The Negative Feedback Goldmine
Posted by admin in Marketing, RealSatisfied, Reputation, Tools and Tips, Uncategorized on April 25, 2013
We like to encourage sharing positive feedback online and our culture seems to avoid confrontation with customers and clients. How can we pull value from problems and pain in Real Estate transactions?
I wrote a post on RealSatisfied today – You dont always want a Testimonial that I quoted parts of this presentation. Its full of great quotes and stats to help understand the influence of customer experience on the bottom line.
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Brokers Can Learn From Show Business; The House Manager
Posted by admin in Brand, Marketing, RealSatisfied, Reputation on February 19, 2013
This is a post I wrote on the Inman News Site today.
Ushers and agents help people find their seat.
In the early 1980s, my mother was in charge of the audience and ushers at the Starlight and Midland theaters in Kansas City.
The Starlight was a large, brick, outdoor amphitheater with columns covered in vines. It was so close to the zoo that, at dusk, you could hear monkeys laugh out loud through the thick humidity.
The Midland seemed to be 100 years old when I was a kid. It was gilded and ornate. A classic, dusty and musty-smelling downtown gem.
I still don’t like clowns, magic or show tunes.
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Wanted: Real Estate Customer eXperience Officer
Posted by admin in Brand, Marketing, RealSatisfied, Tools and Tips on November 30, 2012
Your customers experience has a direct relationship to your bottom line. This should be the whole post. Its a simple idea and an easily understandable outcome.
There is a big problem in our industry. It is clear, that there are far too few CXO’s (Customer Experience Officer) in our Real Estate world.
”The customer’s experience is the biggest factor in brand preference and advocacy”
Fill the cxo void
John Ellett writes for Forbes - ”For many companies, much of the customer experience is delivered via Web-based applications. These apps are often developed by internal IT team or implemented through third-party software. They frequently are not integrated nor reflect a common user interface. They may not be optimized for access from a smart phone or tablet or, if so, were implemented using other vendors who compound the user interface fragmentation.”
Do your tools, vision, values and people all reflect a consistent brand and user interface?
A new app and an old school agent don’t mirror each other. Its easy for customers to get frustrated and the brand is negatively impacted.
“A customer’s experience spans marketing and IT functions and includes sales, operations, customer service and product management.” Ellett continues “Marketing leaders are used to the idea of being brand champions. But in today’s world, the customer’s experience is the biggest factor in brand preference and advocacy.”
The role does not have to be a stand alone job in a small company. However it does have to fall on the shoulders of an executive. If you own your own brokerage, brand or are a single agent – focus some time on this role.
Listen to Reece and Nichols VP Patty Nizzi describe her customer focused agenda, in this video we recorded for FinchMktg client RealSatisfied.
Customer experience is the focus. From the inside of your company, can you see a clear clean brand experience – or a disjointed hodgepodge?
What do your customers see?
More importantly – what do the people who decided NOT to be your customers see?
Your CXO should know.
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Your Customers Perception is Your Brand
Posted by admin in Advertising, Brand, Marketing, RealSatisfied, Reputation on April 26, 2012
Brand name is not brand perception
Its important to understand how your customers and consumers actually perceive your reputation.
You have customers that have worked with you and consumers whom know of you and may become customers some day. Both consumers and customers already have an opinion about you, your company and your brand. Their individual and collective thoughts and opinions create your brand reputation.
Understanding your true brand reputation is important as it is key to building a better overall perception of your brand.
Perception of brands dictates buying habits – but also dictates how they share experiences with friends. Personal referrals to friends come from great experiences.
In order to gain some perspective, lets step outside of our RealEstate bubble for a minute.
Think about a product or service what you just bought. This could be an oil change, a pair of shoes or an island in the Pacific. What was the company selling that item or service? Was it a big national company or small local? Did you get what you wanted? Was it cost effective? How did the transaction make you feel?
Here’s a Quick Brand Quiz for RealEstate folks and Small Business owners. No. 2 pencil is not required and theres no pep rally when you are done. Are ready for the Quiz?
Is a Name a Brand?
The Three Question Quiz
- Why did you buy?
- How do you perceive that company’s brand?
- Is there a difference between the advertising for the brand / product / service and reality?
My Example: I just bought a $1.29 song on iTunes from apple. Apple -The brand is comfortable, cool and rarely misses. The purchase was fast, simple and made me smile. To me apples advertising mirrors their image and my perception of the brand, not the other way around. I trust apple. In fact, would pay more than they charge for music – so I feel like its a value. No matter what Apple says in its ads, or on its site – Its my awesome customer experience that dictates the perception of brand.
The quiz is cheezy but effective tool to get you to actively asses another brand and criticly engage your habits as a consumer. You frequently make buying decisions with out thinking deeply about the brand – its your perception that creates reality.
The reality is you frequently buy from and recommend products, brands and services that have good customer experiences, good products and good service.
Your brand is your customer experience.
Bonus Question:
Do you know what your customers say and feel about your own brand? What is your brand reputation?
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Killer Keller Williams Sees Red
Posted by admin in Marketing, Real Estate Industry News on February 15, 2012
Keller Williams continues its rise. Kool-Aide jokes aside, with their steep growth, it cant be argued that they are doing many things well. Here are my quick impressions of the last few days this week at Keller Williams Family Reunion in Orlando Fl.
One third of the Huge Main Stage at Keller Williams Family Reunion 2012
Leverage – Gary Keller Spoke to a 2 thousand person gathering of top agents (KW calls them Mega Agents) suggesting they power their lives and grow their buisness by leveraging their skills and background to grow and expand. Simply, he suggested hiring someone to run their offiece / buisness for them so they could create new real-estate businesses. He indicated that 100 interviews would turn up a suitable candidate - and it should take a year to get them running full speed. Mega Agents could then focus on other elements of the industry including writing books, speeking or just focusing on vacation. Use your “leverage to do what you want” he said.
International Growth – KW announced that its first office overseas opened already this year – Vietnam. The territory looks to cover much of the phillipienes and western australia. There were 5 other countries / regions that are in “final discussions” with KW and represeniteves of another 12 or so in attendance including Egypt and France.
Technology – KW has focused its resources on eEdge. This program was turned on one year ago, and already has won awards. It seems all systems must work within its rules and process to be viable for KW – but future plans are being kept tight lipped. Im anticipating further growth within eEdge soon.
The Cavernous, yet sparse feeling KW Expo Hall.
Status – KW painted a picture of “us against the world” in several performances. With 79k agents they are proud of their #2 status and view #1 as a goal in the near future. They can see “blood” in the water and see red. Offices were challenged to add 16 agents each in 2012 - they believe this will enable them to become the largest real estate company.
Attendance – The crowd in the main session was enormous. It was said to be down slightly from last year – but I saw no difference. It can easily be described as massive. Somewhere around 10k attendee massive. The Expo hall however was another story. Granted, its a huge space – yet seemed to be half of the number of vendors as last year. (this is a gut guess, no official data)
RE.net Celebrities – Ben Kinney, Sue Adler, the Geeky Girls and Inmans Chris Smith all spent time on stage educating and entertaining audiences.
Family Reunion 2013 -will be in Dallas Texas Feb 16-20th
Ive attended the MegaCamp and Family Reunion events previously and like normal, this years Family Reunion was run smoothly and had a very high production quality. Well Done KW – Im looking forward to MEGA!
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Are You RealSatisfied With Your Reputation?
Posted by admin in Marketing, RealSatisfied, Reputation, Tools and Tips on December 12, 2011
This spring the hot topic in the re.net blogs was the agent review and rating systems with Redfin and HAR making huge headlines. Previously Diverse Solutions (now owned by Zillow) took a stab at it as well. Inconsistent data left agents with poor scores and little to show as evidence otherwise.
Frustrations grew to new heights. No one was in control of their own reputation.
As this was boiling over, Jeff Turner introduced me to two outstanding Australians – David King and Phil Kells. They built a new real estate reputation focused product, RealSatisfied, that was making its start in Australia.
Rather than using MLS data to score agents, RealSatisfied was created to allow real estate agents to easily gather testimonials, survey customers, and create their own data and stats. Agents can then view how they stack up in their office and versus a national benchmark – all with real time reports.
While reviewing the system, back end and dashboard, Jeff and I were sure that RealSatisfied could make a significant positive impact on many in the Real Estate world.
This reputation management product is already a hot commodity in Australia and I was sure it would be a hit here. After a few lengthy conversations, Go to Meetings in HD and skype calls – Jeff asked Finch Mktg to take the helm of the US launch of RealSatisfied.
Currently, beta testing is underway in 4 markets in the US – with positive feedback flowing in.
It is with great excitement that we announce that RealSatisfied will launch at Inman Connect NewYork January 11th 2012. David, Phil and I will be a part of the ICNY expo with a booth in Start Up Alley. We are also a Gold Sponsor for REBarCampNYC.
Test out the system for yourself – and be the first to take a 30 day Free Trial as soon as we go live. Pre-Register Here!
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The Need For A Simple Speed Solution
Posted by admin in Mobile, Tools and Tips on October 13, 2011
Before - 20.72 Mbps with Linksys G
In retrospect, this is a no brainier. But…It simply fell off my radar.
The Short answer is – if you have an older – even 3-4 year old wireless router for your home or work network, a small investment will help your download speed- allot. The time savings are incredible and well worth the trip to the store.
My new Linksys E4200 looks sharp and I was really happy to see a 26% increase in download speed. Very Cool.
The iPad, and iPhone love the faster and longer range Wifi and the other devices that are hard wired run predictably faster as well.
Features I really like include the Duel Band, HD ready and Guest login – separate from my desktop login. It was under an hour to set up.
I purchased the E4200 at Micro Center while it was on sale (List $180 – Paid $139).
It takes under a min to test your speed using the Geek Squad tool
After - 27.27 Mbps with Linksys E4200
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Twitter Advertising with Zillow & Trulia
Posted by admin in Advertising, Marketing on August 18, 2011
200 million of us are on twitter, with a reported 30%+ following at least on major brand. That percentage is rising. Until now, we have seen the organic (read: advertising agencies) results of major companies efforts.
Twitter launched a well documented ad platform a year ago to sell promoted tweets. Last month those tweets began show up at the top of your timeline as advertisers now pay a hefty sum to get in front of you. Discussions of the “downfall of twitter” aside, Ive been curious to see who in the Real Estate space adopts the new ad format first. Typically, early adopters are on the bleeding …err… cutting edge of more than just advertising. This move (pun intended) will be telling.
Zillows Tweeting Edge Marketing.
While logged into my “other” twitter account for an upcoming event ( @rebcKC ) I was pleased to find my answer. In a non fact checked study, industry giant Zillow is officially the leader in twitter advertising. Well Done Zillow!
Would you take the bait? Would you click the promoted tweet?
I dont clip coupons, buy Groupons or save direct mail. I feel like that’s the norm. But Zillow is banking on demographic and geographic, market centered rapid fire 140 character tweets and follow suggestions paying off. Zillow must know something and they must have invested a ton.
I clicked it.
"You might also want to follow Trulia."
All the marketing efforts of zillow on twitter worked, and got me to click “follow”.
Then the remarkable, astonishing and amazing non-advertising organic twit-suggestion occurred: “You Might also want to follow Trulia”
Do you think Zillow had this in mind?
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The Screaming Vulture Sales Attack Works
Posted by admin in Marketing, Social Media on March 24, 2011
Last week I went shopping for 2 new pair of glasses at xyz store.
Select the frame, pay and leave. I’m a guy, that’s how I shop. (rather, that was the plan)
Unknowingly, I had innocently walked into a marketing trap.
Selecting the frame could be difficult – but I’m pretty simple, so this was easy. It took five min.
That was more than enough to spring the trap.
Vulture Photo Credit Teunie Polak / Trek Nature
First I got stuck with the “upgrade” pitch – you know the one. Anti scratch coating, is the best, blah blah, You should get the destruction or dismemberment insurance. “No thanks” I declined.
With a raised tone she persisted with pressure- you will see better at night with the anti glare… “Thats ok, no than…”
I was cut short –
Screaming like a bottle rocket from above a sales vulture swooped in with horror stories about helpless clients with broken glasses. She went for the kill; From under her desk she pulled a baggie with a dog chewed pair as proof.
“This could happen to you.” She said with a glare in all four of her eyes.
I gasped for air – I had been pounced on like prey. The “double eyeglass fear sales attack” had me surrounded. (I think they snuck up on my blind side)
“Anti glare could save you and your family when driving at night”
They tore into my sense of decency, ripped at my fiscal concerns and then offered an upgrade as the only salvation.
It was a fight. Me vs The screaming attack sales vulture.
I declined. In that moment of shock, I was able to escape.
I ran away, vowing never to do business with them again.
In the end, I got my new shades. They were a great deal, fair quality and fast.
There are lots of products sold with fear and scare tactics. Fear sells, however, I strongly dislike this tactic.
Educate clients and help them make an informed decision. If you provide information not otherwise available, you create value and build trust. Become a trusted reference, not a screaming sales vulture.
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Virtual Tour App for Real Estate
Real Estate agents rejoice. No longer do you have to download photos to your computer from a camera only to upload them to your virtual tour provider.
Finch Mktg just launched EasyVT the virtual tour app for apple iphone. Realtors may photograph a listing, select a virtual tour vendor and EasyVT automatically uploads the content all from their iphone.
Crisp 5 megapixel photos look fantastic from my iphone 4 and my apple 3GS cranks out great looking content as well.
Finch Mktg Head Developer Kevin Mitts created a simple to use but very powerful tool. Currently we are focused on looking for any outstanding issues. We are hunting for bugs before we make a loud launch – so consider this the soft launch.
Feel free to try EasyVT since it is FREE. Just Click the link below to download to itunes. In return, just give us some feedback or like us on facebook!
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Chris Drayer
