As President of Most Home Real Estate Services, Jim Secord has established the company as the real estate industry’s definitive leader in the field of Lead Response and Customer Experience Management. Most Home has managed more than three million consumer leads for some of the top real estate agents and brokers in
Jim’s vision and focus on bringing customer service to the Internet and improving the online consumer’s home buying and selling experience, has not gone unnoticed in the industry. In August 2006, Jim was nominated as one of the 100 Most Influential Leaders in Real Estate as published by Inman News in the category of Technology & Online Real Estate Leaders.
With over 20 years experience in software product development, Jim has led the design and development of several Multiple Listing platforms for the North American real estate market including Most Home’s Wireless Realty™, First American MLS’s MLXchange, and GTE Enterprise’s System 4 and T-III. In 1999 Secord spearheaded a partnership initiative with Microsoft to integrate lead management and customer relationship management technology into MLXchange, allowing Brokers and REALTORS® for the first time to respond to their customers in a timely and professional manner and manage their customer relationships online. Over the past several years, more than 1,000,000 REALTORS® and brokers have benefited from Jim’s technology vision.
Jim is a frequent speaker, moderator and recognized leader in real estate technology, engaging audiences at NAR, CMLS, MLS Connections and Inman with his knowledge, expertise and insight on industry trends and the benefits of technology to support the day-to-day business activities of Brokers and REALTORS®. He was actively involved on standards committees including Real Estate Transaction Standard (RETS), and Internet Data Exchange, and has been instrumental in introducing new technology such as wireless data access and communications, interactive mapping, virtual tours, and listing notification to the real estate industry.
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Potential Speaking Topics:
The Web, Its Opportunity and Its Limitations for Real Estate Customer Acquisition – Holistic strategies for customer acquisition on the Web.
Customer Experience Management (CEM) – How brokers can successfully build their brand, generate new business and extend their core services through CEM.
What Internet consumers expects from a REALTOR®.
Effective use of the Net to build your real estate business - how brokers should be thinking about Internet marketing, lead generation and conversion.
Trends in the wireless services market – where the market, the industry and innovation is headed.
How mobile technology such as Location Based Services (LBS) can be applied to the real estate vertical.
Recent Speaking Engagements include:
February 2006 – Keynote speaker at the RE/MAX of Western Canada Annual Conference on the topic of: “Converting Clicks into Clients – Introducing the LeadStreet Program in
October 2005 – NAR Annual Conference on the topic of: “Finding clicks on the Internet is only half of the battle. Managing those leads through its life cycle and converting is the battle in
October 2005 – Sutton Broker Conference on the topic of: “Strategies to Help Brokers Improve Lead Conversion.”
July 2005 – Inman Real Estate Connect San Francisco on the topic of: “Brokers are becoming increasingly savvy with their Internet marketing. But are these initiatives profitable? Learn what lead management platforms should provide, and how you can measure success.”
About Most Home Real Estate Services Inc.
Most Home Real Estate Services Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Most Home Corp., provides a unique suite of high-tech and high-touch Internet Response Services to the real estate industry including Online Lead Response and Customer Experience Management. Our products and services connect people with data, people with people, and in turn assist real estate brokerages and agents to successfully convert “clicks” into clients. In addition, Most Home provides OEM wireless MLS solutions to industry MLS vendors such as Tarasoft Corporation and First American MLS Solutions. More than two dozen Boards and Associations representing over 250,000 agents across
Real Estate Companies have become commoditized to a form of uniform blandness. Consequently, the customer experience is the only distinguishing feature. This responsibility has traditionally been placed on the shoulders of the individual REALTOR®, which leads to inconsistent results.
I see companies outside of traditional Real Estate raising the bar of customer expectations for responsiveness, knowledge and service and it’s having a profound impact on the industry. When a customer has a better experience purchasing a $299 iPod online from Apple, than they do trying to contact a trusted Real Estate professional to assist them with the biggest investment of their life, something is badly broken.
I have respect for how the traditional brands are finally rising to the challenge after years of conceding the online space to those who have been deemed ‘interlopers’. Following the lead of RE/MAX and Windermere, I’m betting that the CEO’s of the top brokerages will all have strategies in place this year to win the hearts and minds of the new, online customer.
Customers are more knowledgeable, empowered and volatile. They have significant technical resources to get at information and they won’t hesitate to shift companies if they don’t get the right response and the right service and frankly, the right attitude.
From a Brokerage perspective, put someone in charge of the customer experience and if you don’t have the resources to staff a contact center and put a technology platform in place, partner with Most Home. Relying on the individual sales associate to manage your company’s leads may be a waste of your advertising dollars and the sales person’s time. Not only will the majority of online inquires never be properly responded to, but imagine the potential damage to your brand and your ability to cross-sell services, if your first impression with the customer is poor.
Provide the customer with a great experience and a set of tools that will allow them to manage their own experience, then it is more likely they will remain committed to your company and also purchase more services. The most profitable sales transactions are the ones that require the least selling and these are typically cross-sells and up-sells to existing loyal customers. Every brokerage I talk to has multiple product offerings like mortgage, home warranty, title and insurance, but very few have systems in place to really engage and inform the customer.
Don’t compete with Brokerages for customers. Put a system in place that supports companies efforts to build their brands. From data reciprocity to transaction management, the MLS can play a valuable role in supporting the Brokers vision and enhancing the overall customer experience, but the technology must ultimately help connect customers with Brokers.
Our company partners with Brokerages to provide a customer service solution that drives customer loyalty, retention and revenue. We contact and manage every lead that comes in from our broker’s web sites and online advertising to ensure that each prospect is responded to promptly and professionally.
We take the burden of initial customer service off the sales person and provide qualified prospects that are ready, willing and able to discuss a transaction with a REALTOR. Throughout the process we are able to introduce other products and services to the customer on behalf of the company.
“The Search: How Google and Its Rivals Rewrote the Rules of Business and Transformed Our Culture” by John Battelle.
Beyond a good overview of how search engines evolved, this book is a must read for marketing executives to really understand how search, online advertising and Pay Per Click have changed our buying habits.
Focus on the Customer. Each one. Differently!
Clilck to email Jim
