The Washington state-based Coldwell Banker Tomlinson franchise is launching Client Connect today, a proprietary customer service platform that can instantly pair clients with knowledgeable agents.
Client Connect’s desktop site.
The platform, which can be accessed on mobile and desktop, gives customers the option of sending an email inquiry or chatting with a live representative about any real estate topic. And within 5 minutes, Moore says that customer will receive a response — guaranteed.
“When we look at the industry as a whole, it’s all about service and with that, you try to do everything you can to make sure your agents and your customers are successful,” Moore told Inman. “We try to provide quality in every part of the transaction, but it was very hard to define.”
Moore said he was inspired by the first five points of The Parker Principles, a list of 12 actionable goals for members of the real estate industry that were conceived by several leaders in Palm Springs, California, earlier this year, during Inman’s Disconnect in the Desert conference.
“What the Parker Principles did was help us to focus on what matters most, and set a level of quality and a philosophy around that quality,” he added. “Because of that, we were able to develop Client Connect, and it really sets a high bar on how our agents work with customers and how we will support our agents.”
Before the launch of Client Connect, Moore said his 540 agents relied on a traditional lead generation and conversion model that included buying leads, culling leads from their website traffic, and then connecting with those leads via cold calls and mailers.
But, his agents wanted a solution that would help them better “align and clarify what they were doing with their customers,” Moore said.
So his team began developing Client Connect over the course of several months, testing each iteration with agents and making improvements based on their feedback. With the platform, Moore said his agents felt they finally had an avenue to be more visible, available, and valuable to their communities.
“We focused on the principles we had control over, which were about quality, service, and transparency,” he said. “We are publicly embracing and sharing what that commitment means to us and our agents with our customers.
“It allows customers to feel free to reach out for help and know they’re going to get the customer service they’re looking for without that obligation,” Moore added. “It allows our agents to engage and really reflect on the areas they’re a professional in. We can get the right questions to the right people, so [the customers] know they’re going to get the service they’re looking for.”
Beyond the opportunity to improve his brokerage’s value proposition, Moore hopes the rollout of Client Connect will inspire other CEOs and broker-owners to take a look at The Parker Principles and create solutions, too.
“We see this as a huge opportunity not just for us as a brokerage, but I think that this going to be a differentiator for the brokers who want to find ways to help steer their business,” he said. “Your agents are working hard to achieve a level of professionalism where customers know what to expect from your brokerage, and you have to help them.”