You’ve done the deal - sold the house, signed the papers, collected the cash and shaken hands. So what’s next? Goodbye and thanks for coming?

Not so fast. It’s now time to switch into post-sale mode and begin communications that will keep your name present in the minds of both buyers and sellers.

To begin with, you’ll need a good contact management system that allows you to find, sort and manage every person you’ve worked with. This doesn’t need to be overly complex. As long as your system is easy to use and accessible - preferably from your mobile phone or PDA as well as from your office - you’re on the right track.

To create this system, you should record as much information about every potential customer as possible. Name, phone number, address, and email are a given, and as you work more closely with people and find out more about them, notes on birthdays and spouse’s/children’s details are great to have as well.

Ideally, you should get into the habit of filling your contact management system with this information as soon as you have it. If it stays scribbled on the back of a business card, that potentially vital information won’t be useful to anyone.

Once you’ve got as much information on past customers as possible, you’ll have a better chance of sending out your communications at the right time. For example, sending out a Christmas email to every contact in your database is fine, but wouldn’t it be even better to send a modified email to those contacts who don’t celebrate Christmas?

Email newsletters including local news or new listings are similar. If you can target those contacts that are most likely to be interested, i.e those that live in or near the area you’re writing about, or who you think might be looking for the kind of property you’re advertising, you’ll be less likely to lose contacts to the “unsubscribe” button.

Of course, most people who give out their email address are aware that not every email they receive will be written for them. But the power of a well-maintained customer database is that you don’t have to rely on people’s patience for the one email out of ten that’s relevant. In other words, with targeted post-sale communications, you can keep in touch with past customers further into the future.