We are a small organization with big goals. Having only worked here a few months, I am still getting the lay of the land, but I love what I see. I was whipped into action very quickly due to coming on board right after the company attended a Real Estate Tech conference called INMAN 2016. Upon returning from the conference I had a stack of 159 business cards, all from people who were quickly qualified with the promise that Lead Assign would follow up. I began the task of securing a CRM, getting all of my prospects into the application and starting to make the calls.
Early on I had some strong interest from prospects who showed great interest in the way that Lead Assign could simplify their lives however, some of the prospects I spoke with, wanted our application to work a bit differently in order to fit their individual business needs. After listening to some of the feedback from prospects, I brought some of the ideas to our development team kind of expecting the standard response of “it is what it is” or “they will have to pay for customization”. Remarkably, instead of the expected disappointing response, we ended up discussing reasons why the customer is looking to make this change. We then discussed how the changes would effect us and the possibilities of opening some new, previously unseen, opportunities.
Being as lean and nimble as we are, the development team were able to take the customer feedback, understand the goal, design the flow and then give me a completion timeline that I could convey to the client. I proudly called my clients back, thanking them for the feedback while also letting them know that the changes that they’ve requested are being worked on and would be completed by a specific date. Of course the client was impressed however, I was a little less excited, as I knew that earning the clients business depended entirely on our ability to deliver the change and I was just crossing my fingers and hoping that it would be done when I was promised. I put the clients on ice for about 2 weeks while the enhancements were (hopefully) being made. As the new guy, I was still unsure as to the process and expectations of communication between the sales department and the development team. All I knew was that I had promised a delivery date to my customer and I was hoping that it was being worked on.
About 2 days before my calendar due date, I overheard some of the team talking about the changes and I excitedly poked my head up over my desk hoping to insert myself into the discussion. Sure enough, the changes were complete, tested and we were ready to roll out ahead of schedule. I couldn’t have been happier. After getting a quick run through on how the changes would work for my client, I called them to proudly proclaim that the work was complete and we were all set to go. Both clients in question were delighted with the great news and we quickly implemented the changes for them. Two new paying customers! This is great news for our customers however, in reality, it’s bigger news for Lead Assign. The simple changes requested by our customer has, all of a sudden, opened brand new doors of opportunity for Lead Assign. To be specific, Lead Assign has always been able to deliver leads to agents phones and email, based on keywords and tags. Now with the changes in place we are capable of delivering leads to agents by a predefined “pecking order”, opening ourselves to new customer segments. We have other additional customer driven changes being worked on as I write this update. Soon we will be able to export lead data to .csv files, providing a benchmark for agencies to be able to track conversion of leads against properties sold making our product offering even more valuable.
The point to all of this, of course, is that we are developing our products with our customers needs in mind and as a priority. Coincidently, this is the same way that we initially became a company. We were approached by a Real Estate Owner/Broker who had a problem and he went searching for someone who might be able to help him solve it. This is the opposite of someone sitting at home and dreaming up a solution for a problem that might exist. I will always be more inclined to take a feedback from someone who knows that they have a problem and is looking for a solution over someone who tries to shoehorn their solution into a perceived problem.
