Monday, 11th of August 2008 at 03:00:14 PMLast Thursday, WeMARhad their first MLS Committee Meeting, which I felt was a great success at reaching out to the membership to provide them a forum for discussing concerns and views of ARMLS. I was in attendance for the simple reason that I am on the ARMLS Committee, I was appointed by WeMAR to represent all agents in this capacity, a job that I am enjoying and hoping that I am a positive contribution to ARMLS.
To be honest, I was expecting a room full of hostile agents upset over either the new FlexMLS, the recent rate increases or the slowness of the MLS. Surprising that is not what I had, don’t get me wrong, all of those concerns came up, but it wasn’t from a room full of hostile agents.
We had 7 agents in attendance, including one trainer. There was one ARMLS Board Member and a WeMAR Board member as well. At the end of the day, it was a productive meeting that ended in a way that no one expected.
Since FlexMLS has gone live, I’ve field several questions and concerns via eMail and occasional phone call. I’ve done my best to help out and to direct them to help when I couldn’t. It was surprising to me how many people at this meeting was just looking for, how-to information.
That’s where it went a different direction. After a couple of questions of how can I, I finally asked if we could just set up a projector and computer and step through some of these questions. So with 7 people, one trainer and a couple of Board members, we went through some scenarios. I can honestly say everyone walked away learning something new.
We talked about things that are turned off that we would like on, things that are on that should be off. The manual, price increases, etc. I can honestly say that I am glad that I went and was part of this. It felt good working with other agents to achive more. I’m looking forward to our next meeting and hoping for a larger turn out and I now have more information to go to my committee meeting with in just over a week.
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Craig,
The Scottsdale Area MLS meeting is tomorrow (8/12, 1 pm). Your idea for talking through and demonstrating different scenarios is a good one, that I hope we can incorporate into our meeting.
Craig,
Thanks for that update. We (ARMLS) have had similar experiences these last two weeks dealing with many angry agents calling or writing. Most are not so angry as frustrated in trying to learn how things are done in the new system. Even with the most negative callers, if we take the time to walk them through the functions that “don’t work” or “aren’t there” they find they are there and do work, differently for sure, but sometimes even better. We are spending much longer on the phone with each caller than we normally would (which, of course, contributes to longer hold times for those waiting) but in the end our conversion rate is well over 90% – turning doubters into advocates one agent at a time.
We are ramping our our advanced training next week and there’s still plenty of open seats for those who want to learn the next level of functions. Our webinars have been packed (185 people online last Friday afternoon at 3:00) and audience can text questions to the instructor. Hands on classes have been full as well, but we will continue training until every agent who wants to learn the new system has a chance to do so.
Thanks for the support from WEMAR. We look forward to working with you on your suggestions.
thanx..bb
Craig,
Congratulations on the successful start to your WeMAR MLS Committee! As the current Chairperson for the Scottsdale Association’s MLS Committee, we are thrilled to have even more interested and dedicated agents working to improve our systems!
I would love to see all our individual (local) Association Committees begin to share our thoughts, concerns and priorities so recommendations for changes and enhancements can be streamlined through the ARMLS committee. If you or soemone at WeMAR would like to consider this, please give me a call or send an e-mail, and we can work it out!