Taking cell phone calls while with clients/customers

I often find it amazing when I see agents walking around with clients/customers in the middle of demonstrating a home stop and answer their cell phone. Do they say excuse me? No, not these agents.

I know there are many reasons why we need to answer our phone. It could be we need to take a call from another agent we are meeting later on or we are waiting for more information about a house we are showing with these clients.

What about the agent that is sitting in the conference room writing a contract and stops to chit chat with a buddy. Is this rude or what? I see it all the time and I wonder what the clients are thinking.

A couple of weeks ago I had to meet an agent at a property he was showing in order to drop off an escrow check on a sale we put together. I pulled up in front of the house and waited for him to come out.

He exits the house on his cell phone which cracked me up and I get out of my car to hand him the check. He is still talking and talking to me at the same time. I just chuckled inside.

I am thinking where are his buyers? Out of the corner of my eye I notice the listing agent walking from the back yard with her phone in her ear. Where are the buyers? At least five minutes go by and both agents are still on their phones and then finally the buyers come walking out of the house.

Both agents say they have to run to whoever they were talking to and then they say goodbye. Everyone mingles in the middle of the street and off we all go.

I guess I might be “old school” but then again I wonder how the buyers felt being left alone to wander on their own while the agents are chit chatting. I guess I wouldn’t mind being left alone to talk to my wife about the property but if my agent was taking phone calls that had nothing to do with us, that would bother me.

I feel if you are going to take a phone calls then that phone call should be about the clients/customer, not about what tee time you have to make tomorrow or about your girlfriend taking little Johhny to the dentist.

If it’s an emergency from home that is understandable and please keep your phone on silent. It’s all about the client/customer not you.