Maintain Excellent Communication
Maintaining extremely timely, well-documented, appropriate communication with your clients will save you a lot of trouble in the long run. Not only will your clients be satisfied with your communications skills, but you will provide yourself with protections in case a client were to attempt to file a lawsuit against you. When communicating with clients be cautious of the following:
- Avoid providing false expectations. Even if the news is something you know they don’t want to hear, be blunt and honest. Buyers and sellers need to know the reality of their situations. Ensuring they do will always turn out better than attempting to save their feelings.
- Let the client make all big decisions. Your job is to provide your clients with the risks and benefits associated with their decisions throughout a transaction. It is not to make those decisions for them. When you make decisions, they can then blame you when the outcome was not what they expected.
- Don’t provide any advice that could be construed as legal advice. You do not have a license to provide legal advice. So, always leave that to the experts.
It is not enough to simply be aware of these common miscommunication errors though. You must be documenting all communication with clients to have written proof they did not happen. Make sure to keep all email chains with clients. When you speak over the phone, send them an email recapping what you spoke about so there is a written copy. Also be sure to document all advice you have given a client, as well as the decision they ultimately made.
Doing this tedious documentation could save you from a lawsuit. So it is imperative that your records are always in order to protect yourself, and your business.
