24. My simple trick for handling agent referrals

Send us a text

It dawned on me that my referral process had room for improvement, and the missing piece was an efficient intake form.

Throughout my journey, I've realized that identifying small gaps in your systems can lead to significant improvements. For years, I relied heavily on networking and direct interactions to get referrals, but when COVID hit, everything changed. I had to find new ways to keep my business moving and realized the power of streamlining our intake process using forms.

In today's episode, I share how a simple intake form has revolutionized my referral system, eliminating the back-and-forth and making our process smoother. This isn't just about creating a form; it's about continuously refining it to meet evolving needs. From capturing key information to automating client outreach, I'll walk you through the entire journey and the impact it's had on my team and me.

Curious about how this could work for you? Join us as we explore practical steps to streamline your processes and make your work more efficient. The little tweaks can make a big difference, and I’m excited to share what I’ve learned.

As always, I'd love to hear your thoughts and experiences. Join our ongoing discussion in the Business Systems for Realtors Facebook group, and let’s keep optimizing together!

Business Systems for Realtors Facebook group: https://facebook.com/groups/bizsystems.
7-Day Funnel Challenge: https://orbit.realestate/cnfin7days
Explore how you can team up with us at eXp: https://alexarosario.com/exp.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 0 (00:00):
Today we're talking about an intake form that I have
not shared publicly, but it'ssomething that I've been using
in my business for probably thelast I don't know two or three
years now.
Before COVID, I spent a lot oftime networking in the community
and that was how we got a lotof our referrals.
And when COVID happened, thatwas when I really dug into our
agent relationships and focusedon getting referrals from them,

(00:23):
because I knew that regularnetworking wasn't going to work
during COVID.
And so the way that I thinkabout systems is always okay.
Well, if we're going to need tocollect all this information to
avoid having to do a bunch ofback and forth emails and all of
that like this really justneeds to be a form.
So in the form, we capture theclient's information, we ask

(00:44):
when the client wants to bereached out to, we collect the
agent's information, we ask forthe referral agreement and the
W-9.
All of that informationautomatically gets synced into
Orbit.
It reaches out to the client onthe date that the agent said to
reach out.
So if it's today, thenobviously it reaches out
immediately.
But in some cases it's like theclient doesn't want to be
reached out to until Saturday orwhatever.

(01:06):
And then there's a text thatgoes out that says hey, my name
is Alexa, so and so, agent, justgave us your contact
information about wanting tomove in South Florida and wanted
to see if you had a few minutesto chat, and so we can learn a
little bit more about your goals, something along those lines.
I don't remember the exact texttemplate, but it's super simple
and so, and then there's asecond text that goes
alternatively, if you'd preferto schedule some time ahead,

(01:28):
here's the link to my calendar.
And so that's where the 15minute discovery call comes into
play.
And so in a lot of cases theywill never even reply.
They just literally schedule acall on my calendar, and that
way I know it's taken care of.
But in the events that they donot schedule ahead, then I just
keep reaching out to them untilwe actually get in contact.
And so I would say that thishas been one of those things

(01:49):
where, from my team'sperspective, they really
appreciate, because they're notchasing me down for the agent's
information right, like theemail and phone number, and all
of that because we have builtinto our automations and in our
systems that when the clientgoes live, once they go under
contract.
Once we get the clear to close,we always update our referral
partners, and so there's thereminder for the team to go and

(02:12):
do that.
But making it super easilyaccessible by having the
referral information in thecontact record makes a world of
difference in just the speed ofmy team not having to go digging
for that information.
These are the little thingswhere this intake form probably
took me about 20 minutes or soto set up, and then, over time,
whenever there's something thatcomes up where it's okay, well,

(02:33):
we could have done this easieror there's a better way to do
this then we start building onthe systems over time, and so
this is one of those exampleswhere a lot of people think, oh,
you just start a system andthen it just runs and you never
have to do anything again.
That is true to an extent,right, like I never have to ask
an agent to email me the contactinformation or anything like
that ever again.

(02:54):
But there's always buildingthat's happening.
There's always things that youcan do to improve, and so
starting with a form like thisjust makes the process super,
super, super simple, and so Iwant you to start thinking about
what are some of the forms orsome of the ways that you can
very easily consolidateinformation when you're getting
referrals, when you're workingwith lenders, all of that kind

(03:16):
of stuff, so that it makes yourlife easier and you're capturing
all the information at one time.
So that's the episode for today.
As always, please join ourdaily discussion in our Business
Systems for Realtors Facebookgroup and I will see you in the
next episode.