Compass CEO Robert Reffkin attributes some of the company’s biggest ideas to feedback received from its agents. So as Compass celebrates its seven-year anniversary this month, the New York City-founded brokerage is doubling down on agent feedback with two new tools.
“I believe that the only way for us to realize our full potential is to harness as many great ideas as we can from our agents and our employees,” Reffkin said in a company-wide email last week. “Compass’ long-term success depends on everyone being empowered to identify problems and solutions, big and small, and act on them themselves or suggest them to people who can.”
Compass has long had a feedback tool, where the company allows agents to suggest ideas in a forum-type setting and those ideas can be upvoted for more visibility. From that feedback tool, Reffkin said the company has implemented more than 650 ideas, including, Compass Concierge, Compass Coming Soons, the forthcoming bridge loans program and Compass Cares.
In the email, Reffkin announced the addition of two new agent-feedback related programs: the Learn from Reality Challenge and The Red Tape Initiative.
The Learn From Reality Challenge asked employees to suggest time-saving solutions aimed at reducing pain-points for agents or saving them money. The company has already received more than 600 ideas.
“The challenge has already been a success from the bottom up: teams from different departments and regions have already chosen more than 130 different ideas to implement,” Reffkin said. “I was particularly excited that employees came up with more than 100 ideas to save money. The more money we save, the more we can use for other things, like investing in tools and services to help agents grow their businesses and shortening our path to profitability (which we’ve already achieved in most of our mature markets).”
The Red Tape Initiative, led by Compass’ Chicagoland regional president Rachel Rohn, is aimed at creating a “no constraints environment.” The company has already begun addressing the 49 most upvoted ideas to reduce red tape in an agent’s business, including making it easier to pay invoices, eliminating redundant approvals and allowing regions to sign off on reimbursing employees for external training, according to Reffkin.
“A few small, simple changes in every team can make the difference between a company that saps your energy and one that gives you energy, a company that holds you back and one that propels you forward,” Reffkin said.
