). Then again, I imagine an agent who would rely solely on a fax might just dash off an e-mail to the buyer-client that says, "Didn’t get the house."
As professionals, we owe more to our clients than putting an offer into a machine and "seeing what happens." If you can’t present your original offer in person, what about using a delivery service? If there’s no alternative to faxing or e-mailing, the least that’s required is letting the other agent know an offer is on the way. It makes sense to request that the receiving agent call the sender upon receipt to confirm delivery. A follow-up also gives the sender an opportunity to answer the receiver’s questions.
Presentation of offers is not the only area where an over-reliance on technology can cause problems. Just because something is convenient or fast doesn’t mean it is thorough, appropriate, understandable, foolproof, accurate, considerate, or that it is in the best interest of our clients. Yes, we need to learn how to use the technology that keeps us on the cutting edge, but we can’t neglect the human touch in the process.
Gordon T. Gorychka, CRB, MBA, of The GORDON Company in Austin has been practicing real estate brokerage and consulting since 1973. He has also written MCE texts and provided MCE training.
Photo © Corbis Images.
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