7 Tips to Increase Tech Adoption | Dotloop

7 Tips from dotloop Success Managers to Drive Tech Adoption

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July 16, 2018 | comments

How to Get Your Staff On Board with New Technology

Simply signing up for a new technology platform does not guarantee success. In fact, the Harvard Business Review cites a long-term study that found, among business change initiatives, the failure rate hovers around an average 70%.

Why such a low success rate? Researchers found that business management routinely underestimates the challenges that change represents to people, both as individuals and as groups.

Recently, we consulted several dotloop Success Managers who have helped literally thousands of large and small real estate brokerages and teams transition to the transaction management platform. Here are their stories and top tips for helping your brokerage make the switch to a tech-based operation.

 

Seven Steps to Success When Adopting New Real Estate Software

 

1. Provide a support system

You can lead a horse to water … but you can’t force an agent to use your new technology. To gain early adoption, show your agents that you’re serious by providing continued training and support throughout the onboarding process. Designate a point person — maybe a tech-savvy admin or transaction coordinator — to take point on internal follow-up training sessions. You may also want to designate mentors for those staff members slower to grasp tech concepts, and hold regular check-ins to get feedback from agents and admins.

 

2. Play the role model

The 18th century explorer Captain Cook wanted his ship’s crew to eat sauerkraut to prevent scurvy. However, he knew there was little chance these Englishmen would want to ingest a German dish featuring unrefrigerated, fermented cabbage. So before Cook announced the ship-wide policy, he ordered it served regularly at the officers’ table. By the time the crew sat down to eat, they considered it a luxury. Likewise, if agents see their brokers and team leaders adopting new technology, they’re much more likely to use it themselves.

 

3. Enforce guidelines for the agents

Change is hard, but enforcing timelines and baseline processes is important to maintaining accountability and business stability. Let your calendar reflect your priorities. Set specific timelines for agents and admins to reach certain milestones in their tech adoption process.

 

4. Train the trainers

Before rolling out a company-wide adoption initiative, start by training a beta group of key influencers. Collect their feedback as they learn the system, and use those findings to fine-tune the rollout.

 

5. Ask the pros to do the heavy lifting

To move a 9-foot grand piano from a Steinway artist’s residence to the concert hall for a performance, the Steinway Piano Company requires only two people. Granted, they’re big guys. However, anyone who’s ever tried to move a 5-foot upright with only six friends knows what a feat this is. Same with technology — turn the heavy lifting over to those who have been part of tech transitions previously. Dotloop Success Managers are experts in assisting customers’ business operations. A big part of their daily job is to identify opportunities that can help brokerages maximize their value through the dotloop solution. They oversee the customer’s adoption, training and development of best practices, and they continually assess, document and analyze customer progress toward their goals.

 

6. Know your business inside and out

Before making the leap to new technology, take the time to fully understand how the new system will affect and improve your business. Take a snapshot of clearly defined metrics, such as total daily transactions for an admin or the percentage of errors made before compliance. Then, following the transition, measure again to chart progress. The Reporting/Charts and Graphs tools in dotloop helps teams gain insight into business performance. Use these tools to scale the growth within the business and identify strengths and weaknesses.

 

7. Attract and retain agents with tech

Agents are more than ever looking to go to brokerages that can give them the edge in digital tools. If a real estate business has gone to the effort of upgrading to a platform like dotloop Business+, this commitment to efficiency, transaction accuracy and customer experience will gain the attention of agents and team members. Once you have a powerful new asset, spread the word.

 

Fortune Favors the Bold

Senior dotloop Success Manager Jenna Becker says that brokers often easily make the mistake of fearing nothing —“Business is going great this quarter. I’ll be fine.” Or conversely, they fear technology so much, they see it as a threat rather than a resource enabling their business to survive and grow.

“Instead of fearing technology,” Becker says, “brokers should learn all they can about technology so they can use it to their advantage.”

 

Think of it Like Moving

As Senior dotloop Success Manager Evan Peele notes, making a significant change in a brokerage’s technology platform is kind of like moving an office.

Both require making the announcement to the staff well in advance, along with clearly explained reasons why the change is going to offer many benefits to everyone.

The staff will come prepared with realistic expectations, assuming the move will require several phases and come with unpredictable challenges.

When the staff realizes that everyone is relocating to the new site, they’ll realize that participation is not optional, but mandatory, if they want to collaborate and succeed.


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