I don’t know about you, but one of my pet peeves is going to an appointment and then getting stuck waiting 15 to 20 minutes for clients to show up. It seems that in every relationship either the husband or the wife is a late person by habit.
To eliminate this problem, I make my listing appointments flexible. More specifically, I book my appointments giving me the option of showing up between a given time period. If you show toward the later of this time slot, both decision makers are normally present.
For example, if I book a time to show up between 6:00 p.m. and 7:00 p.m. to meet at a property, the people that have scheduled to meet are not late, as they are rushing to make it for the earlier end of the appointment in case I arrive then. In addition, if you show up with 15 or 20 minutes to spare before the end of this scheduled time slot, you can use this toward your presentation without worrying that the Vendor has gone and squeezed in another appointment derailing your presentation.
This format also gives you the benefit of not having to rush to avoid being late or having to make excuses because you were. In addition, you gain flexibility in scheduling in any additional appointments that come up.
The buyer agents on my team often complained about buyers always being late. I suggested this strategy to them, only book the time period little tighter. Instead of making the slot span one hour make it 15 minutes.
If you have buyer agents working with you and if they are working to their max, I would suggest that you have one of your administrative team members book all their showing appointments. If they are, slackers have them book their own appointments, this will enable you to direct your team to the most productive tasks.
