Peoplework Profile: Better Homes and Gardens® Real Estate Kansas City Homes

dotloop

December 12, 2013 | comments

Joanna Williams is one smart cookie. An associate broker with Better Homes and Gardens® Real Estate in Kansas City, Joanna helps guide a team of more than 500 affiliated real estate agents—that’s no small task.

So when she was looking for a tool to offer them, not to mention all of their clients, a transaction management solution that would make everyone’s lives easier, she wasn’t about to jump in until she was 100% convinced that the tool would deliver as promised.

Early in 2013, she had a chance to get an advance look at our new platform. She knew her local association was already using dotloop, so she was more than a little interested to see what the improvements we’d made and how we were going to deliver the goods.

Joanna liked what she saw.

She didn’t just like the new design (though she totally admits to being pretty stoked about its look and feel); when she saw the kind of transactional assistance dotloop would lend to Better Homes and Gardens® Real Estate, she was sold.

Joanna: “When you’re dealing with as many affiliated agents as we are, there’s an extraordinary amount of paperwork. Having to search through all of that to confirm the documents are all accounted for and signed appropriately by clients is a huge task in itself.

Well, @dotloop just made my day. Talk about great customer service!

— Joanna Williams (@JoannaGWilliams) December 5, 2013

Better Homes and Gardens® Real Estate & dotloop were off and running.

But to implement the platform and to get such a big team of affiliated agents on board was no mean feat. dotloop had trainers visit their offices on a pretty regular basis, but it was clear that someone was needed on almost a full-time basis. The solution? Turn Joanna, in effect, into dotloop’s “man on the ground” in Kansas City. And that’s exactly what happened.

Joanna quickly became THE authority on dotloop at Better Homes and Gardens® Real Estate Kansas City. She knew its ins, its outs, and could make it dance (honestly, sometimes we think she knows the platform even better than we do!) and sing. She became Better Homes and Gardens® Real Estate’s go-to for all things dotloop.

Now, about half of Better Homes and Gardens® Real Estate’s affiliated agents are using dotloop exclusively and more are getting on board each and every day.

The brokerage has been exclusively digital for about 8 years, but before signing on with dotloop, the agents used other systems—and some of them, being creatures of habit, are having a hard time giving those systems up. But Joanna has a fix for that.

Joanna: “All I have to do to show our affiliated agents the benefits of dotloop is to do a side-by- side comparison of dotloop and the old systems. I usually go through the old way first; it takes a pretty long time and I can see the agents’ eyes start to gloss over and the yawns forming. Then I show them how much faster and easier the same work can be done with dotloop and they’re totally sold. They can’t BELIEVE how easy it is!

My @DotLoop class yesterday had some real fans of the system. Solved simple questions and gained more believers.

— Joanna Williams (@JoannaGWilliams) October 26, 2013

I tell them, ‘This is about the convenience of your clients. They want this from you. Their time is valuable; dotloop understands that and their tool is designed to make their—and your!—lives simpler.’”

But for Joanna, the biggest asset of dotloop isn’t its platform, its simplicity, its design, or its conveniences. It’s the relationships she’s developed with the team here and the service she’s come to expect.

Joanna: “I am constantly amazed by the great support I get from dotloop! I think that the biggest surprise, for me, since the time we started using the platform, is the way this company is run. When there’s a problem—and every company has them— they don’t put their heads in the sand and hide from it. They face it head-on and they fix it. They really care about what they’re doing and the relationships they have with their customers. They’ve gotten bigger, sure, but they’re no different now than they were when the company first started. I love that they’ve stayed so … normal.”

For us, working with people like Joanna is what makes our business so great. She embodies everything that peoplework is about & makes our jobs easier because of it. Thanks, Joanna!

Better Homes and Gardens® is a trademark owned by Meredith Corporation and licensed to Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate LLC. Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate LLC fully supports the principles of the Fair Housing Act and the Equal Opportunity Act. Each Franchise is Independently Owned and Operated. Neither Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate LLC, nor any of its franchisees or other affiliated companies provides any product or service in connection with the program. All products and services provided by the applicable service provider described herein. Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate LLC and its affiliates, may receive compensation or other benefits, including goods and services, provided in connection with this promotion. Each agent and broker is responsible for complying with any consumer disclosure laws or regulations arising from participation in this program.