Show Time

Print Article Print Article

Home showing scheduling system from Centralized Showing Service frees up agents? phone time
By Beth McGuire

Technology has changed a lot about how real estate business is conducted, but perhaps one of the most under-recognized improvements has been to the age-old practice of ?duty desk? or ?up desk.?

In the old days, desk duty translated into ?time served? staffing the phones, answering questions and most likely, flipping through a stack of three-by-five index cards and answering or making calls to set up showing appointments.

?We called it ?phone time?,? recalls 17-year veteran June Feltman, vice president of Dallas/ Ft.Worth-based Ebby Halliday Realtors with 27 offices and more than 1,500 sales associates. ?Agents had to rotate taking turns manning the phones to make showing appointments and at the same time handle property calls and a crowded office filled with walk-ins, so you could imagine the overload at the phone desk. And this was just 10 years ago.?

Meanwhile in Kansas City, Bob Faherty, an up-and-coming software developer, believed there had to be a better way. Now president and co-owner of Centralized Showing Service, Inc. (CSS), Faherty proposed the creation of a centralized call center for all 18 of Reece?s offices with staff solely dedicated to managing the details of home showings.

?It was great timing because I was already creating software for the real estate industry when the J.D. Reece Company requested a proposal for the Appointment Center software,? he says. ?I knew there had to be a better way than agents using index cards for recording appointments. Rather than scheduling, I knew agents really wanted to be out selling homes.?

The idea took off and now, 12 years, six national call centers and 65,000 members in 30 markets later, Faherty and his brother and partner, Kevin Faherty, head up CSS, the nation?s first and leading home showing appointment setting service, scheduling more than 10 million showings a year.

The Ultimate Valuable Commodity

?Using Centralized Showing Service provides numerous benefits to Realtors,? says Bob Faherty. ?By using our system, agents are able to outsource their appointments to our trained customer service representatives who handle all of their appointment needs. Agents do not have to take time out from their schedule to handle desk duty to schedule appointments. By using CSS, agents are able to focus on doing what they do best?listing and selling more homes.?

Kevin Faherty, CSS vice president for operations and sales, agrees.

?Having a designated call center that handles all the details of showings, including cancellations, rescheduling or even no-shows, eliminates a lot of frustration for both showing and listing agents,? he says. ?CSS simplifies the process for everyone involved?which a lot of agents use to their advantage as a great listing tool.?

Other benefits of the system include:

An easy-to-use system that increases the number of home showings

Feedback and reporting capabilities allow agents to generate easy-to-read reports that can be shared with sellers

CSS is open 33% longer than standard real estate offices

Sellers can contact CSS directly to update showing instructions

24-hour access to the CSS Web site makes it possible for agents to schedule showings on agents? listings anytime

A built-in security element that requires identification of showing agents and the ability to know where an agent, seller or buyer should be during showing times

On the showing side, Kevin Faherty adds that the CSS feature-rich Web site allows sellers to view scheduled showings on their home and feedback reports regarding buyer reaction to their home. This service has been augmented by a recently announced partnership with FeedbackCentral.com, a nationally recognized feedback gathering company based in Texas.

?CSS has always offered a feedback component,? Faherty says. ?But we have taken that feature to the next level by partnering with FeedbackCentral.com and offering it to our members for free.?

FeedbackCentral.com, which has been integrated into the CSS Web site, allows CSS members to select one of four standard surveys, or build one of their own that is specific to each individual property. As an added bonus, each agent is allowed to store an unlimited number of feedback surveys on file with all questions and answers maintained in an easy-to-read format.

Expanding the Network

A look at the roster of CSS members indicates that their service offers something of value to offices and franchises both large and small.

?We are committed to meeting our members? needs,? he says. ?We have something to offer everyone from individual offices to entire MLS boards or Associations. Our goal is to create ?raving fans?.?

It is a goal they have met as far as Alice Burch is concerned.

?CSS was a program we wanted to find and incorporate for years because the way we handled showing appointments was so archaic,? says Burch, a regional vice president and general manager for Long and Foster, which has 120 offices covering New Jersey to North Carolina.

?CSS came to our office and we were very impressed with their product,? she says. ?A high percentage of our offices have been using it for three years or more now. We don?t have to waste time making appointments and the added benefit of CSS sending reports to agents and sellers is invaluable.?

Ebby Halliday Vice President June Feltman agrees.

?They have proven themselves to be a capable, reliable company,? she says. ?Now, all of our agents are using this service and both the listing agent and the showing agent only have one number to call? Today when I look back, I don?t even know how we kept to that ?phone time? schedule. Using CSS is so much more efficient. It frees up the agents? time, and that?s important because the business has changed a lot and it?s all about benefiting the agents.? RE

For more information about Centralized Showing Service, visit www.showings.com.


© RISMedia 2009. All Rights Reserved