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.

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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!

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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:

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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!

Waterfront search option now available in MLS reports (via BAS)

We've added a waterfront search option to the new MLS reports available to all agents in BookAShowing.com. The options are "Y" to search only waterfront properties, "N" to search all properties that aren't on the water, and "All" which includes both (and is the default option).

Make sure you receive BAS e-mails

We've put together some instructions for anyone having trouble with BAS emails being treated as spam or other email delivery problems. If you've tried what we've outlined in the PDF file and are still having email problems, call or e-mail us and we'll try to help you.

Also, we're still having occasional trouble with Cellular One and their text messaging system. If you using Cellular One then you may not receive your BAS text messages.

Capture website showing leads

Did you know you can capture showing leads from potential (and current) buyers from your own website with BookAShowing.com? This feature is currently being used by several agencies around Eau Claire with great success. All we have to do is give you some HTML code for your website that your website developers insert into your existing website. Then you can start capturing leads directly into BookAShowing.com!

A couple nice features:

1. Convert to showing button - save having to enter your clients info, date, time, etc
2. Buyers enter their own contact information
3. Buyers can login and see what they've requested, what's been setup, get maps to showings, and more

To find out how you can get this for your own website, call 800-826-7155 or email us!

Changes to Client page

We've made a small change to the clients page to make it more user friendly to see your clients information, edit your clients details (email, phone, password, etc), and delete a client (although you never need to delete). Think about procuring cause in this case too, if you delete a client - you lose the ability to see/prove what you've shown them!

Here's a quick screenshot of the new changes that we made including the new view/edit/delete links on the Clients page in BookAShowing.com:



We've also added the ability to search for a client by first or last name and we've set it up so if you edit your clients information, it won't close on you.

If you do accidentially delete a client, just let us know and we'll magically make them reappear. Call or email us and we'll help.

Coming Soon for Clients: Text message showing notifications!

Cellular one text messages

We've been having some issues over the last few weeks with sending text messages to Cellular one customers (and only Cellular One). We have contacted Cellular One and their e-mail provider for help and we don't get very fast responses from them. The network engineers at our computer datacenter have assured me it is a problem beyond our control. We apologize for the inconvenience and we're working on getting this resolved as soon as possible.

Adding your buyers and sellers to BAS

Adding your buyers and sellers into BookAShowing.com can help both you and them. For example, you can:

1. Notify sellers via email for every showing appointment (automically) - and they can approve them online!

2. Sellers can get a copy of every feedback request that is sent back to you via BAS - in real time.

3. Buyers can get notified via email for their upcoming showing appts complete with a map link (via Google) to each property

4. Procuring cause - you have a permanent record of what you showed to who and when.

5. Buyers and sellers have their own login accounts (auto created for them when you add them) to see their showings and feedback and they can run their own listing reports

There's a host of other features for buyers and sellers that is included with BookAShowing.com. If you are a buyer and seller and your agent/office is not using BAS - ask them too!

A better web browser

The team at BookAShowing.com recommends the Firefox browser for all around better Internet surfing. Its a direct replacement for Internet Explorer (IE) but its so much better.

New Features including advertising tracking

We've added the ability for Agents and Staff to track the advertising for your listings! Simply go through the steps of setting up an appt. on a listing at the time the advertising is to occur and select "Advertising" from the drop down list next to SHOWING TYPE. Add the details of the advertising into the "Agent notes" text box. Click Save!

To see the advertising activity, just run a listing report for any particular listing. You can even filter your search to just see Ad info too.

Even your sellers can see their activity anytime they want. When adding your Seller and their email into BAS, you can attach them to a property by clicking the LISTINGS tab and then using the edit icon (the wrench). This allows your seller the ability to log in to their own account and check any activity on their listing... including showings, feedback, and now advertising.

Over the weekend we also added some big features to the staff areas of BAS and today we made some minor tweaks including:

1. Modified listing reports to include the new advertising appt. types
2. Auto expanding text boxes - now you're able to see everything you're typing in the notes
3. Enhanced the client login areas (did you know ALL your clients can login and see their activity if you want them too?)

Questions about this or any other features of BAS? Let us know!

New method for announcing website changes

We've decided to utilize this blog for any changes made to the BookAShowing.com application. Such things as bug fixes, improvements, new features, etc will be a part of this blog from now on. Check back often if you really like to know whats latest and greatest with BAS!

Welcome

Welcome to the journey of BookAShowing.com, the revolutionary new way for real estate agents to book all their showings online. Eliminate the hassle of all that calling and take back the control of your showings. Create up to 10 showings at one time and have the requests send to the listing office and agent automatically! Manage all your showings in one spot, see current showing schedule for a MLS number, keep track of your home buyers and all their showings, and more.

Once you use this new method of booking showings online, you'll never want to go back