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New Methods to Improve Real Estate Office Communication

Building a real estate business is dependent on effective communication. Whether you’re a broker trying to recruit and retain your top talent or looking to expand your operations to more locations, ensuring you have the means to effectively communicate with your agents is crucial to the success of your business.

In past, office communication often meant agents going to meetings at the office, receiving email blasts or having to log in to the office intranet to view recent announcements or news. Now, agents are coming and going, spending less time sitting at a desk in the office and more time going between the office and appointments.

The way we receive information has changed, so your office communications should too.

Office communication at its finest

We recently spoke to a broker/owner of a growing real estate office. He started with one office and 50 agents and now has 11 offices with 400 agents. His biggest challenge has remained consistent throughout his business’s growth – communications. How would he manage communication among all of his agents, across multiple locations?

He always made it a priority to stay connected, to personally wish his agents a happy birthday, to recognize and celebrate work anniversaries, and give personal kudos for a closed deal. Having multiple office locations wasn’t going to stop him, he just had to find an easier way to do it without having to go to each office every day.

The Solution

A digital signage software solution in each of his offices. This would allow him to stay connected to his agents by sharing automated, real-time company information like new listings, agent rankings, open houses, and closed deals. But more importantly, he could continue to recognize each and every agent on their birthday or anniversary or when they closed a deal, without having to be at each office, every day. Not only did he improve retention and engagement by showing value and appreciation for his agents through regular communication but he also had peace of mind knowing that his agents were taken care of.

What does effective communication look like in your office?

Consider your company intranet portal. Have your agents actually adopted the use of the platform? Are they logging in daily to read the latest company announcements? Likely not. They’re too busy trying to close deals. And, most are immersed in other communication channels that share relevant information and are easier to follow. They’re less likely to engage when they’re forced to login or download or… just to receive the same types of information over and over or information that should automatically come to them.

Think about what effective communication looks like for your office. It may vary from location to location or by specialty. Understanding your audience is key to knowing what effective communication looks like for your business.

Here are examples of what type of information you can include in your office communication strategy:

New agent welcome announcements
New office openings or key event
Real time and automated sharing of listings: new, price changes
Agent rankings
Upcoming open houses
Market statistics published by the Board
Community events
Agent birthdays and anniversaries

This list sounds good, right? But how are you going to effectively and seamlessly manage the presentation and sharing of this information? With digital signage software it can be really easy and affordable. Read on.

How should you be communicating with your agents?

Now that you have an idea of what information is important to share with your agents and staff, you need to think about where you’re going to get your messages in front of them. Think about your current communication channels and start looking at ways to share information with your agents where they are. Don’t force them to come to you.

For example, sharing outdated company news on a stale PowerPoint deck in your office lunchroom – where your agents and staff either rarely go, or the same ones go every day and see the same PowerPoint – is an ineffective, and frankly boring, communication channel for your audience. That same PowerPoint approach in your brokerage lobby (or lobbies) will always deliver a lack lustre result. And, contrary to your expectations, keeping that PowerPoint up to date with fresh, relevant information is often missed. However, communicating recent company news, birthdays and more through an automated, easy-to-use software application that feeds screens in various locations – even mobile devices – will have much higher engagement and ultimately impact agent satisfaction and retention.

Imagine your agents walking through the doors of your office and being greeted with a beautiful, personalized birthday message in the lobby, hallways and back office of your brokerage. And everyone else in the office now in the know to wish them “happy birthday” as well. It may seem trivial to share but it shows your agents value and appreciation.

Now, imagine everything on the list we shared earlier also displayed to whichever screens, monitors or TVs you wish, wherever you need. The solution is digital signage software designed specifically for the real estate industry.

Digital signage is more than a screen on the wall

Digital signage comes in many different forms, from window displays to video walls to kiosks to screensavers and more. The possibilities of where you can share your message are only outnumbered by the information you can share.

The real benefit of digital signage is being able to effectively and efficiently communicate in real-time without having to manually update and monitor the technology. It really is set it and forget it. Your data feed generates information from the existing tools and technologies in your back-office. All you have to do is determine what information is most important to your audience.

Office communication is vital to a growing brokerage and part of that responsibility is determining what, how and where to communicate to get the most engagement from your agents. Your digital signage software should be part of your overall communication strategy and align with its goals and objectives – ultimately resulting in ROI evident through agent retention.

See the various digital signage software modules that are available for real estate office communication here.

5 Podcasts to Help Bring Your Real Estate Game to the Next Level

Podcasts on the topic of real estate are abundant. They cover everything from market trends to technology and everything in between. They’re a great way for you to freshen up on your skills and learn from the experts in the industry. Which podcasts should you dedicate time to?

Here’s a quick list of 5 podcasts you should listen to, to help bring your real estate game to the next level:

1. Real Estate Is Your Business

Thomas Kutzman, real estate technology entrepreneur, and Scott Pollack, business development expert, speak with innovators, entrepreneurs, and thought leaders in real estate on topics like new industry technology, business innovation, and more.

2. Moxiworks

Moxiworks’ monthly podcast is another good one that talks industry news, technology and trends with real estate thought leaders and experts. It’s a good podcast to listen to if you want to get nice mix of information and perspective on the real estate industry in North America.

3. RE/MAX Western Canada Hustle

The RE/MAX Hustle Podcast is hosted by Wade Patterson, Franchise Coordinator with RE/MAX Western Canada. It’s a Canadian show that leverages the knowledge and expertise of the RE/MAX network to provide value to its listeners. Though presented by RE/MAX it features great real estate influencers and their ideas for success in real estate sales, brokerage growth, teams, technology and more. Useful info to anyone in the real estate space.

4. Gary Vee

Gary Vaynerchuk is an investor and self-proclaimed serial entrepreneur. He has a library of podcasts in The GaryVee Audio Experience, including episodes on real estate, how to crush it at sales, communication, and employee engagement, just to name a few. His messages can be applied to any industry, any business, any company. He shares thought provoking insight, in an easy to digest way, on how to better connect with people. Real estate is a people business… listen to Gary Vee.

5. The Brian Buffini Show

Brian Buffini – Real Estate expert, founder of Buffini & Company, and podcast host – “explores the mindset, motivation, and methodologies of success”. This is a must listen for real estate professionals.

5 Podcasts That You Should Add to Your Playlist

You’ve likely heard about podcasts but have you joined the masses and started listening to them yet? Podcasts are a really great way to stay up to date on industry news and trends, professional (and personal) development, to get inspired about a topic of interest, or even just to relax and escape the daily grind.

Here’s a list of five playlist-worthy podcasts for the modern Marketing Communications professional. Whether you are a responsible for office internal communications, marketing communications for your brand globally or in a niche market of manufacturing, real estate or any other industry…these podcasts are worth your time.

1. Gary Vee

Gary Vaynerchuk is an entrepreneur with a portfolio of businesses under his belt. He’s spent his career building multi-million-dollar business. His podcasts cover everything he’s learned along the way from entrepreneurship to social media and more.

2. Kerwin Rae

Kerwin Rae is an entrepreneur, investor, business strategist and international speaker who helps business succeed. His punchy, no-holds-barred, “nothing is impossible” attitude is contagious and motivating, and worth a listen.

3. Scott & Alison Stratten

Scott and Alison Stratten take a bit of a different approach to their podcast. Rather than talking about what to do, they talk about what NOT to do first, which makes way for conversations about what you need to do in your marketing efforts. Hence, UnMarketing.

4. Simon Sinek

Simon Sinek has brought the theme ‘Start with Why’ to the forefront in many businesses. His first TED talk in 2009 is ranked the third most watched on TED.com. He is an optimist, a best-selling author and renowned leader.

5. Harvard Business Review

Harvard Business Review features conversations on women in business, leadership, management, and an advice show on workplace dilemmas. Like their articles, the thought-leadership is both educational and engaging.

PowerPoint is dead: Communicate better with Digital Signage

Welcome to the new age of engaging your employees and customers.

In an age where we have smart marketing communication software, smartphones, smart watches and smart homes, why is your business still struggling to showcase your brand, communicate your value, and engage your employees and customers on an outdated PowerPoint presentation?

PowerPoint has often been the go-to tool to create presentations – companies use it every day to solve a variety of communication needs from meeting presentations to front office displays to lunch room monitors. It may be a free tool that features static images and text on a screen, but it isn’t bringing your brand to life and getting your employees and customers excited about who you are and what you do, or can do, together.

When you think about your employee and customer experience, consider the level of engagement that each audience has with your brand. A study of U.S-based financial executives by Forbes Insights and SilkRoad revealed that an engaged workforce has a direct impact on the customer experience and in turn the success of an organization.

Are you sharing company information, employee successes, community events, etc.? Your answer may be ‘yes’ but if you’re sharing this information on a computer monitor via a PowerPoint presentation, your answer might as well be ‘no’.

The challenge is, your PowerPoint presentation is out of date almost as soon as you hit the save button. And the cost you invest in one of your employees, or yourself, plugging away to create a 20-slide, mediocre presentation for you to run on a computer monitor in your front lobby to show your customers who you are and what you do, turns out to be a massive waste of time and budget. Let’s face it, for effective communication with real people, PowerPoint is dead.

To prove it, we recently heard from a real estate brokerage that hired an employee to work for $20 an hour, 6 hours a day, 5 days a week, for 8 weeks… that’s $4,800! This scenario is common to many other stories we have heard in different markets. The employee was to build a PowerPoint presentation as part of the business’s communication strategy to engage staff, agents and customers for just one office location. The presentation would run on a TV in their front lobby and showcase a slide about their agents, a few slides for current listings, a few slides for open houses, and so on. So what’s the problem? Well, to start:

The presentation would be out of date as soon as a property sold, or an open house ended.
Showcasing many agents in one presentation is LONG and boring. Versus dynamically highlighting an agent birthday, welcome new agents and acknowledge top performers of the week on a real-time, automated basis.
And how do you repeat this model to numerous offices? That $4,800 multiplied out sure gets expensive compared to the cost of digital signage software for real estate.
Also, the visual design was limited to the ability of the creator. People are visual learners, the layout and design to intrigue their eye and make a memory in their mind is an art and a science. This was a big miss for the office that was using just a PowerPoint.
The worst part of this real estate office effort to better communicate in the office…general staff feedback was, oh that’s it?

Sad but true, a PowerPoint on a TV run by a person isn’t the smartest move.

What’s the solution? In the case of the real estate brokerage, their intentions were good, their execution was limited to the tool they settled for. Their vision of hiring the employee full time to update and manage their communication strategy and plan, curate content, and refresh the PowerPoint on a weekly basis was falling short on ROI. That’s before they investigated digital signage and how a low-cost solution could not only fit well within their budget but also showcase real-time, automated information on beautiful, illuminated digital displays throughout their office. Such as solution frees up staff time to do more meaningful work that a busy office always needs help with.

Digital signage isn’t just for real estate offices looking to showcase their listings in their front windows or feature open houses on mall kiosks. Digital signage is for:

Factory employees to stay informed of new HR policies or Health and Safety tips;
Community centres to keep residents up to date on news and event information in their area;
Transit authorities to communicate schedules, delays, and emergencies to passengers;
Hospitals and clinics to promote wellness, share emergency information, or to direct traffic via interactive maps.
And that’s not all…

You should be spending your time thinking about what you’re communicating and to whom, not how you’re going to do it. The opportunity for you to share information and data, target communication to the appropriate audience in the appropriate location, on clean, organized and branded templates is available to you and extremely cost (and time)-effective when you consider the latter.

A blog in The Business Journal referred to dynamic digital signage as fresh, immersive, and a way to clearly distinguish yourself from your competitors.

Isn’t it time you took your business communications to the next level?

Digital Signage Monitors vs. TV – What Are the Differences?

That old adage about using the right tool for the job definitely applies in digital signage – with made-for-purpose commercial displays a wiser choice for most jobs than TVs that may look similar, but are very different inside.

Using flat panel TVs for commercial purposes will almost certainly save on upfront costs, and then cost much more in the long run because of the need for repairs and replacements, and the inability to manage the screens remotely.

While large-format flat panel televisions are sleek and carry some of the same attributes as commercial digital signage displays – like Ultra HD 4K resolution and such technologies as HDR – they’re not engineered for commercial applications.

Here are the big differences

Engineering

TVs are designed to operate for relatively casual use, running a few hours daily. They aren’t engineered to run for 16 hours a day, or even 24/7. They also aren’t engineered to change their orientation and be used in portrait (vertical) mode – a common format in digital signage and advertising.

Management

TVs are built for home use and have audio/video connectors designed to hook up with cable TV and streaming services. They don’t have or need connectors that allow for remote management. Commercial digital signage displays, by comparison, come with connectors – such as RS-232 – that allow technical people to remotely access, monitor and troubleshoot issues.

Tampering

It seems trivial, but a huge problem with using TVs as commercial displays is remote controls accidentally or willfully shutting screens off. Commercial screens can block remote control signals and have routines to force screens back on if shut off.

Brightness

TVs are designed for homes, and don’t need or have the brightness levels required to cut through the ambient light and glare of commercial environments. While there are entry-level digital signage displays that have the same brightness as TVs, they can also be as much as 8X brighter, depending on need for light conditions, window installation or even outdoor signage.

Warranty, Wear and Tear

Televisions do not, typically, carry warranties that consider heavy commercial use. A TV warranty tends to be one year, and limited, versus three years for many to most commercial displays. Network operators who use TVs instead of more costly commercial displays tend to either not understand the implications and risks or make the calculation that they’ll have to replace a percentage of their screens over time.

What to expect when using TVs versus Commercial Digital Displays

Here’s what can play out when a digital signage network operator decides to go with TVs versus commercial display panels.

Prices vary by manufacturer and specs, but let’s say an operator saves $500 by choosing a TV over a same-sized commercial display panel. That’s significant, for sure. But while a commercial display is rated for, on average, five years of duty, a TV will be lucky to get three. So that $500 saving is wiped out by the need to reinvest in a new screen two years earlier. Add on that the likelihood, over that three years, that a maintenance technician will need to go on site at least once to troubleshoot a darkened screen (because there are no remote management tools in place). That service call will cost at minimum $150 an hour, and take two or three hours because of travel and time on site.

Digital signage solutions providers regularly field customer questions, and get objections, when they quote projects that use commercial displays. More familiar with Best Buy and Walmart prices, their sticker shock is understandable. It may seem like the service provider is trying to make extra money on a project by selling more expensive equipment, but they’re actually trying to save money for all concerned. They don’t want unhappy customers, and they don’t want the grief.

Think of commercial digital signage displays as tools. Professional tradespeople tend to have power tools and devices that look very similar to what many of us have on basement and garage workbenches. But anyone paying attention knows they’re more powerful, rugged and built to last. It’s the same thing here. Commercial displays are built for the job and built to last. And a digital signage project is nothing if the screen isn’t reliably on and looking good.

Outdoor Digital Display Signage: what you need to know

Marketers naturally want to get their messages in the places where people will be, which is why we all see more and more digital signage showing up on city sidewalks and public plazas.

But using an outdoor screen presents a lot of challenges – notably the impact of sunlight and harsh winter weather. Selecting and using the wrong panel can result in digital signage that’s either hard to see, or offline, because it wasn’t properly protected from the elements.
At ITESMEDIA, we’ve worked for years with everyone from media companies to city governments to specify, design, procure, deploy and manage smart outdoor display panels that are built to last. We have the City of Montreal – with its sultry summers and snow-filled, cold winters – as our working lab.

Questions to ask for Outdoor Signage

Our engineers have worked through the issues faced by anyone wanting to use dynamic signage outside and in environments that are anything but controlled. End-users need to ask several key questions of any company that’s being considered to help develop a solution:

How does the display handle glare from direct sunlight?
How does the display handle the “thermal load” from direct sunlight – all the heat that tries to bake the electronics on a mid-July afternoon?
How do the cooling fans deal with dust and debris from the streets?
How does the sign stay dry in driving rains?
And finally, how long will the sign and overall unit last?

End-users don’t so much need the deep technical answers for all these questions, but they do need assurance that the vendor has indeed thought about these things and can provide solid responses.

Future-proofing is the other key consideration – ensuring that the engineering design of the sign and its enclosure can be upgraded, modified or supplemented with extra technologies. That’s important because these outdoor panels are far more expensive than their indoor counterparts, and the time needed to realize a return on the investment is therefore longer.

So why put dynamic signage outside?

The most common application is advertising – with media companies replacing their street-level posters (usually plastic poster prints illuminated by rear lighting) with digital, dynamic signage that can be updated on the fly and enables full motion-graphic and video.

More and more governments, medical and educational organizations, and large private businesses are using digital signage displays in their public areas and building campuses to help people find their way around. Daylight-readable directories and mapping – at decision points like main gates and plazas – guide people to where they want and need to be. Unlike printed maps and directories, dynamic signage allows people to look up what they need via touchscreens, and even take information away, like walking directions, on their smartphones.

The Next Big Demand for Outdoor Signs

The next big demand for signs in outdoor spaces is emerging in the so-called Smart City movement. An outdoor display panel will not only be a screen but can have sensors that monitor things like street-level temperatures, crowd movements, dangerous gases and noise. What’s on the screen may be more about making a street, plaza or area “work” better.

ITESMEDIA is working with the City of Montreal on a smart cities initiative that has received global attention. All through the busy central district of the old city, dynamic signage at key intersections informs motorists of available parking lots – even updating by the minute the number of empty spots.

Each of the signs (some have several displays stacked) is connected to the cloud via a wireless network and gets updates from a central ITESMEDIA server. In addition to wireless the signs may be connected via LTE and Fiber. That server is getting fresh data, by the minute, from the parking lost management systems to connected garages in the area.

Our custom solution was designed to make the central district smarter – getting motorists off crowded streets quicker, reducing frustration and improving air quality by reducing overall traffic and idling.

Large flat panel displays are now very common in our business and personal lives – so much so that it would be easy to assume they’re all the same. But TVs and digital signage displays are built for very different needs and demands, and when a screen goes outdoor, the difference is dramatic.

Internal Communications Basics for Business Success

For any business, sharing information with customers and other stakeholders is as important as the product or service it sells. For years, business communications prioritized external stakeholders, like prospects and customers, but an increasing number of companies are focusing their efforts on a long-ignored internal stakeholder: their employees.

Internal communications is an essential business function whose purpose is to make sure that all parties within an organization can send and receive information timely and effectively. Internal communications is the grease in the business machine, ensuring that all of the parts run as smoothly as possible. For decades, internal communications was often an HR responsibility. Today, departments that were once dedicated solely to external communications and customer marketing are evolving to add internal communications to the mix.

Figuring out how to strengthen your company’s internal communications function can be daunting. Here are the three foundational steps to add internal communications to your business.

Draft an Internal Communications Plan

A goal is just a dream until you write it down. Then it becomes a plan. To create an internal communications plan, ask yourself the following questions: what core messages do you need to communicate? How often should they be communicated? And how should employees receive that information? The answers will help you determine where your communications team should focus its efforts and how it will measure its success. Strategizing the best way to communicate within your organization is essential to find what will work best in your particular situation.

Like a human being, a company has to have an internal communication mechanism, a “nervous system”, to coordinate its actions.
Bill Gates

Determine the Best Internal Communications Tools for You

There is a vast and growing range of internal communications tools out there. The best tools for your company will depend on a multitude of factors, including size (e.g. number of employees, number of sites, etc.), type of company (e.g. manufacturing versus traditional corporate environment), and the types of core messages you need to send. ITESMEDIA recently conducted a survey of Canadian communications professionals who shared the six tools they use the most to communicate effectively within their organizations:

Email

Email is the gold standard of internal communications today. Senders can target their messages to certain recipients and receive written feedback relatively quickly. However, not all employees have regular access to email, and massive email volumes risk turning messages into white noise, allowing important information to be easily overlooked.

Telephone

Telephone calls provide instantaneous transmission of information and near-instant receipt of feedback. However, both parties must have access to a phone, and unless another tool is involved, there is no record of the conversation or exchange.

Face-to-face

Face-to-face communication minimizes misunderstandings and is the most effective in terms of accurately transmitting a message and receiving feedback. However, it is the most time-consuming method, and it can be difficult to get all of the necessary parties in front of each other.

Chat programs

Chatting is ideally suited to office contexts. It provides a written record of all communications and is useful for fast exchanges and answering urgent questions. However, like email, employees without device access, such as factory floor workers, are unable to utilize this tool effectively.

Traditional signage

Signage is a great tool for providing information that doesn’t change often, like safety information. Updating it can be challenging and costly, and depending on the location or medium used, the intended audience might not even see it.

Digital signage

Dynamic digital signage is the most recent addition to the internal communications toolbox. Digital signage is easy to update and automate, can provide information in real time, and catches viewers’ attention. It may represent an upfront investment, and like traditional signage, it can be difficult to know whether the target audience has seen or understood the message. However feedback from users of digital signage software and displays report seeing an increase in employee engagement, awareness and discussion around topics shared via digital screens. Overall, it helps everyone everywhere be in the know.

Do your employees spend a lot of time at their desks? Do they all go to the same location to clock in? Do they log into an intranet or portal every day to access their work? Your choice of tools should be based how your organization operates to help your employees work better.

Put the Plan Into Action

You’ve drafted your plan and found the best tools for the job. Now, put them to use! Track your messaging and your employees’ responses. Have a feedback mechanism in place to make sure your plan is working, and if it isn’t, don’t be afraid to change tacks.

Reap the Benefits of Effective Internal Communications

A successfully implemented internal communications plan can have a massively positive effect on your organization. Many business experts believe that one of the biggest competitive advantages companies can gain (that is both sustainable and difficult to replicate) is a happy and empowered workforce. Internal communications has been proven to increase employee engagement and improve motivation, two major factors of employee satisfaction. Employees who know what is going on throughout the organization can also collaborate better, and according to Frost & Sullivan, increased collaboration boosts profitability, customer satisfaction, productivity, and overall organizational performance (cited in an internal communications report by Melcrum Inc.).

ITESMEDIA is at the forefront of innovative internal communications solutions. To learn more about the services we offer, visit our website.

Showcase Office Communication to Recruit and Retain Agents

Connecting home buyers and sellers may be job one for just about any real estate brokerage, but another big day-to-day task and worry for owner-operators is recruiting new agents and retaining the good ones already in place.

While closing deals is the ultimate key to happiness, digital signage technology can also have a big role in developing agent continuity – informing and motivating them, celebrating their successes and making these largely independent entrepreneurs feel comfortable and happy that they’re part of, and supported by, a larger, high-performing team.

With the right content management software, and displays positioned strategically around brokerage offices, important messaging can find its way in front of agents who are constantly on the go and may not have the time or inclination to read paper notices or brokerage email blasts.

So much of real estate is, of course, about the sales process, but brokerage owners should also be investing in technology that will help their internal communications.

Here, in practical terms, is how internal communications, using digital signage, can look inside brokerage offices:

Flat panel displays in the lobby/waiting area run content targeted to visitors, whether they’re potential buyers and sellers, or agent to recruit. Good management software can enable messaging geared to time, windows and the changing characteristics of who comes in through a day. Tools are available for front desk staff to easily customize messages to the people in the area, welcoming new agents or congratulating buyers and sellers who’ve come in for signings. As well real time and automated data feeds will continuously highlight agent birthdays’, new listings, top performers for the month, share community and office events.

Interactive screens – populated in real-time by listing information and multimedia – can offer unattended home searching as clients wait for their agents. Agents and staff can easily “tap” to mark themselves in or out and the entire office can have visibility, including integrating the data into your front desk software if needed.

Displays located away from the “public” part of offices can perform a multitude of tasks, from automating notices, images and details of new listings or closed sales, to articulating the vision and action plan a brokerage has developed to deal with housing market volatility.

While there are many digital signage software options on the market, few have been written and tuned to the needs, processes and systems employed by the real estate business. ITESMEDIA in contrast, has worked directly with the real estate community for many years, offering a centralized system, dashboards, and deep data integration with brokerage systems. That means screens in offices can easily show agent profiles, transaction data, listing data, and use a template library to easily develop and execute an ongoing internal communications program.

Brokerages are busy, active and time-crunched environments. To make it easy, ITES has a turnkey offer that puts a team in steady touch with the brokerage leadership, developing visual communications that address a location’s specific needs.

Busy real estate agents can be very demanding, and digital signage is an ideal tool to quickly communicate to them when they’re in the office – and reinforce why being part of the team is invaluable, and why they need to stick around!

Brokers, Boost Your Internal Communications with Digital Signage

We are living in an age of instant wireless communications. Customers, agents, and brokerages can be more interconnected today than ever before. The internet and cellular technologies have allowed agents greater flexibility in the way they work, and many agents are eschewing the office in favor of more flexible work schedules and locations. However, some brokerage owners may have found that these technological advances have been made at the expense of agent engagement and a cohesive office culture. A new tool being used by tech-forward brokerages to combat this phenomenon is dynamic digital signage.

Dynamic Digital Signage, You Say?

That’s right! Dynamic digital signage is so much more than just scrolling banners or slide shows on a television monitor. While many are aware that digital signage is an effective tool for communicating with customers, it is an equally effective way to communicate with agents and office staff. Today, digital signage is an integrated communications solution that can push customized content to any screen you choose, whether it be a tablet, mobile device, desktop screensaver, high-resolution office window display, weatherproof outdoor screen, or remote interactive kiosk. Digital signage helps your employees receive office communications as though they were in the office when instead they might be meeting with a client at a property or catching up on emails between closings off site.

Improved internal communications can have a host of benefits for your brokerage. Read on to learn about just a few of them.

Increased Engagement

Agents and staff want to be informed of what’s going on. Making sure people are up to date is a best practice for all businesses across markets and industries. Louis-Philippe Péloquin, Director of Communications at ArcelorMittal, said that since installing digital signage, he “no longer hears employees say, ‘I didn’t know.’” Is everyone at your brokerage always in the know? If they are, they’re likelier to be engaged. According to the Harvard Business Review, engaged employees miss work less often, turn over less frequently, produce higher quality work, and are healthier[1]. Furthermore, engaged employees are 87% less likely to quit their jobs, according to the Hay Group. Read more about increasing employee engagement with digital signage here. Prioritizing engagement is a proven strategy for not only recruiting the best agents, but retaining them as well.

More Motivation

Motivated employees are more productive. Digital signage solutions are a seamless and real-time means for motivating your agents. Brokers can connect their databases and sales trackers to digital signage software that displays metrics like sales volume, number of closings, and number of active listings per agent. Top agents are recognized and praised for their hard work, inspiring friendly competition among colleagues.

Higher Satisfaction

According to BCG, employees who feel appreciated, who feel like valued members of a team, and who identify with their company’s values are much happier at work[2]. Dynamic digital displays are a very public way to easily recognize agents for the quality of their work, wish them a happy birthday, celebrate their growing families or personal milestones, or announce promotions. Investing in digital displays is a way to show your agents that you care—both about them and about the longevity of your business.

Internal communications are as important as customer communications, if not more. The benefits of effective internal communication cannot be understated. Add dynamic digital signage to your internal communications strategy today. To learn more about how one real estate brokerage owner, Claude Allard, radically changed his business with digital signage solutions, read our full case study.

[1]Employee Engagement Does More than Boost Productivity, John Baldoni, HBR, accessed Feb. 16., 2018, https://hbr.org/2013/07/employee-engagement-does-more

[2]Decoding Global Talent, Rainer Strack et al, BCG, accessed Feb. 16, 2018, https://www.bcg.com/publications/2014/people-organization-human-resources-decoding-global-talent.aspx

Dynamic Digital Signage: A Veritable Swiss Army Knife for Real Estate

What’s the first thing that pops into your head when you hear the words digital signage? Probably a screen with images and text on it, right? It’s true that most people associate digital signage with signs that provide instruction or information. But depending on how you use it, digital signage can serve as a variety of different tools to help you perform a whole list of tasks, just like a Swiss army knife.

Dynamic digital signage is a combination of durable, high-quality hardware—like screens and tablets—and the powerful functionality of customized cloud-based software. The software makes it possible to display content where and when you want across a network of screens and devices. But don’t limit yourself to just thinking about digital signage as a network of software-powered screens displaying listings in your windows. It can also serve as one or several of the following tools for your business:

Compelling Communications Tool

Digital signage is a powerful communications tool that helps you reach your agents and provide them with useful and essential information, whether they are on or off site. Use digital signage to schedule and notify your team of a meeting, inform them of office announcements, provide information that instills the values of the organization and office culture, and share important industry news.

Advantageous Administrative Tool

Digital signage is also a useful administrative tool. Rather than having an office assistant figure out who is in the office when, use digital signage to track and display office attendance as well as available conference rooms in real time. Agents can easily tap themselves in and out as they enter or leave the brokerage without time-consuming logins or interruptions.

Effective Engagement Tool

In addition to helping with communications and administrative tasks, digital signage is also a way to increase agent engagement. Digital screens can be customized according to where they are displayed, so internal information is reserved for agents’ eyes only. You can use digital screens in your back office to inform your agents that the brokerage has hit a revenue milestone or sold an important listing. It can also be used to display office statistics, performance indicators, and make important announcements. Agents can also be recognized for meeting goals and celebrating birthdays, making them feel appreciated and therefore more engaged in their work.

Multifaceted Marketing Tool

The best benefits of dynamic digital signage might be how it can be used in a marketing context. The most obvious benefit is the real-time updating of listings. Long gone are the days of paper listings and updating every listing by hand. New listings, including photos, videos, specs, price, and the listing agent’s name and contact information are automatically pulled from your internal software and displayed for clients to see. These listings can be displayed both inside and outside your brokerage as dynamic window displays or waiting room screens, or even remotely at an off-site location. The listings can be customized based on the location of the brokerage and the target clientele.

Digital signage is not a one-trick pony. Its benefits extend much further than the sleek hardware on your walls, in your hands, or on your desks. Brokers can revolutionize their communications strategies, simplify administrative tasks, increase employee engagement, and transform their marketing by implementing customized digital signage tools that fit their needs. Get in touch with us today to discuss what you need. To learn more about how digital signage is being used across an array of industries, check out these additional resources: