The pre-release trailer for this story hints that a new mysterious real estate service has the potential of shifting the epicenter of the existing national service spectrum. One is moved to ask why this new service is viable in our environment, and what changes traditional real estate brokerages need to make in their business model to reduce their vulnerability to this and similar new service models. The real estate community is learning that these new models are healthy and growing where the traditional model is ailing.
Rehabilitation is both necessary and appropriate.
The talk on the back lot is that some in the traditional real estate industry have fallen into the unfortunate habit of treating each new service model with disdain and disinterest. While no single alternative service model has yet captured a significant market share, taken together alternative brokerage models are beginning to have a significant impact upon the marketplace.
Back in the screening room, our story begins in Galveston, Texas on an August day in the current year, at a real estate industry leadership retreat. The participants include the leadership of the Houston Association of REALTORS® and leading real estate brokers from the Houston area. The program features the comments of several national industry leaders including Tom Redding, CEO of realestate.com – an entity whose holdings include LendingTree.com.
At one point Mr. Redding is asked to comment on how LendingTree.com has impacted the real estate industry. During his response he suggests that the question that should really be asked is what keeps him up at night. He went on to explain that in spite of the immense influence and resources of his organization, they are very concerned about the ultimate impact of a new entity called Zillow.com. He further suggests that Zillow.com’s impact on the traditional industry will far outweigh LendingTree or any other influence to date.
As of this date Zillow.com remains a somewhat unknown commodity. What is known is that the organization will have a business model tuned to take advantage of a major gap in the current real estate service spectrum, and the resources to potentially make a significant impact on the American real estate market.
Zillow.com is the creation of Expedia pioneer Richard Barton who serves as Zillow’s Chairman and Chief Executive Officer. Expedia was started within Microsoft in 1994, and then spun off in 1999. While the Zillow team is still being formed it already includes some of the brightest minds in the Internet business community.
Zillow’s business model remains somewhat mysterious. What is known however is that the company is developing a consumer centric business model that will focus on the “for sale by owner” market. Its current Web site, although minimal, offers some fascinating insight into its probable direction. At the top of the site is the following message:
Curious about Zillow.com? We aren’t saying much yet, but follow the news about us as we grow.
*One click into the site under the “jobs” heading, and the reader finds a listing of current Zillow.com job descriptions. A short scroll from the top discloses a position entitled Director of Customer Service. Here the reader encounters a number of thought provoking concepts that simply do not exist in the current real estate marketplace. By way of example consider the following:
• Zillow.com is seeking an experienced leader to build a world class customer service organization.
• The organization will comprise both internal and outsourced teams and will have a passion for making data-driven decisions to continually improve our overall customer experience.
• The organization seeks to: Create a consistent customer experience across all touch points that becomes a key differentiator for Zillow.com. As such, you will be a key voice of the customer for our company.
• The company will: Hire, develop, manage and retain a large and growing organization consisting of operations (web, e-mail and phone support), QA, and Training.
• The Company will: Develop, own and implement a data-driven customer service framework that relentlessly drives out costs while, at the same time, increases Zillow.com's customer value proposition.
• The Company will: Evaluate and implement strategic outsourcing and off-shoring initiatives for selected components of customer service while simultaneously increasing the effectiveness of the domestic inbound and support call center.
• The Company will: Develop overall customer service model that will enable Zillow.com to rapidly scale as a profit rather than a cost center.
• The Company will: Drive the implementation of new technologies (Interactive Voice Response systems, web-based customer solutions, etc.) for a global market.
• The Company will: Define excellent training processes in the customer support operations in a rapidly expanding product base.
• The Company will: Implement strategic initiatives in customer service delivery that can complement the pace of company's new product offerings.
It may well be that the polite thing to do is to ignore the conversation on the line, because you were not invited to participate. But you have heard too much to just forget all about it.
The moral of this story: If your brokerage is not working on these same competencies, objectives and skill sets, you are not keeping pace with today’s real estate industry.
