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Takeaways:
- Internal agent communication should be nurtured by brokers.
- Users can expect a deeply connected, highly comprehensive approach to real estate business management from WolfConnect.
- The right technology solution can improve internal operations as well as it does sales.
The pitch
WolfConnect, part of the Lone Wolf Real Estate Technologies family, is enterprise software that facilitates internal communication on listings, leads and general office operations.
Platform: Web-based, browser-agnostic; fully responsive.
Ideal for: Larger brokerages, specifically those familiar with other Lone Wolf products.
Top selling points
- Broker oversight: WolfConnect is its own office manager; shares officewide activity with brokers.
- WIGO: “What Is Going On?” feature summarizes office events, meetings, unread emails and other activities.
- Go configure: Very easy to customize views and available tools.
Things to consider
Offices can choose to run ads for preferred vendors along with company announcements in a dedicated rotating banner space within the system dashboard. Offices need to be very familiar with ever-changing RESPA (Real Estate Settlement and Procedures Act) and CFPB (Consumer Financial Protection Bureau) legalities.
The close
After working in commercial real estate, I learned how valuable agent interaction can be to the progression of a real estate office.
Because in commercial, there isn’t any.
WolfConnect aims to empower interactivity among brokers, admins and agents in busy offices.
Part of the Lone Wolf pack of productivity products, familiar users can expect the same type of deeply connected, highly comprehensive approach to real estate business management.
WolfConnect is your Web-based office breakroom, a place where deals are discussed, new hires introduced and people wished happy anniversaries.
It even has an agent “sign-in/sign-out” feature. How that goes over with highly mobile, independently driven agents remains to be seen.
I see WolfConnect as the technological extension of a business philosophy that centers on fostering camaraderie and leveraging the sharing of information as a resource for growth.
If you don’t take time to curate its feature set according to your internal business logic, WolfConnect’s rich offerings could bog you down.
Developers smartly recognized that and allowed for easy streamlining via its admin tools.
Using WolfConnect starts with an integration of your brokerage’s multiple listing service listings, which underpin the purpose of the software: encourage office communication to propel sales.
Listings are layered nicely within the system, complete with external and internal points of engagement.
The listing interface shares public data and the stuff that’s important to your office, like when the next open house is scheduled and who’s running the listing.
MLS connectivity cuts out the need for data entry, a crucial step for any software product’s long-term value.
[Tweet “Limit manual intervention in your software and it will be better for it. #handsoff”]
WIGO stands for “What Is Going On?” WolfConnect uses the term and feature to put an umbrella over daily activity, such as leads to be contacted, company meetings to be held, open houses, and news to be shared.
[Tweet “WolfConnect asks, “WIGO?””]
I also like the built-in RSS news feed accessible via WolfConnect’s central command, a good way to keep agents up to speed on critical industry trends. It also envelopes the office in like discussions.
WolfConnect connects agents with leads, governed by the broker. Leads can be assigned a cost, a time limit under which to accept and a number of other carefully assigned parameters regarding lead claiming.
Accepted leads and the subsequent cost per agent can be reconciled via the software’s connection to BrokerWolf.
WolfConnect also handles contacts and marketing, the latter employing a very well-organized method for reaching out to prospects.
An email marketing feature allows agents to use drop-down pick lists with letter themes and dates to easily schedule a sequence of communications.
An “Is it time to sell?” email can be scheduled to run five days after your “Free Market Snapshot” is sent.
This is a very practical method for handling a marketing tactic that often gets confusing in the context of more sophisticated, stand-alone email tools.
Like other Lone Wolf products, WolfConnect offers offices a multitude of ways to benefit from its adoption.
The company’s reach into multiple facets of the industry shouldn’t invoke fear of it being “only for big brokerages,” however.
Rather, the company’s breadth of insight is intended to enhance its technology’s features, not ensnare its customers in a web of dependent solutions.
Do you use WolfConnect? — and what do you think? Leave a comment and let us know!
Have a technology product you would like to discuss? Email Craig Rowe.