KGCI: Real Estate on Air - Unlocking Success: How to Create a Special VIP Experience for Your Most Valued Referrers

Episode Date: August 28, 2025

SummaryThis episode is a must-listen for any agent who understands that referrals are the lifeblood of their business. It provides a clear, strategic blueprint for moving beyond simple thank-you notes to a world of exclusive experiences and authentic appreciation. The discussion emphasizes that by consistently rewarding your most valued referrers with "white glove" service and personalized touches, you not only increase your referral rate but also create a powerful, self-sustaining network of brand advocates.Key TakeawaysTurn Your Clients Into Advocates: Discover that the most valuable referrals come from a place of genuine enthusiasm. The episode explains how creating a memorable, VIP-level experience—before, during, and after the transaction—is the most effective way to inspire clients to become your biggest cheerleaders.The "White Glove" Service Model: Learn actionable ways to provide concierge-level service that people remember and talk about. This includes anticipating your client's needs, being highly responsive, and providing a seamless, stress-free process that makes them feel truly valued.Create a Referral Engine That Works: Move beyond hoping for referrals. The discussion outlines a strategic system for nurturing your referral base, which can include personalized follow-ups, exclusive access to events, and small, thoughtful gifts that remind your referrers that you are committed to the relationship, not just the transaction.The Power of Community and Recognition: Understand that a VIP experience is also about belonging. The episode highlights the value of inviting your most loyal clients to a community or offering them exclusive perks. Recognizing their support with public shoutouts or exclusive content makes them feel like a valued partner in your success.Topics:Referral marketingVIP client experienceReal estate referralsClient retentionWhite glove serviceCall-to-ActionListen to the full episode on your favorite podcast platform and start building a powerful referral network today!

Every day starts with your mindset. Here's the morning brimer from the mindset and motivation Monday on KGCI, Real Estate on Air. Hey, everybody welcome my co-host Jason. We are really excited about today's topic. I am very passionate about this topic. And that is because many, many agents do not have a formal system in place to reward the people that are bringing them business. And the fact of the matter is, is your sphere knows so many realtors. joke that they used to know one or two back in the day, but now they know at least a dozen at

church alone. And so if they know a lot of realtors and they're sending you business, in other words, they're referring to you and really putting themselves out there, then don't you want to reward that behavior? Because what will happen if you don't? Right. It will happen if you don't. Yeah.

Well, I think we can all relate to, to, to, this as consumers, you know, it makes sense to us as consumers like, you know, that concept. But when we switch into realtor mode, it's just, it's gone. It goes someplace else. I don't know. Yeah. Because like, have you ever been loyal to someone until you weren't? All of us have that story. And typically, you were loyal to somebody and then weren't anymore because maybe you had bad service or maybe you didn't feel appreciated. You didn't feel important even though you were providing massive support to that business. So we're going to dive in today into how to create a modern exclusive VIP program that your people are going to love to be in. And let's dive right in,

Jason. Yeah, let's do it. Let's start with some basics, baby. So what is a VIP program? Okay. So the literal meeting, if you were looking up in the dictionary, would probably be very important person. We, of course, that influential agent would like to say a very influential person, but really a VIP program can be called anything you want. It's nothing other than a customer appreciation program that's basically taking your raving fans from a marketing plan to a loyalty and appreciation plan. Yeah. So, so that's what it is. That's awesome. So do I need one as a realtor? It's like, why should I have one? That's the, to me, that's the natural humanist.

Like, why? Do I need it? Why? Tell me why. Well, and so many people are like, it sounds good, but I don't have one. And yet they want referrals, but they don't have one. So there is a book by Ken Blanchard. It's called Raving Fan. And he says that one raving fan is worth more than a hundred satisfied customers. And you think about it, agents are just constantly trying to get new leads and get referrals. And when they finally get one from somebody, for some reason, that's not in the thought process to put them in a customer appreciation program. Maybe they send them a little gift card and then

they forget all about them. And that is not what we need. We want to reward that behavior. We want to continue to get referrals and we want to continue to provide value to their lives. That is the best place to spend your time and money and that is on the people who are already showing you support. So that is why hands down, You need one. That's that. So I get a VIP program and then everyone that I like is in it. Wrong.

Do I have to sort of like a fee? Is there standards? Is there a membership fee? Right. Is this something we sign up for? Right. Okay. So I have seen this done a lot of different ways.

And what I'm here to say is equate this to the real world. Everything you do should equate to the real world outside of real estate. And if you are sold into, like, let's say you go to resort. And this, you know, Jason and I love resorts. Man, we love resorts. Man, we love, especially all-inclusive resorts where they pamper us. And usually most of them have some kind of club, right, that you can join. And what, what do you get when you join that club?

It's all about the perks. All about the perks. It's all about the perks, right? The perks that you get. It's all about the, oh, but if you're in the club, you get to eat at this restaurant on the beach, but if you're not, you just get to look at the people eating on the beach and wish you were them. And so what it does is it makes you feel like, oh, if I'm in that club, I'm exclusive, right? Now, if they let everyone, Jason, eat at that restaurant on the beach, would it really be

exclusive? Would it really be VIP? No. It'd be just like everything else. Yeah. So you really do want this to be exclusive. It's not for your whole sphere. This is for people who have sent you referrals. Now, the way that we do this ourselves and with our coaching clients is we do this on a rolling 12 months. Okay. So if somebody just sent a referral to me, they're going to be in my VIP program for the next 12 months, unless they've given another referral in six months. That continually, it's rolling 12 months. Okay. Now, we audit this list once a month. It doesn't take long at all. It's on a Google sheet. I don't like a spreadsheet. And we can see the month they gave us a referral so we only have to edit okay what was 12 months ago it takes

five minutes to audit that once a month but I put that go back and put that again in real world terms Jason do you have a are you part of a customer loyalty program anywhere it's a very exclusive one it's Krogerr or that depends on your pronunciation you know where you're at locally But yeah, it's like Kroger. And what you get? We get some really cheap gas. That's why we shop at Kroger for a really cheap gas.

I mean, obviously they have food and everything. But that's a perfect example because I shop at Kroger, I get cheap gas. If I stop shopping at Kroger, I don't get free gas. Or don't get cheap gas. I've got to pay full price. Exactly. So this is no different. Now, we are not telling you to audit that and then send video notes.

to people saying, by the way, it's been 12 months, you haven't sent me another referral. You're kicked out of the program. That is not what we're saying. This is really on the administrative side on the back end and a lot of people, but I feel bad sending them out. And they haven't used you in eight years. These will continue to be sphere and we will continue to market to them in the sphere of influence, but they are not VIPs. So how you know if somebody's a VIP on a rolling 12 months is they have either referred to you in the last 12 months or they They were self-referred, meaning they themselves used you, okay, for a buyer-seller transaction. That's how you know who's in the VIP program.

So it's not everyone. I like what you said about that because it's so weird that not, well, I say it's weird. It's so weird to have realtors make emotional decisions about their business. You just said it perfectly. I've heard that so many times. Well, that they're such a good friend. Well, they're not sending you a business, so how good a friend are they? So they're either on your VIP list or they're not.

It's very simple. Did they send you a referral? No, then they're not on your VIP. Now, maybe if we build that relationship, they'll send us one. And guess what? They get back on it. But it's okay to get someone off your VIP list because these should be the people who are absolutely building your business.

Yeah, and we're about to go into the steps of what they get with the VIP. And you're going to see if you let everyone in on it, it's watered down. and you're not going to have enough money to really pamper these people that are in your customer appreciation program, making it watered down. And if it's watered down, it goes back to the example we just gave at the beach. It doesn't feel exclusive if everybody gets it. And by the way, I don't know what it is psychologically about people wanting to be in clubs and VIP, but people love it.

They want to be in it. And so we are going to use that, but in our industry. Yeah, for sure. So that's who should be in it. Okay. So I got who's in it. So let's talk about that. How do we reward these people?

Are we rewarding the closing or rewarding like how does that go about? What do I got to? What am I giving them? Okay. I love that you ask that because a customer appreciation program is not the same as a closing gift. Okay. If you choose to do a closing gift, that's great. I know we do.

And I think that's fine. But that is not the same as a customer appreciation. program, that is a closing gift. Okay, so those to me, you need to separate those out, especially for RESPA reasons. Okay, we don't want to be in violation. A closing gift is one thing. And a customer appreciation program is a whole another thing. And what we do to reward the people that are in that program is threefold.

And we're going to break this down for you. Threefold. Yeah, yeah. And what most agents do here, what I have seen, Jason, there's two things that I see them doing the most. And it's not going to be one of my three things. One of the things I see them do the most is events. Events.

Events. Okay. Now, I know I'm going to be stepping on some toes, and I know some of the people are going to want to argue with me to say that, hey, I've been doing events for years and people love them. The people that go might love them. But what we know from statistics is that people are too busy to go to your event in that you are out of touch if you think that people want to go to those. We just talked to, we had a big speaking engagement today. And somebody came up to me afterwards.

And they're like, we didn't want to admit that that was true. But it is because they spent a ton of time and money on events like going to the theater and renting out of theater, excuse me, for their VIPs. and having a photo shoot with Santa. And what happened is, is they work really hard and spend a lot of money for those events. 30 people are SVPed, okay? And only six showed up. Wow. That's going to be common, you guys.

And then the theater event that they held had a lot of people there because they were allowed to bring their kids, but he said he didn't get to connect with people. And they left the theater going, thanks, that was awesome. And then just left. and there's no real connecting happening and it's not something that's going to last past that day. So event is not worth that. I say something about that is that I think that realtors make the mistake of thinking that because they put this event on then you came, that enough or that alone gives them the right to talk to these people about using them as real estate agents.

When I didn't make that, you know, that's not what I think. I think that here's a free event. I know you. You sold us our house. I want to go to that event. I'm enjoying it and I'm out. You know, so I think that's a mental disconnect. It's like, no, no, no.

I didn't get talked to you. I was like, well, I didn't know. That was part of the thing. I thought I was just going to come watch a movie with my kids and then leave. And I appreciate it. They don't actually have to talk to you. But I think that it's like, okay, but that was six people. Yeah.

You know, and if you would have put that same time and energy and money, into the way we're going to show you, you could have affected 100% of them of the VIPs versus sick people. So while events are great, they are not effective the way that the strategy will be, that I will break down for you. The other thing that we hear a lot on stages across the country, because we're here, you guys, to tell you the things that are working and not working. That's what this podcast is all about is, hey, that was working, but now this is more effective. What's the other thing, Jason, that you see people doing all the time every year at Thanksgiving. Oh, here, okay. It's the pie delivery.

It's like every season or every Thanksgiving season, a bunch of realtors turn into home pie delivery people. And I just, I don't, number, okay, like you said, number one, expense, number two, time. Number three, you're assuming I like pumpkin pie or you're assuming I like whatever pie you drop up. And I feel so bad because of course they're going to say thank you. Of course they're going to seem gracious. Oh, my gosh. Thank you so much a pumpkin pie. I never would have thought to have a pumpkin pie for Thanksgiving.

Thank you. You saved my family's Thanksgiving. We were about to dive into politics, but then you showed up. You know, and so I never understood the level of excitement that agents get from delivering their pies to like so many. And they're exhausted by the end of it. And that's only if you don't. you can't take a lot of time to talk to these people. You've got to go deliver pie, say something quick and then you're out.

It's like, is that effective? Yeah. Yeah. Or I get so much. Go ahead. Go ahead. I have seen where people have them come to your office, but I've asked my sphere, you know, hey, would you come just for a pie?

And they're like, heck, no, I'm not driving there. I don't have enough time for that. They're busy people. So, and I'm not hating on you. Everything's a numbers game. I used to do pies. I used to do events. So none of this is your fault.

What we're telling you is that. Things are evolving now and there is a better way. People are busy, even the ones that love you. So we're going to break down that three step process now of, okay, well, if it's not events and just pies, what is it that we're supposed to be doing? What is it? All right. So the first thing, I break mine down in three categories.

And the first two are ones that I feel like people just don't think about enough. And it's crucial. Okay. The first one is passionate reciprocity. Passionate reciprocity. Now, to break this down quickly for time, this means this shouldn't be a one-way relationship. Jason, if you're giving me referrals and you're in my sphere and now you're my VIP because you just gave me a referral, then I should be passionate about reciprocating this to you.

So I should know exactly what you do for a living. I should know if you can benefit from referrals. Who's your ideal client? I mean, do you see how it's like, okay, this isn't just about me receiving referrals, but what is it that I can do to contribute to your life as a VIP? It's about consciously making it a, or purposefully, I guess, is a better way of making sure that there's reciprocity in that relationship and that you are passionate about helping them equally as them helping you. Yeah, if you've ever complained about not getting referrals, I think it's so powerful,

babe when you're up on stage and you say, do you know what they do for a living? Could they get referrals? And there's a silence that falls. Have you ever given them a referral? Have you ever given them referrals? Like, well, convicted. And you know, guilty party of one that used to be me. And that's how I realized, whoa, before we even start talking about events and gifts, let's talk about the basics of caring about someone in passionate reciprocity, which leads me automatically to number two. And that's a proactive relationship. Not only do I want to reciprocate, but number two, I need to be proactive about knowing what's going on in your life, right, about truly caring about you and your family. You're caring about me and my family when you're giving me a referral. I want to do,

and I'm privileged to get to care about you. So I would like to deal with my whole sphere, but specifically it's going to be a more, even more proactive when it comes to my VIPs. I'm going to understand if there's a charity they're passionate about. I'm going to know if they're, if they've had a death in the family. I'm going to know if they're sick. I'm going to know if somebody in their family is having a baby. And, and those are things that I'm going to make sure that I am proactive about at that next level from the sphere.

That's good. That's good. What's the last? So, all right. The last one is what's going to replace the client events. And that is unexpected appreciation gifts. unexpected appreciation gifts. This is really all about intentional giving

because that shows appreciation for your relationship and it's going to keep you top of mind. Now, I do want to say that this might ruffle some feathers too. A lot of you might be doing Popeby's for your gifts. Bob, I need that. And the thing about pop buys, guys, is most people are doing pop bys to their whole sphere. And the reason I say that it does not really feel like a VIP gift.

It feels more like a trinket. Like when I think about it, the ones that have been delivered to my house, it's like a bag of popcorn that just says, I'm just popping by or. Forget me not. Forget me not. Forget me not. That's not truly a VIP thing. That's more like swag, right? Because it's got your information all over it.

What's another reason why we don't like Popeyes, Jason? No one wants you to pop by their house. I guess that's the easiest way to say it. Like, it's Amazon or it's food. Those are the only reason that my front door is going to open. And I know exactly when those two things are happening. Doesn't it then? Anyway, it's, okay, again, these are ideas that have been our industry for a while.

And they've kind of outlived their usefulness. because times have changed absolutely and and then babo we talked about this before when I was little my parents had this other couple that would stop by you know pop by and and there was a coffee cake that we were never allowed to eat because they didn't know when they were coming and I always wanted to have it but I couldn't have it because they might come by and it didn't make sense in my brain and that's the world that we had and people pop by and they would stop in and they would sit for hours And like, can you imagine that today if some of our people that we know just knocked on our nose like, hey, what's up? We're in the neighborhood. Just want to come by a couple hours. I'm like, you need to leave. Our friendship is now over. Don't be popped by my house. Don't be popped by my house.

Just text me like a regular friend, okay? So if people have reaps. They don't even get up and go to the door anymore. They're like, yeah, I don't know that person. That's not going to happen. But that's such a powerful thing that I guess I don't know why we don't think about it. You don't pop by someone's home anymore. And it's like, no, no, no, I've got some good friends. great, that's one person. But if you're thinking that mentality on like 50 people, it's again, it's just, it doesn't make sense. And the majority of agents are praying that that person isn't home. Yeah, yeah.

Because the original intent was to relationship build, knock on the door, like you said back when they came to your parents' house. But that's not the world we live in today. People don't want expected gifts. And you guys, it's not scalable. It's not scalable. If you were to go, even for VIP, not even your whole sphere, and deliver a, you. a gift to their house quarterly.

You might as well be an Uber driver. You are going to be worn out and you're going to be inconsistent. It is not what we're doing. So when we are giving unexpected appreciation gifts, it is sent in the mail. And 100% of our VIPs are for sure going to get that gift and benefit from that gift. Now, I can't go too in depth on the gifts themselves,

but I'm just going to give you a little bit because of time. We like these to be keeper pieces whenever possible. I don't typically send consumables or food unless there's something that I know that specific VIP is obsessed with and I might do that. But in general, I wanted to be something that's going to benefit them and their family for a long period of time. So an example of that would be we picked some really gorgeous blankets that were in a neutral color, but they were pretty fancy. They were pretty bougie. And we had sent those off to, they were so soft. Like I would have cuddled with it for sure. But we sent those off to

somewhere and we gave them an Excel spreadsheet of the last names of all. all of our BIPs. And then that got embroidered on every blanket. So each person had a blanket with their family's name on it. And when they got that from us unexpectedly, they didn't know they were going to be getting a gift. It felt like Christmas. And that is so cool. And we don't give them in times that's expected like Christmas time. We don't do that. We do it when it's unexpected quarterly. And they're going to want to keep that. I've actually had people send me pictures of the blanket that was laying over the couch and it's always out and they're always thinking about me. But notice I said we put the family's name on it.

Not my name? Not my team name? Tell us about that, Jason. Not my logo? Yeah. No. Okay. So if you put your name on a gift, it is not a gift, it is called swag.

And there is a time and place for swag. If you're hosting an event, if you're taking care of the Little League team, awesome. Put your stuff all over it and blazing it. That's amazing. That's swag. They get your name out there. However, for the VIPs that have given you the opportunity to make a good 1630, 40K in GCI, that requires a gift and a gift has nothing to do with you on it.

So let's talk about Cutco Knives. Cutco Knives is the ultimate gift that you to get someone. Okay, that's fine. Get them, but don't put your name on it. Put their name on there. Put their family name on there. Absolutely. Make it all about them.

It should feel exclusive and it should feel special. Hopefully it feels like a keeper piece. And you guys, this can be leveraged to somebody else. That's what I love. So you get the benefit of sending it. 100% of your sphere gets it, whereas events, not 100% of the people can go. For the same amount or less money, 100% of your VIPs can benefit from this gift. It's just like when you get an unexpected handwritten note or gift, how do you feel?

Awesome, right? So we want to get that same feeling to them. But I'm not just doing it every once in a while. I'm not tying it to the closing. I actually we send these out quarterly, and this can be leveraged to someone else. So if you want to hire somebody just to handle that project quarterly, just for a specific project, it doesn't have to be an employee. It could be somebody that you just hire for the project alone, because you can get the credit

for it and somebody else can do the work, right? They don't know that you didn't package that sucker up. Right. Okay. Okay. So that's just a recap that three things that we do to reward our VIPs is number one passionate reciprocity how can we help them in their lives number two a proactive relationship just next level relationships and number three quarterly unexpected

appreciation gifts constantly being top of mind you will a lot of times you won't have to audit them off the list because they didn't just get one gift they're constantly being thought of by you they can see that you're trying to help you're trying to help them not just the gifts And they're going to want to continually send you referrals. And it's going to blow your mind how well this works. That's so good. All right, that's the three things. Can you talk about cost?

Because you've been saying a lot of stuff like gifts and they should be nice gifts. And now I'm starting to stress out because, you know, I'm trying to pay bills and I've got to get people gifts. So what's like the cost that has to do that goes along with stuff like this? Okay. I would say if you're just starting a VIP program, the best thing I can suggest is that out of each closing, take out two to five percent of that closing and put it in a separate business account for VIP gifts for the VIP program. And if you're like, that's a lot of money. Okay, two to five percent. Let's say that it's $250 to $500 depending on the kind of closing you have. If you wouldn't have got that referral, you wouldn't have had that $12,000 commission, but you're telling me you can't set aside 250 of that for a customer appreciation program.

That doesn't make any sense to me. Now, what does make sense is you may have to build up the money over time because you haven't been doing that in the past. That's okay. It's okay to start somewhere. Your first year, you might have to only send one appreciation gift and work your way up to quarterly because you do. don't have that fund going yet.

Most of our gifts are around $50 a quarter. It depends though, how many referrals they've sent us and what tier they're on. But you can start somewhere in a separate bank account. Yeah, that's my suggestion on cost. And Jason, we've seen people spend $3,000 like nothing on a magazine ad that people may or may not speak. Postcards, all this stuff.

It's like I hope it works because I don't really know or take that money and put it on your your VIPs because that's money 100% exactly you're gonna you're gonna amplify that money times a hundred more in that VIP program all right we're winding this up this is I was gonna say can you talk a little about like like compliance issues have we gone over that did I miss that part yeah we're winding this down to the most exciting part and this will be quick is compliance you guys some of you might be listening to this and saying, wait a minute, doesn't that violate RESPA, Amber?

Going to get us in trouble. And here's the thing. I want to separate. Customer appreciation programs are not the same as closing gifts. Okay. They are not tied to a closing. When somebody refers to me, regardless of it closing or not, that person is now in my customer appreciation program.

And what I do in that customer appreciation program is not. tied to an exact closing. And if I can now prove that I have an entire customer appreciation program where gifts go out quarterly, a bunch of people are in it, that is different than tying it directly to a closing. And that's where you're going to have those RESPA violations happening. But I will say you should not advertise that you are giving gifts to your VIP program. Because then it does sound like a bribe. Then it does kind of sound like that quid, quo pro right like if you give me referrals i'll put you in my VIP and then my VIPs get gifts no you cannot do that that's why i think that's advertising and i think that sometimes they do that by accident

because they're so excited they're so excited to give gifts and treat their VIPs and be all special and everything that they go oh my gosh i got the VIP program is amazing you should be in it and it's like uh don't tell them just make it a surprise let's don't do it make it a surprise nothing's better than being awesome but even over delivering on that and them not expecting it, okay? So do not advertise that. That's when you're going to get into some trouble. But because it's not tied to a closing and it truly is a customer appreciation program, it's separated out for tax purposes. You can write off as much as you want. It's not tied to a closing gift and it's not violating anything for RESPA. Having said that, do check with your

broker to make sure your brokerage doesn't have any local or brokerage rules that maybe you are not aware of. But RESPA should not be a concern here if you're doing it the right way. That was a lot of information in a short amount of time. I want to encourage you guys, if you haven't started a VIP program, start one soon. Make it a priority in this year's business plan to slowly start rolling that out. You can get somebody, leverage somebody to help you do it because I want you to imagine what your business would look like. If you took the time to really love on the people who are supporting you because there's no better place to spend your time and money than on your VIPs.

So I want to encourage you to take action today and start planning your VIP strategy to strengthen your relationships and generate some more referrals. I love that. That's so good. So good then. All right, guys, that's all we got for today. If you like what you heard, remember to subscribe to the podcast and listen to future episodes. Share with a friend.

so always like to do it's awesome that's right and remember god has given you everything you need to succeed all you have to do is take daily imperfect action we'll see you next time later