Wednesday, February 28, 2007

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.

Tuesday, February 20, 2007

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.

Monday, February 19, 2007

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.

Thursday, February 15, 2007

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.

Wednesday, February 14, 2007

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!

Tuesday, February 13, 2007

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!