I'm curious as to how those of you with very productive sites handle the volume of leads in an effective manner so that I may make some suggestions for some clients of ours. It seems as the lead volume increases, some begin to service them very ineffectively. I've been receiving numerous copies of the leads that look similar to the following: (the info is changed for the privacy of the client)

You have received a property request form.
MLS #: 03-1243
Property Desc: River View
Name: george bax***neos
Address: 218 stra****rger road
City: perkasie
State: pa
Zip: 18944
Country: USA
Email: gbax@*****.net
Phone: 267****376

Comments: Is a boat slip included with the property or do you have to pay yearly?? This is the third email that I have sent. It would be nice to get a response.


I know it is out of my hands but we work very hard to make the sites productive and it just makes me crazy to see things falling through the cracks like this.

Does anyone have any realistic suggestions I may be able to make to help them make better use of their leads without pointing out that they are screwing up big time


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Rich
Real Estate Websites
Search Engine Optimization

Rich, is that form from a particular property or from a general Home Search form? If it is from a particular property and your client is the listing agent then if it were me, I would fire off an email to the propect and then telephone them right away - or just telephone.

Such leads from individual listings can be treated much the same as a call from a newspaper ad. If your client doesn't call them quickly - the next agent these prospects contact will - and will end up working with them. Prospects seeking info on individual listings are usually not just confining their search to the internet but are calling off ads and signs too - so a quick telephone call is a must.

The tech "fix" would be to have such emails go directly to pager

Hi Doug, that particular one is a 400k lakeview home. There are an increasing number of similar issues from several clients and it's making me nuts. Most of our sites we are having problems with are company sites which is crazy since they have so dozens of agents that I'm sure would work them but the brokers seem to want to be the gatekeepers. I just called the broker at home and she said she hadn't had time to check her email in 2 days... Now I'm gonna have an anurism. I just checked and she had 40+ leads since then. I'm speechless... I even offered to meter out the leads from my end when she's too busy since she's a long time client but she'd rather do it herself. I'm going to see if things improve and go from there. Not quite sure why it bothers me so much but it does...big time

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Rich
Real Estate Websites
Search Engine Optimization

Such leads should then be treated as typical "no agent" calls - where a prospect phones the office regarding a sign for example but did not catch the agent's name.

In such cases these calls go to the broker who than checks their list to determine who the listing agent is - and forwards the call to the listing agent.

Having the email paged to the broker would make the lead the same as a "no agent" ad or sign call. Of course, the broker may just be lazy and if the agents pay a monthly fee rather than a percentage - the broker may be inclined to ignore the calls no matter what you do. Not a broker I would want to work for if that is the case!

How about setting up an automated email response to fire off at intervals till the agent or broker answers the email?



[This message has been edited by James Veillon (edited 06-30-2004).]

Just fired off an email politely asking if she would like to see what I can do about decreasing the rankings of the site so that she isn't overburdened by incoming leads.
Awaiting a response

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Rich
Real Estate Websites
Search Engine Optimization

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Rich@vtws:
[B]Just fired off an email politely asking if she would like to see what I can do about decreasing the rankings of the site so that she isn't overburdened by incoming leads.
Awaiting a response

How did you get her such a good ranking in the first place? Come on Rich, time to share some of your little secrets.... or you can whisper to me ... I promise I wont tell :-)

If the broker would pass along the leads in a timely manner, she would be able to use the fact that the website generates lots of leads for the agents as an excellent recruiting tool - perhaps she had not thought of that?

Classic!

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[link]http://www.ebigman.com[/link]ebigman.com: Web Builder @Large

[link]http://www.ebigman.com/REScript/index.php[/link]Real Estate Listing Software -PHP backed real estate listing script

Can you solve some of the problem by settign up the forms/links for specific listings to go to the listing agent??? Obviously, there would still be some general traffic, but that might go part way. When I fill in a customer no-service form for the big boys it somehow randomly sends my rant to no-service agent #17...is that a solution.

Get into her email account and pirate and sell the leads???? (Better than down-ranking the site...just a thought)

I guess when it comes right down to it its like my clients who neglect to backup their data bases. You can lead a horse to water...

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Watsonville California Real Estate

[This message has been edited by ggwwttre (edited 07-01-2004).]

The agents are usually copied, but this particular broker won't allow it. She's the gatekeeper of the leads. If one comes in for a listing of one of her agents, they get it for sure but she gets a large amount of leads from buyers that I'm not sure how get distributed.

I believe the problem might be solved. After my tongue in cheek email I got a call apologizing for the delay with that client. Turns out it was her husband who dropped the ball and he's been punished appropriately
I wouldn't really change the site to atempt to pee off the search engines but it sure did make the phone ring in a hurry

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Rich
Real Estate Websites
Search Engine Optimization

I may be a little late to the party but you problem just encompassed most of my job description when I first went to help our RE/MAX Broker in Fort Myers.

Depending on the size of the brokerage and their internal policy for handling Broker Sponsored leads what you need to do is create the position in the office of the dispatcher.

Ideally you need a licensed individual with really good organization skills. For about a year I managed and distributed all leads coming into our brokerage from all lead sources. I then referred those leads to agents on the team or office. Remember these are leads the broker paid for through various advertising and marketing. IE Full Yellow Page Ad, Billboards, Mailers, etc, etc.

The secondary duties of this position include centralized marketing department for the agents in the office, i.e. virtual tours, photos, flyers, post cards and internet for various fees by package.

If the person is organized this new position becomes its own profit center in the brokerage and more than pays the salary of the person or persons in this new department.

Let me know if this helps..

I like the automated email responder suggestion. IMHO, it's a people issue. You would think that getting a lot of leads emailed is good, but people just get lazy when it starts cutting on their workload. There's a tendency to respond to this, respond to that, slack off on this, respond to that, and so forth. It tends to happen more if sales conversion rates are low or the agents arent' completely sold on the concept of Internet leads.

I like someone's idea of a dispatcher. They do something like that in a couple Internet real estate companies like eRealty.com and zipRealty.com.

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Ruperto Elpusan, MBA, e-Pro
Broker/Officer
Beverly Hills-Malibu-Palos Verdes Real Estate
Torrance/South Bay Real Estate

We are designing another site for that corporate office and have dealt with this. If the manpower is not enough to service everybody, sell or give the links to a friend. In our case, the branch offices. Maybe even work out a referral deal. I know there are plenty of agents that get hardly any legitimate referrals, mostly because of their poor website design.

Also you should have somebody paying attention to these at all moments. We incorporated a LiveChat program into our site to deal with people as they come in, so they never feel neglected. Check it out, but since the site is still in developement, you'll be talking to one of our webmasters and not an agent.

Aparently the signiture doesn't pop-up automatically, oops.

here is the link...

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Charlie
Internet-Engine
http://www.chicagorealestate-bw.com