If you're an agent in Seattle or San Francisco, where a large number of employers are technology firms, you would be at a very real competitive disadvantage if you weren't Internet trained. But is the case for getting trained as compelling if you were an agent in Lincoln, Nebraska, with a population of about 250,000 and no large tech companies in sight?

Pace Woods, owner of Woods Brothers Realty, thinks so. "We were among the first companies to have a company-wide e-mail system," says Woods. "Then we realized we had to train our agents to use it."

Thanks to the ingenuity of two associates, Mary Bills, vice president, and Jodi Moore, training director, Woods Bros. Realty developed the first e-Agent program, and was the first to offer an e-Agent certification, long before the NAR implemented its popular e-PRO course.

"I got the idea from attending the first Real Trends technology meeting," says Bills. "We were discussing changes in technology, and how to use email. We had to teach our agents to use e-mail and how to use it effectively with clients."

Among the challenges identified by the two women, were how to teach agents to:

1. email a listing
2. import information and send attachments that could be opened
3. locate sites useful to agents
4. how to use a digital camera

"I did the basic outline, and Jodi did the follow-through," says Bills.

"The difference in our program and e-PRO is that this is our Internet system, e-mail system and MLS system. The agents learn the system they use on a regular basis instead of a generic system," explains Moore.

The e-Agent course is a three-day course for which agents pay $75. During the course they learn the programs they will be using to access the MLS and send e-mail, Microsoft Outlook.

While the course isn't mandatory, it is highly encouraged, suggests Moore. "We have certified 73 to date, out of 260 agents," she says. "The problem is you only have so many computers in the classroom, so you have to keep the classroom small and work with them one on one," says Moore.

Adds Bills, "Many agents are very intimidated by computers. If you are in a class with an instructor, you can get personal attention."

Other benefits to agents - leads. The company assigns Internet inquiries through its relocation director who passes the lead on to a qualified e-Agent. "She turns the leads around pretty fast," says Moore.

The company occasionally tests the agents to make sure their skills are still sharp. "I might ask them to take a digital photo of a new listing and e-mail it to me," says Moore.

Moore also looks at the quality of the agent's communication skills. "If agents learn to communicate with an e-mail inquiry, and understand the mindset of somone who prefers e-mail over the phone, they are going to be able to convert more people from leads to sales. The agents must understand that when someone uses e-mail, they don't want a long letter back, they want short facts or additional photos of the house. They need to e-mail quickly - you expect an answer back within 24 hours. We have had a couple of agents who have sold houses to people sight unseen and they did it all with digital photos and e-mail."

Bills says there is a waiting list of agents to get in to the courses, which are offered twice a month. "We see it as the our job to help build confidence in the agents and help them embrace changes coming down the road."

What shifts are expected by the company? "We are going to use electronic communication at a higher level than we currently do," states Moore. "We used to get upset when people had an answering machine, and now we are upset when they don't. E-mail is the same way. Now we get upset when people don't have an e-mail address. E-mail is the least time consuming communication tool there is, plus we are finding more customers are going to the Internet to shop for a home before contacting the agent, and it is a huge time savings for the agent if she or he can communicate using e-mail."

"Now agents are wanting us to deliver information electronically," marvels Moore. "We have title insurance rate cards, and now they want to download them to their Palm Pilots. Meanwhile, the other half of the agents are still struggling to accept the way things have changed. But if they want to know what's happening in our company, they are going to have to check their e-mail."

Published: December 10, 2001

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