Contact management tools make you a better, more profitable agent

You don't spend your day behind a desk – but many of your potential new customers do, and that's when they're contacting you. Short of hiring a personal assistant, how can you connect with them and still work with your current clients? You automate it.

According to the National Association of REALTORSS®, 73 percent of REALTORSs say technology has made selling easier and increased their selling time. Likewise, contact management software has become a lifesaver to agents because it organizes all of their prospective and current clients and their appointments. Many systems also act as an agent's sales and marketing team because it can direct mail or e-mail campaigns and they can supply the data for tracking their performance, such as the length of time it takes to close a sale.

But most contact management software is just that: software. A package you buy, install and have to call in your tech savvy son – or IT person if you have an office – to fix when it's broken.

However, many companies are nipping problematic software in the bud by putting their contact management solutions on the Internet. These Web-based applications allow for anywhere-anytime access, a plus for agents using PDAs. In keeping with the trends, a la mode has just rolled out its own contact manager – a feature included in every Agent XSite at no additional cost.

Don't you hate it when you talk to someone on the phone and they've forgotten half the details from a previous conversation? Your prospects and clients do too. XSites contact manager helps you track every contact with detailed records, including phone numbers, addresses, e-mails and unlimited notes. This information is always available to you anywhere you have access to the Internet – even on a mobile device. You'll never be unprepared when a client calls unexpectedly.

XSites' online scheduling feature also gives you access to your appointment calendar at any time. Simply login to your XSites' secure admin area to confirm or change appointments, send reminders and e-mail clients. You can even import and export contacts and schedules to and from Microsoft Outlook® and Outlook® Express, ACT!® 6, Agent® v6.0, and Top Producer® 7i.

Agent XSites' contact manager also serves as your own personal marketing database manager. Its filter, sort and search capabilities allow you to define target groups for e-mail and print marketing campaigns. You can send targeted e-mails through your free CertMail account or export a target list to Microsoft Excel® for print campaigns.

And, if you're using a la mode's CertMail, you'll notice some improvements there as well. Now, all CertMail accounts have a more robust, intelligent spam blocker, the ability to attach HTML signatures, e-mail forwarding options and rules that can help you better organize and manage your mail, even a multilingual spell checker. On the back end, we've installed separate new servers dedicated to CertMail's mail processing and storage for even greater storage capabilities, speed and spam blocking.

What's not new is that CertMail still gets you the same huge 100MB of mail storage space and SureReceipts, which lets you know when your client has received their report, and it's still virus-protected.

Nearly a quarter of REALTORS are using some form of contact management software, according to a March 2004 technology survey from NAR. That number is expected to double as more and more agents grow to rely on the Internet and mobile technology to help them do their jobs better. And, as all agents know, projecting a professional image is almost as important as the sale itself. What better way to show your clients and competitors that you are on the cutting edge than your quick response time with their inquiries and a website that practically does business for you?