It's years later, and our business is under a lot of pressure from economic developments, the Internet, and changing consumer habits with respect to choosing real estate service providers. Though cutting costs is probably the driving force for those considering cutting office floor space and taking their agents mobile, it's really just one part of a plan that can enhance marketing and customer service as well.
So, with more real estate brokerages investigating online intranets as the platform for a more mobile office, I want to help by giving you what I believe is the most important criteria you should apply in evaluating your choices. Just about all of the companies providing intranet platforms allow:
- Sharing of contacts and customer relationship management (CRM) functions
- Sharing tasks, calendars and scheduling
- Maintenance of company data via file storage and sharing online
- Announcements and company "bulletin board" type functions
- All members can log in from any Internet computer, thus great mobility
Those are all valuable features, and you'll use them extensively in managing a busy brokerage with agents more mobile than ever before. It's also a fact that most consumers really don't care about "coming into the office" if you can meet their needs in their homes or elsewhere. So, if they all do these things, why would one intranet service stand out? Simply, it's customization ability through databases. The vast majority of these platforms bring the standardized set of features above to any office. So, your brokerage will need to adapt to the same structure and abilities as a bakery or auto supply.
Real estate brokers know that there are a great many very specialized management functions that are specific to real estate brokerage, and the ability to create custom databases to handle them is, in my opinion, critical. Like:
- New listing task management
- Ongoing listing management and client reporting
- Prospect and lead management with accountability functions to keep agents on track
- Detailed transaction management
- Member permission levels at both database and view levels to control who has access to what
- Specialty management of things like lockboxes and where they are
There's more, but you're getting the idea. I have located only one company that provides the ability to construct custom databases that can be tailored to the specific needs of the real estate brokerage; Webex WebOffice. With the ability comes the need to have someone help you who is quite familiar with database construction and real estate, but it will be well worth it in the long run. Your agents can office from anywhere, and you can make it happen at a fraction of the cost of maintaining office space and services.
Note: Subsequent to the writing of this article, I became an affiliate with Webex. However, no links in this or any other article on this site result in any payment or credit to me in any way.
