Weichert Realtors Press Release
Weichert Internet Strategy Provides Winning Formula for Sales Associates in Today's On-Demand World
7/16/2008
MORRIS PLAINS, N.J. – Whether it’s grabbing a bite to eat, shopping at a
department store or even picking up clothes at the drycleaners, one constant
holds true: people today want quick,
personal and high-quality service. When
it comes to real estate, Weichert, Realtors® has the solution to help sales
associates meet this need for immediate results.
As part of
Weichert’s Internet strategy, the company invests millions of dollars in
marketing each year to give its sales associates an advantage over the
competitive marketplace. A large portion
of this money finances the purchase of more than a million real estate-related
search terms to make weichert.com appear as a primary search result on top
search engines such as Google and Yahoo!, driving a wealth of traffic to the
listings found on the company’s Web site.
In 2007, weichert.com had over 35 million visitors.
Additionally,
through Weichert’s strategic partnership with many of the most popular real
estate sites, associates can find their listings on Realtor.com, Homes.com,
Nytimes.com and numerous other national and regional online newspapers.
“Weichert’s
on-line presence brings a tremendous advantage to our sales associates,” said
Mike Montsko, president of Weichert Lead Network. “The Internet continues to play an
increasingly important role in real estate and it is our goal to efficiently
utilize the Web to drive as much traffic as possible to the property listings
of our associates.”
While
driving traffic to weichert.com is important, the true key to Weichert’s
success is delivering immediate and personal service to visitors once they get
there. Weichert connects customers
directly to company sales associates through the Weichert Lead Network, a
state-of-the-art customer contact system.
Homebuyers browsing weichert.com can call 1-800-USA-SOLD where a Contact Center employee will connect them in
real time with a local Weichert sales associate. While some real estate companies use an
automated system to track and respond to listing inquires, the Weichert Lead
Network ensures that every prospective client receives instant personal service
and never has to leave a voicemail.
Supported
by state-of-the-art technology, the Contact
Center’s service
professionals ask a short series of questions to ensure that they are passing
serious and qualified leads to Weichert sales associates. The service professional then initiates a
“warm transfer” directly to the cell phone of a Weichert sales associate who is
a neighborhood specialist in the appropriate geographic area. The local sales
associate can then answer any questions and arrange an appointment to show the
home in person. If the buyer has a special need, such as preferring a
Spanish-speaking sales associate or one who is a condominium or luxury-home
specialist, the contact center’s service professionals will strive to make that
match.
Weichert.com
browsers can also elect to request information on listings via email. A ‘Contact Me’ button is prominently
displayed on all property Web sites and brings potential buyers to an
easy-to-fill-out web form. Once the form
is submitted, a Contact
Center employee will
respond to the inquiry within minutes –often while the potential buyer is still
on the Web site- rather than hours that is often typical with other real estate
companies.
Despite the
National Association of Realtors® (NAR) report in which 92 percent of buyers
listed a quick initial response to home inquiries as a high priority, only
Weichert has developed this unique process that responds to leads personally in
such a short time frame.
“Weichert
sales associates benefit from the fact that numerous customers are finding our
services to be extremely valuable,” added Montsko. “As of June, our year-to-date lead flow has
increased by nearly 10 percent and our closings are up as well.”
Weichert
has nearly 18,000 sales associates in more than 500 company-owned and
franchised sales offices in key markets throughout the U.S. A family of full-service real estate and
financial services companies, Weichert helps customers buy and sell both
residential and commercial real estate, and streamlines the delivery of mortgages
and home and title insurance. For more
information, Weichert's customer service center can be reached at
1-800-USA-SOLD or at Weichert's Web site, www.weichert.com. Each Weichert franchised office is
independently owned and operated.
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