BAS Welcomes Greatler Lakes Association!

BookAShowing.com has partnered with the Greater Lakes Association of REALTORS® to allow their agents and offices to begin using BAS starting in July 2010. Welcome Greater Lakes members!

BAS office will be closed Monday, July 5th

In observance of Independence day, the BookAShowing.com office will be closed on Monday, July 5th.

BAS Holiday Hours - Closed 12/24 and 12/25

BookAShowing.com support will be closed for the holidays on Thursday December 24th and Friday December 25th.

Trouble logging in? Check your date/time

If you are having trouble logging into BookAShowing.com with Internet Explorer, make sure to check the date and time of your computer for accuracy. If you are unsure how to do that, here are some instructions.

BAS Text Message Reminder

Just a reminder to agents/clients using the text messaging feature in BookAShowing.com - you cannot reply to the text message! In order to update/change/cancel a appointment, you must login to BAS. If you're on the road with a smart phone, you can always use BAS Mobile.

In the future, we may allow updating appointments directly via text message but for now, we don't allow that for security reasons.

BAS Mobile updates

When we recently updated BAS, we also made some changes to the BAS Mobile site.

1. Add an appointment calendar for easier viewing of your schedule. Clicking on any of the appointments for a specific day will bring up a detailed list for that day.

2. Improved the interface for iPhone/webOS users for improved touch support and graphic styling

3. Added the ability to edit a listing from Mobile

4. Added the ability to add/edit clients from Mobile - including the client settings

5. Added the ability to edit your account from Mobile (email settings, text settings, etc)

6. Improved Google maps capability for iPhone/webOS devices with integrated Google maps

7. Added the appointment notes to the appointment detail screen.

If your MLS allows direct login to BookAShowing.com with a username and password, you can access BAS Mobile by just visiting http://bookashowing.com from your mobile device (no special URL needed). If your MLS does not allow login to BAS, you can access BAS Mobile directly from the mobile MLS website.

Recent BAS Updates

On Sunday, June 14th, we released some updates to BookAShowing.com for both agents and office staff. Below is a list of some of the changes. Please note that depending on which MLS you are a member of, some of the changes may not be available in your account.

Agents/Office Staff

---

Added a new listing "Contacts" option allowing up to 8 additional entries per listing

Added a new "contingency settings" area to the edit listing page. Setting the "Contingent sale" option to Yes will show the options of "Inspection", "Sale of another property", "Third party approval of terms" and "Other". A contingency notes field is also available when the setting is set to Yes. The contingency settings will be displayed AFTER the appointment is requested by the Showing Agent on the confirmation screen. The "Contingent sale" option is required to save listing changes.

Appointment conflicts now default to Yes for all RMLS/NorthstarMLS customers. To control this on a per listing basis instead, you can turn this setting to No in the Settings page and the option to set the "Appt Conflicts" per listing will be re-enabled.

A new "status notes" field has been added to the Edit listing page when the listing status has been set to any status except "Active" and "Inactive". This note field is displayed to the showing agent during the appointment scheduling process along with the listing status.

The appointment details pop-up window (available from the calendar or reports) now includes a new Appointment header allowing quick view of appointment type and price along with quick access to the listing contacts and calendar (for your listings only).

The "Agent Type" field has been relabeled "Representation" and the options have changed to Buyers, Sellers, Dual and Facilitator

The "Email past showing agents" page now includes the ability to include a copy of the message to the Listing agent and the Seller. The formatting of the email sent has also been improved and allows better formatting (including line breaks) from the Message text field.

The "Phonebook" has been updated to allow searching Clients in addition to Agents in BAS and now also includes Office ID.

2 new icons have been added to the Appointment details screen next to the Showing agent's name. The first option indicates whether the agent will receive an email alert and the 2nd option indicates whether the Agent will receive a text message alert. Green icons indicate they will receive an alert, red icons indicate no alert

A "send request" option for feedback has been added to the Appointment details page

Selecting the "denied" or "cancelled" status in the "Update this Appt" box will now clear the text in the Notes field. Make sure to select the status first and then edit the note text.

Overall system performance has been improved through Application and Hardware load balancing modifications

When sending the feedback report to the seller, Agents use to select their seller from a list of their active clients. Now, only the sellers for that listing are available. Agents now have the option to exclude the comments section of the feedback forms and also copy themselves on the email being sent.

The links in the Agent emails have been improved to work more efficiently with non-html compliant email providers/formats.

Changed "Final Walk-Through" to just "Walk-Through."


Agents Only

---

The list of feedback forms waiting to be completed will now scroll after 10 instead of pushing the page length down and causing the agent to have to scroll down to see tentative requests on listings.

The address search when adding an appointment in the Agent account now includes a "loading" indicator.

When switching accounts (Agent -> Office Staff for example), you can now switch back to the original account without having to re-login from the MLS.

A "Decline" option has been added to the feedback form for agents who do not wish to fill out the feedback form. Using this option will notify the listing agent that you declined to provide feedback for that listing.

BAS mobile has been updated to include an appointment calendar view, edit listing page, add/edit client page, and an edit account page.

The text message settings now includes options to control which text messages you receive. The options are "New Appointments", "Updated Appointments" and "Out of Office Agent" alerts.

Printing in the Firefox browser has been corrected to allow printing multiple pages correctly.

Agents now have a "Sort" function when setting up multiple appointments that allows them to rearrange the order of their showings.


Office Staff Only

---

Updated office staff home page layout for better multi-user support. Includes quick access to listing calendar, quick access to listing Contacts (new option), and improved usability like a padlock icon for quick view of what staff are looking at specific appointments, and Appointment type and listing price now appear in header bar.

A new report labeled "Office Totals" has been added to the Office staff accounts. This report includes the total number of appointments scheduled for a specific date range selected.

The "Office Appointment Activity" report in the Office staff accounts has been updated to allow sorting on each field.

Planned upgrade tonight - 12:30AM Central

We'll be shutting down BAS access for a short time starting at 12:30AM central time to install some upgrades. We shouldn't be gone long and we'll update here with some of the highlighted changes.

BAS Welcomes Warren County!

BookAShowing.com has partnered with the Warren County Association of REALTORS® to allow their agents and offices to begin using BAS starting in April 2009. Training for agents and office staff will be held at the association office April 14th, 15th and 16th. Sign up now!

Welcome Warren County members!

BAS launched for RMLS agents!

Starting today, March 11th 2009, all agents of the Regional MLS of Minnesota, Inc. can schedule showing appointments directly from the MLS! If you haven't signed up for a training session yet, please do so or check out the many self help resources available to you in your BAS account.

BAS Live on NorthstarMLS!

Starting today - February 18th, agents and office staff administrators can access BookAShowing.com through the Matrix MLS system. For more details, please review the "news" section of Matrix!

Appointment scheduling is currently disabled for agents and the anticipated "live" date for that is March 5th. Use the time between now and then to configure your account settings, add instructions to listings, set-up listings for automatic showing confirmation, etc.

BAS Launch on NorthstarMLS

Starting very soon, agents and office administrators of NorthstarMLS will be able to access BookAShowing.com through Matrix to setup your account. Appointment scheduling is currently scheduled to be enabled on March 5th, 2009. More information for office staff is available. Agents - watch the news section on Matrix for updates!

Upgrades and Enhancements

We've updated BAS and added lots of new features and enhancements. Several of these changes include (broken down by account type):

Agents:

1. We updated the calendar views and "compressed" the view a little to fit more appointments.

2. You can now turn off "conflict checking" in your account. BAS always blocks existing appointment timeslots but if you want to allow overlapping appointments, head over to the Settings page -> Listing Defaults section and change the "Appt Conflicts" to YES.

3. If you are part of NorthstarMLS, you can enable Showing Solutions from the Settings page -> Listing Defaults section. Note: You must already be an existing Showing Solutions customer!

4. You can now setup default client options for anytime you are adding a new client. Look in the Settings page -> Listing Defaults section

5. If you don't want to use BAS for showing feedback, you can turn feedback off at the Settings page -> Feedback Defaults section. You can also change the "frequency" - the number of days after an appointment to send a request to the showing agent for feedback.

6. You can now setup a number of hours required for appointments. For example, if a listing requires 24 hours notice for showings, check out the "Set Appointment Availability" link from the edit listing page. You can set this from 1 hour to 48 hours. A message is displayed to the showing agent when they are filling out the form if they don't give enough notice.

7. We added lots of new tutorial videos. From your account, check out the Video Tutorials link at the bottom of any page.

Office Staff:

1. We updated the calendar views and "compressed" the view a little to fit more appointments.

2. You can now add "custom activity messages" to save keystrokes and for consistency. Look for the "Add custom activity messages" link in the showing activity box. Custom activity messages can also be set to email the showing agent, email the listing agent, set a waiting for call back icon or approve an appointment.

3. We added a new "waiting for call back" icon in the appointment header bar (what you click to hide/show the appt on your home page). You can click the phone icon to turn it on (shows red) or turn it off. If it's on, you can hover over it and find out exactly when it was set. A custom activity message can also be set to turn this on automatically.

4. You can now customize the feedback questions for your entire office from the Settings page -> Feedback defaults area. You can also customize feedback questions for an individual listing from the edit listing page.

5. When editing a listing and choosing a seller from the drop-down list, an "edit" button will appear automatically. You can click the edit button and save any changes necessary without having to save the listing and go back just to edit the seller.

6. You can now setup a number of hours required for appointments. For example, if a listing requires 24 hours notice for showings, check out the "Set Appointment Availability" link from the edit listing page. You can set this from 1 hour to 48 hours. A message is displayed to the showing agent when they are filling out the form if they don't give enough notice.

7. A new "listing defaults" area on the Settings page give you the ability to disable conflict checking for your listing agents, setup default client options for when you're adding new clients and if you're a member of NorthstarMLS, you can enable Showing Solutions for your listing agents.

8. The "showing defaults" area has been renamed to "Showing/Activity Defaults". You can also add/edit your custom activity here.

9. A new "feedback defaults" area has been added to the Settings page. From here, you can disable BAS feedback for certain listing agents (they can do it to from their account now) or customize the standard feedback forms for you entire office. The custom feedback questions will then be used for all listing agents and listings - as long as the agent has added their own or the listing doesn't have it's own questions.

10. The "weekend response" is being renamed to "Out of Office Response" since it can often be used other times besides the weekend. Functions exactly the same, just a new, more appropriate name.

11. If you don't want your agents to be able to "edit" listings (showing instructions, assign sellers, etc) you can put them in "read only" mode from the Settings page -> Office Settings area. They can still request appointments and do everything they normally could, they just can save changes on the edit listing page.

12. We added lots of new tutorial videos. From your account, check out the Video Tutorials link at the bottom of any page.

There are lots of other new features and enhancements too, many too trivial to list. Let us know what you think!

Holiday hours

During this holiday season, the business hours for BAS will be:

Wednesday, December 24th - Open until 12PM Central
Thursday, December 25th - Closed
Friday, December 26th - Open as usual (8AM - 5PM Central)

Wednesday, December 31st - Open until 12PM Central
Thursday, January 1st - Closed
Friday, January 2nd - Open as usual (8AM - 5PM Central)

As always, you may contact us anytime at our website for help. Just because we aren't "open" doesn't mean we won't help you if we're available!

Northstar MLS Beta period begins!

Today, Wednesday December 17th, the Northstar MLS beta period for BookAShowing.com begins. You can access BAS through your Matrix Staging account to setup showings and test out all the features. Don't worry about anything setup, it's just our testing/staging environment. We also welcome your feedback during this period.

Holiday Hours - Closed 11/27/08

BAS offices will be closed on Thursday November 27th, 2008 for Thanksgiving. We will be open as usual on Friday so if you have any questions, please contact us.

BAS Welcomes NorthstarMLS!

BookAShowing.com has signed an agreement with the NorthstarMLS (Regional Multiple Listing Service of Minnesota - RMLS) to allow their agents and offices to begin using BAS starting in early 2009. NorthstarMLS neighbors 2 existing BAS customers, the St. Cloud Area Association of REALTORS® (SCAAR) and the REALTORS® Association of Northwestern Wisconsin (RANWW), and this new agreement will allow members of these associations to schedule showing appointments across MLS systems.

We are currently working with a number of Showing Appointment call center vendors to integrate BAS into their systems. If you are using such a system, please stay tuned to this blog for more details. If you are using another application (desktop or web based) to manage showings or feedback, you should know that BAS can be a full replacement system - at no cost to offices! We can also work with vendors to provide showing appointment information to other systems - contact us for more information.

Welcome NorthstarMLS members!

A message from a happy agent

We hear from agents that use BAS from time to time and I just wanted to pass this experience along for those that are considering BookAShowing.com for their Association!

---

"Our son was playing in a Bloomer Football playoff game on Saturday and we received a call that an agent wanted to setup 2 showings in BookAShowing. Unfortunately, we did not have BAS setup to send a text to the seller's cell phone at that time...if it had been the agent would not have even needed to call!"

"We looked the showings up via the BAS mobile website on the cell phone and they were for the next day. So we then looked up our sellers contact info that is
also on the BAS mobile website (a feature not even available in our MLS mobile site)."

Showing #1
"Sellers also had a son playing in the football game and were there but we were not sure where to find them so we called one of the cell numbers that we had entered in BAS. The sellers knew that we were also at the game and could not believe we were setting this all up right there. They gave the ok and we approved it on the BAS mobile site."

Showing #2
"These sellers were at home so we looked up their info and called them and setup up their showing also. Gave the approval on BAS and went back to watching the game."

"Without BAS mobile it could have easily taken 30 minutes to drive back to the office and get these setup and then drive back to the game. We never missed a bit of the playoff game and our sellers were extremely happy to have plenty of advanced notice. We will let you know if they get an offer!"

"We have another playoff game this Saturday which will be an away game and feel much more at ease knowing that we can set it all up without going back to our office."

"Thank you and keep up the great work!"

Mike and Brenda

---

If you've got a story to tell, let us know!

Client text messages

Due to a technical problem, buyers and sellers are unable to receive text messages from BookAShowing.com. We are working to restore the feature and will post an update here as soon as the feature is repaired.

Updated Feedback Email Frequency

We've made a change to the initial feedback reminder email sent out for showing appointments to be sent right after the scheduled appointment time. We used to send the first feedback reminder email on the following day early in the morning. Now you'll see a feedback reminder email right after the scheduled time which should allow for even quicker feedback responses to listing agents and sellers.

We will continue to send reminder emails each day until the feedback form is completed (or for 30 days max). As a listing agent, you can also change how many days a feedback reminder email is sent if 30 days isn't good for you. Check out the Settings page, Feedback Defaults area

New BAS Updates

We've added a couple new features and fixed a few outstanding issues tonight. As for what's new, we've added a way for office staff to confirm showing agents when selected from the auto-populating search box. Some offices expressed interest in needing to see all contact information for showing agents (pulled from the MLS) when adding an appointment. To use this new feature, look for the "Confirm Showing Agents" option in the Settings page.

Another new option is the ability for agents to set how many days a feedback form is sent for appointments (default is for 30 days). While we've always had a large number, you can set it anywhere from 1 day to 30 days. Look for the new option (agents only) in the Settings area of your account (under feedback defaults section).

Automatic Listing Update Email Alerts

We've added a feature to BAS that will automatically notify showing agents of listing status changes or listing price changes. If your listing status or price changes and an agent has an upcoming appointment scheduled, BAS will automatically send them a listing update alert email. As a listing agent, you can turn this feature off in your Settings area if you wish.

Custom Smart-Frame IDX Search

Is your Association looking for a custom IDX search to offer your brokers/agents? If so, we've developed a custom IDX search for the Northwestern Wisconsin Multiple Listing Service (NWWMLS). To take a look at an example site, check out our demo site. Contact us if you are looking for a similar solution!

Summer 2008 Newsletter Available!

Our summer 2008 edition of the BAS newsletter is now available.

New BAS Lite for Individual Offices/Agents

We've released a new version of our popular BAS Lite system for offices or agents who are not part of an Association/MLS participating with BAS. Take a tour of the new system and sign-up for a free 30 day trial period!

New! Custom Feedback Form Options

I know some of you have been waiting for this feature and it's finally ready! We've updated BAS to include custom feedback questions and options. As an agent, you can now customize the standard feedback form that BAS generates to remove any of the standard questions, hide or require the comments box and add up to 5 additional questions. For each new question, you can choose what type of answer you would like to recieve (1-5 Rating, Yes/No or a Text field) and the additional questions will be required when an agent fills out the form.

You can customize the feedback questions for all your listings from the Settings page. Just click the "Customize Default Feedback Settings" and you can create a new feedback form that will be used for all your listings.

You can also customize the feedback form for just a particular listing (or override your default custom questions) from the Edit Listing page (clicking the Check Mark icon). Click the "Customize Default Feedback Settings" and you can create a custom feedback form for that particular listing. It will override any custom feedback form you set from your "Settings" page of your account.

We hope you enjoy this new feature and that you capture even more great feedback! Speaking of feedback, if you have any for us let us know!

RANWW - Cellular One customers

If you're a Cellular One (now AT&T) customer wishing to use the text message feature of BAS, be sure to leave the text message carrier setting on "Cellular One". While AT&T recently purchased Cellular One and it would seem logical that you could use the "AT&T" carrier setting, that won't work and you won't receive text messages from BAS.

We have no explanation why this is the case and it may change in the future. If we hear of any changes to this, we'll let you know on the blog.

MLXchange Client import from BAS

We've added the ability to export clients in BAS to a format that can be used to import clients in MLXchange. Here are the necessary instructions.

1. Login to BAS
2. Hover over the clients menu option and choose "Export All"
3. Save the file somewhere (Desktop works well)
4. In MLXchange, hover over clients and choose "Client Manager"
5. In the lower left corner, change the drop down menu to "Import" and click the green arrow
6. In the data format options, select "Import Top Producer 7i Contacts"
7. Choose the appropriate option for overwriting/adding new clients (usually Add a new)
8. Click Next and Next again (as we've already got the file to import)
9. Browse for the file saved in step #3 and click the "Import" button
10. Click OK and all the clients from BAS should now be imported into MLXchange.

If you have other programs that can import clients in Top Producer 7i format, this export file should work for you as well. It's really just a simple Comma Seperated Values (CSV) file that can be used to import into many programs.

RANWW listings update frequency

With the new MLS system for RANWW, we're able to pull new listings every hour instead of every 6 hours with the previous system. Let us know if you find something that isn't working right!

RANWW - New MLS update

As all the agents of RANWW know by now, the new MLS system becomes permanent May 6th. With this change, BAS will begin to pull data via RETS from MLXchange starting tonight, May 5th. We'll be working hard to maintain data integrity so no appointment history is lost as we pull agents, offices and listings from the new MLS system. Please let us know if you find anything unusual after the switch.

Spring 2008 Newsletter available

Our sring 2008 edition of the BAS newsletter is now available.

Contact form broken

If you've tried to get in touch with us via our online contact form, it hasn't been working the last few days. While it's all fixed now, we may have missed your message and we want to be sure and answer any questions you may have. Please try again or call us at 1-800-826-7155 so we can help you out. Thanks!

Recent enhancements for Agents

As promised, here is a partial list of some new or updated features we added to BAS for Real Estate Agent members last week.

1. New calendar and time selectors. We've made choosing the date and time of appointments just a little bit easier.

2. New "trends" report dashboard. You can now graph appointment activity for you, your office or the board anytime you want. Look for the "trends" report in the Reports menu option.

3. Desktop calendar sync. Synchronize all of your BAS appointments with your desktop calendar that supports remote web calendars (Outlook 2007, Mozilla Sunbird, Apple iCal, Google Calendar, etc). It's very easy to setup - just go to the Settings page and grab the calendar link. Look for detailed instructions (on the blog) for setting this up soon.

4. New NON-MLS account types when setting up appointments. Now when you setup appointments for people outside the MLS, you will create a special type of account that allows them to get email notifications and respond to showing feedback forms. Once added, these new accounts are visible to everyone in your board.

5. Improved the appointment detail view when looking at the details of an appointment.

6. New Blue check mark icon indicating a listing with showing instructions but no seller. We used to have 3 options but now we've added a 4th (blue) option indicating whether a listing has showing instructions or other information added but has no seller yet.

7. Auto approve and Allow showings not have an expiration date. A very popular option in BAS (auto approve) now has an expiration date along with the allow showings setting. If you need to turn these features on or off at a specific date, now you can!

8. A new client filter on the listings page.

9. Make changes to listings. You can now make small changes to MLS listings if need be right from the edit listings page.

Recent enhancements for Office Staff

As promised, here is a partial list of some new or updated features we added to BAS for Office Staff members last week.

1. Adding caravan appointments. This option allows you to quickly added "caravan" (aka hometours) appointments for multiple listings and multiple agents at the same time. Look for the "Add Caravan" link by the navigation menu (upper right corner).

2. New NON-MLS account types when setting up appointments. Now when you setup appointments for people outside the MLS, you will create a special type of account that allows them to get email notifications and respond to showing feedback forms. Once added, these new accounts are visible to everyone in your board.

3. Improved the appointment detail view when looking at the details of an appointment.

4. New Blue check mark icon indicating a listing with showing instructions but no seller. We used to have 3 options but now we've added a 4th (blue) option indicating whether a listing has showing instructions or other information added but has no seller yet.

5. Auto approve and Allow showings not have an expiration date. A very popular option in BAS (auto approve) now has an expiration date along with the allow showings setting. If you need to turn these features on or off at a specific date, now you can!

6. A new client filter on the listings page.

BAS updated!

Last night we rolled out our extensive updates for agents, office staff and for buyers and sellers. Stay tuned for a complete write-up of all the new changes!

Beta testing

We've enabled agents to switch to the new updated BAS site to check out the updated version before its released to the masses. Look for the red bar at the top and click the "switch" link. If you have any feedback, we'd like to hear it!

Member safety advisory

The WRA just released a notice that an agent was found dead in vacant listing and the police are investigating. While this person wasn't a member of BAS, we felt it was important to pass this safety message on to all of our members as a precaution. For more information on safety precautions, the WRA site has some information (WRA members only) as well as the NAR site.

BAS Welcomes the LUTAR Association!

BookAShowing.com has signed an agreement with the Lapeer and Upper Thumb Association of REALTORS® to allow their agents and offices to begin using BAS starting April 1st 2008. More information and training sign-up is available on our website. The LUTAR association neighbors an existing customer, the Flint Area Association of REALTORS®, and this new agreement will allow members of both associations to schedule showing appointments in either MLS. Welcome LUTAR members!

Duplicate account? Round 2

It appears we may have missed something with the IDX and RETS updates to cause more duplicate accounts. We have corrected this (for sure this time!) so it won't happen again. Again, we are sorry for any confusion this may have caused.

Duplicate account?

Due to an error processing some IDX and RETS feeds in the last few days, our system may have created a duplicate account for you and sent you (via email) the new account information. You can safely ignore this new account information and everything has been corrected to prevent this in the future.

Also, one of our network providers experienced a major outage today which may have made BAS unavailable to you for a short time. This has also been taken care of and there should not be any further issues.

We apologize for any inconvenience or confusion this may have caused.

New MLS for RANWW - BAS Update

For our members in the REALTORS® Association of Northwest Wisconsin (RANWW) who will soon be getting a new MLS system - please know that we are working with the new MLS vendor to incorporate BookAShowing.com just like you're used to. It should function exactly the same and you'll be able to access your BAS account directly or schedule up to 10 showings from your MLS search results.

We heard from one of our members the other day that they told their Association board that whatever they do, not to change BookAShowing.com! We love to hear that stuff and if you've got something to tell us, we'd like to hear from you.

New reports soon - Appt Trends

We're working on a few new reports to go along with some other BAS enhancements to be released in early December. The most exciting and useful report (at least to us) is our new "trends" report that shows all showing activity for the board, your office, your listings and your showings in a new graphical format. You'll be able to compare showing activity between years and also see how you stack up compared to the entire MLS or Realtor Association board. Look for the reports in early December!

If you have any other ideas for enhancements or new reports, just let us know!

BAS Support closed on Thanksgiving 11/22

BAS Support will be closed on 11/22 for Thanksgiving. If you have an emergency, please email us at help@bookashowing.com and we'll get back to you soon. Thanks and have a great holiday!

Capture showing leads from your site

BookAShowing.com has a feature to capture showing leads from potential and existing buyers directly from your own personal or company website. To use this feature, contact us for the necessary website code and instructions. We'll also let you know where the leads will go and how you can best process them for quick response times.

Visit our website to learn more about the BAS website showing lead generation tool or to try out a demo for yourself. Best of all, this feature is provided at no additional cost with your MLS or Realtor Association BAS Membership!

This feature is not available with BAS Lite memberships.

I'm not getting my alert emails!

Every day we get at least several calls from people calling to find out why they aren't getting any showing notification emails. Most of the time (we try but we aren't perfect...) the "missing emails" are a problem on the agent/caller's end. Here is a few things to check if this happens to you:

1. Check your Spam/Junk Mail folders for the emails - most common
2. Check with your email provider to see if they filter/block any emails
3. If your provider does block emails, see if you can add us to a whitelist
4. As a test, make sure you are receiving emails from other people

If you try everything listed above and everything else you can think of, just give us a call and we can verify everything is AOK on our end. We track every email that is sent out to you so we can let you know if something is missing.

BAS @ NAR Las Vegas Expo #4527

BookAShowing.com will be at the National Assocation of Realtors (NAR) Conference and Expo this year in Las Vegas, NV happening November 13th - 16th, 2007 in booth #4527. Register Now and plan to come to the expo and visit with the BAS team and learn more about our real estate showing and feedback system or to just say hi.

Also, we'll be conducting a game at the show and giving away cash! Make sure to stop by and find out how!

BAS at the Council of MLS Expo

If you are attending the Council of MLS expo in Seattle October 10th - 12th, stop by and visit with Jeff Ratcliff from BookAShowing.com. He'll be there to answer questions, give product demonstrations and talk about any other things related to the best real estate showing appointment system around. Hope to see you there!

Text Messages now include Instructions!

The text message alerts that are sent to agents when a showing appointment is setup or confirmed now includes the showing instructions as well (due to an agent's request). Since this will often make the text message longer than 120 characters, you may receive 2 or 3 text messages to include all of the showing instructions.

BAS Mobile/Gadget for Buyers & Sellers

Buyers and sellers can now use BAS Mobile and the new BAS Google Gadget! To access BAS Mobile, just visit bookashowing.com on your mobile device or you can get the BAS Gadget Here.

New Listing Menu Option

To make it easier and faster to access information about a listing (such as the calendar, reports, feedback, etc) we've added a new menu option for listings. Next to each listing you will see a new house icon that is the link to the new menu. To make room for the new menu option, we've condensed a few of the options from the listings page into the new menu. We hope you'll find this new menu helpful!

New House Icon:

Sample Listing Menu (for your own listing):



For listings of other agents, you'll still see a menu but with limited options such as add appointment and get directions.

Go Go Gadget BAS!

We've released a BAS Gadget for iGoogle so you can integrate your showings, feedback, listings, clients and more into your iGoogle home page. The interface for the iGoogle gadget is the same as our BAS Mobile interface designed for your internet enabled mobile device and is designed for Agents only.

What can you do with BAS Gadget? You can add a new showing, check your schedule (even cancel if needed), check your listings, view and send showing feedback, access your clients, update showing requests, get driving directions and more.

Get the BAS iGoogle Gadget!

Tip: If you are using Internet Explorer, you may need to enable third party cookies for the gadget login to work correctly. To do this, choose tools - options - privacy - advanced button - Check the "Override automatic cookie handling - check Accept under "First-party Cookies", check Accept under "Third-party Cookies", and make sure to check "Always allow session cookies".

Common showing feedback questions

It seems every day we get questions about how the showing feedback forms work in BookAShowing.com. To help clarify how they work (and explain how our feedback response rates are over 90%...):

1. Feedback forms are sent once each day until they are completed
2. Agents CANNOT reply to the email - you must click on the link provided
3. Completed feedback responses are always available in your BAS Account
4. Did not show the property? Click the form link and then click "did not show"

Every day we get at least several calls from agents stating they've "already completed the feedback form". Most commonly, they've either simply replied to the email (see #2 above) or talked directly to the listing agent and gave verbal feedback. Since BAS has no idea you've done either of these 2 things, the form continues to be sent out. You can either fill out the feedback form (easiest) or let us know and we'll help remove the form for you.

New Testimonial from Ruth Ann

Ruth Ann, an office staff administrator, has written a testimonial about BookAShowing.com. Thanks Ruth Ann! We are always looking for good feedback so feel free to write a testimonial today!

New Feedback Form Message Feature

We've added a new feature (at the request of our users) to be able to add a feedback message/comment/question to each listing that will display on the feedback form. You could use this new message box to ask a specific question about the property, ask if the property needs more data sheets or any other question you may have. To access this new feature, just click the edit icon (checkmark) next to the listing on the "Listings" page.



After you've entered a feedback message, it will display on the feedback form automatically for the listing like the sample below.



If you have an idea on how to make BAS work better for you, let us know!

Benefits of BAS from a Broker

Angie Ridley, Broker/Owner of Complete Realty, LLC and a member of the Flint Area Association of Realtors, has written a great blog post on the benefits of BookAShowing.com from a broker's perspective.

Thanks Angie!

Welcome to BAS - FAAR!

BookAShowing.com would like to welcome the FLINT AREA ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS®! FAAR will begin offering BAS as an MLS enhancement to its membership on August 1st.

BookAShowing.com has been integrated with the Kinnexus MLS system to allow agents to schedule showing appointments directly from property searches or allow agents to access their BAS account from the "Internet" menu option.

For more information about the Kinnexus integration, please visit:

http://www.bookashowing.com/new/faar/mls/

If your association is looking for a full-featured showing and feedback management system designed specifically for MLS and REALTOR® associations, then contact us!

Text Message Showing Alerts!

Are you making the most of BookAShowing.com? Did you know that Agents have the ability to receive a text message alert for showings? To receive a text message alert on your cell phone when a new showing is scheduled on your listing or when a showing you setup is updated, just follow the simple steps below the next time you are in your BookAShowing.com account.

To setup text message alerts, click on the "Settings" link at the top right of your account, fill in your 10 digit cell phone number in the "Text (Cell) #" field, choose your Cell Phone Carrier, and set the "Send Text Messages" option to Yes (you can turn this feature on or off at anytime).

Now you can stay informed of any showing activity while out on the road! These text messages are sent free from BookAShowing.com but your cell phone carrier may charge a fee to receive text messages. You may also need to contact your cell phone carrier to have text messages turned on.

If you have any trouble setting up text message alerts or have a question regarding BookAShowing.com, please contact us.

AINCAR - Integration with CTI Navigator!

BookAShowing.com has been integrated with CTI Navigator to allow agents to schedule showing appointments directly from property searches or allow agents to access their BAS account from the "Web-Links" menu option.

For more information, please visit:

http://www.bookashowing.com/new/aincar/mls/

Welcome to BAS - AINCAR!

BookAShowing.com would like to welcome the AMELIA ISLAND - NASSAU COUNTY ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS®! AINCAR began offering BAS as an MLS enhancement to its membership starting July 1st. If your association is looking for a full-featured showing and feedback management system designed specifically for MLS and REALTOR® associations, then contact us!

Office Staff Account Updates

We've added a few new usability enhancements for office staff accounts. I'll cover the highlighted changes and how to best use them to maximize BAS for your office.


1. Edit/Delete activities: You can now edit and delete activities. Just click on the text (or the Edit icon) to edit the activity text. And to delete the activity, just click the Delete (X) icon and confirm the pop up message.


2. Enhanced page refresh: We've updated the home page refresh to be more reliable and easier to use. You'll see a message appear when the page refresh is turned off (like when you click to add/edit an activity). Click on Start to begin the page refresh and the message will disappear.


3. Duty Agent: Does your office need a special/limited account for agents on "duty"? Then the duty agent is just what you need. Click on settings from your office staff account and create your own duty agent account! Choose a user name, password, and set appointment defaults if desired. You can turn this account on and off by editing the duty agent account from your settings window at any time.

The duty agent account is limited to viewing/confirming showings for the office, viewing all the listings (but not editing) and viewing the showing calendar for the office. All other options have been limited for this special account type. Each office can have only 1 duty account (many agents can share the same account) and the accounts are provided free of charge!

Enhancement to 1 day calendar

We've enhanced the 1 day calendar (for both agents and office staff) to show the appointment details directly below the appointment instead of the bottom of the screen. You can also open multiple appointments on the 1 day calendar if needed. This is another example of an enhancement request from one of our members!

Agents - Setting up multiple showings?

We've added a small enhancement that makes setting up multiple showing appointments (up to 10) a little faster. Now when you choose a client from your existing client list, the rest of the showings will populate with the same client to save you a few clicks. The same thing applies to the date field on the first showing - it will populate all the other dates to be the same.

If you have already selected a client or date in one of the showing appointment requests, it will not get overwritten. With this new enhancement combined with the ability to save showing defaults, you can setup showings in seconds!

New: Prioritize Client Phone Numbers (1)

We've added the ability to "prioritize" client phone numbers in BookAShowing.com. When you are editing a client's phone number, there is a new small drop down box where you can choose the phone number priority (1 - 6). The number you choose will display next to the client's phone number whenever it is displayed.

Example below

Cell Phone: 111-222-3333 (1) -> indicates a priority of 1 for this phone number

Of course, you can leave this new option blank and it won't add any priority numbers to your client's phone numbers.

This new option came as a recommendation from one of our customers - if you have your own idea for an enhancement - let us know!

New Agent Phonebook Available

We've added a new MLS member search to BAS called Phonebook. It's available by clicking the Phonebook link next to the navigation menu at the top of your BAS screen. You can search for first names, last names, or both.

Be sure to try different variations of common names (Mike, Michael, Dave, David, etc) if you are having trouble finding the person you are looking for.

Web browser running slowly?

We get calls from people occasionally asking us why their web browser (Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari, etc) is "running slow" (BookAShowing.com is a web based application). Most people seem to forget that occasionally you must "clean" out your temporary internet files (pictures and stuff). As you browse the internet, your computer keeps a copy of many of the things you see on the screen. Clearing this saved information can speed up your Internet experience.

There are lots of resources on how to do this but generally you'd find the options/preferences area of your Internet browser and tackle it from there.

The other question people ask commonly is whether they should delete "cookies". Cookies and temporary internet files are not the same and can be erased separately. If you want your Internet browser to remember your username and passwords for websites you visit for example, then don't delete your cookies. But it never hurts to delete them if you are still experiencing a slow browser.

Email notification updates

We've made a few changes (mostly cosmetic) to the email confirmations generated by BookAShowing.com. You'll notice an easier to read layout along with some additional information including the Seller name and contact information for the listing agent.

If you have any issues with this new email format, please let us know.

BAS Mobile Update - Add Showings!

We've added the ability to schedule a new showing appointment from BAS Mobile. If you're on the road and need to setup a new showing - now you can!

Just look for the "Add" link in the My Appts section of your BAS Mobile home page. BAS Mobile works with any internet enabled mobile device.

BAS at NAR Midyear Expo - Booth 813

If you are attending the NAR Midyear Expo in Washington DC this week, don't forget to stop by booth # 813 and visit BookAShowing.com. We look forward to seeing you there!

Enhancements for Office Staff

We've added a few more features to BAS designed to help Office Staff manage activity for the entire office. The new updates include:

1. You can now sort incoming appointments on your home screen by Showing Date/Time or by Entered Date/Time. The setting will "stick" once you set it so the next time you login, you won't have to change it.




2. Staff can now filter the month, week, and day view calendars to show only appointments with or without feedback. If you are constantly looking for showings that don't have feedback yet, this is for you! The updated listing report (from the Listings menu) also has an option to filter by Feedback.





3. Listing activity - need to keep little notes about a listing rather than a particular appointment? Now you can add "activities" for any listing in BAS. You can access activity from the Listings page or by searching in the "Add New Appointment" box and clicking new activity icon (the pencil).

Agents can also read, add, and delete listing activity as well from their own Listings page.

Activity icon:

4. Preview is now a choice for showing type when setting up appointments for agents.

5. Need to export all of your clients into Excel? Now you can! Hover over the clients menu option and click "Export All". The system will prompt you to download a Comma Separated Value (CSV) file that is readable by Excel. Use this file to create letters, mailing labels, or anything else you can think of.

Agents can also export their own client list using the same method as above.








Do you have an idea for us? Please let us know!

Short BAS Outage

We've experienced some brief periods of outages this morning with BookAShowing.com and we have traced the problem back to a power outage at our hosting facility. We've contacted them and they are running on their backup generator equipment with no further planned downtime. We apologize for any inconvenience.

New features for Agents

We've added a couple of new features for Agents. The first is a new dashboard for upcoming showing activity on your listings. We've also renamed the "upcoming appts" section to "My Showings". The new agent dashboard is labeled "My Listings" and clicking on each status will bring up a report of all your upcoming showing activity for your listings. From there you can further refine your search or view the report for a specific listing.

---

The next new feature is the ability to require feedback comments on all of your listings. Many agents have asked for this feature and now its available! Just click on Settings, and under the Feedback Defaults section, set the option for Comments required to YES. No more "excellent, excellent, excellent" and no comments feedback forms!

---

The final new feature in BookAShowing.com is the ability to display a map of the properties you are setting up showings for. This can help you decide which order to go in and how long it takes to travel from listing to listing. The map is provided by Google and will open in a new window so you don't loose your work in BAS.

Latest BAS Enhancements

We've added a few enhancements to BookAShowing.com to make your overall experience better. We'll touch on each one briefly and if you have more questions, please contact us.

1. WEEKEND MODE. We've added a weekend mode for offices that use an agent as the on-call person on the weekends. By turning this mode on in your office staff account, you can display a (optional) message to showing agents when they setup appointments and/or you can choose an agent to receive the office's requests in their account. We've added a new section to the agent's home page just for this weekend mode:



When this option is turned on, you'll notice a black bar at the top of your office staff account as a reminder to turn weekend mode off after the weekend:

---

2. SHOWING DEFAULTS. You can now set default settings for any appointment you setup in BookAShowing.com. You can set the length of time for each appointment (defaults to 30 minutes), the agent type, the showing type, the start hour/minute/ampm, and any agent notes you'd like to include for each appointment. Office staff can also set a default buyer name.

---

3. NEW REPORTS. We've added a couple of new reports including listing analysis and top showing activity. You can access these new reports from the Reports menu option.

---

4. MORE NUMBERS FOR CLIENTS. We've added fields for additional contact numbers for home, work, cell, and fax for your clients. We've also loosened the restrictions and allow you to type small notes with each number (800-826-7155 BAS HQ). But remember, for client text messages to work, a valid 10 digit cell number ONLY must be present in the client' cell phone number field.

---

5. ADD ACTIVITY REFRESH. We've updated the activity box to "update in place" so your screen won't jump to the top of the page when you add a new activity.

---

6. ADD NEW LISTING. Office staff: Have a listing that is not in the MLS system? Now you can add that listing into BAS manually. Just click the "Add Listing" link from the Listings page:

New "Keep Private" option for your clients

We've added a feature to all clients in BookAShowing.com that allows you to hide the name of your client from the listing agent/office. While we feel this isn't quite in the best interest of the person selling their home, many agents are simply scared to enter their buyer's information for fear of "poaching" by other agents. To satisfy the needs of all agents in BookAShowing.com, each client now has a "Keep Private" setting that, when checked, will prevent the client's name from showing to the listing agent (no other client information was ever displayed).



We see many agents enter bogus client names and that really isn't using BookAShowing.com to its full potential. With this new "keep private" setting, agents can now confidentially add their clients information and keep it "private" (and still benefit from perks like procuring cause records).

And while we're talking about adding client information, be sure to include your client's email address when ever possible. This will allow your clients to receive showing notifications via email, feedback sent directly to them, approve showing requests online, and provides your client with their own BAS login account.

SCAAR and FlexMLS

We've just heard that the integration between BookAShowing.com and FlexMLS for the St. Cloud Area Association of REALTORS® will be installed tomorrow (Tuesday April 3rd) night is now live in the FlexMLS system. While it was originally scheduled for April 1st, we understand that delays can happen and we can assure you the team at FBS has done a great job with the integration.

A video is avaiable to see this in action and it will be covered during the agent training sessions as well.

Welcome SCAAR Members!

Starting Sunday, April 1st, the St Cloud Area Association of Realtors (SCAAR) has chosen BookAShowing.com as the system to manage showing appointments and showing feedback for their association members. We would like to welcome all members of the SCAAR and encourage them to contact us if they have any questions.

Training is being offered for SCAAR members on April 2nd and 3rd and video tutorials are also available.

BookAShowing.com has also worked with FlexMLS to incorporate our showing system into their MLS system. This will allow for quick and easy to BookAShowing.com from your FlexMLS account. A video tutorial is available for a quick demonstration of how this works and this will be covered in the training sessions as well.

SCAAR members, don't forget you can access all of your BookAShowing.com information on the go with BAS Mobile!

BAS Mobile now available!

BookAShowing.com (BAS) Mobile is now available for all members of BookAShowing.com. You can access all of your information from any internet enabled mobile device including Blackberrys, Treos, Pocket PC/Smartphones, and mobile phones. You do not need a special phone to access this service - most new phones can access BAS Mobile!

BAS Mobile makes it easy to look up your client's information, get appointment details, view showing feedback, get driving directions to a showing, lookup and call a listing agent, complete a feedback form, approve a showing request, or cancel an appointment if necessary.

BAS Mobile uses the same account you've always used, there is no signing up for this new way to access your BookAShowing.com account. If you do not know your account login information, contact us.

To access BAS Mobile, just visit http://bookashowing.com on your mobile device's internet browser. A video tutorial on how to maximize BAS Mobile is coming soon.

---

Please note: While this service is included with BookAShowing.com, additional access charges may apply from your mobile device provider.

Updated Showing Agent "Types"

We used to have agent types of Buyers, Sellers, and Other. To satisfy the new disclosure rules for real estate, we have updated the list of showing agent types. The new choices are Buyers, Pre-Agency, Sellers, Sub-Agent, and Other. Sellers agent type is only available on your office's listings.

Pre-Agency is now the default choice when setting up an appointment and is the option you should choose if you do not have an agreement signed with your client.

Co-Listing alerts for agents now available

We've added the ability to assign a "co-listing" agent to a listing so that the co-listing agent can receive a copy of any email alerts that are sent out, view the listing calendar, or run a listing activity report. Currently, the co-listing agent cannot modify the listing - only view the listing's information.

To access this setting, just click on "Listings", then click the EDIT icon (far left checkmark icon), and choose the co-listing agent from the drop-down menu.

To view your co-listed listings, just click on the "My Co-Listings" link as indicated in the picture above.

Updated BAS training videos available

We have updated our training videos to more accurately reflect the recent changes to BookAShowing.com. If you need to know how to login into BAS, are having trouble getting started, or just need a refresher - check out the new Training Videos! There is always a link at the bottom of each page in BAS with a link to the videos as well. You must be logged in to view all of the appropriate training videos.

http://bookashowing.com/video/

Seller Text Message Alerts!

We have recently added the ability for your sellers to receive text message alerts for showing activity on their listings. They can get a text alert for new showings that are scheduled, updated or rescheduled alerts and when the showing is approved or cancelled.

To set this up for your seller, just click on Clients, then Edit the client you want to enable this for, and set the "Text Alerts" option to YES (You must also have a valid 10 digit cell phone number entered for this client as well).

Your office staff can add this option as well, in addition to the client being able to set this option themselves in their own login account.

Offices: Minimize and Maximize Showings

If you are an office staff member logged into BookAShowing.com, you have the ability to minimize and maximize showing requests on your home page. What does that mean exactly? Well, when you have a showing request on your home page, it will display all of the information on the screen. But what if you have called the seller, left a message and want to hide that information until they call back?

No problem: just click the bar above the showing request and the information will minimize until you click it again to maximize it. Simple!



Again, this is only for office staff members logged into BookAShowing.com who manage all the incoming requests for the office. Agents have a different style of account that this information doesn't apply to.

How do I add a showing for another agent?

It happens from time to time - an agent calls you to setup a showing or they were in front of the house, etc. Regardless of the reason, you probably want to make sure that showing gets into BookAShowing.com so you can track all your listing's appointments and so you can get showing feedback. But how do you do that?

Well its very easy to do - in fact it is almost exactly the same as adding a showing for yourself. The only difference is that you start from your listings page by clicking on the + icon next to the appropriate listing. That will open a new showing appointment form that you can complete for a different agent (don't forget to put in the agent).

What if the date has already passed? No problem - you can enter any appointment in the past like you would normally. The only difference is that the showing alert emails won't get sent out.

Updated website look and features

We've updated our website with an enhanced look to make it easier to find the information you need, contact us, or keep an eye on the lastest blog postings. We've added a section to the right side of the page that will display the last 5 posts to this blog. We've also added a new navigation bar along the top of each page to help you find what you are looking for. It's really the same, just easier now!

Visit BAS at the 2007 DC Midyear Expo #813

We will again be attending the NAR Midyear Expo held in Washington D.C. this year. If you are going to be attending the trade show, please stop by and say hello! We will be in booth #813(floorplan) and we will be showcasing our system, answering questions, and talking to customers. We look forward to (hopefully) seeing you there!

BookAShowing.com activity for RANWW

We want to thank everyone in the Realtors Association of Northwestern Wisconsin (RANWW) for using BookAShowing.com! Here are some usage statistics as of Monday, March 5th, 2007 (since June 1st, 2006):

Showings: 23,153

2nd Showings: 782

Final Walk Through: 122

Inspections: 414

Appraisals: 650

Open Houses: 342

Marketing (Advertising, etc): 119

Feedback response rate: 92%

How do we calculate the feedback response rate? Well we add up all the approved showings and 2nd showings and then we add up all the feedback responses that have been sent. So in this case, there were 20,894 approved showings and 19,131 feedback responses for a response rate of roughly 92%! We think that is outstanding compared to all other methods of collecting, organizing, and managing showing feedback.

As you can see, BookAShowing.com is valuable for managing more than just showings. You can add all your open houses, marketing activities (such as when a listing is on TV or in the paper), inspections, etc. Best of all, your clients can access all of their information anytime they want (if you provide their email address)!

Check your "titlebar" for new showings

A new feature we've recently added to BookAShowing.com is displaying the number of incoming tentative showing requests in your browser's titlebar. This is especially handy for when you minimize your BAS window and are working with another application (like your MLS or email). You can quickly see at a glance if you have any new showings. If you have a new showing, you'll see a number in paranthesis in the title bar: (4).

An example of a minimized window:



Now you can quickly see if you have any new showings without opening BAS or checking your email!

Not getting email? Check your BAS Account!

BookAShowing.com gets calls or emails every day it seems from people who don't get their BAS alert email (or text message) and don't know if the showing appointment has been approved. If that happens to you, don't forget to check your BAS account! While the email is certainly a good reminder and a valuable tool, email isn't always 100% reliable. The surefire way to check the status of all your showing appointments is to login to your BAS account either directly from our website or through the MLS system. Please remember to do this before contacting us or the listing agent/office.

Offices: Improved showing agent search!

We constantly work to improve the search box for finding MLS members (agents) when setting up appointments. We've tweaked the showing agent search box slightly to allow searching by first AND last name now, separated with a space.

For example: "moser", "j moser", "jason m", "jason", "ja mos" would all be valid ways to find "Jason Moser". One thing to remember is that the system doesn't recognize nicknames. If you are searching for "Mike" and BAS has the name entered as "Michael" - you won't find what you are looking for.

And from now on, you must select a search option result OR click the Non-MLS Member button to enter a name for someone not part of the MLS. We had quite a few appointments added for MLS members which weren't found in the search due to slight misspellings. We fixed what we could but we hope the improved search will help alleviate this problem.

New map showings feature for buyers

Now when your buyers log into BookAShowing.com, they can see each showing request on a map (provided by Google). This will be especially useful when you schedule multiple showing appointments for your buyer. Now they will be able to quickly see where each showing appointment is. They can also zoom in on that spot or click the marker and access more showing details, including a picture of the listing.

Updated Buyer and Seller Login Interface

Today we updated the login interface for your buyers and sellers to make it more user friendly and fit the style of our website better.

Didn't know your buyers and sellers could login to BookAShowing.com? Well if you provide their email address in BAS, we automatically create an account for them, generate a username (their email address) and a password, and send them a welcome email with instructions on how to login to BookAShowing.com.

Already added your buyers and sellers but didn't put in their email address? That's ok, you can go back in at anytime and add their email and we'll create their account and send them the welcome email. Just click on Clients, then the edit icon.

No more "Withheld" option

You may notice the "Withheld" option has been removed when setting up an appointment now in BookAShowing.com. While this request originated from the Board office, we think its a valuable move to make the system more useful. You now need to add your client's information in order to setup any appointments.

Why is this a good idea (and very safe)?

1. Procurring cause. Setting up your client and setting up appointments for them proves you've worked with them, what you've shown them, etc.

2. We never show ANY contact information about your clients to the listing agent. Just their name is displayed.

3. Your clients can get a copy of the email notification to let them know when showings are setup, updated, etc. They can also login to BookAShowing.com (if you provide their email address) and see their showing activity anytime they'd like.

4. Have a client that has looked at many houses? Well if you enter their info into BookAShowing.com when you setup showings, you can print out a detailed report for that client at anytime.

5. Most importantly, its the sellers right to know who is entering their property and when.

You only have to add a client one time and after that, they'll always be available to select from a dropdown menu. Take the time to add your clients (if you haven't already) into BookAShowing.com and make the system that much more valuable for everyone!

Changes to BookAShowing.com!

We've made some big changes to BookAShowing.com recently. We've given the system a minor face lift as well as made a number of enhancements.

Some of those enhancements include:

1. An agent dashboard to quickly see all of your upcoming appointment statuses (and quickly see if you have any scheduled showings that were cancelled...)

2. A more functional home page for agents and office staff including icons/links to shortcuts like edit showing, cancel showing, write feedback, etc

3. We've improved the date/time conflict checking when making an appointment to make it easier and faster to setup appointments.



4. We've added calendars for a week and for a specific day in addition to the month calendar view we've always had - and we added shortcut icons to the top of every page to make it very easy to get to your calendar anytime.





5. The clients page was changed slightly to show the number of showings and listings for each client at a glance - which of course link to detailed reports for each.

6. You can add notes to a client now, as well as viewing all your inactive (deleted) clients in case you ever need to go back and look up some previous history.

7. The settings page was improved to add some explanations, make it more visually appealing, and group specific settings together. All to make it easier to understand.

8. We have improved form validation on every form (like when adding a showing) to not let you submit anything that shouldn't be in there. If the fields wants a date, it will tell you. No more submitting, going back to fix, resubmitting, etc. Much easier now!



9. Some drop down menu's were added to make access to certain features quicker, like adding a new client. Hover over "Clients" and choose "Add New" for example.

10. When editing a listing (to add showing instructions or a buyer for example) we've improved the page to save all the information about the client and listing at the same time. No more need to popup a separate window to add the client, and then save the listing. Happens all together now.

11. We've made it easier to find the web address to login. Now everyone can login directly from our website at http://bookashowing.com (or http://www.bookashowing.com too)

12. We've improved the website showing leads to be more intuitive for prospective buyers. Not using the showing leads on your website? Try it for yourself or contact us and we'll help you get started.

13. You'll notice the "wrench" icon is gone from the listings page, now replaced with different colored "checkmark" icons. It does the same thing as always (add showing instructions, auto approve a listing's appointments, add/edit a seller, etc) but now you'll see 3 different colors:

Green: Listing has a seller "attached" to it with a valid email address

Orange: Listing has a seller "attached" but does not have a valid email address

Red: This means the listing has no seller information yet

14. The agent search field has been improved to make it easier to use. Also, we've added a "Non-MLS" member feature for Office Staff to use. The goal is to try and capture contact information for any Non-MLS members so you can contact them with any questions, comments, or problems.




15. If you edit a client now that didn't previously have an email address, it will now send them a welcome email with their username and password.

This isn't everything we've added to BookAShowing.com recently but does cover some of the more major changes. If you have any other ideas for us or questions about the new changes, feel free to contact us!