The results are in — from the MLS polls, that is. According to Clareity Consulting’s 15th Annual Customer Satisfaction Survey, the top five MLSs in terms of user satisfaction are:
- Stratus Data Systems
- dynaConnections
- Black Knight’s Paragon XL
- Black Knight’s Paragon
- FBS
Clareity conducted the survey of 205 MLSs between December 2015 and February 2016, aiming to learn more about MLS customer satisfaction and the key metrics that affect it, including system performance and uptime, technical support, vendor responsiveness and communications.
According to the survey, these five MLSs ranked highest in terms of overall end user and staff satisfaction, and most users of those systems said they would select the same one if they could make the decision again today.
Overall outcomes
User satisfaction levels for dynaConnections increased 100 percent from 2015; users of the other four MLSs were evenly split on whether they felt their satisfaction levels increased or stayed the same since last year.
In terms of 2015 implementations, Black Knight-Paragon and FBS led the way in satisfaction, with Black Knight-Paragon receiving a resounding 100-percent “Excellent” rating; 67 percent of FBS users ranked it “Excellent,” and 33 percent ranked it “Good.”
Stratus Data Systems
Stratus Data Systems (which tied for first place in end-user satisfaction with Black Knight-Paragon XL and dynaConnections) was among the systems with only a few accounts, but its ratings were positive in every area measured.
Providing the back-end system for the Real Estate Board of New York (REBNY) and supporting an array of listing system front-end systems for brokers, Stratus Data Systems received high marks from customers for quickly implementing requested enhancements.
dynaConnection, connect MLS
With just two installations, dynaConnection’s connectMLS received 100-percent satisfaction in most survey categories. Improvements the MLSmade this year, including mobile-responsive design, an updated client portal and HTML emails with more frequent prospects, helped garner its top rating.
One customer mentioned — for the second consecutive year — that he would like the “ability to add or modify tabled fields” themselves, whileanother customer said he would like to see improvements made to the contact manager.
Black Knight, Paragon XL
Black Knight’s legacy product, Paragon XL, was also among the systems with only a few accounts, but the survey’s respondents were unanimous in their end user and staff satisfaction reports. Participants were impressed with system uptime, vendor responsiveness, customer support and other areas measured.
One customer said he would like to see a mapping provider other than Microsoft Bing Maps, and another requested user-generated reports.
Black Knight, Paragon
Black Knight’s flagship system, Paragon, had the highest end-user and staff satisfaction rating of any of the major systems.
The system also had more than 90-percent positive ratings for almost all other areas measured in the survey, including high marks for implementation transitions.
However, Clareity noted that “the Paragon team has delivered a No.1 end-user satisfaction showing four years in a row, but they can’t rest on their laurels because the competition is right behind them.”
Survey respondents said they would like to see more enhancements, including delivery of the new Client Connect, more efficiency in the interfaces, improved mobile capability, improved statistics and better communication from support representatives.
FBS, Flexmls
FBS’s Flexmls has historically ranked high in terms of satisfaction on Clareity’s surveys, but slipped a bit this year in terms of staff satisfaction.
FBS users also said they would like to see improved vendor responsiveness, staff training, statistics, contact management and updated manuals.
However, these complaints were balanced out by client satisfaction with the mobile application updates, FBS’ syndication solution, continued improvements to the client portal and other enhancements.
The next five highest-ranking MLSs on Clareity’s survey in terms of overall user satisfaction were CoreLogic-Matrix, Rappatoni Corp., CoreLogic-InnoVia, CoreLogic-Fusion and ListCENTRAL Inc.
