Dealing With Disloyal Clients

Have you experienced a "cheating" client? Plenty of agents have. Maybe it happened when your buyer went to an open house and decided to buy with the listing agent. Or maybe the buyer decided to close with a friend after weeks of you chauffeuring them to showings.

Whatever the case--and no matter how long you've worked in real estate--it still hurts to lose a client like this. There are a few things you can do to prevent this from happening again (we explored one method in this video), but here are some tips on what to do right now:

• Don't waste energy on angry emails. We get it. You feel betrayed. It's hard to know why the buyer acted as they did. It's very possible that they simply don't understand how agents are compensated and that you just wasted time (read: money) on them that could have been better spent with another client. Regardless of the reason, energy expended in anger on a disloyal client is not worth it.
• Keep calm and be professional. If you do decide to reach out, congratulate them on their new home. Pitch it your message as a service check and ask if there was something you could have done or communicated better to have closed the deal. Politely explain that you are disappointed that they went with someone else.
• Ask for a referral. It's very possible that your former client will be embarrassed when they finally understand how they wasted your time (assuming they didn't already know). If this is the case, they may be more than willing to refer friends and family to you to "make up" for your lost time and commission.
• Remove them from your database. If you find you can't move past the incident, deleting the client's contact info can be a cathartic experience. Use that moment to put the experience behind you and move on!