August 04, 2008 // Franchising.com // 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, in today's fast-paced society, people are constantly looking to get the things they need as quickly as possible. When it comes to real estate, Weichert, Realtors®, one of the nation's largest privately-held real estate companies, has the solution to satisfy today's on-demand customers.
Weichert brings a new level of convenience to the home buying process at the company's Web site, weichert.com. With the Weichert Lead Network, a state-of-the-art customer contact system, prospective buyers interested in learning more about listings on 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 buyer receives instant personal service and never has to leave a voicemail.
"With the numerous steps it takes to find the home of your dreams, the last thing any prospective buyer needs is to have to wait for information on a home of interest," said Mike Montsko, president of Weichert Lead Network. "Unique to the industry, the Weichert Lead Network simplifies the home-searching process by facilitating both instant and personal service to our customers."
Once contacted, the Contact Center's service professionals ask prospective buyers a short series of questions to pair them with a Weichert associate. If a buyer has a special need, such as preferring a Spanish-speaking associate or one who is a condominium or luxury-home specialist, the Contact Center's service professionals will strive to make that match. The service professional can then transfer customers directly to the cell phone of a Weichert associate who is a neighborhood specialist in the appropriate geographic area. The local sales associate will be able to answer any questions and even arrange an appointment to show the home in person.
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 connects customers to a sales professional directly in such a short time frame.
Home sellers also benefit from Weichert's innovative Web strategy. The company invests millions of dollars in marketing each year to make their listings stand out in 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 property listings found on the company's Web site. In 2007, weichert.com had over 35 million visitors.
As traffic is driven to Weichert listings, interested buyers only have to call 1-800-USA-SOLD or fill out a simple online form to obtain information about a home. This process ensures that prospective buyers are able to see the homes of Weichert sellers immediately, minimizing the possibility of losing a potential buyer to another property. In a market that is extremely competitive for sellers, this is critical.
Additionally, through Weichert's strategic partnership with many of the most popular real estate sites, company listings can be found 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 customers," 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 Weichert clients."
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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