Great Charts Help us to Measure and Tell the Story

It’s been a few months now since we’ve begun to initiate some major new changes at Fillmore Real Estate.  Our new agentdashboard software was created to enable us to measure almost everything that we do as a company.
The three months of numbers are starting to make sense, and the fact that we are distributing the findings has increased the accuracy and volume of information being entered into the new system.
New Buyers entered into AD in March doubled the numbers that we saw in February.  When we break it down by offices, we can see that the extra effort that some offices made has gone a long way to ensuring that the information is being added all the time.  We know where each buyer comes from, and we can track by neighborhood which website and or newspaper brings in the best results.
If you think that this sounds a little bit on the overkill side, think again..we’ve only just begun.  We shall track trends, property styles interested in, price ranges, buyer types etc…  We’ve only just begun.

We are learning that there is a lot to learn that we didn’t previously attempt to learn because it was way too difficult to track or make sense of.
As the Chief Executive Officer of the company, I can go online at anytime from anywhere and find out how many properties any agent in the company might have shown this week.  I can see the activity on any home that is listed with us and within a few seconds provide guidance as to what actions might be needed to make the home sell faster.  Just the fact that I’m easily aware of what’s going on allows me to connect better with the agents and managers.  They know that I’m watching…and the funny thing that happens when people know that you’re watching is >>They make sure that they are doing the right thing.  Inspect what you expect!

The number of properties that agents have shown in March is 50% higher than in February.  That’s great, but we need to look at the reasons why to make the information valuable.  We drill down and see that there was a lot of snow in Brooklyn in February which prohibited viewings.  We also see that certain offices have recruited new agents and their properties shown has doubled, as new agents can be the easiest adapters to the new system.  The real juice is in comparing office to office and measuring their rank in the company.  We now have a few more categories in which agents can be motivated to do better in.  We reward the successes each week and make a note and inquiry to those who haven’t made the effort.

In this economy, we are trying to simply create activities to get the agents moving.  We believe that the additional action is causing additional business, and keeping the agents focused on doing the right things all the time.  When the market picks up again, the agents doing the right things and improving on the measuring of their activities will shine and benefit the most.

There are many ways to measure all of the activities that your agents are doing each day to see if your advertising and marketing investments are working properly and to make sure that your team is motivated and ready for top performance.  The key though, is to measure the data, interpret the data and use the data to get the most out of your agents and managers.
I’ll keep you posted as to how things continue to track and play out…so far, we are overly impressed with the great differences and improvements that measuring and motivating has made in our company already.

All the Best,
John
PS:  If you ever would like to discuss our strategy regarding measuring for success, please feel free to call.