In its third annual Internet MLS Customer Satisfaction survey, Clareity Consulting & Communications, Inc., reveals its findings about Internet MLS adoption, customer satisfaction, system performance, and vendor responsiveness with regard to Internet MLS vendors.

"We had 133 MLSs respond, more than any year before," says Matt Cohen, chief technologist for Clareity. "MLS vendors cooperated with Clareity, encouraging their customers to respond."

According to the software vendors included in the survey, FBS (19), FNIS (20), Interealty (24), MarketLinx (15), Offutt Systems (12), ProMatch (3), Rapattoni (16) , and Solid Earth (9), FBS and Rapattoni were the customer satisfaction leaders for 2003. (The number of responses for standalone MLS systems for each provider is in parentheses.)

"Rapattoni and Interealty improved their satisfaction ratings from the previous year," says Cohen. "Results this year were consistent and comparable to years past (see chart in the conclusion). FNIS improved its combined Excellent/Good customer satisfaction rating from 66 percent last year to 80 percent this year."

Gregg Larsen, principal of Clareity adds, "All of the major MLS vendors did a good job in 2003 - the new system "disasters" of previous years seem to all have been resolved with no new disasters introduced! That's good news for all."

What do the vendors get out of being rated? The consultants point out that how closely "end user satisfaction in the first 30 days" correlates to the 'overall end user satisfaction today' rating, suggesting that first impressions are hard to shake, and that the better an online vendor can do during the conversion stage, with training and successful implementation, the better perceptions will be of the system years down the road, particularly when it comes to system evaluation and a possible hunt for a new vendor.

Satisfaction with systems can be traced to systems closely matching what was promised to what was delivered (FBS, Solid Earth, Rapattoni ranked highest) with regard to implementation planning (FBS, Rapattoni, Solid Earth), data conversion (Interealty, ProMatch, Solid Earth), and the ability to hit deadlines particularly with regard to delivering the system on time (FBS, Solid Earth, Rapattoni).

The challenge for any MLS system is to provide expanded functionality while maintaining an easy-to-use user interface. FBS, Solid Earth and Rapattoni again took top excellent rankings and again for "response times during peak periods."

FBS, Rapattoni and ProMatch won top rankings for "end user support" with FBS, ProMatch and Rapattoni taking top rankings in "staff support."

As far as overall value, the report states that all vendors were given 90 percent ratings of "Excellent" and "Good."

MLS Executives provided great advice for their peers in the areas of system/vendor selection, contract negotiations, conversion planning, user training, and member communications, say the consultants. Among the top recommendations:

1. Identify user needs/wants, not just what vendor is offering
2. Pay closer attention to report layout fine details
3. More detail to Public Records
4. More specific agreement on critical functions by staff and committee
5. More attention by local committee regarding data conversion
6. Vendor onsite during planning
7. Don't run parallel very long

Published: March 11, 2004

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