Vote to change our VOW

[MattL]

Hi everyone,

We are planning a few big upgrades to our VOW system for next year and I'm interested in hearing what you think should be Most Important.

To describe the system: we have a basic CMS (5 pages), a slightly-confusing Advanced CMS (unlimited pages), basic email campaign functionality (7 messages based on sign-up date), search alerts (daily new properties matching criteria), and a very solid visitor experience for searching properties. We currently do not provide any content (pages or email) for the Realtor -- about half of our clients frame our service.

Here are the possibilities for new features from which to choose:

1. Advanced Email Campaigns
   This has been a longtime contender, but many of our clients say that what we have is "good enough" and they'd rather have other features first. Ken Smith is a contrarian.
   
2. DriveTime Calculations & Mapping of Favorite Homes
   Pretty much like it sounds -- provide the ability for the visitor to see multiple commute times of their selected properties. This is the flashy/splashy favorite.
   
3. Content, Content, Content
   A perennial request, although only half of our customers would benefit.
   
4. Brochure Generation
   The ability for the visitor (or Realtor) generate PDF listing brochures with a map, school info, etc.

Let me know what you think. I can't guarantee that what you choose wins, but you will definitely be a big influence for over 1000 Realtors.

Thanks,
-Matt

[kensmith]

I thought the advanced email was coming...

If I had to vote for only one it would be #2 I think, but #1 is a very close second.

It would also be nice to have more lead distribution options. Giving leads on a weighted basis and tracking of average turnaround time for the agents getting the leads would be helpful. Maybe being able to set it up that one agent doesn't get leads on the weekend (or some other preset day or time frame) when you know that the agent will not be able to work them. For example no leads from 8-5pm for a part time agent.

I could add so many things to your list, just let me know when you need more things to work on .

[MattL]

Hey, you know we're always open to suggestions -- wishlist@pmpvows.com actually goes straight to our bug-tracking system (tagged as a wishlist item).

The lead management items you've pointed out are most certainly valid, but unfortunately would be underweighted in consideration because only ~5% of our customers use lead distribution -- most are single agents. It is, however, a worthwhile venture if we start targeting more offices next year.

The DriveTime stuff is very cool, and my only concern is performance, which is why we'd limit it to "Favorite Homes". Originally, I'd wanted to do it broadly through searches, but unfortunately our dependence on the 3rd party service makes it unrealistic for 20,000+ views per day.

Emailing does keep getting delayed in favor of other features (like the recently-launched AJAX-ified subdivision search and Showing requests). Again, maybe 10% of our userbase would actually take advantage of the expanded offering, and we do need to try to roll out features that appeal to 50% or more.

-Matt

[kensmith]

The lead distribution stuff is a major issue for me and one I need to figure out a good solution for as I will be adding 2 more agents. One will be part time at first (can't responed to lead from 8-4) and the other will not get the same percentage of leads. Might be that I am at the point of needing a custom solution, but I would much rather not have to do that as I like ease of use in your backend. Not sure how hard these items would be to add in, but they would be a big help. If you have any thoughts that are more of a work around feel free to call me.

When I was at Pubcon Guy Kawasaki talked about innovation and one of his key points was to listen to your most loyal customers. Basicly take what the customers like and expand on that. I think that the backend is actually where your system impressed me the most and is the most important part, so that is the spot that I would worry about first. Making something "cool" doesn't make me more money, the boring backend improvements like better follow up email systems and lead distribution do. BTW, if anyone has the chance to hear Guy speek you should go. Great speaker and very motivating.

[MattL]

Hi Ken,
That is certainly a valid point, enough so that I will reconsider our current weighting for outstanding requests. While I don't think emailing will come any sooner (SPAM is such an issue with any expansion), we will definitely look over your Leads requests as carefully as possible.

Thanks,
-Matt

[kensmith]

That sounds good. Let me know if you want any more details as to what would be helpful with lead management. I will be more than happy to spend some time talking about ideas with you.

[ChicagoDrew]

What exactly is your Advanced Email? How does it differ from non-advanced email?

I think the mapping or option #2 is most important. Also if the mapping had gas station, schools etc. all the POI that make using a map usefull. There is a 3rd party company called http://www.FlashMaps.com/re that seems very interesting.

The lead distribution is a nice object, but since I'm a single user maybe also incorporate referrals too.

I'm not sure i you guys have this or not but the ability to inface with the bask end with a PPC phone.

[MattL]

Hi Drew! Thanks for the reply and welcome aboard.

• Advanced Email provides the flexibility of near-limitless criteria for sending an automated email. As an extreme example: "Visitor X has searched for condos in Lincoln Park valued over $600,000 more than three times."
  
  While there is quite a bit of potential for a Realtor targeting narrow leads, many don't take advantage of what we already offer. Combining that fact with the increased concern (and preventative maintenance) of being blacklisted as a spam server has kept this feature on the shelf.
  
• Mapping. I have closely followed the various mapping options since they became generally available and widely accepted (2-3 years ago). However, based on numerous seminars and conversations with end customers -- as well as top people at the mapping vendors -- the reality is that mapping hasn't either A) matured sufficiently for, or, B) proven its value in, our market.
  
  As I've pointed out on The Other Forums, I'm skeptical at best of the merit of broad, location-based searching. I personally believe the value is in context-based geography, such as "maximum distance to x school, y office building, and z office building". The problem is then the processing power (and licensed software) required to provide those results in a sub-second period... not an easy trick when you have to scale to thousands of searches per hour.
  
  I would much rather let the really big corporate vendors spend millions figuring out what works, then copy them for a few thousand in a quarter of the time.
  
• Lead Distribution is one of those quirky, bipolar features -- either our customer loves it and wants more, more, more (Ken), or they have no idea what it is and wouldn't get an inkling of additional value in even the most finely polished system.
  
  As I said in the previous post, Ken made a convincing argument for us to focus on this area. We do provide some of the most useful "lead forensics" in the marketplace, but we don't apply this information to distribution.
  
  Again, the issue is (ironically) leveraging context with respect to other features, but in this case we could make some directed effort to really lead the market in this area.
  
• PPC-friendliness. We considered it. However, most of our next-gen stuff will use AJAX (which doesn't work on PocketIE), and I would prefer that our focus be on reducing the amount of time a Realtor has to be in our backoffice through Smart automation. Out of curiosity, what feature/area would you really want access to from that tiny browser?

I must admit that it's a bit humorous that neither of you seem to care about Brochures while it has been one of our most requested client-facing features... Must be an onliner thing.

-Matt

[kensmith]

Brochures? Don't see the value, once they have the information on a listing why would they need a brochure. Maybe I am just missing it. Why would a visitor want an online brochure? What value does it add? Truely want to know, not trying to be a smartass.

[MattL]

Mostly it is to have a "pretty" copy of the online information. HTML/Web printing is woefully unpredictable, and doesn't lend well to our otherwise very full on-screen layout.

Generating PDF brochures would allow us to control 95% of the page format, and ensure that the printed copy is as "pretty" as the on-screen display.

Does that make more sense?

-Matt