When you think about a doctor, do you think they try to sell you stuff you don’t want or need?  Or, do you think their position is above trying to sell stuff?  I encountered this very quandary recently and I thought the setup was worth going over and how it relates to how Deerwood Realty looks to serve more than sell.

I’ve been dealing with a foot issue for at least 21 days.  One night I woke up in the middle of the night in intense pain.  The next morning I went to urgent care.  The office took me immediately.  Within 2 hours I was in, had x rays, had a diagnoses, and was out.  Per the doctor’s instructions, should my foot continue to hurt for more than 4 days, I should call my primary care doctor.

4 days passed and the pain was still pretty intense.  I called the doctor’s office for an appointment.  To my non surprise, it would take 4 additional days before the doctor could see me.  As you can already see, there is definitely a time penalty when seeing my primary physician.  My foot is in some serious pain, I can barely walk on it, and yet I have to wait 4 days just to see the Dr.   That’s pretty ridiculous, but I agreed.

When I went to the doctor, they were sure to take the co-pay up front.  The doctor looked at my foot for about 10 minutes before he said that I should get an MRI.  Here’s where the sales came in.  The form the doctor’s office gave me said that I was to wait 2 days for them to call me to set up an appointment.  That means that I am now 6 days from getting treatment for my foot, and since there was a weekend in that 2 days, I’m looking at a minimum of 8 days before I get an MRI.  My foot is in severe pain and we are at 8 days.

The call for the MRI appointment didn’t come so I ended up calling them.  There were 3 MRI locations close to me.  Two were booked to 1 month out.  Only one could see me the following week, and that adds 7 days to the pain.  We are at 15 days and I still don’t have a diagnosis.

When I called the MRI that was associated with the Dr, it turned out you could have called the day after.  They just want to call you so that they can sell you their MRI versus another provider in St. Louis.  Out of curiosity, I called the other MRI company in St. Louis.  That was quite an experience.  They were cheaper than the network MRI, and they could do the MRI faster, and get the results to the foot doctor.

What’s going on here?

When I went to urgent care, they took action to try to help take care of my foot pain.  When I went in network, the doctors messed around and waited over 15 days to get anything done.  When I checked on the other MRI company, the wait was greatly reduced and cheaper.

Real Estate sales is just like this.  When you are buying a home in St. Louis, you want a real estate agent who is going to take action.  You want them to make appointments to show houses when you want to see them.  You want them to keep you informed at all times.  The last think you want is for a real estate agent to tell you to buy a home that is overpriced and then act like you should be happy you chose them.

When you are selling a house in St. Louis, you want an agent who isn’t afraid to tell you what the marketplace is doing.  One who isn’t afraid to tell you what your house should sell for.  When buyers are actively seeking information, you want your agent discussing the details with buyers’ agents and working on your behalf to get a deal done.  The last thing you want is an agent who can’t be bothered to sell your home in a timely manner.

No matter what the price, you are looking for service.  In a hierarchy, you are looking for service over sales.  That’s what we do at Deerwood Realty.  When you get sales over service, like I got at the doctor’s office, you don’t feel like you received value.  Can you believe that a doctor wouldn’t care about the pain in my foot but did care about how much they could make in network at their MRI?  Who is that doctor serving?

This is why sales have such a dirty connotation.  When people choose sales over service, they are almost always left with emptiness.  Sales equal emptiness.  When you get service, you know it.  You’re happy about it.  You tell your friends and family how great the service was.  This is how we grow Deerwood Realty. Our clients are constantly impressed with our level of service.  Give us a call today and let us show you the difference between service and sales.  You’ll be glad that you did.

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