Active Website Enterprise Network Blog » Enterprise Network

Active Enterprise Network July Newsletter

Amanda Stephan — Fri, 13 Aug 2010 23:57:07 +0000

July proved to be a busy month for Active Website so we’ve released our monthly newsletter in order to keep you informed! Included in our newsletter is new product releases, Enterprise Network Members in the news, our Idea of the Month and Employee of the Month winners, plus information on what’s ahead in 2010 and more.

Our team worked hard over the past few months and we are happy to announce the release of several new products for The Network including the LCD Display Application that showcases featured listings in their lobby and our mp3 player that allows members to upload mp3 files on any page within their site in a custom Flash player. Still to come for Active Website this year includes SEO site audits and the new mobile website for LifeCycle, Active’s inquiry management system.

In addition, we would like to congratulate Sean O’ Toole and Chris Robak for being July’s Idea of the Month and Employee of the Month respectively for their dedication to the team.

For more information on our team, product releases and other related news, read our July Newsletter.

Glengarry Glen Jaws

Jeff Payne — Mon, 02 Aug 2010 15:16:57 +0000

Since it is the Discovery Channel’s much-beloved Shark Week, I figured a shark-themed article might be fun. En joy! (It’s my first one.)

There’s a joke in Woody Allen’s Annie Hall that goes something like this: “A relationship is like a shark – it has to keep moving forward or it dies.”

Replace the word “relationship” with “business” and the statement remains true.

Consider the dawn of commerce. At one time the cost of an orange was determined by lead weights and a balance. The time it took to complete a transaction didn’t matter because that was the only technology available. It was the standard. It wasn’t until 1838 that the hanging spring scale was invented to antiquate that technology. In 1879, James Ritty invented the cash register, allowing customers to spend more time looking for that perfect orange and less time at check-out. In 1948 came the barcode system. Then, the electronic scale. 1958 brought us American Express. Credit card machines went from carbon-copy sliders to magnetic strip readers, and today we buy our oranges online.

Now, imagine we go into a store and the clerk weighs our orange on a balance in 10-decagram increments, using an abacus to determine the price. Next time we will go somewhere else.

So, how do we define moving forward? It is the implementation of technology to streamline all aspects of business. While it took centuries to go from scales to the internet, today’s open means of communication has accelerated the rate at which technology is developed – and it is that technology which determines the wants of a customer. Can it make their life easier? If so, then a customer will not only want it, they will require it – especially if they’ve already got a taste for it. If we don’t offer that service, or employ that technology, they will go somewhere that does. This is why moving forward is the only way to survive.

A lot of it comes down to the internet. In the past decade the percentage of internet home-buyers has increased from 28% to 72% – and that number is climbing. Also, what used to be a market driven by Baby Boomers is quickly becoming lead by the Millennial and Y generations, which means more young people are buying homes. We are in a unique position to attract these buyers.

Let me explain:

Right now, many independent real estate firms operate on an even playing field governed by somewhat archaic business practices. So, by implementing the market-savvy practices and consolidated technologies already employed by other industries – technologies which are second-nature to young buyers – we will create a gap between our company and the competition. We will stand out to the younger buyer. We will be sleeker, savvier, and moving forward so fast that our company will be the one to set the standard. When our competitors don’t offer the same brand of dedication and streamlined service, where do you think the buyer will go? Hint: it won’t be to the guy with the abacus.

Move forward. Be the shark.

By Jeff Payne

Active Community: Building a Customer Centric Business

Amanda Stephan — Sat, 31 Jul 2010 01:03:35 +0000

Today we are continuing our discussion on the Top 5 Takeaways from Inman Real Estate Connect SF 2010. Kicking the series off, we’d like to go into more detail about what it means to be customer-focused as well as tips on building a customer-centric business.

At Real Estate Connect this year, speakers stressed the importance of meeting the demands of today’s consumer (which happened to be the theme of last year’s Enterprise Network Conference). Over the past few years, Active Website has encouraged Enterprise members to make the move to a customer-centric business model because in order to last in today’s competitive market, we need to keep in mind what the driving force behind our success is – our customers.

With a wealth of information available via the web, customers are now better informed – meaning we need to provide a higher level of service then we did in the past in order to win their business. Our online users now expect instant results and if you don’t provide that, it is extremely easy for them to visit a competitor’s site instead that may have the information they’re looking for readily available.

So then, what does it take to be customer-centric?

Keep in mind the switch won’t happen overnight: It’s not just about changing your business rules; it’s about changing the culture of your company and requires a fundamental shift in attitude. Customers are our surest and most reliable source of future revenue, so by taking the time to educate our agents and staff on the benefits of a customer-centric business model, we can ensure the growth of our company through the coming years.

Know who your customers are: If you don’t know who your customers are, you won’t be able to share your services with them or know how to reach them. Think about who your target market is – are they first time home buyers, new to the area, or in the market to sell their existing home? Keeping the demographics and interests of your customers in mind will help you tailor your services to fit their exact needs – which bring us to our next point.

Know what your customers want: There is a huge dichotomy between what the broker wants and what customers want. Understanding your customer means understanding their reasons for needing your services, making you able to adapt to their demands. Meeting their needs and achieving a higher level of customer service ensure our customers leave satisfied – helping you build customer loyalty. In an age where customers are looking to their peers for trusted recommendations (like Yelp for example), this is another critical component in moving your business forward.

As a network moving towards a customer centric business strategy, we’ve seen growth even through difficult market conditions. All too often, companies are too focused on driving traffic to their sites. We’re not saying this is bad – in fact, it’s another crucial part of your business. However, driving customers to your site is only half the battle. You also need to focus your time and resources on developing a process for taking care of these customers once they’ve found you online.

In order to do this, Active Website has encouraged Network members to create customer-centric business rules through LifeCycle, our inquiry management system. By having proper response times (15 minutes or less is ideal) and knowing how a customer wants to be treated through the process of buying or selling a home, you’ll be able to increase lead conversions and leave your customers satisfied. And –through The Active Usability Lab, we can scientifically track how users are interacting with our sites. With this information, we can make educated decisions for how to position our brands online.

It’s our mission to continue providing The Network with the best technology available to better meet the demands of our customers. We truly believe that in today’s online world, if the end user is happy to use our sites, our brand will be associated with high quality and great customer service that will ultimately lead our companies forward.

Top 5 Takeaways from Inman Real Estate Connect SF

Active Community: eBusiness – Where Do We Stand?

Active Community: Four Questions on eBusiness

By Amanda Stephan

Enterprise Network Make REAL Trends Top 500 List

Amanda Stephan — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 19:46:27 +0000

Following up on a recent press release, Active Website would like to congratulate The Enterprise Network for another great year in 2009. With the results of The REAL Trends 500 having been released a couple months ago, we’d like to take the time to spotlight several of our Network Members who made the list.

Every year, REAL Trends ranks the performance of residential real estate companies across the country by sales volume, transactions, mortgage, etc. This annual report is a trusted standard of measuring performance, so again, congratulations to the following companies for a successful year.

The 500 Largest Brokers in the U.S. (Ranked by Closed Transaction Sides for 2009)

The 500 Largest Brokers in the U.S. (Ranked by Closed Sales Volume in 2009)

Top Leading Real Estate Companies of the World Affiliates

The Largest Independents

The Billionaire’s Club! (Those who closed at least one billion $ worth of real estate in 2009)

12- Ebby Halliday Realtors

Top 500 Firms Ranked by Mortgage Closings

The Group, Inc. Real Estate

Top 500 Firms Ranked by Title Closings

The Group, Inc. Real Estate

Real Trends Market Leaders

Ann Arbor: Charles Reinhart Company Realtors
Dallas/Ft.Worth: Ebby Halliday Realtors
Denver: The Kentwood Companies
Fort Collins: The Group, Inc. Real Estate
Lexington: Milestone Realty Consultants
Portland: The Hasson Company
Toledo: The Danberry Company

To read more, check out our press release, The Active Enterprise Network Makes Real Trends Top 500 List for 2009.

By Amanda Stephan

Active Community: Top 5 Takeaways from Real Estate Connect SF

Amanda Stephan — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 18:18:33 +0000

We took some time away, but Active Community is back! Having just returned from the Inman Real Estate Connect Conference in San Francisco, our next series will introduce major themes we saw at this year’s event. Below is an overview of the top 5 takeaways from the conference that we will be expanding on in more detail over the next several weeks. So make sure to keep checking back on Friday afternoon’s to find out how to apply these topics to your business.

Looking back on last week’s conference, it was a pleasure to see that our innovations and predictions over the past year have been sought out by others in the industry. Inman was an affirmation to what Active Website has been trying to instill in The Enterprise Network. With our conference last year focusing on creating a customer-centric business model, it was encouraging to see Inman starting to drive home the point that we need to find ways to better meet the demands of today’s consumer.

Which brings us to our top takeaways from Inman this year:

Moving towards a customer-centric business model: This was our theme for our Annual Enterprise Network Conference last October. Again it was great to see Inman reiterating the need to increase the focus on our customers. You’ve heard us say this before, but with a user’s experience on our websites playing such a vital role in the success of our companies, it’s important that the needs of our customers come first (a lot more on this next Friday).
Email marketing is back: As an industry, many of us have lost touch with email marketing and have disregarded it as an outdated form of communication. However, in today’s fast paced world where we’re constantly being bombarded with campaigns, a well tailored email marketing strategy is still a very effective method for reaching our customers. It was great to see the people at Inman discussing ways to get back to our digital marketing roots.
The release of WordPress 3.0: Speakers at the conference discussed the release of WordPress 3.0 this past June and a variety of cool new enhancements including multi-user integration, plug-ins and how to use your WordPress site for additional SEO value. Always striving to stay ahead of the curve, The Active Enterprise Network, had already made the switch over to this unified enterprise blog system prior to Inman. We have learned a lot utilizing this new platform and would love to share our experience with all of you.
Home prices do not appreciate, they stay up with inflation: Another key point made at Inman this year was based on the housing market and our infatuation with price. While not a lot of time was devoted to this topic at the conference, this hit home with us and we feel it’s important to discuss further.
Three major areas are moving the industry: We’ve all been watching these trends, but the conference reiterated the importance of mobile, search and social integration (or as we call it, personalization) to build your online brand. No longer can we rely on just our websites to be a main point of contact with our customers. To be successful in our ever-evolving industry, we understand the need for a strong digital presence – including social and mobile sites – in order to increase search ranking. Staying up-to-date on new advancements in the technology world gives The Enterprise Network an edge over the competition and ensures our members’ place as market leaders.

While we gained a lot of valuable information from the conference, it is our goal to expand further on these topics to showcase how we can apply this knowledge to our network and beyond. So again, check back with us next week as we explore our first topic, the importance of a customer-centric business model.

Active Community: Introduction to the Active Usability Lab

Active Community: Usability Lab, Part 2

Active Community: Building Your Online Brand

By Amanda Stephan

Inman Real Estate Connect 2010

Amanda Stephan — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 18:36:32 +0000

The Active Website team has returned from the Inman Conference and we wanted to give a A BIG thank you to those who were able to join us this year! With the largest turnout of Enterprise Network members to date, it is our hope that members were able to walk away with valuable information to be implemented over the course of the year.

For Enterprise Network members and followers unable to attend this year, we will be releasing blog posts and related videos centered around the top 5 take-aways from this year’s event as part of our Active Community series. So join us this Friday as we introduce the major themes from Inman Real Estate Connect San Francisco 2010!

Above: Group shot of everyone who accompanied us on the boat tour around San Francisco. We couldn't have asked for a more beautiful night!

By Amanda Stephan

Join Us for Food, Drinks and Great Conversation at Inman

Amanda Stephan — Tue, 29 Jun 2010 22:44:51 +0000

Active Website would like to invite those attending Inman Real Estate Connect this year to a boat tour around San Francisco! On Wednesday, July 14 from 6 pm – 9 pm, Active will be hosting a meet and greet with Enterprise Network Members and the Active Website staff. This is a great opportunity to meet with current members to hear more about the benefits of The Network, but because limited spots are available, be sure to contact us today for more information.

Amanda Stephan

The Network Loses a Close Friend

Amanda Stephan — Fri, 28 May 2010 14:44:55 +0000

Last week, we lost a close friend and respected member of The Active Enterprise Network. John Kroll Turpin, better known as Jack, died following a brief illness on Friday, May 21, 2010 at age 65. Turpin’s passion for real estate led him to join the family business at Turpin Real Estate, where he spent over three decades leading the company in becoming one of the premier independent real estate firms in Northern New Jersey. After passing the title of president to his son John Turpin in 2009, Jack spent his remaining time as broker of record at Turpin until his death.

Jack Turpin was a loving husband, father, grandfather and friend and will be missed by all who had the pleasure of knowing such a great man. In lieu of flowers, the family requests that donations be made in his honor to Blair Academy, PO Box 600, Blairstown, NJ 07825.

For more information, visit Turpin Real Estate’s blog at http://turpinblog.com/

By Amanda Stephan

Active Community: Four Questions on eBusiness

John Sable — Fri, 07 May 2010 17:00:51 +0000

Welcome everyone to our latest session of Active Community. Today, we are excited to present a new series on Active Community called Four Questions. Periodically, we will be talking with people from the Active Website staff to discuss key points on the week’s session topic. In this episode, I am asking Jen Ibanez, our Senior Account Manager at Active Website, a series of questions pertaining to her experience with the Active Enterprise Network and establishing the foundation for an eBusiness strategy.

Jen came to Active Website three years ago and has really helped us grow Active’s eBusiness department. In our video below, Jen will go discuss her experience working with Enterprise clients and the struggles brokerages face as they begin the process of developing an effective eBusiness strategy. More importantly, Jen will explain the importance of eBusiness in today’s market and gives tips that every broker should consider when setting up a designated department. A successful strategy is not only about understanding why eBusiness is important, but knowing how to transform that strategy into results. Watch today’s video for more information.

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Are You Capturing Your Online Leads?

Things to Consider When Building Your eBusiness Department

Danberry Launches LifeCycle for Inquiry Management

By John Sable

Active Community: Usability Recap

John Sable — Fri, 23 Apr 2010 16:51:50 +0000

Happy Friday everyone! Today’s Active Community session wraps up our discussion on Active’s first usability study. For the past couple weeks, we’ve been talking about usability and the importance of keeping the customer at the forefront of design. After briefly reviewing the results from our Active Usability Lab study, we found there was a huge dichotomy between the broker and customer needs. Through online surveys and focus groups, we found that what customers ranked most important did not line up with the broker.

Because Active has access to Tobii Technology’s eye tracking system, we can now scientifically evaluate how users are navigating our sites making us better equipped to consult with Active Enterprise Network members on the best placement of components on their websites. For our next usability study, we will be taking a closer look at the navigation pages and site map in order make our sites easier to navigate for the user. Once the study is completed, we’ll be releasing more information to you on our blog.

As we wrap up this session on Active Community, we continue to make our way down the funnel. We started Active Community discussing search and the importance of getting customers to our sites through keywords, content ,etc. Then we moved to usability and the importance of keeping customers on our sites. Now, our next step is to discuss eBusiness and what we need to do to turn online leads into sales.

Active Website is excited to share with everyone our LifeCycle online inquiry management product and how we are helping our clients convert inquiries into sales. Watch our video for a wrap up on usability and for a preview of what to expect for the next few weeks of Active Community.

Active Community: Introduction to the Active Usability Lab

Active Community: Usability Lab, Part 2

By John Sable