We are looking at updating the Create iGuide page in the coming weeks to streamline its flow and simplify it for new users.
We would like to ask for your feedback on the current Create page and what are the biggest pain points with it.
We were considering removing the due date calendar since not everyone is using it, but some operators say they rely on it. Shall we keep it? If everyone was using it, it would help us forecast the next day volume and that was the original intent behind it.
We will use the feedback provided here for our planning, but cannot promise that all of it will get implemented and some may get implemented at a later date.
General comments:
Often clients do not provide correct address (they mix up the house number) and when this happens it is a pain to correct the iGuide in the portal if it has been created prior to the appointment.
Once I realized I didnât need to have iGuides created by 5PM I stopped doing it because of the occasional disruptions with address creation.
I would go back to creating in advance if it was easier to correct address in the event what I have been provided with is incorrect.
Banner information should have a cc field, editor field, or something else that is used by the portal but does not display on the banner. Example: client wants front desk ccâd on iGuide reports (good!) I add frontdesk email address to banner so every iGuide from that client will save that second email address. Now when the client uses the feature sheet tool the front desk email address displays on the feature sheet, so I have to remove it from the banner. Fine, but now it is duplicate work every time I create an iGuide to remember that I have to add the front desk email address manually. Every. Time. Same with editors. Some clients want to be editors, some donât. Banner should remember the editor field so I donât have to. Every. Time. In the current scenario I often forget and itâs frustrating for clients.
Iâve never been a fan of the whole interface. Just seems like you tried to reinvent the wheel with all of the different areas for the specificâand sometimes confusingâinfo we put in. The address area is confusing and Iâm sure itâs because you must cater to US and Canadian addresses.
Itâs not always apparent where you are in the process as, when you are in one area, all of the rest of the areas look the same. You should make it apparent which area you are inputting data into.
Is there any way to streamline the iGuide Editors, iGuide Analytics Subscribers and iGuide Report Subscribers areas? Confusing to work with these areas.
Would also be nice to be able to be able to uncheck ourselves for the analytics emails. I donât want all of those emails every Monday morning. Currently, I have to add the personâs email address only even if they have an account on the portal, otherwise, the portal sends it to ALL editors.
The calendar due date for us is very important as it gives us a timeline for invoicing. Please donât remove it!
We would find it helpful to have extra boxes in the Property Address section such as âSuiteâ & âPenthouseâ (PH). Currently the âUnitâ box only allows for 5 digits so we are unable to create proper addresses for our clients who want iGuides for Penthouse suites. They are forced to market their penthouse simply as a unit.
If there could be an option to copy/paste multiple email addresses into âEditorâ, âSubscriberâ, and âAnalyticsâ fields it would be extremely helpful instead of having to add each email address individually.
Itâs great how âexact matchâ has been added to the âEditorâ section when typing a name or email address. It would be even better if next to âexact matchâ it displayed the email address of said editor so we can be sure that we are adding the correct person to the iGuide. Often more than one âexact matchâ is displayed, especially if it is a common name. We find that many editors misplace their usernames and/or passwords and sometimes canât even remember if they signed up to the Portal. Some sort of indication or guide so we can double check (or even view their accounts) would save a great deal of time.
The sharing of banners is a slight issue. Our territory borders multiple license holders so we frequently share clients. If we (or Planitar) didnât originally create a banner, and now that we donât have access to our neighbouring licence holders banners, we waste time trying to either find information, retype information if we can find a banner (since there is no copy/paste option) or asking clients to give us their banding again.
I agree with Leading Imageâs comment about the sharing of banners. For whatever reason, the agents really do not like having to keep giving their photos, logos and contact information more than once when ordering an iGuide. And, if a client has paid extra to have a custom banner created for them with one service provider, they should expect to see it used on all their iGuide tours, regardless of who shot it. Not happening at the moment.
I am not sure I get this - I created a banner for one of my agents and I can apply it when creating new Iguides. Why would you need to ask an agent for pics more than once - why arenât you creating a custom banner for that agent and just applying it?
There is only one way that agent banners can be shared and it is to use agent account - search for an agent by name or email and select one of their banners.
To overcome the problem of agents not creating accounts and banners, we plan to do the following:
You create a banner under your account.
You select that banner (or any other existing banner) and press Convert to User Account button. User account will be created using the first email and name from the banner and you will be able to verify/edit email and name before that (needed for searching by name later). This will work only if no user account for that email exists and the banner will be copied into the new account.
If an account with that email already exists and that account has not been activated yet (agent never logged in to confirm email), you will see all banners under that account and then will have an option to add new banner if desired.
If an account with that email already exists and that account has already been activated, you will not be able to add a new banner to it.
After a banner was added to another account, it is deleted from your account and all assets (images) used in the banner are deleted from your account provided they are not used in your other banners.
Unverified accounts can still be added as editors to iGuides. That way agents will be able to access them after they confirm their account (or reset password).
Weâre talking about when a single agent uses more than one service provider for their iGuides due to geography. I share quite a few clients with Leading Image because they service Toronto and I service immediately North of Toronto and the agents get listings in both areas. And sometimes the same clients also order from iGuide Durham because their listings fall within that service area. While we used to be able to use each otherâs already created banners in the Create an iGuide process that is no longer the case. So some clients will be asked for their branding information potentially three different times if their listings happen to fall within the three different areas. And if one of us happened to create a custom banner for the client â they expect that it will be used for any iGuide they order (and so they should).
It is possible to lookup and use banners from regular user accounts, but if an account belongs to an operator, it is not possible to list or use their banners. That was done to prevent anti-competitive behaviour.
Is anyone else noticing a major issue with the CREA realtor.ca launch today. A play button with no image and licking it gets nothing. Would love any thoughts on corrections
In the General Settings, where we can disable or enable tour features, would it be possible to add a checkbox to [Hide 3D Tour]? A few reasons this would be handy:
a. Some of my clients order âMeasurements & Floor Plans Onlyâ at a discounted price from a complete tour. Currently, I have to hide all the visuals from the tour except 1 for it to make any sense, and I typically pick an exterior shot. The ability to hide the 3D Tour would give them the Property Details and Map tabs in the viewer - even though they donât need it for what theyâre doing - they might be able to use it in their marketing strategy.
b. I have had several requests if I could do this because some of our clients sellers did not want an interactive tour of their home published on the internet, but wanted the Details, Gallery, and Map features of the tour.
BANNER MANAGEMENT. In light of the fact that Realtors change Agencies/ Brokerages - would it be possible to seperate the two? The ability to âCreate a Brokerageâ and to be able to assign an agent to that brokerage would be super! Iâve had a few agents that belong to a team move to a new brokerage, meaning that I have to go into each of their banners and manually re-enter all the brokerage info (Brokerage name, Address, Office Phone#, Website, FB Page, etc.). If I were able to Create a Brokerage or Team, the ability to select the Brokerage/Team, and select specific agents to edit would help. Instead of having the brokerage info being several fields in an agents profile, we could just select the brokerage/team to assign to that agent and all the info would auto-populate (less typos). It would also be super to be able to âSee all tours of a Brokerage/Teamâ.
Just some thoughts as I discover workflow challenges.
I have several clients that have people on their teams that DO their marketing for them.
What this means to me (and every other operator that has this), is that I have to copy/paste the marketing team emails into the People and Analytics fields - every time. Itâs gotten old and there can be a better way to do this, and major feature for iGUIDE.
May I suggest a field in the agent banner for âMarketing/Team Emailsâ that would automatically add their emails to receive the Report and Analytics?
This is definitely a great suggestion as I have clients who own the brokerage so their receptionist does their MLS posting but they want to have the report and the analytics sent to them as well. Unfortunately, every time I have to manually send them over and sometimes I missed that and they get upsetâŚ