Week 11 - Individual Assignment - SFP

Sharon Fitz-Patrick May 23, 2015Week 11 – Individual Assignment

Weichert Realtors

Section I

At Weichert Realtors we have both a marketing and operations

department, although they do not necessarily operate like in a typical corporation.

Unlike other realty companies, Weichert does not have franchises, but rather has

a corporate office with branches scattered around the United States. The

marketing department at Weichert has identified the best way to market Weichert

as a company and ultimately its agents. Primarily it carries out functions such as

product development, strategically overseeing advertising, promotion, distribution

for sale and customer service and public relations.

Ultimately Weichert’s goal is to connect with the consumer as quickly as

possible, and provide them with superior customer service. This begins by

Weichert.com providing customers with a robust source of accurate information.

Weichert’s multi-million dollar Internet strategy is focused on making it easier for

homebuyers to find listings on its site, which is done in part through strategic

partnerships with popular real estate sites and the purchase of real estate-related

keywords.

On the other hand, Weichert’s operations department’s major objective is

to increase sales. However, in the Real Estate Industry, it is not quite that simple

to define the operations functions. While agents meet with clients and ultimately

sell houses, the operations department sets sales goals and monitors the agents’

progress. These sales goals are filtered down to the various branches in different

regions. Every branch has a certain number of listings (sellers) as well as houses

to sell (buyers) in a given month. Currently if that branch meets these numbers

they receive incentives in the form of money.

Another critical function of our operations department is to ensure that we

as a company are profitable while reducing expenses. It all comes down to the

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bottom line. In a real estate company control over “inventory” is something that

is not possible, as inventory are houses, the demand controlled by interest rates

and the economy.

Section II

At Weichert the marketing and operations departments work well together

ensuring that customers receive the best possible service, which is the most

important asset that a real estate company has. The challenge for the operations

department is to ensure that sales are maximized, while ensuring that the cost of

doing business does not increase. Real estate is all about making sure that you

have a “presence” in the community, which can become costly, ultimately

affecting the bottom line. Our marketing department focuses on the services that

we offer ensuring that the performance of our agents is not affected by the

operations departments “bottom line” mentality. They are responsible for creating

meaningful messages through words, ideas and images that deliver promises

and benefits to our customers. This is to as ensure that every member in the

organization delivers messages and images consistently. They do this by:

- Focusing on the Customer

- Monitoring the Competition

- Owning our Brand

- Creating new ideas

- Communicating their ideas to the agents

- Managing the budget

- Setting the Strategy, planning the attack and then the execution of the

plan

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Some ways that the marketing department executes their strategies are

by:

- Becoming the market. In this industry if you monitor your competition and

wait to see what happens it will be too late. You need to get ahead of the

competition.

- Fostering innovation. This is especially critical when it comes to the

agents, as they are the ambassadors of the company.

- Simplifying internal communication. In this industry being bogged down

by corporate policies etc. will cause delays and this is not the industry that

does well with delays.

Weichert’s marketing strategy is to empower their agents to ensure that

they are behind the strategy and understand the benefits to them. In the real

estate business you can see that the operations department needs to work in

harmony with the marketing department to ensure that these ideas get out to the

customer. While customer service is the key in this industry it is also important

that we as a real estate agency gain market share. One way is by increasing

sales. The operations department sets goals and motivates it agents by ensuring

that they can carry out what the marketing department has asked them to do.

Section III

Its important for a real estate company to look at its strengths and

weaknesses so that it knows where to improve, especially when its performance

is impacted by outside forces such as the economy and interest rates. It is also

crucial to have a competitive advantage over ones competitors and rivals in order

to provide the best possible value to our customers.

I believe the following are strengths that exist at Weichert:

- Weichert.com, is a leading real estate website that typically generates

more than 100,000 visits a day. It is the company’s award winning

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intranet site, which provides instant access to valuable tools, programs

and information.

- The ability to provide leads through Weichert Lead Network, a lead

generation system that puts buyers in touch with agents in real time, as

well as Weichert Relocation Resources, Inc, one of the world’s largest

relocation companies.

- Weichert’s proven Open House program is considered by many to be the

most detailed and thorough process in the industry.

- In-office and online training and seminars, provided at no charge, that

prepare agents for success and keep them informed on emerging topics

like social media and green home building principles.

Ultimately, the elements necessary to succeed in real estate, has not

changed much over the years. It ultimately comes down to the ability to get the

leads and convert those into opportunities. Even though this is an amazing list of

strengths there are some weaknesses that I see, especially after having been at

another real estate agency for 5 months.

Weaknesses

- Lack of training by Weichert to get their agents to lead generate by cold

calling. Because of the many lead opportunities that Weichert provides to

its agents, they do not feel the need to utilize other proven lead generation

tried and true methods. They are losing a large segment of the population

called FSBO’s. (For sale by owner). At KW (Keller Williams), their agents

spend 2 hours every day on the phone cold calling these leads. Statistics

show that you get one good lead out of 20 calls.

- Lack of utilizing ones “sphere of influence”. Weichert believes that you

should use the contacts that you have, but does not have a system that

where your contacts can be entered and automatically be put on a system

whereby they receive communication from you on a weekly basis. In real

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estate, research has shown that communication with leads needs to be

done on a regular basis. Repetition is the key.

Another area where I see a weakness is Weichert’s policy to keep the

bottom line at a minimum, resulting in only one office being located in a 30 miles

radias from another office. This puts more pressure on the marketing

department to come up with ways to let people know that Weichert is a leading

real estate company and also all the benefits of using Weichert as their company.

However, even with these weaknesses, I still see Weichert as a leader in

the real estate industry.

Section IV.

In this seminar we have learnt a lot about customer satisfaction. We have

learnt that satisfying customers is less expensive than trying to get them back

once they have left. This industry is not like the cable or electric industry. There

are many real estate agencies and many more agents. In order to succeed you

have to have a brand that distinguishes you from your competitors.

Branding basics in the real estate business, are really no different from

branding in any other sector. The principles are the same, even if the

applications are more specific in one industry. Branding comes down to the

relationship at a human level between the brand and the customer. It is about

trust, connection and affinity that the brand has established and how it will

continue to grow among customers and the general public. How to establish this

connection, continue to grow and sustain it, is all about the rules of good

branding strategies. We can use the Value of Creation theory to look at this

more closely.

First we have to understand what creates value so that we can focus on

what is required. If a customer values consistent quality then the skills, systems,

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and processes that produce and deliver quality products and services is critical to

the organization. It is therefore necessary to provide the skills, systems and

processes that will create superior service.

Although the intangible factors that drive value creation differ by industry,

some of the major categories of intangible assets include technology, innovation,

intellectual property, alliances, management capabilities, employee relations,

customer relations, community relations, and brand value. Management needs

to realize that the investments made to enhance brand building; employee

training, etc. are intangible assets, which usually provide indirect rather than

direct benefits.

We need to offer the client a process that makes the purchase of a home

as ‘stress free” as possible. When purchasing a home you have to deal with

looking for the home, getting pre-approved for a mortgage, putting in the offer,

having inspections performed on the home, renegotiating the process and

ultimately getting ready for settlement. Currently there are no agencies that offer

this type of “one stop shopping” brand.

This would set Weichert apart from the rest of our competition. Currently

only 20% of Weichert customers purchasing a home use a Weichert Mortgage

broker. Educating the agents and client, providing the relevant marketing

materials and communicating this information out to social media could increase

the use of a Weichert mortgage broker by at least 50%. Currently 10% of all

homes purchased are cash sales. By advising buyers of the benefit of what

Weichert has to offer under the umbrella of their company, clients can also utilize

Weichert Title and Weichert Closing for the transactions associate with the

purchase of the homes. Ultimately the use of these services will make Weichert

more profitable.

Weichert does not make recruiting of agents its number one priority. They

focus rather on putting their efforts into branding Weichert as a company and

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focusing on making the agent part of the organization. However Keller Williams

Realty, who are a franchisee real estate company focus on the agent. They

believe that the more agents you can recruit the higher their market share. They

also believe in having an office within every 10 miles of another office. Once

again this allows for more visibility in the community.

The operations department at Weichert is very much against setting up

other branches that are nearer to each other because they believe it is not cost

effective.

As you will see from Figure 1, it is obvious that KW is far ahead of its

competition when it comes to market share. This is an area that I believe we are

not capitalizing on because the operations department is so concerned with the

bottom line

If we opened up branches in areas where the house prices were over

$500,000, with Weicherts commission split, the company would average around

$5,000 a house. To implement this plan we should have an office every 20 miles

in the $500,000 housing market. These offices could be more like a satellite

office that you see when a new development occurs. Big enough to have a

couple of agents and an area to meet with clients. Operations argue that it will

take at least two years to put a plan like this into action as Weichert always

purchases the buildings they operate from. However, on a trial basis, they could

at least open up one office and rent the space. This could be done relatively

quickly and inexpensively.

Information that would be needed in order to analyse the success of such

an operation would be to monitor the sale of houses in the area and to see if

there is a correlation between customers visiting the branch and purchasing a

home. Currently in this area Weichert agents average sales around 10 million a

month. This would result in $117,000 in commission for Weichert. To rent an

office in the area including rent, technology, insurance, etc it would cost the

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company $20,000 a month. Currently this commission is allocated to the Yardley

office location. We would therefore have to sell an additional $2m in houses to

be able to utilize that commission for the cost of the new office.

Finally I believe that the marketing department who oversees all

communications, public relations and promotional activities should focus on

Weichert moving into the 21st century when it comes to social media.

Social media has allowed many organizations to improve communication

and productivity, by disseminating information among different groups of

employees in a more efficient manner. While it is not meant to be all-inclusive,

listed below outlines some of the advantages of social media use in our

workplace.

Facilities open communication, leading to enhanced information discovery

and delivery.

Allow employees to discuss ideas, post news, ask questions and share

links.

Provides an opportunity to widen business contacts.

Targets a wide audience, making it a useful and effective recruitment tool.

Improves business reputation and client base with minimal use of

advertising.

Expands market research, implements marketing campaigns, delivers

communications and directs interested people to specific web sites.

For our company to ensure that implementing a social media rollout is

successful, it is imperative that we have a strong marketing strategy in place.

To be effective, our corporate social media strategy needs to be aligned with our

company’s business goals. This will require all agents to use social media for

this to effectively work. The plan needs to ensure that there are adequate

resources at different phases and for each platform.

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Once rollout has taken place, measurement of its performance can begin.

As research has shown ROI – Return on Investment, is not that easy to measure

for social media. Social networking sites provide their own website analytics

which offer free traffic reports, etc. Successful implementation should include

regularly reviewing reports and identifying the number of sales leads resulting

from social media activity. These then need to compare with implementation

costs to determine ROI.

Some ways to measure the success of this implementation would be:

Community Growth & Sustainability

Community growth is a VERY valuable and important metric because it

shows you’re appealing to your audience and staying relevant, especially if

they’re not dropping off.

Likes, +1s, Favorites, Repins, Retweets

Social media measurement comes in different levels. This includes likes,

+1s, favorites, repins, etc. This is a good start, and it is an important metric to

measure.

Social Media Referral Traffic and Visitor Increase to your Website

Tracking the number of website traffic and conversions that come from

your social media channels. This is important as referral traffic shows people are

interested in your company, products or services and want to learn more.

Driving traffic to your website from social media also gives you an

opportunity to capture lead information, like emails, cell phone numbers, etc. for

nurture and eventual conversion.

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Referrals

Many of my clients get regular referrals due to their social media

presence. While someone who follows you online may not currently need your

service or product at the moment, they may know someone who does. Being

active on social media when someone voices a need for your services makes

you much more likely to get a referral.

Every agent should have a profile on Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter at

the bare minimum. These are the two social media powerhouses.

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YouTube is the Google owned video channel, and the number three most

trafficked sites on the web. Pictures are great, but just imagine how your listing

might pop if you could do a virtual walk through — selling the houses’ features —

for perspective clients on YouTube?

It is apparent that with the use of social media marketing that there is no

doubt that Weichert’s audience can grow, as well gaining visibility and exposure

for our agents and our company. Again, this has to go hand in hand with

outstanding customer service and the two will ultimately generate business and

increase sales.

Section V

I would have to say that this session has been the one where I have learnt

the most as it pertains to the business world. I thoroughly enjoyed the section on

customer satisfaction and dissatisfaction.

I also found the Dashboard section of the session to be very interesting. I

honestly had no clue about what this was about before the assignment. Although

I have to say I found it a challenging area.

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This session challenged me in ways I did not think possible. There were

many times that I wondered why I could not my head around certain concepts. I

found that sometimes you just have to think practically about these concepts and

put the theory to one side.

This session had the most group assignments as well as the most group

interaction. Regarding the Littlefield Simulation, I believe that our lack of

preparedness did not let us win the competition. This seemed to be the situation

in a number of our assignments, however we always managed to accomplish the

task at hand.

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Figure 1 – Keller Williams Market Share

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Bibliography

Walker, Mullins. (2014) Marketing Strategy A Decision-Focused Approach

Treacy & Wiersema (January 1993). Customer Intimacy and other Value Disciplines. Harvard Business Review, 84(93)

Kaplan, A and Haenlein, M (2010). Users of the world, unite! The challenges and opportunities of Social Media. Business Horizons, 53,59-68.

A Smarter Way To Reduce Customer Defections(November 2013). Research & Ideas, Harvard Business School.

www.inman.com (Real Estate website)

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http://www.inman.com/

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Week 11 - Individual Assignment - SFP