Keeping the lines of communication open can be a challenging proposition, no matter the organization. And in the real estate industry, where independent contractors wear multiple hats, that challenge is often magnified, according to Anthony Azar, operating principal at Keller Williams Southern Arizona.
Serving the Southern Arizona market since 2002, Azar enjoys working with talented real estate professionals who are passionate about helping current and aspiring homeowners. In order to streamline communication among the 500-plus agents who make up the brokerage, Azar has been utilizing Clareity, a support service that creates and delivers innovative software solutions designed to help real estate professionals be more efficient.
“Clareity’s technology has powered key parts of our agents’ MLS experience for years,” says Azar, “and we’re just beginning this new phase of bringing Clareity’s broker dashboard to our agents in a seamless way.”
Founded in 1996, Clareity works to provide information technology consulting to professionals within the real estate industry, serving 750,000 agents on a daily basis, with over 200 vendor integrations.
Using Clareity’s dashboard system, DASH!, a single sign-on gateway that includes numerous REALTOR®-related tools and a secure platform for brokers, Azar has been able to improve and refine communication among the large, market-leading brokerage.
“Clareity’s broker dashboard helps improve communications company-wide in a very significant way,” says Azar. “Everyone knows what’s happening, and when—locally, regionally and globally.”
This kind of open communication is key in any real estate firm, regardless of its size or scope. Whether you have one office with five agents or 15 offices with 800 agents, maintaining effective contact with one another is critical to staying fluid, fresh and successful.
“DASH! is an uber-modern intranet that raises internal company communications to a new level,” says Gregg Larson, president, co-founder and CEO of Clareity. According to Larson, DASH! provides a simple—yet powerful—Content Management System (CMS) that enables a broker/owner or manager to create and publish articles and videos, organize training content and forms…and house them all in one place. “DASH! has been described as a modern intranet—not just an evolution, but rather, a quantum leap forward,” notes Larson, who celebrated his 20th year with the company in 2016.
Clareity’s president Amy Gorce has been with the company since they started their software division in 2004. “My primary objectives are to develop and grow new products, as well as provide leadership for constant product improvement for our customers,” says Gorce. “By offering a convenient and easy-to-use notification module within our product, we facilitate custom communications between brokers and agents, allowing the communication to be customized down to the user level.”
To springboard communication efforts, Clareity uses a “tagging” system to create groups of users that can receive custom communications. Gorce says there are multiple ways this method can be beneficial.
“Brokers can create a tag for ‘new agents’ and present custom communication and content that’s specific to them,” explains Gorce. Brokers can also support and facilitate team communication by tagging communication specific to teams, pushing communication either directly to the agent’s inbox or as a pop-up notification when they log in.
“The broker can send push notifications to an individual’s mobile device,” explains Larson. “These have over a 90 percent read rate vs. emails that often have less than a 20 percent open rate.” With Clareity, your company memos will never die in an over-cluttered inbox again.
“There are a tremendous number of tools and systems available to our agents today,” says Azar. Learning about all these tools, and fully understanding how to implement them, can be a daunting task. To combat this, Clareity’s single sign-on (SSO) service acts as a one-stop shop for housing an agent’s entire system, including the display of information, documents and videos that follow the same tagging system as the notification module.
“No longer do our agents have to log in and out of various systems and platforms,” says Azar. This streamlined process enhances productivity while saving time and brain space.
”By providing all the tools an agent needs in one place with the power of single sign-on, we are making their jobs easier and more convenient,” says Gorce. “They get the power of all the MLS-provided tools combined with all the tools offered by their brokerage, all with a single username and password. Eliminating the need for dozens of URLs, usernames and passwords drives adoption of tools designed to make the real estate professional’s life easier.”
“‘It’s all in ONE place!”’ is what agents tell us they love,” says Larson. “Everyone benefits from the improved productivity using the DASH! platform—agents, assistants, appraisers, loan officers, broker-affiliated service providers, office managers and HQ staff. Everyone.”
But it doesn’t end there. The single sign-on service isn’t the only benefit Clareity offers. The other big player in their suite of tools is customized company branding. “We custom-brand everything,” comments Larson, who goes on to say that Clareity works to make all their customers look awesome to their agents, employees or subscribers.
Azar concurs: “Now our firm provides a Keller Williams Southern Arizona branded experience to the agent’s screen as part of their normal MLS log in process. Clareity is the only provider that’s able to offer a full service solution that includes access to the MLS resources from the same platform where the broker services are being accessed.”
When it comes to customer service, Clareity rises above the rest. “At Clareity, everyone gets involved in a big way,” concludes Azar. “Whether it’s the sales team or the technology gurus, they all work together to deliver a stellar customer experience.”
For more information, please visit Clareity online.
