What is the most important technology, outside the MLS listing database, that you offer to your customers? The answer is — it depends. What is important to your customers is having the right technology solution to solve the challenge they are facing right now, and that changes.
At the beginning of the pandemic, moving to virtual everything put the importance on virtual open houses, video conferencing and electronic signatures. Agents had to level up quickly and MLSs had to shift resources to provide training and support for these technologies. RESO and the MLS community stepped up and rolled out video or virtual open houses in very short order.
Then as the market really heated up through the pandemic, offer and transaction management became the hot topic. Tech companies like EveryOffer, Offer Manger by ShowingTime, and MLS Offers, were trying to help agents organize the multiple bid situations in the marketplace. Many MLSs were looking to add solutions like that to their tech stack in response.
Now as mortgage rates rise and transactions slow, agents will be looking for prospecting tools that solve the need they have now. What kind of reverse prospecting classes do you offer for your MLS? In the Customer Experience Index, it is clear that reverse prospecting is one of the least appreciated features of the MLS technology stack. Although the MLS has not traditionally been a central lead generation source, our research indicates that those attitudes are changing dramatically among agents and brokers, and they are much more interested in partnering with you as a marketing and lead generation platform for their business.
We have written before about the need for your training and communications to tell your members the why of the technology, and not just try to wow them with cool features and reports. More than that, you need to be shifting your focus to meet them with the right technology at the right time. Your training and schedule needs to be nimble to show your customers the specific technologies you offer when their need for it is most critical.
While it is likely your organization already has a wide selection of technology solutions to fit almost any market challenge, agents are only going to really care about a particular technology when they really need it. It is important to stay dialed into the market and the pain points your customers are feeling. In our recent webinar, which reviewed the results of the WAV Group Customer Experience Index, KB Walter, CEO of BAREIS MLS®, made this very point. “(Agents) don’t pay attention to all the tools and what they do until (they) need it. So we put out short video updates in response to changing needs in the market.” See the entire Customer Experience Index webinar here.
