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The Year Ahead for the MLS |
What we’ve accomplished together this past year has further strengthened our position to serve you, and we’re excited about continuing our joint work in 2011 as the industry’s most timely, accurate and cooperative resource for real estate professionals.
Here are a few of the big-ticket items on our roadmap for 2011:
Our Education and Outreach Services department will launch an enhanced training curriculum—evolving our educational model to a ‘blended and synched’ program that adds course-specific online training materials, new segemented courses and a hands-on workshop format for Matrix training, and overviews of MLS extended benefits, such as the Realtors Property Resource (RPR). For more information see our expanded training update, here.
Our Compliance department is adding a new online resource in 2011. When launched, it will provide users with the same 24/7 resource for all MLS rules information currently available in the Subscriber Information Center; however, the new WordPress-based format will be better organized, keyword searchable, and integrated with other online resources so users can access the information they need as quickly as possible. It also provides a forum for ongoing updates and reminders about Compliance-related issues, and allows users to comment on articles and provide feedback.
We continue to make progress on Matrix updates and subscriber-requested enhancements, especially mobile access. By February, we plan to launch Matrix Mobile, a mobile-enabled website designed for simple display and search on most mobile devices—including showing instructions, private remarks, saved searches and much more. Click here for more information on our expanded mobile offerings planned for 2011.
MLSListings’ project management and development teams have several additional initiatives planned for 2011, including further enhancements to the California Edition, which recently added East Bay listings to its data aggregation covering 7 MLSs in northern California. Added functionalities this year will include saved search, auto-email capabilities, mapping enhancements and much more. Details on the new California Edition enhancements now available were previewed in our last issue of Broker Beat, here.
Another high priority for the first quarter is the REALTOR® Ratings Pilot Program with the California Association of REALTORS, designed to explore the feasibility for a consistent, standardized system for compiling, comparing and sharing customer experience data on the real estate transaction process. Several brokers have volunteered to help test the program among its agents, and we hope to have the first sets of data compiled by the second quarter of 2011, and when available, we will feature details about the program—for subscribers and for consumers—within our MyNewPro online information center.
Our Marketing and MarCom departments have several initiatives underway as well.
Our marketing department has completed a strategic analysis and plan for 2011. The plan’s key strategic tenets are the recruitment of new licensees and brokerages, the retention of current customers, and the strengthening of MLSListings’ position as the trusted provider of services to Realtors, and of real estate information to consumers. Tactical execution will involve enhancing and refining our internal infrastructure, adding functionality to the California Edition and Matrix products, and evolving MLSListings.com, our consumer-facing website, to drive more traffic to broker listings.
A new value brochure has just been finalized, which helps underscore what real estate professionals should expect from an MLS, and ways in which MLSListings, Inc. stands apart as the most dependable, innovative and trusted partner in real estate information services.
We are also launching a Communications Committee for 2011, comprised of seasoned communications professionals from Associations, brokerages and other entities, to help further coordinate and enhance the presence and perception of the role of the real estate profession in local business and community leadership.
We’re also launching a regular newsletter for all subscribers in the first quarter of 2011, which will be available on the homepage at pro.mlslistings.com, as well as via our social channels and on MyNewPro, to further enhance the timeliness and transparency of information, and to encourage ongoing dialogue with and among our subscribers. The newsletter will feature business and product updates, market data and more, as well as consumer articles that agents and brokers might find useful to provide to their clients as another touchpoint in communication. And we will continue to expand our presence on our existing social networking channels—Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and LinkedIn—providing timely updates and tailored, reusable local content in a unique aggregation not available elsewhere.
Our PERKS Program will continue to expand its valuable compilation of vetted best-in-class products and services that can improve agent and broker’s business efficiency and facilitate better agent-client relations. Coming soon is Proxio, offering an international real estate agent referral network and website translation into 12 languages; and now available in the MyProducts tab of pro.mlslistings.com is MongoFax, a free fax-to-email electronic document conversion system that’s as simple as using a cover page. All our Business Building Services products are featured on our PERKS site once available to our subscribers – including product descriptions, screen shots, a new user rating system and much more.
In addition to products, we are enhancing our consulting services in 2011 with the inclusion of comparison articles to help users distinguish one product from similar ones in the same family, as well as a product packaging program, targeted by user segment, from the beginning agent to the seasoned subscriber ready to make the leap into enhanced services, to the top producer looking for the full-featured real estate services management system.
It’s going to be an exciting year – and many of these initiatives are the direct result of user requests and feedback. Stay tuned, and please keep the conversation going!
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