When most of us think about Realtors, we don’t normally think of conference calling. As odd as it sounds there is a use-case here.
Picture this…
You are driving through an area and you see a property that you have had your eye on for quite some time, now it has a For Sale sign on it.
You call your business partner to tell them about it. Let’s assume for a moment that the property interests you both and you want more information on that property and you do not want to wait for the listing spec sheet to be sent over via email. You want the information then and there.
You can really only get that information one way (remember you are in your car and not near a computer), by calling your realtor or the listed agent and get them to retrieve the details on the property and then you can relay all of that detail to your partner. If you are like me and despise wasting a bunch of time relaying information more than once this could get old rather quickly.
Let’s assume now that you decided to call your own realtor.
Here is where it gets interesting.
So, you call your realtor and he advises you that he is also on the road but to hang on and he will get the information. With you still on the line, the realtor drops into a private sub-conference and calls your partner. He lets your partner know he has you on the other line. He then drops both of you back into the call. After a rapid debrief he then drops into another private sub-conference to call his assistant for the property information and leaves you and your partner to converse during this time.
In a minute or so he comes back on the line with his assistant who introduces and mentions that she will look up the information so the 3 of you can review it.
After a minute or two it becomes apparent that there are a few questions that need answering. The realtors assistant drops into another private sub-conference to call the listed agent leaving you, your partner and your realtor to discuss a game plan. The assistant comes back on the line to advise your realtor that she needs to speak with him for a moment.
Your realtor then drops into the sub conference with his assistant to find the other listed agent waiting. They discuss business for a moment and the assistant then joins your realtor, along with the listed realtor, back into the main conference. You ask your questions and it’s apparent there are still more questions to be answered that only the seller can answer.
The listing agent mentions this on the call and that prompts your realtor to provide the listed agent with a toll free number and PIN so the listed agent can come back into the call and bring the seller if he so choses.
The listed agent drops off and calls the seller. He comes back on the line a few moments later by dialing in using the Toll Free number and PIN he was given. Once on the call he mentions that he needs to speak to your realtor privately.
Still with me? It gets better.
Your realtor asks his assistant (or he does this himself) to drop him and the listed agent into a private sub-conference. The listed realtor and your realtor re-join the main conference a few moments later.
You get the information you and your partner need and now it’s time to go off and deliberate. The assistant gets your email address to send you the spec sheet on the property and that data is waiting for you when you get in front of your email, but wait a second… there is something else in that email as well.
Along with the spec sheet you find a recording of the entire conversation (private conversations from sub-conferences are not included). Now you and your partner can go over the spec sheet and the recording together to educate yourselves on the property and decide on a next move.
At the same time the realtor is doing the same thing, he also has a copy of the recording and is matching this property with others in case this one does not pan out.
Sounding a little too complicated? It really isn’t.
The conference controls are easily managed in one of 3 ways:
- touch tones from any phone that has permissions
- real-time web interface accessible from any browser
- instant messenger (IM) commands
How does this help the realtor?
He speeds the process from initial call to a possible close by a country mile amking more time to close other deals. He also demonstrates that he and indirectly his brokerage are concerned about the level of service the clients receive, a positive message without a doubt.
How does this help the customer?
Frankly, this is a sore spot for me. I got lucky and found a great realtor but many are not at all focused on customer service. If my realtor pulled this kind of technology out of his hat when I inquired about a property not only would I be blown away by the call but I would be very impressed with the realtors ability to provide a level of service I wasn’t getting anywhere else.
Is this real?
You guessed right, all of this and more will be available very soon when we launch the next version of Lypp: Next Generation Conference Calling.
Next week’s use-case will be focused on Automated Conference Call Scheduling.
As a photographer, this is a question that I too have often asked myself. Even if I was just an everyday, shoot photos of the kids and dogs, type of person, common sense would still tell me to take a better photo if I want to make money off of it. Come on realtors - it’s not rocket science. It doesn’t take a professional photographer nor does it take expensive gear to make a house look good in a picture. The most important part of *any* photograph is composition. To me, this particular picture tells me that the realtor doesn’t want to sell this house. It also tells me that the realtor doesn’t care much for the people trying to sell the house, because he or she obviosly isn’t helping them with this photo. Did the realtor take this picture, or was it the seller? If it was the home owner, then I would hope that the realtor would advise them to take a better picture, or offer to do it herself. Either way, shame on the realtor. This is amature effort from an amature agent.